Mighty Men with Weapons (18 page)

145

“We’ll call it a night,” Nate said. “Let’s go inside and relax.

Whoever is in charge here will get word back to Shoemaker soon enough. We’ll try again tomorrow. By tomorrow night, Shoemaker will surface.”

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146

Addison Avery

“Admiral Shoemaker?”

“Yes?”

“It’s confirmed. The fourth man on the island is a fellow by the name of Darby Winslow.”

The admiral gulped. “Darby?” He feared as much. He only just hung up the phone from the mental facility. Darby was AWOL and had been for several days. He had the resources and the connections to find out Donovan’s precise whereabouts.

“Yes, sir. Do you know him?”

“Yes, he’s my...” he stopped mid-sentence. How could he admit to another ISO that Darby was his son when he wasn’t sure what he witnessed or what their surveillance uncovered?

“He’s your what, sir?”

“He trained under me,” he snapped.

“Do we leave him alive?”

The admiral felt his jaw tighten. If the ISOs remaining there witnessed the kind of crude behavior he suspected, then how could he order the deaths of three and protect one?

“Sir?”

“Yes, leave him alone,” the admiral said. “There’s more to this than meets the eye, and Winslow doesn’t need involvement.”

“He’s involved all right,” the ISO continued. “He’s staying with the other three.”

Bellowing, the admiral said, “Leave him be! Do you hear me? His family has political clout, and the last thing I need is Darby Winslow dead.”

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Mighty Men With Weapons

147

Slamming the phone down, he squeezed his eyes shut. Yes, the last thing he needed was his only son dead because of the frantic mess his new team was making out of a mission impossible to complete.

* * * *

After Nate decided they would stick together until the mission was over, everyone ate the island buffet dinner. They each packed their bodies with more ammunition and weapons than they probably ever carried in their lives.

Colby considered the trip to the restaurant a wasted one. No one ate more than a few bites, and the sexual tension growing between all of them, especially Darby and Donovan, reminded him of another recent reunion, the one he enjoyed with Nate in Mangaia.

They each took the steps two at a time when they returned to their accommodations. Colby noticed the awkward silence when they waited in the front room while Nate checked the bedrooms. When he finished, he came back, took Colby by the hand and simply said,

“Goodnight. We’ll see you two in the morning.”

The activities found in the depths of darkness were set to unfold.

The pairings definite, there wasn’t a reason to second guess what each man had on his mind or what he wanted to share with whom.

Following Nate into the bedroom, Colby said, “You do trust him now, don’t you?”

“I trust you,” Nate said, kicking off his shoes and stripping.

Colby stepped out of his shoes and removed his button-down shirt. He didn’t take off his pants but instead sat behind Nate. Colby’s hands went to his shoulders, and he massaged Nate’s back, running his palms in a circular motion over his shoulder blades and then squeezing and releasing his neck.

“You’re gonna have to let go of the guilt sooner or later, Nate,” he whispered.

“Hell, she just died, Colby.”

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148

Addison Avery

“I know,” he said. “But I’m not just talking about Karen. I’m talking about me and you. I’m talking about your parents.”

“Shut up about my parents. What happened to them was a long time ago. I don’t even remember what they looked like now.”

Colby sighed. Right after Nate rescued him in Afghanistan, he fell sick with fever. He talked about his parents, why he never discussed them. They met their demise in a horrific house fire said to have been started by an experienced arsonist.

Only ten then, Nate fled the house and never thought to try and save his parents. He survived only because of his need for self-preservation. Colby later researched that house fire and knew beyond reasonable doubt if Nate returned to the blaze in hopes of finding his parents and saving them, he would’ve been unsuccessful. His discovery was one he chose not to share with Nate, until now.

Taking a deep breath, he dropped his arms over his back and pulled him against him. With his back against the headboard, he said,

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” Nate asked, glancing up.

“I..it...” he stuttered out of fear. He knew Nate wouldn’t want him prying into his past. “After Afghanistan...after we went our separate ways, I...had a hard time with it. I...”

Nate faced him. “Colby, we’re together now. That’s what matters.”

“No, Nate. What matters is that you know how important you are to me. I need you to know I only snooped into your business because I love you.”

Nate’s eyes held a peculiar gaze, the hazy stare of a madman ready to explode into a fit of rage. “What do you mean you snooped?”

Colby framed his face, and Nate gripped his wrists. Colby refused to let Nate push him away. He held him tighter. “I did some research on the fire. I talked to older officers who worked the case in Philly.

The fire wasn’t one you would have survived if you had gone back inside and tried to save your parents.”

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149

Nate continued to stare at him without expression.

“Nate, someone with experience set the fire, an assassin perhaps.

It was started in their bedroom, on their bed. By the time the fumes set off the smoke detectors in the hallway, your parents were already gone.”

Nate’s eyes filled with tears then. The little boy still living behind the eyes of a man threatened to resurface, and all of those hidden emotions were on the verge of release.

“Nate, you have to let this go now, for yourself and for us. There wasn’t anything you could do, just like you couldn’t have done anything for Karen. She was closest to Donovan when the gunfire started. You couldn’t have gotten to her without risking yourself or me.”

“I could’ve taken that risk,” he said curtly.

Nate and Colby were so lost in their conversation, they didn’t hear Donovan and Darby when they entered the room. Darby said, “Yes, you could have, Nate. But why would you?”

“Give us a minute here,” Nate hissed. The news Colby just delivered was still settling in his mind, and acceptance was hardly close enough to ensure Colby wouldn’t endure some measure of Nate's wrath.

Donovan said, “Nate, Darby has something to tell you.”

“Out!” Nate bellowed.

“No,” Darby said, fast approaching the mattress. “Karen would’ve turned on you, Nate, and I’m sure of it. She was working for a new ISO organization out of Canada. She would’ve turned.”

“She cared about me,” Nate said, flashing Donovan a cold stare.

“She cared about all of us in the end.”

“She may have, but the group in Canada developed a strong force of women. Some of them are so ruthless they’ve even married their targets and later killed them when their spouses were no longer needed by the organization.”

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150

Addison Avery

“That’s a lie!” Nate said, turning on Darby and shooting Donovan an accusatory glare.

Colby shook his head. “Right now isn’t the best time.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Donovan said, touching Nate’s knee when he sat next to him. “You and Colby have something real, Nate. Don’t blow it by harboring guilt for a woman you really didn’t know at all.”

“I’m not,” he growled, staring at Donovan’s mouth. “There’s more to what Colby and I were discussing than Karen.”

Yes, and Colby was just as irritated by the interruption. He was about to press Nate for a commitment. When the mission was over, he wanted them to start building a life together, one sure to include the home Nate once feared he’d never have.

Donovan said, “She was working you. She worked all of us.”

Nate’s eyes flashed with sudden recognition. Oh God, Colby thought. Surely to heaven and back Donovan didn’t kill her.

He didn’t ask. Nate didn’t ask. Donovan never said. Darby acted as if he didn’t care one way or the other. But God help them all if Donovan killed her. Nate would see him straight to the gates of hell if he killed the woman he had started to care for, possibly even loved.

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Nate wanted revenge. He craved the taste of death as much as he craved sex with the men sprawled on the bed next to him.

What he longed for most was compassion, and what he felt when he held Karen in his arms was as close to sated need as he’d ever experienced. He watched Donovan take the first kiss, and he wondered, God help him, what secrets Donovan Collier coveted more than his life.

Darby slid closer to Donovan. Their mouths met and retreated.

The nipping kisses of two familiar lovers lost in the unfamiliar balance of weighing in the decision to bring in additional partners waiting to join them. Darby reached for Colby’s cock, and Nate’s gaze drifted down Colby’s body.

Slowly, almost diabolically, Darby pumped Colby’s cock, kissing Donovan deeper. Nate heard the longing, the guttural growls of a man waiting to come. Excitement loomed, spinning out in the darkness and calling to the wild nature, the explicit side of the men participating.

Nate cupped Colby’s neck and pulled him forward. His lips claimed Colby's. Colby accepted his kiss, allowing him to lead and follow, returning the affectionate kiss with an open mouth and greedy tongue.

Donovan shifted, and when he did, Darby lost his grip around Colby’s cock, and Nate took Colby’s body for his own, dropping his open palm over the rough, swollen ridges and pumping his size through a closed fist with a fervent tug.

Donovan and Darby necked. They groped. God help him, they fondled one another with such enthusiasm, Nate longed to join them.

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152

Addison Avery

“I’ll come,” Colby warned, backing away, and reaching for the condoms Donovan strategically placed bedside when he stripped away his clothes.

“Then come,” Darby said, grinning, dropping his mouth over Donovan’s cock and sticking his finger into the lubricant found bedside as well.

Donovan’s mouth opened wide, and a sigh fell from his lips, heavy and filled with pleasure as he rejoined the lover he so obviously cared about, a man who seemed willing to do everything in his power to please him. Donovan changed positions, standing next to the bed and bracing himself. He placed his palms on Darby’s back.

Nate and Colby were on their sides, their heads at opposite ends of the bed. Nate’s cock lingered at Colby’s lips, and he sucked the tip, the slit luring his tongue. Nate captured Colby’s cock and sucked too.

He took Colby to his throat, and he gulped when his reflexes damn near failed him, sipping at a stalk he wanted slivering down his throat.

Colby’s hips jerked. He pounded into Nate's throat, and Nate released him. “Not yet,” he growled, pushing his own dick forward and relishing the spongy texture found in Colby’s ready tongue.

Darby ate Donovan with greed and true hunger, months of separation must have left him famished. If Nate wanted inspiration, the delightful sounds of blowjobs, provided enough. Donovan fisted the base of his own cock and eyed Nate. Nodding, as if in understanding, the men locked gazes meant only for the truest of lovers to hold.

Nate reached behind Colby’s back and drew him closer, mashing his own mouth against the head of Colby’s cock and sucking long and hard, good and deep. Colby groaned, and the sensation threatened Nate’s control.

He moved away from Colby then and pulled him up by his thick arms. Donovan followed his lead, backing away from the bed and motioning for Nate.

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Nate shook his head once and then moved to the bedside, hungry for a taste of Donovan, but just as excited to shove his cock high in Colby’s ass, the one love for whom he felt the most certainty.

“Come here, Colby.”

An obedient lover, a precious man, Colby leaned across the mattress, positioned right in front of Nate’s dick. Nate cupped his ass, spreading his cheeks with a hard grip, clutching the firm globes of a shapely bottom.

Colby cried out when Nate’s fingers and thumbs caressed his crack with a glob of cool, slick gel. “Don’t wait,” Colby mumbled.

Simultaneously, Donovan prepared Darby. He fisted his cock and slid inside Darby’s ass right when Colby raised his hips and accepted Nate’s dick like a gift.

“Good God, Colby,” Nate sighed, grinning at Donovan.

Their dicks parted the cheeks of willing participants, dutiful lovers. Nate watched as Colby reached for Darby. His hand twisted around Darby’s thick shaft, and he pulled for semen, for the release Darby deserved to find as much as anyone.

Darby, in turn, humped forward and back. Donovan stared at Nate and slapped Darby’s ass. “Squeeze, baby. Hold on.”

Nate placed his palms on Colby’s hips and fucked him raw. With unadulterated passion and desire, he plunged into forbidden territory, crossing as many barriers as his body opened up to welcome. “That’s it. I’m coming.”