16 Who Volunteered Him for a Stakeout? Oh yeah, Linus

Wren must have been a serial killer in a previously life because that’s the only reason he’d be stuck with Little and Joker in a cramped surveillance van. Linus was going to pay for this one. Why couldn’t they have put him with Ghost? The man was an absolute sweetheart and sane, main thing Ghost was sane.

The other two men were having a glaring contest. Little had cracked jokes since they’d gotten into the van two hours ago and drove out to the outskirts of Thorpe’s farm.

He should’ve known better when Linus asked him for a favor.

Little was relaxed into a threadbare recliner with his ankles crossed like it was just any other day. Joker was in the opposite corner pretending to read a book. He grabbed his phone from the console that held all of Little’s monitors and gadgets. He unlocked his phone and pulled up the message thread between him, Hunter, and Linus. They shared separate texts between them, but the one they used most was the one between all three of them.

Wren: I’m going to kill you for this.

Hunter: What did I do?

Wren: NOT YOU!

Hunter: Why is Linus laughing? It’s scary.

Wren snorted loudly and glanced around to find Joker and Little staring at him.

“Boyfriends,” Little asked.

“Yeah.”

It was still weird everyone seemed to accept the three of them without batting a lash. It shouldn’t have been though, Scary, Elijah, and Tank made it look easy. Over the last month, he’d spent a lot of time with the Crews, and it was surreal. He had never met a tighter group of friends or relationships as strong. He would admit before he’d met the Crews and he had only observed from the shadows that he was jealous.

“Linus is solid. He’s the dude to have in your corner.”

Joker grunted in what he assumed was an affirmation. The man didn’t talk much. He’d heard plenty of rumors around town about Joker’s past. Even if half of it were true, then Joker had walked through Hell without a lot of sanity left.

“Figured that out pretty quick. He did send y’all out to take multiple bullets for his team.”

“Ah, that’s nothing, ask him about the time he almost lost a kidney when a jumper tried to knife me in the back. Linus didn’t go down until he had the fucker in cuffs.”

Great, another Linus almost died story, he was hearing too many of them. The man needed a keeper.

His phone beeped.

Linus: Not having fun?

Wren: I’m waiting for them to attack each other.

Linus: Prelude to porno?

Wren grimaced.

Wren: I hope the hell not!

Linus: That would be an anger bang for the ages.

Hunter: I don’t wanna see Little’s naked ass!

Wren: I don’t either. Don’t expect a yes the next time you ask me for a favor.

 Linus: Is Little and Joker reeking of weed and incense?

Wren: Not my business!

Of course, his boyfriends would belong to a Crew where things like laws were bendable or easily ignored. He was going to have to learn to ignore more than half of what his new friends and family said or did.

His phone chimed, and he opened the media message to find a picture of Linus and Hunter spooning on the couch shirtless and smiling. He smiled and did the stupidest thing he had ever done, he stroked the screen with his thumb. They’d spent every free minute together since Linus came home from the hospital. It was odd to be away from them.

Hot breath fanned his neck and swore he was a deep breath away from a contact high. He swatted Little away, and then Joker looked over his other shoulder.

“You got a thing for Furries, man, because that’s a lot of fucking hair. Total hairball waiting to happen, shit,” Little said and shook his head, the man’s unkempt beard brushed his neck.

He leaned to the side to get away only to bump Joker’s cheek.

“Personal space, bastards.”

“Dude, you got two men, ain’t nothing personal about your…space.”

Great, now Joker had jokes…and bad ones at that.

“Aren’t you two supposed to be watching the monitors?”

“Don’t want to share sexting with the boyfriends, come on, be a friend, neither of us is getting any, we live vicariously through everyone else.”

He cracked a smile at Little’s pouting. The rumors were Little got more than the whole Crew’s share of partners. Joker didn’t even look at anyone unless it was to scowl or threaten violence.

“Well, you’re not living vicariously through me.”

With all the shit going down with Thorpe and everything else, him and his men hadn’t had a lot of time for the sex part of their relationship. It might sound strange, but he liked that even at the beginning it wasn’t reduced to just sex.

They grumbled and moved back to their respective posts.

Wren: You’re going to pay for this.

He hit send and set his phone aside, when it beeped twice he ignored it and stared at the monitors. Lights illuminated the infrared cameras.

“We got movement,” he said.

Little bounced out of his recliner and bent over, his fingers flying over the keyboard, then used the joystick to zoom in. Three semis pulled up to one of the three barns and parked. A Kevlar vest slapped him on the chest, and he turned his head to look at Joker.

“Wear it.”

The order in Joker’s voice was clear, and he wasn’t going to argue. He slipped it over his head and secured the Velcro straps.

“Shit, eight of them, all heavily armed. Boss, you read me?”

Linus' voice came over the earpiece Little shoved at him earlier.

“Go head.”

“Sound a little breathless there, boss.”

“Head in the game, Little, or I’ll hide your van.”

“No need to be mean.”

“What’s the situation?”

“Eight heavily armed men, Thorpe and Cabot are on site—”

“I think it’s about to get ugly,” he said.

One of the new arrivals was in the lead and by his body language, he was the man in charge. Thorpe was in the man’s face. Cabot had his hand on his sidearm as Thorpe gesticulated wildly.

“Standby, boss.”

He watched Little's usual mischievous expression disappear as the man studied the situation. The swiftness of the change made him do a double-take.

“Boss, permission to go with the retrieval mission?”

Retrieval mission—that didn't sound good or legal. It’s a good thing he didn’t particularly like his job. He knew Linus was short staffed, maybe he could get a job after he got out of prison. Linus already hired the least law-abiding Crew. He’d fit right in.

“You're good to go, but if my man even gets a scratch, you're dead.”

“You can kiss all his boo-boos when he gets home.”

“Do as I say, or your van takes a trip to the scrapyard.”

“Don't threaten my baby!”

“Then you better keep him safe, or your body will still be in the van when I crush it.”

Wren couldn’t help his smile at Linus threatening to kill someone over him. He shook his head as he realized what he’d thought. Yeah, he fitted in too well.

“I hear ya loud and clear.”

“Wren, keep your head down, wear your fucking vest, and don’t disobey me or I’ll redden your fucking ass so quick you won’t know what fucking happened. Understand?”

“Linus, quit threatening Wren.”

Wren laughed at Hunter’s chiding tone.

“Let’s get this over with so I can get home to my men,” he announced.

“Damn right, everyone stay in contact at all times. I want check-ins every five minutes. Retrieval should be an in and out OP. I’ll have a safe house arranged in thirty. Got it?”

There was something damn sexy about the authority in Linus’ voice. This wasn’t the time for a hard-on especially when he was sure in a few minutes he’d break several laws.

“Got it,” they all answered.

Little crouched down. “This is what we’re going to do. Joker, I need your eyes on Thorpe at all times. Alert us to any movement. Wren, you’re going to be on my six. I disabled the motion sensors on the south side of the house. We stick to the shadows. We go quick. We go quiet. You stay on my heels.”

“I’ve done raids a time or two, Little.”

“I’m sure, but this isn’t official.”

Little lifted his arm and killed the lights, then checked his weapon. He heard the click of the safety and the smooth slide of metal against metal as Little chambered the first round.

The van door slid open and let in the dim moonlight. He followed Little and was amazed how silent the normally loquacious, brute could be when he was on point. He pulled his gun from his holster and deftly held it in his hands. He stayed on the burly man’s heels, checking his six as they made their way through a thick tree line.

A large two-story farmhouse came into view.

“Check in,” Linus’ gruff voice filled his head.

“House in sight,” Little answered.

Joker snorted and then spoke up, “Thorpe’s asking for an ass whooping.”

“As long as he’s distracted,” he said.

“We’re going silent.”

They quietly jogged across the yard and when they reached it, turned and pressed their backs to the siding.

“Derrick and Craig’s rooms are on the first floor,” Little whispered.

He nodded, and they hugged the wall until they reached a dimly lit window. He watched Little peek into the window. He nearly punched Little when the man tapped on the window.

“What the—”

The window creaked as it was opened. “Little? What are you doing here?”

A shot rang out, someone screamed, and men bellowed. The skinny boy with the small voice widened his eyes. The boy froze.

“Hey, Derrick. I need you to get Craig.”

“What’s going—”

“I’ll explain later, we got no time now. Get your ass moving.”

From that moment, chaos reigned. Hours seemed to pass as they waited for Derrick to reappear. A chunky bundle was lifted out of the window. He holstered his weapon as he was suddenly in possession of a sleeping toddler. Little helped Derrick to the ground.

“Derrick, you’re going to be on me, keep your fingers in my belt loop and don’t look back. Wren has Craig.”

He waited for the teenager to lose his shit, but all the boy did was nod. They headed deeper into the shadows, and the trip was a little longer getting back to the van.

More shouting and cursing echoed through the silence of the night, and he chanced a look to find that whatever happened was breaking up. Thorpe was on his ass in the dirt. Cabot had his gun trained on the guy who seemed to be in charge.

“Joker, we’re two minutes out.”’

Tiny whimpers drew his attention to the baby powder scented bundle in his arms, and he adjusted the kid. He breathed a sigh of relief as the faint outline of the black van came into view, and the door slid open. Joker grabbed Derrick’s arm and tugged him inside. The man tried to take Craig.

“I got him. Let’s get out of here.”

Little was already in the driver’s seat. Derrick was curled into a ball behind it. The faint light of the monitors highlighted terrified features.

“Boss, we’re out. Where we headed?”

“The office, we’ll arrange transport when y’all get there.”

He didn’t know how sound of an idea that was, but he wasn’t going to question it. Their luck held out so far; he hoped it continued to do so. When they were far enough away, he reached up to turn on the dim overhead light. He lowered his hand to push the blanket away from the toddler’s face. Anger stole through him at the hand print bruise on the cute, chubby cheek.

“Craig has an ear infection, and he wouldn’t stop crying. Dad didn’t like it.”

He turned his head to stare at Derrick and noticed the fingertip black and blue marks just showing from under his short sleeves. The kid was almost delicate and didn’t look like he had enough meals. He faintly remembered seeing the kid around town, but nothing more than that.

“You hungry?”

Derrick’s pale face turned red, and he answered, “Yes, sir.”

“Name’s Wren. When we get home, I’ll see what we have. Did you bring medicine or anything for Craig?”

“I packed a quick bag and made sure it was in there.”

“Okay, just lay your head back, and we’ll be somewhere safe soon, okay?”

Derrick simply nodded and closed his eyes.

He placed his hand on Craig’s forehead and pushed back the baby’s soft blond hair. Craig had the cutest little button nose and chubbiest cheeks he’d ever seen. He hadn’t spent much time around children, but this had to be the cutest one.

He’d worry about the fact he’d become an accessory to kidnapping later. Getting the kids safe was more important. He was going to need to find a new job after this.