Blood & Thunder (22 page)

“What the hell’s going on with you? You wouldn’t have reprimanded Gabe.”

Sloane jumped to his feet to confront his friend. “Gabe would have followed orders.”

“Don’t bullshit me, man. Gabe would have done the same. Hell, any one of us would’ve if we’d been in Dex’s place, and I
know
you wouldn’t have resorted to disciplinary measures.”

“He has to learn he can’t go off half-cocked, disregarding his safety, like everything will turn out fine.”

“So this is about Dex.”

“Yes, it’s about Dex. It’s about him thinking he can do whatever the hell he wants without having to face the consequences. He thinks he’s goddamn indestructible.”

“No, I meant this is about how you feel about him.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You think I don’t see how close you two have gotten? It’s fine. No one’s going to hold it against you.” Ash took a seat on the edge of Sloane’s desk and shrugged. “It was bound to happen. He’s your partner.”

Sloane’s frown deepened. There was no way Ash could know.

“You two have become close friends. You work together, hang out together. No one said you can’t be friends with your partner. Look, the guy annoys the ever-living fuck out of me, but I can see why you like to hang out with him. You’re too serious,
were
too damn serious, and he changed that.” Ash let out a heavy sigh and tapped away at Sloane’s interface as he spoke, bringing up several online news sites. “After what happened to Gabe, I thought… I really thought that was it for you.” Sloane’s surprise must have shown, because Ash glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that. Of course, I was worried. You’re my best friend, but let’s face it, you’re different with him, in a good way. He makes you laugh, drags you along to do stupid shit. He’s like an excited puppy that never sits still, which makes me want to punch him.”

Sloane peered at his friend. “You want to punch puppies?”

“I’d never punch a puppy. What’s wrong with you? Dex I’d punch.”

“So what’s your point?”

“My point is, before he came along, all you had was the job. I could never get you to fucking relax outside of it. I can’t believe I’m saying this—and I swear if you tell him, I will deny it to my dying breath, and then I will beat the shit out of you. Don’t screw this up, Sloane. Talk to him. He’ll listen to you. The guy practically hangs off your every word.” He tapped the desk and the board to Sloane’s right filled with news articles, all concerning Dex.

Sloane came to stand before the digital board, looking over at various photos of Dex captured by photographers spanning from Detective Walsh’s trial, to the bombing at the youth center. He stepped forward and double tapped the image of his partner and lover emerging from the smoke filled building, his arm slightly forward as if he were reaching for Sloane who was walking ahead of him. The tagline read,
Human agent, Dexter J. Daley saves Therian teammate in the aftermath of tragic events.
Sloane swallowed hard. The irony wasn’t lost on him.

“Talk to him,” Ash insisted, the swish of the doors the only indication Ash had gone, leaving Sloane standing there in the silence of his empty office, staring at pale blue eyes.

“Damn it.” He walked back to his desk and closed the window containing all the articles, leaving the reprimand glaring back at him. His finger hovered over the “Submit” button before he tapped the screen and hit “Delete” instead. It asked him if he was sure and he let out a scoff. “I don’t know what the hell I’m sure about anymore.” Tapping “Yes,” he logged into his partner’s communication device. Dex was in Sparta. Fucking fantastic. This wasn’t going to end badly at all.

He headed down to Sparta, mumbling a greeting to his fellow agents as he searched for Dex. Just his luck, he found his partner in one of the training bays set up for boxing. Dex was down to his snug, black undershirt, his tac pants, and bare feet. He was taking his frustration out on the battered leather bag swaying in front of him, with wraps around his hands instead of gloves. He didn’t bother looking at Sloane when he spoke.

“What? Did you come to grade my performance? I’m not wearing shoes. Have I breached protocol again?”

“You gonna throw a hissy fit every time I have to do my job?” Yep. Not going to end badly at all.

Dex delivered a fierce left hook to the bag, followed by a right. “You weren’t doing your job, you were being a dick.”

Calm. Remain calm.
“There are protocols and you failed to adhere to them.”

“I’m really starting to hate that word,” Dex muttered, delivering another right hook to the bag. “The structure was safe.”

“You don’t know that.” Sloane tried his hardest to summon patience, despite knowing he wouldn’t last much longer, especially with Dex’s punches growing angrier. The sweat dripped down his face, and Dex stopped long enough to swipe the back of his hand across his brow.

“What if it had been Ash or Cael?”

Sloane rounded his shoulders, answering tersely. “My orders would have been the same. You’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment.”

“Well excuse me for having any,” Dex spat out.

That got Sloane’s hackles up. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” Dex turned back to the punching bag, but Sloane wasn’t about to let him off the hook, not with what he was implying.

“It’s too late. It’s out there now, so own up to it.”

“You want me to own up to it? Okay. I know it’s your job not to let things get to you, but sometimes I wonder if you have an off switch. Don’t you get tired of being
the
Sloane Brodie all the fucking time?”

“Is that what you think?” The remark cut deep, but Sloane didn’t want him to see that. At least Dex hesitated, which told Sloane maybe his partner’s words were more out of anger than anything else. Still. He didn’t appreciate the remark.

“Sometimes.” Dex shrugged. “Look, the job is important. Believe me, I know. But you know what? So is family. If it came down between my teammate’s life and my job, fuck the job. They’ll stick some other agent in my place, but my friend, my brother, my dad, will never be replaced.”

“Losing our teammates is the risk we take. That’s why you’re here.” How could he make Dex understand? Surely he’d faced similar situations with his fellow officers at the HPF? Sloane was aware it was slightly different with a team. When one was out of commission, the rest suffered. When one was lost, the rest grieved. They laughed together, cried together, waded through scandal and death, and a river of toxic shit, protecting each other, caring for one another, at times falling in love. But they were also soldiers, officers, defenders for the public. They took an oath to put the citizens of the city before themselves.

“I’m here to prevent loss of life.
Prevent
. Or have you forgotten? And that’s what I did that day. Yes, sometimes a situation will be out of our hands, and lives will be lost, but if I have a choice to do something about it? Guess what I’ll be doing?” Dex went back to punching the bag, and Sloane grabbed his arm.

“Damn it, Dex. Will you look at me when I’m talking to you?”

“Let go of my arm,” Dex warned, his hand curling into a fist at his side.

“Seriously? We’re going to do this?” Sloane nodded and took a step back, motioning for Dex to advance. “All right. Come on. If it’ll get it out of your system, I’ll oblige.”

“Now who’s being patronizing?”

“Why do you have to be so goddamn unreasonable?”

“
I’m
unreasonable, Mr. It’s-your-job-to-do-what-I-say?” Dex’s jaw muscles clenched and he put his hands up. “You know what? Screw this, and screw you.”

Sloane scoffed, his voice a low grumble so only Dex could hear him. “Yeah, you won’t be doing that any time soon.”

“You can be such an asshole.” Dex made the mistake of thrusting his hand out toward Sloane. He might have been going to poke Sloane, or shove his shoulder, but Sloane’s instincts kicked in and he caught Dex’s left wrist, twisting his arm and forcing Dex to double over. The hold didn’t last long, as Dex twisted his body toward Sloane, bringing his right fist with him.

Sloane caught Dex’s fist and swiped his leg out from under him. He stood back, watching Dex push himself off the mat with a frustrated growl. Dex came at him with everything like he did during their training sessions, with the added bonus of being truly pissed off. Sloane wasn’t too proud to admit he had to watch himself. Dex’s skills had improved dramatically since he’d joined, and Sloane could no longer take Dex’s rookie status for granted. The guy was a fast learner, determined, and quick to adapt. He was also frustratingly good at mimicking Sloane’s movements. Sloane reeled backward, getting clipped on the chin by one of Dex’s right hooks. He’d had enough of this.

Dex charged him, and Sloane used his size, weight, and strength to his advantage, grabbing Dex, lifting him off his feet, and slamming him down onto the mat. Then he rolled his partner over, and pulled his arms behind his back. “Calm down.” Sloane swiped a zip tie off his utility belt and looped it over Dex’s wrists, giving it a tug. He got to his feet and took a step back, surprised when Dex started laughing. “What the hell’s so funny?”

With a shake of his head, Dex rolled onto his side and sat up. His expression darkened as he rose. “One, I resent the fact you don’t think I can still kick ass with my hands tied behind my back, and two….” Dex bent over and thrust his arms down. The zip tie snapped and fell to the floor. He swiped it up and tossed it at Sloane’s feet. “I grew up in two cop houses. You think I don’t know how to get myself out of a fucking zip tie? You want me down and out, you’re going to have to do better than that.” Dex stormed off with Sloane staring after him. What in the hell just happened? He snapped himself out of it, the agents around him pretending they hadn’t seen a thing. Well, some of them were pretending.

“What are you all looking at? Get back to your training.” He turned and ran into Ash. “Now you’re babysitting me?”

Ash looked unimpressed. That made two of them. “Maybe I should have explained how talking works.”

With a grunt, Sloane swept past him. “I didn’t realize I was talking to the expert on communication.” To his frustration, Ash followed him out of the training bay, out of Sparta, and into the busy corridor.

“Don’t get pissy with me. You gave him a reprimand, lectured him, and then restrained him? I would have been surprised if he
hadn’t
tried to kick your ass.”

“Ash, go away.”

“Not gonna happen. Didn’t happen when we were kids, ain’t gonna happen now. Get your shit together, bro.” Ash walked off, and Sloane put his hand to the elevator panel. Had someone drugged the water around here? Released some toxic gas into the vents he hadn’t become aware of? How had he ended up the bad guy in all of this, with Ash defending Dex, no less? Had the world gone crazy?

“Screw this.” He had way too much shit to do to go chasing after Dex. His partner needed time to cool off and come around to the fact Sloane was right. In the meantime, he would head to the Recon department and try to get some answers from someone. This whole case wasn’t sitting right with him. Not so much from Isaac’s end. The man was a lunatic bent on vengeance. That Sloane understood.

What he didn’t understand, was why everything was moving so goddamn slow around here. Something was going on, and he had every intention of finding out what it was, with or without Dex.

O
VER
AN
hour later, Sloane was in even more of a foul mood, if that was possible.

According to Recon, Allan’s information from the CDC Therian registration office had come in seconds after the Therian Youth Center bomb went off, meaning it had been put aside, priority falling to the youth center, as it should. Themis had run its algorithms, showing Isaac Pearce had visited the center a few weeks before planting the bomb. He had signed in under a random name, worn a different disguise, and done exactly what he had the second time he’d visited. Sloane’s guess was he’d been casing the joint, doing a test run of sorts. Isaac was smart. He wouldn’t have gone in blind. Themis also found what Isaac had been doing on his tablet. He’d been accessing the registration office’s network and their files, namely Morelli’s.

Sloane stalked toward his office and tapped his earpiece. “Rosa, Morelli’s registration file led Isaac to the Therian Youth Center. Apparently, Morelli had spent some time there when he was a teen. I’m willing to bet he had a file there as well, and Isaac accessed it before he set off the explosion. I want to know what was in that file.”

“I’m on it,” Rosa replied.

Maddock’s voice came over his earpiece. “I want everyone listening to this to meet in briefing room ‘A’ right now. Don’t care what the hell you’re doing, get in here.”

Sloane hurried to the briefing room, his eyes instinctively landing on Dex. Their eyes met before Dex turned away to face the front of the room. Ignoring the jab, Sloane took a seat behind him. He wouldn’t let his partner’s brooding stop him from getting on with his job. The room filled with agents from Beta Pride and Beta Ambush, including Agent Taylor. Although plenty of seats remained empty around the huge semicircle conference table, Taylor decided he was going to sit in front of Dex.