“They’re tiny compared to me,” came the reply. “I’m afraid I got all the muscle in our family.”
He didn’t care how big the motherfucker was, he needed to stay away from Case’s girl. “Mia, you walk away right now. You think this is making me jealous? It’s not. It’s making me pissed off that you can’t follow orders. This is exactly why I’m shipping you home as fast as I can.”
“I’m serious, Case,” Michael said. “I think…maybe I’m seeing things. How are the cams coming?”
“How did three New York boys end up in Cartagena?” Mia asked.
In front of him the screen flickered and he could see the walkway outside the building.
“Got one up,” Fain said. “I’m working on the others. I think I got the only one that’s not connected to the inside.”
“I don’t…I need to do my job,” the guard was saying in Case’s ear. Case agreed with him utterly. For just a second he almost relaxed. Then the guard continued, his voice going low. “You’re very pretty. I would like to spend some time with you, but I can’t sneak you back to our room. They watch us. She watches us.”
“Case, I think your brother’s here,” Michael said.
Fuck. Case stood and moved to the window Michael was standing at. He held his hands out for the binoculars. Theo was here? Theo was walking down the street?
God, what should he do? Would Theo be happy to see him? Would he know Case at all?
“Robert, I think we should go,” a deep voice said in his ear. “We’ve been called back into base. Apparently there’s a problem coming our way.”
That hadn’t been Theo’s voice. It was someone else. Mia had two guards to deal with. Shit. He shouldn’t have done this. He looked down the street, searching for the man Michael had talked about.
“Mia, if you don’t show up outside in thirty seconds I’m going to come in, and you won’t like how I’ll come in.” He would take care of two birds with one stone. He would have Fain grab Mia and Hutch and he would take Theo and run like hell.
“He’s right there.” Michael pointed to a large figure moving down the sidewalk. He wasn’t alone. There was another man with him and two more at his back. What was Theo doing?
“Thanks for the advice.” Mia’s voice was light, but he could hear the slight strain in her tone. It proved she had some sense. “I’ll pick up a signal outside. Hope you have a nice night.”
Then he heard her gasp.
“Hello,” a very familiar voice said. “I think we should talk, don’t you?”
“I’m not kidding, Mia.” Case was confused because he was watching Theo walk down the street. How could he hear him talking? It had to be a mistake. “You better get your sweet ass out here.”
The man’s face turned up and he pointed at the hotel.
That wasn’t Theo. That was Ian. Shit. Theo was with Mia.
“Why don’t you turn over the communication device hidden in that lovely ear of yours and we can have a real talk,” Theo was saying. “I’m afraid I’ve already picked up your…brother…partner whatever you want to call him. If you don’t want him to die, you’ll come quietly and explain exactly what you’re doing here.”
He felt frozen in place. The first words he’d heard from his brother and they were threats against Mia. And Hutch. God, Theo wouldn’t hurt Hutch. Hutch had been their buddy for years. Theo had spent all his off time playing video games with Hutch sitting beside him before he’d gotten together with Erin. He couldn’t hurt Hutch.
“I’m going in.”
The feed from Mia’s device went dead. Case’s heart nearly stopped. He tossed the headphones aside.
“Hey, you’re not going in without backup.” Michael put down the binoculars.
Fain was already on his feet. “I’ll go, though apparently we’ve now got a McKay-Taggart crew with us.”
“It’s Ian, Liam, Alex, and I’m pretty sure that’s Andrew Lawless walking next to him,” Michael explained.
Case started for the door, but he knew what had happened. “You told your new boss everything, didn’t you, you limp dick asswipe.”
Fain didn’t seem concerned. He strode right alongside Case. “He’s my boss now. I suppose he called your brother since he’s kind of Ian’s boss, too. That makes you low man on the totem pole.”
“There’s no time to argue.” Michael kept up despite the fact that his leg had to still ache. He’d had a couple of days to recover, but it was obvious to Case that it was still stiff. “And don’t tell me to stay behind. I’m coming with you. Someone’s going to have to explain everything to Ian.”