“When you’re fully certified, these are the types of busts the two of you will be doing for a while, so pay attention. Close attention. You are on observation only. You are to stay in the SUV at all times. Under no circumstances are you to get out. If something goes down, you dial 911. Do not think you can provide backup. Don’t get out!”
Duke was looking at them in the rearview, his smoky gaze bouncing back and forth between the two of them, scrutinizing their body language. Kell made eye contact with his boss then turned away from the window. He couldn’t close Ty out. Not if they were going to be good at this job. They’d started out with amazing chemistry, they needed to get that back. Platonic chemistry. It wasn’t Ty’s fault that Kell had made a fool of himself. His partner had never given him one indication that he was feeling Kell the same way he was feeling him.
Why did he call me ‘shorty’ like that? He’d heard it. Kell fingered a piece of fringe on his scarf. Maybe Ty meant it in the literal sense. I am considerably shorter than him. Kell hadn’t taken offense to the word because he’d wanted it mean something else. He’d wanted it to mean what it did to the other guys. To his fellow high school students who’d bragged in the locker room about how sexy their ‘shortys’ were.
Kell turned in Ty’s direction to find he was already looking at him. His penetrating gaze unwavering. He wasn’t afraid about it. At first glance he thought Ty was watching him out of concern and maybe a little guilt, but then it all morphed into a look of captivating confusion. Ty’s almond eyes narrowed then widened suddenly as if a lightbulb switched on in his head. A realization dawning on him. Only Kell’s eyes were visible. They didn’t lie. He knew Ty could see the concealed desire blazing in them. A soft smile began to form on Ty’s gorgeous face and once again Kell couldn’t turn away. Damnit.
“You two ready?” Duke said, still watching them in the mirror. His voice was softer, as if he understood the silent communication he and Ty were having. Kell hadn’t realized they’d pulled onto a side street across from a row of duplexes.
“Yes,” Ty and Kell said in unison.
“Our skip’s name is…” Duke waited for one of them to answer. If they’d been paying close attention like his bosses expected, then they should know this. Quick had been reading the file the entire ride over. It was a test. Kell didn’t fail tests.
“Jacob T. McNamara,” Kell answered.
Duke nodded then continued, glancing in Ty’s direction this time. “His bond is…”
Ty didn’t miss a beat. “Fifteen thousand.”
“How much do we recover of that if we get him back into custody?” Quick chimed in.
“Your fee is twenty percent. So, three ’gs,” Ty answered.
“We charge on the higher end because we retrieve violent offenders and skips that other bond companies don’t have the manpower to handle,” Duke said.
Their bosses asked a few more basic questions until they were content that they’d paid attention. Neither he nor Ty missed any answers, or got any wrong. Kell was prepared to do this and it looked like his partner was too.
“All right. Brian’s in position.” Quick pushed some buttons on his hi-tech communications watch that all the hunters wore. Quick briefly described their plan while Duke pulled out the necessary paperwork. “No one moves until everyone is in position. We usually don’t need three men to retrieve nonviolent, but we’re in training. And no matter what, we always wear vest on a retrieval.”
Duke folded the bench warrant, with the judge’s signature revoking the bond for nonappearance in court, and shoved it into his back pocket. He powered down the tinted windows in the Suburban, so he and Ty could hear, then got out. Quick came around the front and waited for Duke to take lead. Neither one of them had their weapons out as they approached the duplex on the left. Quick stood just a few feet to the right of the porch, under a cracked window.
It was silent inside the large interior of the SUV. Kell breathed evenly though his heart was beating fast. He wasn’t scared, he was excited. Ready to see his sensei in action. Duke’s knock on the front door was loud, authoritative.
“Recovery agents! We have a warrant. Open the door.”
It wasn’t a request. Kell’s gaze moved all over the house. He watched the upstairs blinds, the downstairs ones. He even watched the house next door, which appeared empty, but that didn’t mean it was. He saw a man peek out of the front door, squinting at the sunlight, as if he hadn’t left his house in days. “What? What do you want?” The man twisted his face, his thin body blocking the entrance.