Battle It Out

the cell from the holder and punched in the location.
“Sergeant Archer Hall,” Holden said. “Lives in a nicer part of town. It’s an apartment building.”
Zane shoved the jeep into drive and pulled out onto the road.
“What do you think Liam wants with these guys?”
“Diesel, Elijah, and Wolf all left the unit. They were here before you. Now Dillon is set to retire. We were four men down before you. It makes sense the colonel is looking for new recruits.”
After the fiasco with Brewster, Liam had called a halt to the testing, but he left that part unsaid.
“How the hell did that guy end up on the list for Infinity?” Holden pointed a thumb over his shoulder back in the direction of Greene’s place.
“Alcoholism isn’t choosy,” he said, punching the gas to catch up to Isaac’s SUV.
“True that,” Holden sighed. “But don’t most commanders choose these guys themselves?”
He’d bet his left nut that the colonel had already vetted these guys and this was Liam’s way of letting them get a feel for the new recruits.
“Colonel Cobalt isn’t most commanders,” he said instead.
“No, no he isn’t.” Holden rubbed at his chin.
“Relax, if he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t have given you shit.”
Holden snorted. “If he didn’t like me, I wouldn’t be in the unit.”
Zane smirked and took the onramp to the freeway, keeping Isaac’s SUV in sight.
“So, he must like these guys?” Holden flicked the paper.
“Maybe.”

Isaac
He pulled over when he spotted a diner off the freeway and parked in the lot. Zane pulled up a few spots over.
“Wait here,” he told Pia and Blade before sliding out of the vehicle.
He approached Zane’s jeep. He hated the tension between them.
Hazel eyes stared at him, looking him over, and he steeled himself against smiling. Shoving back his irritation with what had happened back at the house, he kept his expression neutral.
“Lost?” Zane grumbled.
“Why? You offering me a ride?” He groaned at the suggestiveness in his tone.
“No.” Zane’s frown deepened.
Clearing his throat, he stepped closer to the open window. Zane’s woodsy aftershave drifted on the air.
Zane shifted in his seat, squeezed the steering wheel, and turned his face to the windshield.
“Sergeant Hill’s apartment is forty-five minutes from here. I thought you two might want to ride with us.”
“No thanks, we’re good,” Zane grunted, still staring out the windshield.
What the fuck? Zane acted like their issues were all his fucking fault. Okay, asshole, have it your way. Resisting the urge to yank Zane from the jeep and plant his fist in the sexy fucker’s face, he clenched his teeth.
“Fine.” He spun and hurried back to the SUV, humiliation stiffening his spine. See what I get for being nice? That’s it then.
Zane made it very clear how he’d felt about being around him. Well then, fuck him. How that was going to affect them in the field was anyone’s guess. He’d have to talk to Maddox and see what could be done. Perhaps he could pair up with Dillon or Holden.
“They’re not coming?” Blade asked from the back seat.
“Nah, guess they need more room,” Pia responded, tossing him a worried look.
He ignored her, and she turned her attention to Blade.
He tore off down the freeway and managed to stay five miles over the speed limit.
Pia and Blade started discussing the newest recruits, and he tuned them out. His mind was on Zane.
Things were so different now. Way different than how they’d been before. Before the safe house, they’d been in sync. They watched the same shows on TV, they were never at a loss for conversation, he’d taken to teasing Zane nonstop as usual, but something changed that last night. Something that he now knew was all in his head. For a brief second, he’d imagined he’d seen desire on Zane’s face. The air had sizzled and crackled between them, but then Zane had turned away, shutting him out, and it had hurt like hell. He’d known then that he couldn’t face Zane until he got his own emotions under control, so he’d taken off like a coward the next morning and left a note.
The guy’s straight. How many times does he need to tell you that?
“Don’t miss the exit.” Pia’s voice dragged him from the past and he flipped on his blinker and got off just in time.
Sergeant Archer Hall’s apartment complex sat in a nice part of Glendale. He, Pia, and Blade met up with Zane and Holden at the front entrance. He kept his gaze averted.
The noise and screaming rushed to meet them the minute they opened the apartment building’s outer door, and he pulled his weapon when two women and a young teenager ran down the stairs.
“He’s going to kill them!” the woman cried.
“Who?”
“Some man!”
He frowned and started up the stairs.
“What apartment?” Zane shouted on his six, weapon pulled.
“312!”
“You two, take the elevator,” Zane told Pia and Blade. “The rest of us will take the stairs.”
“Roger that.” They hastily put in their earpieces and split up.
They came across a man crouched in the stairwell aiming his gun up the stairs.
“Sergeant Archer Hall?” He recognized the man from the file.
“Yeah?” Archer tossed him a scowling look. The guy had a beanie pulled down over his hair, but tendrils of dark escaped. The hard planes of his face and stubbled jaw were made even harder by the frown the man wore. His eyes were piercing, looking black in the stairwell, before they cut away from him and over to Zane and Holden.
“I’m Master Sergeant Gannon,” Zane said, taking the lead. “This is Sergeant Thorne and Wreck. What’s going on?”
“The fucker is here to get his two kids back, that’s what’s going on.”
The bang of a gunshot echoed and Archer lunged up the stairs.
“Kids?” He charged after Archer not waiting for Zane.
“Isaac,” Zane hissed.
He paused at the order and impatiently waited until Zane and Holden were on his ass.
“Elevator’s secure,” Pia reported.
“Keep it clear. Isaac, Holden, and I are going up with Archer,” Zane ordered Pia.
Isaac started up first, it