Colorado Hitch (14 page)

Roger nodded and drew Billy close again. “It was nice having someone to hold. I think I slept better because of it.”

Zander stepped out of the bathroom. “I’m ready to get home.”

“Same here,” Billy said.

“Okay, let me get dressed then we can head out.” Roger stood, turning quickly. He hoped the guys understood about his wood. He wasn’t hard just because of Zander, but having a warm body snuggled up next to him had felt nice. He used the restroom and tugged on his clothes after brushing his teeth and splashing his face with water. When he finished in the bathroom, the guys were ready to head out.

He was proud of what they’d accomplished on this mission. They’d been hurting for so long, longer than he'd realized, and yet they'd held it together well. When he got back to Wild Bluff, there was more than just holding Zander all night that he needed to tell Grant. They all needed to heal, and that meant they would have to go deeper, delving into their emotions, taking time to understand, and really work through everything that had happened.

Chapter Eighteen

Grant barely slept, and when he finally crawled from under the covers, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be up. He’d manned the control room until two in the morning, when Ryan had come in and took over for a few hours. He knew Marshal would be up early, making sure all of the men were safe.

Duff had pissed him off. Davis deserved more than a father who ran out on him. It was hard enough to make it in this world without having someone try to quit on you. Maybe Duff had a good reason for wanting to leave, but Grant was tired of having to deal with people who left. Craig had disappeared without giving him a say, and it had almost ruined him.

His phone rang, and he scooped it up, happy to see that it was Roger. “We’re at the airport.”

“Good. I miss you.”

“Miss you, too. We need to talk about some stuff when I get home.” Roger sounded off, his voice a little strained.

Grant’s heart stalled and he stilled. “Okay.”

“It’s not bad, I just… I shouldn’t have said anything on the phone. It’s really too hard to describe. Don’t worry, it’s just something I was thinking about. I love you, don’t doubt that.”

The words Roger said gave him little comfort but he still worried. “Okay, I’ll be waiting for you.”

“It’s a long flight. We’re going into Denver. When will the Florida crew land?” Roger asked.

“Late this afternoon. With your drive down from Denver, you both should get home around the same time.”

“I know we need to do a debriefing, but before we get together as a group, I want to talk.”

Grant nodded then spoke, realizing that Roger couldn’t see him. “Sure.”

Roger hung up, and Grant was left wondering what was going on. After a quick shower, he grabbed some breakfast and began going over police logs, call logs, videos from traffic cameras, and anything associated with yesterday’s activities. He found little. Ryan had done a thorough job erasing their presence in Maryland and Florida. When he was almost done, Marshal stumbled in.

“I heard you up and making noise and went to take a nap. I figured that you weren’t going back to bed,” Marshal said.

Grant leaned back in his chair and stretched. “Yeah, been up for a while. It looks like Ryan did a good job erasing everything.” Grant clicked on a few more links as Marshal moved to sit beside him.

“Zander called, said he missed me. He sounded… I don’t know. He sounded off.”

Grant sat back, placing his hands behind his head as he stared at Marshal. He didn’t want to say that Roger had sounded weird, but he had. What if something had happened between the guys? Billy had been there, and Grant knew there wasn’t any way he would cheat on Tucker. Hell, he knew Zander wouldn’t cheat either, but something was off with Roger, and he had no idea what it was. He knew better than to think Roger would cheat on him. Duff nearly running out had him doubting everything. Craig had cheated, and he hadn’t seen it, but Roger wasn’t Craig.

“They’ll be home tonight. I’m sure everything is fine. Dealing with Craig, even if it wasn’t directly with Craig, has to be difficult. This was the last tie.”

“Are you sure it was the last?” Marshal asked.

The door opened, and Ryan stepped in. “Hey, guys. I started looking into that last night. I stayed up late and I’m freaking exhausted now.” Ryan rubbed his eyes and stretched before he plopped down in the chair across from Grant.

“What did you find?” Marshal asked.

“I’m sure she worked for someone at some point, but that person wasn’t in daily communication with her. I searched through every record, both phone logs and emails, there wasn’t anyone I could find who was out of the ordinary. If she has someone she’s still working with, they aren’t around right now.”

“Wow, that’s impressive—fast. Where did you pick up the tricks you’re using to find out that information?” Grant asked.

“Class. Seriously, the guys almost treated me like I was invisible. They all talked in front of me and didn’t care what I heard. I wasn’t included in their conversations, but I might as well have been. I sorted everything, searching for patterns. The patterns are the key. Anyway, I’m sure about my findings.”

Marshal picked up a pen and twirled it with his fingers. He was staring into space, his eyes almost glassy before he blinked and turned to Ryan. “Okay, what else do you think we need to do?”

Ryan shrugged. “We’ll need to keep looking. Something might eventually pop up. It may take years, but it’s something we’ll just have to do.”

Grant blew out a breath and shook his head. He hated that Craig would still be a ghost they had to look for years into the future. “God, I hate that anything related to Craig might be with us for years.”

“I know,” Marshal said.

“We’ll keep on it, we have to.” Grant paused to take a sip of his coffee before continuing. “Anything else, Ryan?”

“Mmm, I need coffee before I keep going.” Ryan stood and stretched.

Marshal stood too. “I’m going to help him. I need coffee and something to eat.”

“I need more coffee. We can talk in there.” Grant followed them out of the room to the kitchen where they started a new pot. Marshal began cooking some pancakes, and Ryan threw some bacon on a baking sheet and stuck it in the oven.

As they finished with the food, Duff stumbled in, his shoulders sagging as he shuffled across the kitchen. Grant decided that talking out their thoughts in front of Duff wouldn’t be bad. Maybe Duff needed to feel like he belonged again.

“Duff, Ryan was saying that he spent a lot of time last night looking for people connected to Daphne who might come back to hurt us,” Grant said.

Duff lifted his brows and turned to Ryan. “What did you find?”

“We need to see if she has another phone, but I think we’ll be in the clear.”

“So, Craig isn’t Hydra any longer? Maybe, we really have cut his reach,” Duff said.

“It seems that way,” Marshal said between bites of pancake.

“Any word from the guys?” Duff asked.

“They’re on their way back,” Grant said. “They should be home early this evening. We’ll relax, then do the debriefing in the morning. It’s going to take hours and we really need to make sure, as much as we can, that the Craig factor is gone.”

“Take your time,” Duff said.

“We will.” Marshal drank some coffee before he cleared his throat. “Um, we didn’t tell you, but the house in Florida exploded before the guys went in. Mike was injured, but he should be fine.”

“It sucks,” Duff said. “And Ryan kind of told me yesterday.”

Grant glanced to Ryan but didn’t say anything. He’d noticed that Duff’s hands were shaking. Duff’s age had snuck up on them faster than any of them thought it would, and maybe he had more than just the heart problems. After the guys got back and life settled down a bit, he would get Duff to make an appointment to talk to the doctor about his medications.

“We’ve done a lot of research,” Ryan said.

“It’s part of the job. Making sure we’ve identified the right person is the biggest responsibility we have. Even more than pulling the trigger or delivering the poison, figuring out the truth of the matter is the most important thing. Truth matters more than anything else in this job.” Duff took a long drink of coffee after he finished speaking.

Grant nodded, his gaze meeting Duff’s and Marshal’s before settling on Ryan. “Duff is right, the truth matters most. We need to get back to gathering information and running down all leads and paths. We can’t leave anything to chance. If there is anyone who still sympathizes with Craig, we need to find out who they are and neutralize them.”

“Does that mean we’ll kill them all?” Ryan asked.

“No. There is one person in prison in England, and as long as he stays there, I’m fine with that. He never knew much about us anyway. Daphne Wall was dangerous because she infiltrated the U.S. government. She was instrumental in Craig almost killing Davis. That was enough to warrant her death. Who knows how many operatives were in harm’s way because of her activities.”

Ryan nodded. “You’re right, she had to go. Do you think this will ever end?”

“Yes,” Duff said.

Grant glanced at Duff then back to Ryan. “I think so. The people supporting Craig will go away. We won’t be in danger any more. Heck, Davis probably wasn’t in danger directly from this Daphne person anyway, but we couldn’t take chances. We do a service that few are willing to even think about. It’s a tough position to be in, but I’m glad we’re the ones doing it and not someone else. I know without any doubt that this group will always choose the conservative approach.”

Marshal cleared his throat and stood. “We do always pick the conservative approach. And right now, that means we need to do more research.”

“I’m game,” Ryan said.

Grant turned to Duff and lifted a brow. “If you want to join us, you’re more than welcome to come in and look through what we’ve done.”

Duff hesitated before his lips tilted up in a small smile. “Sure, I’d appreciate the opportunity.”

After using the restroom, Grant headed into the control room and began sifting through material once again. With Duff added into the mix, they made fast progress. Doing research was tedious, but after about an hour, he got lost in the task, enjoying the victory of finding some little tidbit that allowed them to mark off one avenue or a person of interest.

When his phone rang, he jumped then looked down at the screen, seeing it was Roger calling him. “Hey, are you on the ground?”

“We rented a car. When do the other guys land?”

“About an hour and a half,” Grant said.

“Good. We’re dropping this car in Colorado Springs and we’ll meet them in the parking lot. They can drive us home.”

“We’ve made some progress today.” Grant looked at their lists of names and places on the board and was pleased that eighty percent had been cleared. The others had disappeared or hadn’t been investigated. The likelihood that someone was still after them, or even knew about them, was slim.

“Good. Once we go over the information from both teams, we can have another look at what’s left.”

Grant stepped out of the control room and headed to the kitchen. The rest of the guys, even Duff, were still locked up doing research. “Hey, so is everything really okay?”

“Yeah, Grant, it is. Actually, I think it’s better than okay. Trust me, I love you and I think this will be a good thing.”

He nodded, unsure what Roger was talking about. He hated being left in the dark and he didn’t want to beg his man over the phone. Even if he was desperate, he didn’t want Roger to think he was too worried.

“I can’t wait to see you,” Grant whispered.

“I’ve got to go now. I’ll talk to you later.” Roger hung up before Grant could say more.

He stayed busy for the next two and a half hours as he waited for the men to get home. When he found himself with a free moment, pain twisted through his thoughts, so he dug deeper and worked harder. They’d crossed more names off their list and were down to just the last bit of information for the rest of the people in question when his phone dinged and a shot of the front gate showed up on the big monitor in the control room. The guys were home.

Ryan was the first out the door followed closely by Marshal. Duff left last, locking up the control room behind them. Grant's smile grew the closer he got to seeing Roger. Ryan was already down the porch steps, and Marshal was right behind him. The car stopped and the doors opened, laughter filled the air. His heart grew lighter as they piled out. Zander came around the car and had his arm around Roger, his smile wide. For a brief second, Grant felt a twist of jealousy slide through him before he pushed it away. Nothing had happened, he was sure of that.

Roger spotted him and stopped laughing. His eyes widened as he raked his gaze down Grant’s body then back up. Grant made his way down the steps to the driveway and right into Roger’s arms. They hugged and he ignored everything around them.

“I really missed you,” Roger whispered.

Grant squeezed him back, loving how Roger felt in his arms. “Come in, get settled. We’ll chat with the guys later.”

The men were smiling and exchanging hugs. Zander came over and wrapped his arms around Grant when he and Roger separated. Zander held him close and when he pulled back, Zander’s gaze was on Grant, his eyes glassy with moisture.

“Roger is the best, you know that, right?” Zander pulled Grant into another hug and kissed his cheeks before stepping back.

Roger laughed a little and popped Zander on the rear before taking Grant’s hand, leading him into the house to their bedroom. He half-expected Roger to push him up against the wall, but Roger didn’t. Instead, Roger walked to the center of the room, his head down as he rubbed his jaw with one hand. Something was different, and Grant didn’t know what to make of it.

“What’s up?” Grant asked.

“I don’t think I truly got how much Craig’s betrayal affected everyone on this ranch until now. You were all friends with Craig.”

Grant narrowed his gaze as his heart sped up. “What happened?”

“Zander.”

He froze. What had Roger meant by that? Had they hooked up? Zander’s hug had been a little weird. The urge to yell almost overwhelmed him. Instead, he stepped forward and took Roger’s hand.