Page 17 of Key Of Dreams

Bull

After calling Falcon to tell him I’m going to be a little late for our morning meeting, I stop off to get the donuts because it’s my turn. He was cool with it, probably because I’m never late, and he’s not the kind of guy who’ll lose his shit over trivial stuff when he knows how hard we all work for Storm. Donuts seem to be the one indulgence that the Storm team can’t resist. Kailyn got us started on them, and even though we’ll have to work out an extra half hour, we all eat the sugary treats.

I needed to make sure that Maya got off to work okay. She thought she was hiding her nervousness, but the woman better not play poker, because they’d fleece her for all she’s got. I kissed her goodbye in the parking lot and watched her drive away. Part of me wanted to follow her because I wasn’t ready to let her go.

Based on the number of cars in the lot, everyone’s already here. I grab the two boxes from the passenger seat and head inside. I stop off at Kailyn’s office first.

“Hey, Kai.” I pop open the lid off the top box and watch her salivate at the array of donuts.

“You know the way to my heart.” She picks her favorite chocolate cream-filled donut, takes a bite, and moans. “Mmm, this is so good I won’t even make a big deal that you’re late.”

“Are you my mother?” I kid.

“Nope, but you’re never late. And being the utterly adorable me that I am, I won’t ask why.” She bats her eyelashes innocently. I shake my head and begin to exit her space when she calls after me, “I’ll just ask Maya.” She’s a brat. I’ll have to tell Phoenix to spank her ass.

The guys are all in the boardroom. I can hear them from down the hall.

“Yo,” I say, but there are no return hellos, and suddenly, the two boxes in my hands are on the table, and the animals around it are scarfing down all the best ones. Mind you, this donut place doesn’t know how to make a bad donut, so whatever I’m left with is fine by me. And I was smart enough to grab one for myself when I first bought them.

“You’re late,” Rebel points out, although he looks ridiculous with powdered sugar on his lips.

“I can’t even take you seriously right now.” I wave a hand in his direction, especially at his face. “You look like a three-year-old that forgot his manners.”

The guys break out in laughter, while Rebel wipes the powdered sugar from his mouth. “You’re never late,” he repeats, then more seriously, “All good?”

“Yeah, man. Everything is good,” I assure him.

Falcon gets up from his chair and comes to the front of the room. “Now that you’ve all been fed, maybe we can get down to business.”

“We’d take you a lot more seriously if we hadn’t seen you eat two of those things along with us,” Phoenix teases.

Falcon grins. “Man’s gotta eat. But we’ve got to get to it. We’ve got some potential cases, and I want to run them by you all.”

We quiet down and wait for Falcon to continue. We can laugh and joke around, but what we do is important. We take our work seriously. Our decisions can cost a life, and being that we all know how easy it is to lose someone, we’re focused on saving as many as we can.

“President Obi, from a small island off the coast of Nigeria, has run his country, Carinol, for the last thirty years in peace. They export coffee and live a very peaceful existence. Six months ago, he began getting death threats. He thought nothing of it because he’s aware that threats happen all the time and usually amount to nothing. However, two weeks ago, his vice president was killed. He was poisoned. The poison was meant for Obi, but his friend drank from the wrong cup,” Falcon explains. “Obi is overwrought with losing his best friend, and this request is coming from his son, Yakubu.”

“It had to be someone on the inside to get close enough to poison his drink,” Phoenix points out.

“Agreed.” Falcons nods. “They’ve looked into every staff member and haven’t found a damn thing. But they admit their practices and security have been primitive compared to the rest of the world. Mainly because they haven’t needed more. It’s come to their attention that this must change, but more importantly, Yakubu wants to protect his father.”

“I think Wire’s the best man for this one,” I say. “He’s got all the tech power and can dig deep. There’s got to be a trail of breadcrumbs, and he’ll find them.”

Wire grins. “I can do that, but in the meantime, who is going to guard Obi?”

“Yakubu has scrutinized every soldier they have and has handpicked his best men. I don’t think we need to go over there until we have some possibilities. Then it would be best if Rebel and I go will go first, and Bull is on standby, if we need him.” Falcon glances over at me. “You good to do that?”

“Yeah. Whatever you need.”

“We all have to be in agreement. Rebel, Phoenix, you agree that we take this one on?” Falcon asks.

Rebel nods, and Phoenix asks, “What can we do?”

“That brings us to our second case.” Falcon lights up the whiteboard with a photo of a young boy who can’t be more than five years old. “Troy Wilks is the son of Kenneth and Mary Wilks. They’re no one special, but Ken works for a trading company, and his son was kidnapped two days ago. The kidnappers called and said he’d get his son back if he provided a way into the building where he works. Ken was smart enough to tell his boss, Dan, and he called me.”

“They’ll kill the kid once they have their way in,” Rebel says.

“Probably,” Falcon replies. My stomach clenches, and I feel sick. There’s nothing I hate more than this type of situation. “Kidnappers gave Ken three days to come up with a plan. Which means we have three days to find that kid.”

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