Seth
Stepping outside of the building, he eyed the food truck currently parked across the street one block over near the bank. Should he risk it? The burritos weren’t bad, but seriously, he wasn’t sure what was in the meat.
“Hey, cuz,” Noah called out, jogging to catch up with him.
“Hey.” Seth turned and smiled.
Noah grinned. “Want to grab some lunch?”
“What about Mac?” It was cute as hell how Mac usually came by the office and picked Noah up for lunch each day. He was incredibly happy for his cousin, although a bit envious.
“He’s on a case with Jake down in Santa Maria. I think he’ll be staying down there for the night.”
Noah had told him a few days earlier that Jake was thinking of moving up here. Something to do with the marshal not getting along with his boss.
“Alright, where to?”
“How about we hit that little Asian place that opened down the street,” Noah suggested.
“Sounds good.” Seth grinned, rubbing his stomach. “You drive. I took an Uber to work today.”
The place was a bit crowded, but they were seated in twenty minutes. One of the things he liked about the place was the quick service and hot food.
“I wish we would have known each other growing up,” Seth said a bit wistful. It would have been nice growing up with a cousin.
“Me too. It sounds like we both had a shitty childhood.” Noah’s smile was lopsided.
“Mine wasn’t as crappy as yours, but it wasn’t the best. After my mom split, my dad just lost any semblance of being law abiding. If it wasn’t for Uncle Rossi, I would have headed down that same road.”
“How so?”
He’d never told Noah much about his past. He hadn’t wanted to let something slip. Now, though, he told his cousin about his involvement with the hacker side of things and how Rossi had wiped his record. “He basically picked me up and took me home. After a few weeks, he called someone, I think it was the chief or maybe Stefano, and before I knew it, I was part of the team.”
“So he rescued you around the same time I was contacted by Stefano to join Phoenix.”
“Yeah.”
“For some reason, I thought you came after I did.”
“I was around a bit before you, just not part of the team yet,” Seth explained.
“It seems odd that my dad has such close ties to Stefano, but they don’t work together.”
“That is odd.” Seth nodded, not daring to say the words. Instead, he took a bite of his spicy chicken.
Noah, on the other hand, had no problem with saying it. “I think my dad is the chief.”
“I do too.” Seth laughed in relief.
“It makes sense.”
“It does. And you can see why he can never tell us or anyone.”
“Yeah, it would make him even more vulnerable. Plus, now he’s been pulled into another situation, whatever the hell that means,” Noah added.
Seth agreed. If their enemies found out Rossi was the chief, the whole unit would be a target. Seth shuddered to think what would happen if Yakov found out. The man would definitely focus all of his might directly at the unit. If Yakov came after the team, the kingpin would surely die, but some of Phoenix would fall in the process. Both sides lose during war. He swallowed on a suddenly dry throat just thinking of something happening to his brothers-in-arms.
“If my dad is the chief, Stefano sure can keep a secret.”
“I always thought your dad and Stefano were lovers.” He cringed slightly. There went his mouth. “Gah, sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Noah laughed. “I thought that once too, but I’ve never seen them do anything remotely romantic.”
“Me either. It’s just that sometimes Stefano looks at your dad like he loves him.”
“They are close friends. I think since boyhood. I’m not sure,” Noah responded around a bite of food.
“Tell me about your mother, you know, since mine got the shittiest award. I can live through you.” Seth smiled. He wanted to hear about Noah’s happy times.
“She was beautiful. Smart. She had a way with words, but was quiet and read a lot. She taught me German, English, and Italian by the time I was eleven years old. And I picked up Spanish when I was fifteen. Then Russian, French…” His cousin trailed off, suddenly looking sheepish.
“Holy shit, you never told me that. I knew you were a language genius, but damn…three by eleven?” Seth could only imagine being that smart.
“I’m not a genius. Languages just came easy to me. Kind of like you and computers.”
“Pfft.” He shook his head. “I’m not a big deal.”
“Hey, don’t do that. Don’t sell yourself short. I heard that you were part of a hacker team that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”
“I was, but that’s nothing to brag about.” Thankfully, the FBI never discovered he had worked for Tech Suppress.
“What’s the riskiest thing you ever did?”
“Hacked into the sheriff’s database,” he smirked.
“No shit?” Noah’s eyebrows lifted.
“Yeah, your dad lectured me for days.” Seth grinned.
“How’d he catch you?”
“I hacked it from his computer.”
Noah laughed loudly and a few people glanced their way. “Your life of crime,” his cousin teased him.
“Yeah, that’s me.” Seth took a bite of rice and then poked at a piece of chicken. “Thankfully, I didn’t end up like my old man.”
“You said you did jobs for this Starr guy?” His cousin’s voice changed, becoming quieter and filled with concern.
“Yeah. I worked for Starr while also trying to keep Eddie happy.”
“Who’s Eddie?”
“Eddie was the head of Tech Suppress. I was fourteen when Eddie had me tweak electronics so he and his crew could break into the cars and drive them away,” Seth said, taking a bite and chewing it slowly. “I was fifteen when I started working for my dad and Starr.”
“You did jobs for this Eddie guy and Starr at the same time?” Noah’s eyebrows lifted.
“Yeah, it wasn’t that hard. With Starr, I only had to hack the surveillance.” Seth pushed away his empty plate. “Starr went to ground after my dad went to prison.”
“Social services didn’t pick you up?”
“Nope. My dad’s girlfriend at the time, Lucy, lived at the house.” Seth slurped the last of his soda through the straw in his cup. “They thought she was my mom and left me behind. She couldn’t pay the rent on the place and split a week or so later.” He scowled, remembering how empty the house had felt. “I just worked for Eddie after that.”
“Damn,” Noah said, shaking his head.
“It wasn’t so bad,” Seth lied. When in reality, it had been one of the lowest points in his life. “I crashed on his couch and I got pizza almost every night.” He wasn’t going to reminisce about how scared he’d been back then.
Noah laughed just like Seth planned. His cousin must have sensed he didn’t really want to talk about his old life any further, at least not for today, and changed the subject. “How surreal is it that Terrance Manning, Viktor, and Yakov are related?” Noah asked softly.
Seth made a face. “It’s crazy. And that guy, Belton Gibson, is their freaking family.”
“Yeah.” Noah’s gaze turned hard.
“Did Manning ever let on that Gibson was his nephew?” Seth asked curiously.
“It’s there now. Thinking back, I can see the signs. But back then, I just thought Manning was showing favoritism to anyone who wasn’t me,” Noah clipped out, and Seth’s heart hurt for his cousin.
“I’m so fucking glad he’s dead.” Seth clenched his fists.
Noah gave a half-smile. “Me too.”
“So grateful for Storm,” Seth added.
“Don’t tell him I said this, but I was never more thankful in my life than I was to see Storm on that day.”
“Me too,” Seth agreed with a smile. Storm had been the one to take the shot that had killed Terrance Manning, finally ending the psychopath’s reign of terror.
Seth’s eyes burned and he squeezed his cousin’s hand tightly. They took a longer lunch than normal just getting to know each other. Oh, they knew a lot about each other, having been friends for years, but it felt different knowing they were cousins.
“So…” Noah cautiously began while driving them back to work. “You and Frost, huh?”
Seth made a face. “I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
Noah laughed at him. “Love usually is.”
“I wouldn’t call it love,” Seth admitted sadly.
“What? Why not?”
“Asher is gun shy. He has this whole player facade and he won’t share why he keeps his distance. I mean, I can see he wants to let me in. I see it in the way he looks at me or the way he touches me, but then his mouth and head take over and it all goes to shit.”
“I suspected something between you two in Switzerland.”
“Yeah, we hooked up in Russia and a few times afterward,” Seth admitted.
“Ah, I see.”
Seth ran a hand over the light stubble on his jaw and then rubbed his pant legs. “I thought, wow… here I go, back into another relationship so soon after Dennis.” He looked out the window and deeply sighed. “It just seems so right with Asher…”
“But?”
“But that’s not what he wants,” he mumbled.
“What does he want?”
“That is exactly what I’m going to find out tonight,” Seth answered with a decisive nod. He’d had enough of Asher’s hot and cold treatment. Tonight, he was getting some answers.