“Sorry.” Jill’s eyes narrowed in warning at Steve who bent to put his shoe back on, his eyes meeting hers. The warning in her stare was clear. He needed to shut the hell up or else. Her eyes once again found Slade who hadn’t moved an inch, but his gaze had become more intense. He knew. What he knew, she didn’t know, but he knew something. Dammit.
“Sorry we’re late.” Steve walked toward Sloan’s desk, without looking Sloan in the eye.
“No problem,” Sloan replied and eyed Steve, Adam and Jill closely.
Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to stare at Sloan.
“Who the fuck are you and what have you done with Sloan Murphy?” Sid glared at Sloan as if searching his soul.
Unease slithered down Jill’s spine when she searched Sloan’s eyes. This easy-going guy sitting behind Sloan’s desk looked like Sloan, sounded like Sloan, but that was where it ended. He sure as hell wasn’t acting like Sloan.
“What?” Sloan leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.
Jill actually felt every Warrior in the room tense. Slade slowly moved toward her. Again her eyes moved to Sloan, but the office door slammed open, drawing everyone’s attention. What she saw was something she hoped everyone else saw. If not, she really was sick...at least in the head.
“What the hell is going on?” Sloan’s voice boomed as he stopped right inside his office.
Guns were drawn, half aimed at the Sloan behind the desk and the other at the Sloan glaring at them from his doorway.
“Eenie meenie miney mo, which Sloan has got to fucking go?” Sid’s voice rang out, his gun pointed at the Sloan behind the desk, but looking over his shoulder at the Sloan in the doorway.
“You better have a damn good reason to have those guns pointed at me.” Sloan took a step, as if daring any one of them to pull the trigger, but stopped when he saw his twin sitting behind his desk looking directly at him. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” was all he said as he continued to stare at the other Sloan.
“Everyone needs to calm down,” the Sloan behind the desk said, starting to stand, but stopped as the sound of triggers clicking echoed in the room.
Jill watched the situation wishing she had her gun; she’d catch hell for that, but her mind had been preoccupied lately. She finally noticed Jax, who stood in the corner of the room, an arrogant half-grin on his face looking way too at ease with no gun drawn.
“Don’t order my men around, motherfucker. If you Warriors don’t stop aiming those fucking guns at me, you will be getting them surgically removed from your goddamn asses!” The Sloan by the doorway growled loud enough that Jill swore the room shook.
The Warriors, without moving an inch, looked at each other for a split second before all guns were turned and aimed toward the Sloan behind the desk. That was when all hell broke loose. Jill was pushed back when the Warriors, as one, took the Sloan doppelganger to the ground.
“You going to fucking do something?” The impersonator shouted.
Jill watched Jax slowly move away, his eyes meeting hers briefly. “Let him go.” Jax’s voice was smooth and calm.
Jared and Sid jerked the man up to a standing position, holding him tight, and Jill gasped. The man no longer looked like Sloan. His black hair hung in his eyes shielding them from view, but his massive frame loomed over Jared and Sid. He shook his head, finally revealing golden eyes framed by long black lashes. His fine muscled arms were sleeved with the most beautiful tattoos Jill had ever seen. She loved tats, but was too chicken to get one herself because pain sucked. Yeah, shock made her think of dumb shit.
When Jared and Sid didn’t let go, the man growled loudly and shook them off. Sid re-pulled his gun aiming at the man’s head.
“If someone doesn’t start explaining, I’m going to unload in two seconds.” Sid’s voice was not the easy-going tone he usually expressed.
The man turned to Sid, bending slightly so the barrel pressed against his forehead. “Pull the trigger. I dare you.”
“Good thing you didn’t double dog dare him.” Jared sneered. Everyone in the room became even more tense, if that were possible. “I’d hate to have my favorite shirt splattered with your brain matter, dumbass.”
Sid’s eyes darkened as he pushed the gun harder, making the man’s head move slightly as he leaned closer. “Any last words.”
“Yeah.” The man also leaned into the gun. “You’re a *. Pull the trigger.”
Sloan reacted by knocking the gun away before landing a punch to the man’s face, then picked him up by the throat shoving him against the wall. “You have exactly one second to tell me who the fuck you are and why you shifted to look like me, which I never want to happen again or I will take your life with no questions asked.”
The man cocked his eyebrow before hissing as Sloan’s hand tightened painfully around his throat.
“I brought him in,” Jax spoke up, still looking at ease and not at all put out by the situation that had everyone else on edge. “Blaze is not only an ex-Warrior, but a highly intelligent shifter.”