Rise & Fall (THIRDS 4)

“An eighties movie reference? Really? You are spending way too much time around Dex, whether he knows it or not.”

“What can I say? The dude is entertaining as fuck.” Austen kicked off his shoes and swung his legs onto the bed. He put his hands behind his head as he moved his feet from side to side. Sometimes he reminded Sloane of the scrawny little kid who’d stolen his wallet all those years ago. Austen let out a laugh. “Have you noticed how he picks out all the red gummy bears and eats them first? Or the way he eats around the peanuts of his M&M’s before eating the peanuts?”

Sloane scowled at him. “Seriously. No more spying on Dex.”

“Got it.”

Why did Sloane get the feeling Austen was going to completely ignore him? “So no one suspects anything?”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Austen assured him. “Everyone assumes that’s just what your boy’s like. He’s always teasing and joking with everyone. He hangs off the rest of the team, so it’s not like he’s just hands on with you. Some of the other agents in your department, not so subtle. Gerry? He practically has ‘I’m fucking my partner’ stamped on his forehead. The guy all but jizzes his pants every time he sees her.” There was a pause, and Austen’s feet went still before he spoke up again. “You guys are good together.”

“Thanks. So…?”

“Right. Intel. Work. Wayward boyfriend.” Austen rolled onto his side and propped himself on his elbow so he could look at Sloane, his expression serious. “Your boy’s not letting this go. He’s got me giving him intel before I pass it on to Seb. I sent him some information on one of the old Westward Creed guys. An Ox Perry who’s been spotted in Queens. There’s no word on Hogan yet, but he’s bound to go after one of these guys, so your boy’s got a fifty-fifty chance of running into him. I’m not a hundred percent sure yet, but Brick Jackson might have hauled ass to Cali. I’m waiting on confirmation. It’s looking like he might have used a fake passport. Of course, we’re still left with Perry. Luckily Hogan’s only got about a dozen or so crew members left.” His gaze dropped to the mattress, and he ran his hand absently over the cream-colored sheets.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Sloane knew Austen’s little signs. The kid was too clever for his own good. He obviously wanted to tell Sloane something but didn’t want to rat out whoever had given him the information. So he purposefully gave little gestures prompting Sloane to ask. If it was Sloane demanding information from him, Austen could get whatever was bothering him off his chest without turning stool pigeon.

Austen met Sloane’s gaze. “He’s going to tell you. He wants you to get settled in first.”

“Now you’re making excuses for him? What’s he keeping from me this time?”

“He had a run-in with two of Hogan’s goons over at your apartment.” Austen cringed, and rightfully so.

“What the ever living fuck?” Sloane took a deep breath and let it out slow. His head was pounding already. “First he lies to me about not going after Hogan, and now he lies to me about this?”

Austen pursed his lips thoughtfully before opening his mouth. Sloane knew exactly what he was going to say, and it pissed him off even more. He held a hand up to stop him.

“I swear if you say technically he’s not lying, he’s just withholding information, I will beat you with my crutch.”

“Wow. Those meds make you grumpy… er.”

“What happened?” Sloane demanded.

“I don’t know. Considering they ended up getting plugged, and your boy came out of it in one piece, I’m going to say it went well.”

Sloane shot Austen a warning look. “Now is not the time.”

“He said they were casing your apartment.”

Could they have been there waiting for him to come home? Had they been ordered to finish the job? Whatever happened, the bastards must have gotten away. At least Dex had managed to walk away unharmed. The lies were piling up.

“Hey, Broodybear?”

“Don’t call me that,” Sloane snapped. His partner probably hadn’t even called in backup. For all Sloane knew he’d kept the incident from the THIRDS. He’d have to if he didn’t want to bring unwanted attention to himself. “That little….” How was it possible to want to protect yet strangle someone at the same time?

“At least give him a chance to tell you.”

“Like he told me about Destructive Delta getting pulled only to go out and keep working the case after I asked him not to?” Sloane couldn’t deal with this right now. “And Ash?”

“He’s keeping an eye on your boy. I called him to let him know Dex was on the move. Those baby blues gotta be going somewhere right? I didn’t have an exact location to give him, just a general area. Flushing, Queens. Your boy’s going to have to do some digging first. He’s got a rough area to work with, along with some previous sightings, but nothing specific. Between Seb, Sparks, and your boy, I’ve got a pretty tight schedule, but if you need me, let me know.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Austen looked like he was going to say something else but instead gave Sloane a nod and walked off, the room once again falling to silence. He knew Dex would have called for backup if he’d thought he was in over his head with those assholes outside Sloane’s apartment, but the fact he hadn’t told Sloane when he’d brought up their team being pulled off the case, confirmed Dex planned to go after Hogan. Question was, what was Sloane going to do about it?

DEX SAT at the large steel table in his makeshift base of operation with his laptop and a host of other equipment spread across the table’s surface. He’d finished the last of hi

s reports for Sparks but hadn’t submitted them. On his laptop he was logged into his desk’s interface at work with several windows open containing all the information he had access to on the Westward Creed and the Coalition.