“You quit, remember?” The other man took a step toward him. “There was no justification to read you in on an active case.”
“Yet here you are.” Adrian threw his hands out to the side. “I mean, you’re telling us all now, right? So why the fuck couldn’t you have given me a heads up when youfirstfound out about all this shit?”
“Seems he’s pretty good at keeping important shit a secret.” Gabe’s gaze narrowed as he stared Ryker down. “Especially from those of us who put our asses on the line for him.”
“Oh, spare me the high-horse routine,” Ryker defended himself. “What we do relies on discretion and secrets. You all know this. Hell, the only reason I’m telling you about Matais now is becausehebrought you into all this shit when he sent you his father’s ring.”
“Really?” Adrian got so close to the other man, their noses damn near touched. “So the fact that an innocent woman’slifeis at stake has nothing to do with it?”
“Of course, it does. And we’re going to get Jenna back, but we have to go through the right channels. We can’t just barge into his last known location without any sort of plan or backup. That’s why I—”
“Fuckyou, Jason.” Adrian refused to listen to any more excuses. “And fuck your government agency bullshit.”
Ryker opened his mouth to continue the argument, but Nate chose that moment to interject.
“I hate to break up this little love fest”—Nate interjected—“but…is it just me, or have we seen this episode once before?”
With his hand raised as if he were a kid in a classroom, he looked around the room for a response.
No one answered, but Kole did a piss poor job of covering up his smirk. One of the other guys—Adrian wasn’t sure who—chuckled under his breath.
Nate wasn’t wrong. The scenewasa hell of a lot like the one that played out between Gabe and Ryker a few months back.
Still, this wasn’t the time or place for jokes, and Adrian felt the need to convey that message loud and clear.
Spinning his rage-filled gaze toward the other man he said, “You think this is funny, Carter?”
“No, actually.” Nate stared back at him with no sign of amusement. “I don’t think it’s funny at all. But Idothink standing here arguing about who should’ve told who what, is a pointless waste of time. Time you, yourself, said we don’t have.”
Damn. The tech nerd was right.
Swallowing his anger, Adrian turned back to Ryker. He started to ask him for Ortiz’s LKA when the burner phone that had been left for him dinged.
“Holy shit.” Nate grabbed the phone from the table where he was sitting. His eyes rose from the screen to meet Adrian’s. “You just got a text.”
About fucking time.
He plodded over to the table and snatched the phone from the other guy’s hand. Tapping the screen, Adrian held his breath and opened the text. Only it wasn’t actually a text.
It was a picture.
“No.” The image before him blurred from the red haze filling his vision.
Baby, no!
The other men gathered around the phone to see what had him so upset, but Adrian didn’t notice them.
All he could see was Jenna.
She was in a chair, her wrist and ankles bound to it by thick rope. Her long, gorgeous hair was disheveled and there were bruises and dried blood on her beautiful face.
Someone had hit her. More than once, by the looks of it.
“Motherfucker,” Gabe lashed out from behind him.
The phone shook in Adrian’s fist. His murderous gaze rose to meet Ryker’s. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to find him and make what I did to his father look like a goddamn cake walk. Then I’m going to fuckingkillhim!”
Ryker yanked the phone from his hand and handed it to Nate. “See if you can run a trace on that picture.”