Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries #11)(77)

“Case, I think your brother’s here,” Michael said.

Fuck. Case stood and moved to the window Michael was standing at. He held his hands out for the binoculars. Theo was here? Theo was walking down the street?

God, what should he do? Would Theo be happy to see him? Would he know Case at all?

“Robert, I think we should go,” a deep voice said in his ear. “We’ve been called back into base. Apparently there’s a problem coming our way.”

That hadn’t been Theo’s voice. It was someone else. Mia had two guards to deal with. Shit. He shouldn’t have done this. He looked down the street, searching for the man Michael had talked about.

“Mia, if you don’t show up outside in thirty seconds I’m going to come in, and you won’t like how I’ll come in.” He would take care of two birds with one stone. He would have Fain grab Mia and Hutch and he would take Theo and run like hell.

“He’s right there.” Michael pointed to a large figure moving down the sidewalk. He wasn’t alone. There was another man with him and two more at his back. What was Theo doing?

“Thanks for the advice.” Mia’s voice was light, but he could hear the slight strain in her tone. It proved she had some sense. “I’ll pick up a signal outside. Hope you have a nice night.”

Then he heard her gasp.

“Hello,” a very familiar voice said. “I think we should talk, don’t you?”

“I’m not kidding, Mia.” Case was confused because he was watching Theo walk down the street. How could he hear him talking? It had to be a mistake. “You better get your sweet ass out here.”

The man’s face turned up and he pointed at the hotel.

That wasn’t Theo. That was Ian. Shit. Theo was with Mia.

“Why don’t you turn over the communication device hidden in that lovely ear of yours and we can have a real talk,” Theo was saying. “I’m afraid I’ve already picked up your…brother…partner whatever you want to call him. If you don’t want him to die, you’ll come quietly and explain exactly what you’re doing here.”

He felt frozen in place. The first words he’d heard from his brother and they were threats against Mia. And Hutch. God, Theo wouldn’t hurt Hutch. Hutch had been their buddy for years. Theo had spent all his off time playing video games with Hutch sitting beside him before he’d gotten together with Erin. He couldn’t hurt Hutch.

“I’m going in.”

The feed from Mia’s device went dead. Case’s heart nearly stopped. He tossed the headphones aside.

“Hey, you’re not going in without backup.” Michael put down the binoculars.

Fain was already on his feet. “I’ll go, though apparently we’ve now got a McKay-Taggart crew with us.”

“It’s Ian, Liam, Alex, and I’m pretty sure that’s Andrew Lawless walking next to him,” Michael explained.

Case started for the door, but he knew what had happened. “You told your new boss everything, didn’t you, you limp dick asswipe.”

Fain didn’t seem concerned. He strode right alongside Case. “He’s my boss now. I suppose he called your brother since he’s kind of Ian’s boss, too. That makes you low man on the totem pole.”

“There’s no time to argue.” Michael kept up despite the fact that his leg had to still ache. He’d had a couple of days to recover, but it was obvious to Case that it was still stiff. “And don’t tell me to stay behind. I’m coming with you. Someone’s going to have to explain everything to Ian.”

But he knew his brother better than that. He even knew damn well how Ian had found him. All McKay-Taggart field operatives got what Ian liked to call the “lost puppy chip.” Case, Michael, and Hutch all had GPS enabled microchips implanted in their hands. Not that it had done Theo any good. McDonald had simply cut it out of him. But it had apparently led his oldest brother right to him.

“You’re going to thank me later,” Fain said as they rushed down the stairs. “We need this backup. You have zero idea what we’re going into.”

“Only because you’re the moron who couldn’t follow simple instructions to get the security cams up,” Case said between clenched teeth. He had to keep it together. It was a big building, but there were only a couple of entrances and exits. They could run, but they wouldn’t be able to hide in there forever.

He hit the lobby at a run and damn near knocked over a bigger, older version of himself. Like he’d thought, Ian didn’t ask for explanations. He looked at Case and his body went still.

“What do you need?”

That was his brother. He knew when the shit had hit the fan and he didn’t ask for explanations.

“Theo’s in the building across the road. He’s got Mia and Hutch. You should probably know we’re going to have to blast our way out and the building is very likely owned by a cartel.”

“Are you f*cking kidding me?” Lawless asked, his face going a nice shade of red. He turned with the group as they made their way out to the street.

“What’s wrong with Malone?” Liam asked, his voice cool and calm. “You’re walking stiff.”

“He got shot during the near kidnapping,” Lawless complained, proving that Fain was a tattletale.