---Viper’s POV---
I shook my head slightly whilst rubbing the countertop clean from any evidence of breakfast while I observed the two love-struck couples roaming around the room. Sage and Declan were very obvious about it as my brother-in-arms rubbed soothingly over Sage’s lower back, resulting in a bright flush on the younger man’s cheeks but he didn’t pull away.
Josh and Davy on the other hand shot wicked glances at each other, making it hard to notice anything deeper going on between them, but I wasn’t a sniper for nothing. I knew what to look for and for me, they were all making it rather obvious.
And dangerous.
Living with your heart on your sleeve, especially in this line of work was basically showing your cards to your enemies. They knew where to hit and how hard it could bring you to your knees if they were successful.
I smiled despite my worries when Davy teased Josh to the point where even I thought the Seal was going to snap right here and then before the boy skipped out of the room with a smirk, waving at his lover over his shoulder.
Josh shook his head slightly, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep, calming breath before joining me in the kitchen. “So, who’s gonna bring the kids to school?” He asked after seeing my amused glance towards him.
My smile widened for a split second before I grew serious again. Grunting slightly as I transferred my weight on my still healing leg before I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’ll take them and before y’all start running your mouths that I can’t take care of them in my condition, I’m fine.”
Josh sighed softly and rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m not saying you can’t take care of them Samuel, but…” I pushed myself off the counter and stood to my full height, staring Josh right in the eye.
“Both you and Declan have your minds on other things now, and I’m not so sure if it’ll mess with your perception of the environment.” Josh had the grace to look slightly flustered but he stayed silent, confirming that I was right. I nodded once and grabbed the keys from the hook on the wall.
“Y’all better be gearin’ up to get to school.” I hollered out to the kids, who rushed to get their stuff. Ellie was already waiting with her backpack tightly secured in her hands, a big smile on her face.
“Are you gonna tell me all about cowboys today Sammy?” She asked hopefully while Josh snorted behind me in amusement, choking on a “Sammy?” while I shrugged it off and guided the youngster away from the idiot.
“Sure thing miss, I’ll tell you all you wanna know.” She giggled happily and jumped on the spot while Davy and Laura made their way down the stairs, playfully bickering with each other. I was kind of expecting it when Davy grabbed a hold of the front of Josh’s shirt and glued their lips together before winking at the man and hopped out the door.
I shot Josh a pointed look, making him flush on the spot as they had proved yet again that I was right before I limped my way to the car as well. When we got to Ellie’s school, I left the other two in the car and dropped Ellie off at her teacher, who smiled flirtingly. Smiling it off, I waved at Ellie before she surprised me by hugging my leg tightly, obviously avoiding the shot wound in the other one.
A sigh escaped me as I sat back down in the car and drove to high school, turning the radio off when I parked out front and twisted in my seat. “Sit back down and let me have a word with ye.” I stated when Davy went to open the door. He paused and instantly looked at me with curiosity while his sister perked up as well.
“Y’all know we’re here for a reason and I’m sure the others won’t tell ya anything to protect ya.” I let out a sigh, feeling troubled for going behind the fellas backs but right now, we should avoid any blind spots in our tactics. Leaving these kids out in the dark was a huge blind spot.
Davy’s eyes flashed slightly before he masked it, but I caught the flash of knowledge in his eyes and felt relieved that he at least knew something. I sighed and rubbed over the aching wound on my shoulder.
“Look, it’ll please me a great deal if both of ya watch the other’s back while you’re here. I reckon nothing’s fixin’ to happen but better to stay safe than sorry. Anything weird happens, anything out of the ordinary, you both better come runnin’ back, alright?”
The siblings shared a look before nodding their heads while Davy added, “Sure thing Texas. We all had a feeling what happened to dad wasn’t an accident, I mean, its as clear as day. He’s the best out there!”
“Or at least he was…” Laura added sadly, her eyes gaining a bit of a shine before she straightened her back. After clearing her throat, she nodded once, “We’ll tell you instantly when anything isn’t normal Samuel.”
I nodded at both of them, keeping my eyes on their disappearing backs before scanning the rest of the teenagers hanging out. Something was pushing me to keep an eye out and I had a sinking feeling in my gut that there’s bound to be retaliations to the spy-attack of my friends.
Shaking my head slightly, I drove to the local market to buy some more food, gaining some curious looks as well as admiration from both adults and kids alike. Was it for the fact that I had my Stetson on or for the dogtags dangling off my throat, I didn’t know.
At the cash register, I came to a small yet annoying problem; due to my injured shoulder and leg, I could barely manage to hold onto one bag, without having to juggle with the second bag of groceries, the milk crate or the fruits in meshed bags.
Surprisingly, I got a hand from the elderly couple living in the same street as Mother’s as the elderly man grabbed the fruits and second back while his wife asked a bystander to lift the crate up onto her trolley.
“There you go dear, where’s your car at?” The woman asked in a slightly shaky yet strong voice; the shakiness had nothing to do with bad health, just old age as her compassionate brown eyes sparked with life.
“The blue one right there Ma’am.” I stated politely before limping my way after them, trying my best to slip one of the bags out of the man’s hands but he simply laughed and held them out of my reach.
“I might be older than you young gun but that doesn’t mean I can’t handle a shopping bag or two. Name’s Raymond son and that gorgeous woman right there is Alice.” I tipped my hat whilst stating my name and earning a smile from the greyed man.
“I’m Samuel and I meant no disrespect Sir, just honest concern for ya health. Where I come from, us younglings help the elderly rather than turning it around.” I stated, hearing the man guffaw as he patted me on my wrist.
“Don’t be shy dear, judging from that shiny necklace and your injuries, you’ve done everything you can for our country and by doing so, making sure that elder folks like us can enjoy some peace and quiet. Thank you dear.” Alice smiled warmly as she pushed her trolley to the car.
I felt awed but humbled at their gratitude. People like these were the reason why I had enlisted myself in the first place. Raymond and Alice helped me place the stuff in the car and surprised me by hugging me to their chest before they went on with their own shopping.
Unbelievable…
---Sage’s POV---
I was typing away at my laptop, keeping an eye on the ghost accounts throughout the world as I started on cracking the code. Complex mixes of Latin, Italian, English and even Hebrew stared back at my face but the challenge was very welcome.
To some people, this seemed to be an impossible task, even with the help of a Navy Seal who was an expert in his field. But Richard struggled to see the connections that I could make with much more grace and ease.
Not to be flaunting my talents or putting Richard down but it was like there was a switch in my head that simply flicked when given these riddles. I pounced on it, unable to let the riddle go until I had it completely unraveled.
Richard groaned beside me and rubbed over his eyes before glancing at the screen again. He was typing here and there before frowning and hitting the backspace button with a scowl when he noticed he got something wrong and had to start over again.
“Any luck?” He asked tiredly over his shoulder, making me look up from the screen to look down at my scrabbled notes. Unlike Richard, I was making a backup file that couldn’t be hacked the normal way.
Tapping the pen on the paper, I nodded slowly before underlining a few more connections I had made and leaned over to give Richard the files. I winched slightly as the muscles in my lower back protested and Richard noticed before chuckling slightly as I flushed and instantly looked away from him.
“I know this isn’t probably what you’ like to hear but you shouldn’t feel so flustered over your feelings for Declan. Honestly, I’m surprised you guys even held out this long before jumping each other’s bones.” He laughed, kicking his feet up on the desk while I felt my cheeks heat up even more, though my thoughts were doing more then just creating a flush on my cheeks.
Richard shook his head with a snorting laugh and focused on my writings while I was doing my best to keep the bulge in my pants from growing any bigger.
Well, if I could just stop thinking about every delicious thing Declan did to my body then everything would be just fine. Gods, he was more than just fine though, those muscles…that tongue-
I swallowed before coughing awkwardly and shifted my weight, effectively hiding my growling length from sight. No need to make things even more awkward. Richard was too busy glancing back and forth from my notes to his screen, grinning more and more until he started enthusiastically on the translation of the code.
With a soft sigh, I leaned back whilst ignoring the way my muscles flexed and burnt slightly with a dull throb before I closed my eyes for a second. Now that I didn’t have to play chauffeur for my siblings, I had more time to actually do something for dad’s team.
The door of the room creaked open after a soft knock, flooding the slightly darkened room with daylight, which instantly caused me to narrow my eyes slightly. A deep chuckle caused my stomach to flutter slightly before I felt Declan’s form standing behind my seat.
“I think its time you two take a break and get some nutrition in your body before you pass out.” Declan stated with a slightly disapproving glance at both of us. I smiled sheepishly in response; I didn’t know what time it was at all and I hadn’t eaten anything besides a glass of orange juice this morning.
“Go on, shoo! Get some food and relax for a few while I look over this information with Richard.” He waved me out of my seat and coaxed me out of the room while I tried to point out that Richard was on the computer even longer. I saw his blue eyes slightly glaring at me over Declan’s shoulder while he mouthed “Shut up!”
Declan simply laughed before pushing me out of the door. “He’s used to it now go on and feed! You’re gonna be sorry if I have to come down and feed you myself.” He smirked before tapping my butt, making me yelp slightly in shock as I fled the room.
My gods, that man! I bit my lip whilst looking over my shoulder, blushing slightly as Declan’s dark eyes were scanning over my body before he licked his own lips and winked at me.
My face must be firetruck-red by the time I got in the kitchen but luckily, Davy was slightly distracted when I got there. I blinked and blinked again before I checked the time and scowled.
“What are you doing out of school?” I snapped at him but he barely reacted as he had his nose nearly glued to his I-pad. “Hmm? Oh, one of the teachers fell sick and we had the last two blocks off. Laura is out shopping with some friends.”
I shuffled slightly closer, curious to what he was doing, especially since he didn’t react what so ever when I placed some leftovers in the microwave to heat it up. Usually when I did this, he’d use his puppy eyes to make him something fresh but he didn’t opened his mouth once.
“What are you…are you reading?” I asked when I peeked over his shoulder and just noticed a screen filled with words and words. It looked like a book.
Davy blinked and scowled slightly while looking up. “Man, I was just getting to the good part! Yes, I found an online site for books and just found an awesome one. Never guessed there would be gay books too.” He waved me over and slid his fingers over the screen before nearly shoving it in my face.
“Look, I found this one just now and its bloody awesome. Damn, I’m just sounding like Travis now.” I blinked and raised a brow. “Travis?” I asked confused and he nodded whilst waving his hand, flicking back to the story before he was sucked back into his book.
“The lead male, at least one of them. Oh, I wish he’d be real, we’d totally set the place on fire.” He smirked wickedly and I sighed a bit, shaking my head, though I felt even more curious to find out Davy was interested in an online book. He only picked out great books to read.
“Uhm…what’s it called?” I asked, making Davy sigh again before he showed me the cover of the book. “Fire and Ice. Great description, great beginning and from what I can see so far, an awesome plot too. Apparently its one of the first books she has and it has sequels. Now shoo, I’m reading.” He huffed and I chuckled though making a mental note that I was going to check that book out.
The microwave beeped a few times and I scooted beside my brother, trying to read over his shoulder and childishly shoving him when he tried to block the screen with his shoulder. Our laughs and snorts filled the kitchen rather quickly as we were lost in our own little world.
---Viper’s POV---
Something’s wrong…I can feel it.
The same thought kept jumping through my mind while I let the others relax and have their moments with their lovers. My eyes were focused on the blue Ford slowly driving by and I scowled slightly but acted as if I was fast asleep on the porch swing. The Stetson covered my eyes slightly so I looked good enough to fake it.
“And that’s four.” I counted to myself as the same car passed yet again. This wasn’t someone that was lost and needed directions; this was someone trying to be sneaky as they checked the neighborhood out. But the question was, were it possible thieves wanting to see where the big cash was, or was it something more sinister and dangerous hiding behind those tinted windows?
An unknown woman stepped out of the car and looked around, not a bit confused or nervous as she stood there in an unknown enviorment before she went to one of the kids playing on the streets and asked them a few questions.
I scratched my nose, acting as if I was simply stretching afterwards but did that so I could see what she was doing; she gave the kids something and they nodded before pointing in our general direction, which made the woman turn instantly.
Yep, this definitely wasn’t just burglars wanting to scope their crime scene out. Being outside was now dangerous for me, since whoever this woman was, she could still have been given a picture of me or Mother’s team. I slipped down the seat so the Stetson slid down my face, obscuring my features even more.
Thankfully, she passed by the house without a second glance to whom was sitting outside but she did raise her hand to her ear slightly, as if curling her hair behind it but I saw the motion for what it really was.
I let out a baited breath when the car fled from the scene before I sat up again. Our peace was going to be tensed now, cause that woman sure as hell wasn’t someone from our side. As far as the military was informed, our Teams were gone without further questions asked.
Only rats wanted to sniff out more than they should. I stood up and instantly made my way inside, already planning to get to Laura and take her back here. If the Black Sun knows where they can find us, the games have officially started…
Dedicated to my best friend on Wattpad ^-^ Thanks for sharing your amazing books with us my dear ^-^