Granted, it hadn’t been his idea to include Z, but Casper had thought it would be a good idea. Bryce had instantly agreed. Why Z, Ryan hadn’t figured out, because they could’ve selected from pretty much anyone at this point. Clay, Conner, Colby, Tanner, Decker, Trace, hell, even Hunter… They were all available, but Casper had picked the one man Ryan didn’t trust himself to be alone with.
It wasn’t as though he could tell Casper as much. He couldn’t tell anyone. Especially since Bryce, Ryan’s own father, seemed to think it was a brilliant idea. Ryan had to wonder if the two men knew something.
God, he hoped not.
Surely if they knew, they would’ve taken Ryan aside, reminded him of what had happened last time, advised him that this was a horrible idea.
No, looking at them now, Ryan didn’t think they were aware of what had happened, but that didn’t explain why they thought Ryan and Z were right for this job.
“When do we leave?” Z asked, his question directed at Ryan.
“As soon as possible. We’ll take the bikes down there.” It wasn’t the greatest idea because a six-and-a-half-hour drive on a motorcycle wasn’t the most comfortable way to travel, but that way Ryan didn’t have to be alone in a car for an extended period of time with Z. He had a significant amount of self-control, but every man had his limits. Z was Ryan’s limit, no doubt.
“Perfect,” Z replied.
“I’ll have Kira send your things ahead of you,” Bryce informed them. “That way you’ll look like two good ol’ boys out for a little fun in the sun.”
“Fun in the sun?” Ryan asked his father with a choked laugh. “Seriously? No one says that.”
“I just did,” Bryce retorted with a cocky grin. “We’ve acquired a house on the beach. It’ll keep you close but not too close. Also, it’ll provide the much-needed venue for a meet and greet.”
“Meet and greet? Is that a fancy name for a party?” Z probed, his dark eyebrows downturned as though he was trying to unravel a mystery.
“In order to set up our covers, we’ll have to show our interest in the art community,” Ryan explained. “Big money, big parties.”
“Aw, hell,” Z muttered, speaking aloud what Ryan had been thinking when his father had originally told him the plan.
Bryce cleared his throat. “Once you’re settled in, give us a call. We’ll work out the logistics.”
Ryan had gone over the details of the assignment multiple times already, yet he still hadn’t mapped out exactly how it would play out. They were going in to protect a piece of art that was encoded with information that could prove to be detrimental if it landed in the wrong hands. Super spy shit, quite frankly.
But the mission wasn’t what he’d anticipated in the beginning. Protecting the painting…relatively simple. What Bryce and Casper wanted…significantly more complex.
According to Casper and Bryce, their goal was actually to double-cross the guy who’d hired them, the one who wanted to protect the original painting at all costs. It was Ryan and Z’s job to snatch the legitimate painting, hand it over to their contact at the Department of Homeland Security, and replace it with a fake—a different fake since the first one had apparently been stolen.
Simple, Bryce had said.
Uhhh…wrong.
The fact that the guy who’d hired Sniper 1 Security couldn’t know that it was Ryan and Z who double-crossed him threw a wrench into the otherwise simple plan. Those details had yet to be hashed out, but with a six-and-a-half-hour drive ahead of them, Ryan had plenty of time to think.
If he could resist thinking about Z the entire way down to the Texas coast.
HUNTER KOGAN MARCHED THROUGH THE office, wondering where everyone was. He was about to go back up to the reception area and ask Jayden what was going on when the door to RT’s office opened, and Bryce, Casper, and Z piled out.
“Hey,” Casper said, looking surprised to see him.
“Hey,” Hunter returned. “You two have a minute?”
Casper glanced over to Bryce, then both men nodded. Bryce went into his office, and Casper followed, so Hunter did as well. Closing the door behind him, he took a deep breath.
“Somethin’ wrong?” Bryce questioned, taking a seat at his desk.
“No,” Hunter told him. For the first time in a damn long time, nothing was wrong. Not entirely, anyway.
“You’re not here to spring anything on us, are you?” his father asked.
“Like what?” Hunter wanted to see where Casper’s head was.
Rather than answer, his father cocked his head in a manner that said, “Are you serious?”
Hunter eased into the chair beside Casper, ignoring the pain in his hip as he did.
“Whatever it is, I hope it’s only good news,” Bryce inserted.
“Depends on what you consider good news.”
“Get to the point, Hunter,” Casper growled, obviously not impressed with Hunter’s stalling tactics.
“I’m ready to come back full time.”
“So no more OCONUS assignments?” His father looked somewhat relieved as he asked the question.
OCONUS was the acronym for outside the continental United States, a term they all used thanks to their time in the military. Since Hunter had been previously on assignment in Greece—a cake job he’d taken in order to have some time to clear his head—he guessed it was appropriate.
“That’s correct,” he told Casper. “But no, I don’t want to take over the company.” Both Casper and Bryce had been pursuing Hunter to take over since Conner had balked at the idea, but Hunter wasn’t suited for a desk job, even if it did require the occasional hands-on activity. He wanted to be in the field. It was the only way he’d be able to keep his mind from straying to things better left alone.
“That’s good news,” Bryce said with a relieved sigh. “RT and Z are goin’ on an extended assignment, so the extra hands around here’ll be good.”
“Have you talked to Dani?” Casper inquired.
Leave it to his father to bring up the one and only subject that Hunter had no desire to talk about. It was Hunter’s turn to extend the exasperated expression to his father.
“You’re gonna have to deal with this sooner or later,” Casper noted.
“Later,” Hunter grumbled. Much later.
As though it hadn’t been bad enough that Dani had bailed on him on their wedding day, the news she’d recently sprung on him had only exacerbated his anger.
“Have you talked to Max?” Casper asked.
“No.” And he had no intention of talking to his brother-in-law. Hell, if it weren’t for the fact that his sister was now married to the mafia boss, Hunter wouldn’t want anything at all to do with that family.
“I know you’re angry with Dani,” Casper noted, “but the two of you need to get past this.”
Hunter’s anger ignited. “Get past this?” Launching to his feet, he stared back at his father. “She fucking lied to me about who she was. How the fuck do you get past that?”
The woman he’d wanted to spend his entire life with wasn’t that woman at all. Turned out that Danielle Davidson was actually Danielle Adorite—Max’s fucking cousin.
“Max got past it,” Bryce added.
“That’s not the same. He knew what Courtney was after when she came into his life. I had no fucking idea that Dani wasn’t who she said she was.”
Both men stared back at him, sympathy in their concerned gazes. Hunter didn’t want their sympathy. He didn’t want a damn thing from them or anyone else.
“Just give me an assignment as soon as you have one,” he told them both as he walked to the door. “And it damn sure better not have anything to do with the fucking Adorites.”
“WELL, THAT DIDN’T GO QUITE the way I pictured it,” Bryce told Casper as the other man stared at the door after Hunter’s abrupt retreat.
His partner didn’t answer immediately, and Bryce knew better than to push him. Bryce still wasn’t sure what Casper’s take on the whole situation was. He only knew that when Casper and Hunter had learned that Danielle Davidson—or, rather, Adorite—had appeared at Trace and Marissa’s wedding, the outcome had been as far from what they had expected as it could possibly be.