Page 3 of Dangerous Chaos

“It’s okay,” Cane said, taking to his feet as the others followed. “Stay alert.”

Cane slowly pushed through the heavy steel doors and found what appeared to be an abandoned war zone. Demolished vehicles covered in steel-bending bullet holes, bullet casings scattered on the pavement, and dead bodies dressed in all black littered the ground. It was chaos, pure and simple.

“Good seeing you, Bozz,” Cane said, offering a friendly handshake.

Bozz nodded and returned the gesture. “I’d say the pleasure was all mine, but it’s yours, and we all know it.”

The men laughed at the lighthearted remarks amidst the murder and mayhem surrounding them.

“Making friends? You here for these guys too?” Bozz asked.

“They came for Wit,” Cane said as he and Bozz moved farther into the scene to evaluate the damages. Their teams followed suit, wary of the other.

“What agency was that, and how the hell did they know his fucking name?” Coy asked. “None of us are in the databases anywhere.”

Bozz shook his head. “No clue, man. It wasn’t us. We’re here on a lead for a case to settle some old scores. Didn’t expect to run into you or walk in on your rescue.”

“We weren’t here on a rescue. Same as you, we were following a lead and settling old scores. Wit was on the job with us. They came for him out of nowhere,” Cane shared.

“Damn. We read it wrong,” Bozz said. “What are the odds of you guys showing up at the same scene and on a similar mission?”

“Dirty Dozen on another one of our cases?” Cane questioned. “That doesn’t fit.”

“Or does it?” Bozz fired back as the men from Dirty Dozen and the Keepers circled the scene. “It wouldn’t be the first time we both stood on the front lines of the same war as friend or foe.”

“Which are you this time?” Cane asked.

“You’re still standing, O’Reilly.” Bozz snickered. “That answer your question?”

“Touché.” Cane chuckled back. “We have enemies in common.”

“That we do,” Bozz said. “Pretty sure that’s no coincidence, either.”

“Now ain’t that somethin’ crazy,” Hen added. He was one of the members of Dirty Dozen. “We all have scrubbed profiles, yet here we all are, summoned by who? And why? What does your man have to do with it?”

“Wit? No fucking clue,” Cane answered. “What do any of us have to do with it?”

Bozz didn’t have an response and seemed just as perplexed as everyone else at this point. “Well, we clocked the two snipers on the roof across the street. Their sights were on your boy and exit team. Glad they were able to get out, then.”

“Exit team? I think I misunderstood. That wasn’t you guys who ran him out of here?” Rip asked.

“The cowboy, right? Rowdy and says yeehaw all the fucking time?” Bozz questioned, and the team nodded. “What the hell would we want with him? We were here for this pile of shit.”

Bozz kicked at one of the bodies making up the pile of death and destruction.

“Well,good thing you’ll be gettin’ him back. Shouldn’t be too hard,” Hen said. “Don’t worry about this mess. We made it, so we’ll clean it.”

Ryker raised his brow in surprise. “Get Wit back? You know something, Hen?”

“Nothin’ more than y’all do,” he answered, seeming confused by the question. “Just sayin’ it shouldn’t be too hard to track since you know who grabbed him. Everyone has a little miscommunication on their team from time to time.”

“One of ours?” Cane grilled.

“Shut up, Hen. I don’t think we are all on the same page here.” Bozz pointed at the sky. “You got birds up. You didn’t get anything?”

“No. They used a jammer or something to run interference, and we lost visual,” Cane said.

“Oh shit. We both walked into a trap, and you’ve got a bigger problem than you thought.” Bozz shook his head and let out a deep sigh as he began to pace. “We thought he was good to go and grabbed by one of yours.”

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