Kalen dusted off his leather coat. “Let’s go look. Stay here and hold down the fort, Red.”
“I plan on it, Goth Boy.”
Cautiously, the three of them crept to the end of the hallway. Micah went around the corner first, and drew his weapon. Only to find himself staring into the sunshine. Open, empty air.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled in frustration. “He blew a hole in the wall and escaped!”
“I’ll be goddamned.” Ryon gave a disgruntled sigh. “Back to square one.”
Kalen kicked at a piece of Sheetrock with one booted foot. “And now we have a hell of a mess and a shitload of repairs to do. My mate’s going to kick my ass.”
Micah shook his head. “Let’s check on Aric and get him upstairs. We need to make sure Tyler’s protected at all times now, too. Parker will know he helped us.”
“Clusterfuck,” Kalen bitched.
Ryon snorted. “With extra clusters on top of the fuckity fuck.”
“Come on, idiots.” Micah hurried back to his brother-in-law, who was in pain, but more pissed off than anything. A good sign with Aric. The bleeding had slowed, but he still needed attention.
They got him upstairs, and the staff whisked him away. More than an hour went by as they dealt with the aftermath, and Micah finally remembered to check his phone. He was relieved to see that earlier he’d gotten a text from Jacee saying they were having a good time. He wasn’t looking forward to Rowan’s reaction when she learned Aric had gotten hurt, and decided he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.
Aric had insisted they wait until she got back. It was his ass.
He did text his mate and tell her, Mission failed. Parker got away. Tell you more when you get back.
She didn’t reply, so he tried their mental link. Jacee?
Sorry. Just got done with lunch and saw your text. Why do we text when we can communicate like this, anyway?
He smiled. I don’t know. I guess it’s a modern habit. And I can’t always talk mentally if I’m supposed to be on a mission.
True. So that bastard got away!
Yeah. Listen, Aric was injured. He’s going to be fine, but I just wanted you to know in case Rowan wants to come back early.
You want me to tell her? No way! That’s a dirty, rotten trick, trying to get me to do it.
Didn’t work?
Not unless it’s really serious.
Could’ve been, but he’s okay. Really. He said he wants her to stay and have fun.
Damn. If it was me, I’d still want to know, Micah.
You’re telling her.
Yep. Whatever she decides is fine.
You know, baby, personally, I’m so okay with you coming home early and holding me. I’ve had a bad day. He put plenty of pout into the suggestion, and heard her laugh through their link.
You are so transparent. I’ll see you soon.
Love you.
Love you more.
With a relieved sigh, he shut their link. Then he pitched in and started helping with the cleanup in the basement.