Torch (Unbreakable Bonds 3)

Noah eyed him for a long moment, then shook his head. “Fuck, Ward. What are you into now?”

“Give me a minute,” he grumbled, pushing to his feet. “Let me grab a sweatshirt. It’s ball freezing this morning.” Rowe started down the hall toward the master bedroom, both hands shoved into his hair. How the fuck was he going to tell him about the mess that he’d gotten into with Snow, Lucas, and Ian? And the fact that this mess had nearly gotten them all killed at one point or another? And had led to the death of his wife?

Halfway down the hall, Rowe jerked to a stop at the sound of his cell phone ringing. He patted his pockets only to realize that he’d left his phone on the table…with Noah. Fuck. He wouldn’t…

The second ring stopped in the middle and he heard Noah’s warm voice drift down the hall.

“Hello.…No, Rowe’s busy at the moment.…Who’s this?”

Rowe spun on his heel and started to jog the short distance back to the kitchen. Noah looked up as he came back into the room, flashing him an evil grin as he jumped from his own chair and moved so that the table was between him and Rowe.

“Damnit Keegan,” Rowe snarled. “Give me the phone!”

Noah held up one finger as if to silence Rowe. “I really think you should tell me who you are first,” Noah said to whomever was on the phone with him, still grinning like an idiot at Rowe. “Me? I’m the man he’s drilling into the mattress this morning and if I’m lucky, later tonight.”

“Holy fuck!” Rowe groaned, watching as Noah hung up with whomever he was talking to and dropped the phone on the table. “What the hell were you thinking? I use that for work! Who was that? One of my fucking employees? A client?” Rowe snatched up the phone as soon as he could break from his horrified paralysis. He shouldn’t have been surprised. They’d pulled shit like this on each other all through their years in the Army, but this was different.

“No idea. He wouldn’t say. Real asshole.”

“Fuck.” Rowe quickly thumbed in his security code and went to the call history all while praying that it hadn’t been Lucas. Snow and Andrei might laugh it off and give him shit later, but Lucas…geez, the man could be way too serious when he was worried about his friends.

Before he could reach the recent calls, Lucas’s picture flashed across the screen as another call came in.

“Fuck me!” Rowe dropped the phone as if it had burst into flames in his hands.

Noah leaned forward to look at the screen. “Yep, that was him. Want me to answer it?”

Rowe smacked his hand away. “No! You’ve done enough. Fuck! I’m not awake enough to deal with this shit.” He stood there for a second in indecision before grabbing Noah by the shoulders and pushing him toward the hall. “Go. Do whatever you have to do to get ready to go. We have to leave the house in less than fifteen minutes.”

“Wait! Why? Who is that?”

“A very good friend and I really don’t feel like answering his questions right now because of you.”

Noah grabbed the doorjamb and locked his elbows so Rowe couldn’t shove him into the spare bedroom. “What the hell do you mean ‘very good friend’?”

Rowe’s breath caught in his throat and his mouth suddenly went dry at the fire that sparked in Noah’s narrowed eyes. It felt…possessive. His eyes dropped to Noah’s parted lips, following the tip of his tongue as it passed over his bottom lip. Muscles cramped as Rowe fought the resurgence of heat—all too familiar because he’d fought it for years with this man. He stared, caught in those slitted blue eyes that looked back at him with the same heat.

His phone rang again. He shook his head.

“I’ll explain everything after we leave,” Rowe said, giving Noah another shove but he refused to budge.

“No. Who’s Lucas? What the fuck has got you so panicked?”

“A friend. It’s okay. We just got to go. He’s probably not at the office yet, which means that he can be here in twenty minutes. We’ve got to move now if I’m going to avoid him banging on my door wondering who the fuck is on my phone.”

“You gonna buy me breakfast?”

“I’ll buy you fucking pancakes if you just move your ass.”

Noah chortled as he surged into the bedroom, leaving Rowe to stumble after him. Catching his balance on the doorjamb, Rowe hurried down to the master bedroom for the world’s fastest shower.

It was stupid, really. The damn phone was still ringing on the kitchen table. He should just answer the phone and talk to Lucas, explain that his old friend was a goddamn lunatic and he was just teasing about the comment. But those answers would just generate more questions and it was bad enough that he still had to answer Noah’s questions. Rowe was also starting to chafe under his friends’ protective hovering. He appreciated their concern, but it was getting old…fast.