Rack & Ruin (THIRDS 3)

Hobbs showed up, a deep low mewl coming from him as he padded up to Calvin. He bumped his head against Calvin’s leg, and Sloane watched as Calvin pushed his head away. The two young agents continued to bicker while Hobbs chuffed and mewled in an attempt to get his partner’s attention.

“All right, that’s enough,” Sloane snapped. The three agents gave a start and turned to face him. Cael and Calvin quickly stood to attention, their hands clasped behind their backs while Hobbs sat beside his partner, his ears flattened against his head in worry. They’d been so absorbed in their argument they’d clearly forgotten Sloane was even there. “I have to say, I am truly disappointed. This has been the worst training exercise I’ve seen in a long time.” Sloane came to stand in front of them. His agents couldn’t even look him in the eye. They were supposed to be an elite team with years of experience. They were trained better than this. “Cael, you weren’t even paying attention. You allowed your teammate to walk into a goddamn trap. Calvin, you shouldn’t have been relying on Cael to do all the work for you. You made yourself a sitting duck, and then to make things worse, you got so pissed off at Cael, you didn’t even bother to neutralize the threat after you went down.”

“I got shot because of him,” Calvin argued. He seemed to catch himself and tacked a quick, “Sir” at the end.

“In the leg,” Sloane replied curtly. “You’re a fucking sniper, but you didn’t bother shooting a target who was two feet in front of you.” Sloane moved onto Hobbs. “And where the hell were you when your partner needed you? You should have been right behind Calvin. The moment you saw your partner unable to take the shot, you should have stepped in to neutralize the threat.”

Hobbs lowered his head, a soft moan coming from him. He nudged closer to his partner, but Calvin ignored him. Usually Calvin would oblige with a scratch behind the ear to reassure him.

“I don’t know what’s going on with all of you, but it ends now. I’m not about to risk the safety of this team, of the people we’re supposed to protect because you can’t get your shit together. You have personal problems to deal with, I get it. We all have shit to deal with, and guess what? The Coalition doesn’t give a flying fuck about our personal problems. We still have a job to do. We have never let each other down before. Are we going to start now?” All three shook their heads somberly. “Good. This better be the last time I see such a piss-poor display.” He gave a nod, and the three started to head off. “Oh, and just to be sure it doesn’t happen again, the three of you are on equipment pickup duty for the next month. Have fun with that.”

The agents cursed under their breaths but didn’t utter a word at him. Equipment duty was a pain in the ass and a perfect disciplinary measure. For a month they’d personally have to inspect every piece of equipment in Destructive Delta’s armory and their BearCat. Clean every nozzle, check every chamber, reload every magazine, dust, clean, disinfect, and deliver uniforms to Laundry Services along with a host of other fun tasks.

Sloane’s earpiece beeped several times, and he tapped it to answer. “Agent Brodie here.”

Austen’s voice came over his line. “Con Ed plant. Twenty minutes.”

The line went dead, and Sloane tapped his earpiece again. “Destructive Delta, we’re moving out. Now. Hobbs, stay in your Therian form. Calvin, you drive.” Sloane ran out of the observation deck, catching up to the rest of his team as they rushed down the wide stone corridor toward the armory, connecting with Maddock along the way. “Sarge, I’ve just received intel on the Coalition. We’re heading out.”

“Copy that. Keep me posted, and take some backup with you.”

Sloane grabbed his tranq rifle and tucked extra magazines into his tac vest’s pockets as he addressed his team. “All right everyone. If you get close enough to take one of these bastards down, you do it. If we can get our hands on just one of them, we might finally be able to get some information. Watch your backs and stay alert. Call for backup if you need it.” His earpiece beeped, and he answered it. “Agent Brodie.”

“Taylor here. Beta Ambush will be on standby. We’re heading out to the location now.”

That was quick. Maddock must have asked Taylor to provide backup. Though he wished Maddock would have asked Levi instead of Taylor, but there wasn’t much Sloane could do about it now. “Copy that.” As Sloane’s team made for the BearCat, Dex pulled back to walk beside Sloane.

“Judging by the royally pissed-off faces, I’m going to take a guess and say the training session didn’t go as planned.”

“It was a fucking disaster,” Sloane admitted. He’d never faced this problem with his team before. They weren’t invincible, and even Sloane had been dealt some shitty blows on the personal front, but it felt as if his team was falling apart, and he couldn’t let that happen. “I need you to talk to your brother. He really dropped the ball back there.”

“What about Ash?”

“Ash wasn’t there. And just so you know, I’m not taking sides. If it had been Ash who’d fucked up, I would have called him out on it, but he wasn’t there at the training session. Your brother was. I’m sorry, Dex, but Cael has to pull himself together before someone gets hurt. I’ll deal with Calvin and Hobbs.”

Dex let out a resigned sigh. “You’re right. I’ll talk to him.”

As they climbed into the truck, Cael came to sit beside Sloane. “Where’s Ash?”

“I don’t know. He had evals this morning but should have been out by now.” Sloane didn’t tell Cael which evals Ash was having. That was up to his best friend if he wanted to tell someone. Aside from their quarterly physical and psychological evaluations, the THIRDS often pulled agents in for random screenings. It kept everyone on their toes and from doing anything stupid.

“Sloane, I’m really worried. I’ve been thinking about the way he’s been recently, and it made me wonder if being back at the research facility got to him.”

Shit. Sloane had been so wrapped up in his own little world, he hadn’t thought about how Ash might be dealing with the whole thing. It made sense. After all, Sloane had been having nightmares since the incid

ent, but at least he had Dex to help him through it. Ash wasn’t the kind of guy to ask for help, and he certainly wasn’t into sharing his feelings. Looked like his teammates weren’t the only ones needing a good kick up the ass. Some fucking friend he was. “You’re absolutely right, Cael. I promise you, as soon as I get the chance, I’ll talk to him.”

“Ash is always acting like such a tough guy that it’s easy to assume nothing gets to him. Having all that come crashing back has to have affected him in some way. I just wish he’d say something rather than bottling it all up. I’ve tried talking to him, but it’s like he’s avoiding me.”

Sloane gave Cael a reassuring pat on the leg. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Thanks. And I’m sorry about the training session today. I won’t let it happen again.”

“I’m counting on it.” He gave Cael a reassuring smile, watching the young Therian look a little more at ease. Cael was right about Ash. Getting his best friend to open up was going to be no easy task. More like pulling teeth. Sloane couldn’t fault him, he was no better at opening up himself, but he was working on it. Dex made it easier. Ash had been there for him all those years ago. Sloane hoped Ash would let him be there for him now. Something told him that was easier said than done.

Chapter 7

IT WAS all go from the moment the truck stopped just off the intersection of Avenue C and East Thirteenth Street. There were half a dozen masked Coalition members dispersing. They’d clearly been warned, but Destructive Delta managed to make it in time. The team had split up, with everyone taking off after a Coalition member while backup made its way there.