Page 16 of Alpha Awakened

Hazard went over, kicked the gun away from the now dead body and checked the wall to make sure there weren’t any more surprises hiding inside. The space was empty.

Ice hadn’t even flinched while all of that went down. And he didn’t once take his attention off of the two he had on the ground, leaving the enemy at his back for Hazard to deal with. Hazard couldn’t help but feel honored that the captain trusted him to handle it on his own.

“Clear?” he asked calmly.

“Clear,” Hazard confirmed.

Soon after that, a couple of soldiers from the support team came in and collected the two women. Their job finished, the 448 walked out of the mansion. Hazard trailed behind Ice until they reached the drive. They stood in front of the mansion, waiting for their transport vehicle to arrive. Hazard looked up at the captain.

“Told ya I had your six,” he said with a cheeky smile.

“Hmm.”

Hazard sighed at that lackluster response. “Can I get even a crumb of praise from you?”

“If you need praise for doing your job, you’re in the wrong profession,” Ice gruffly said.

“Nah, I don’t need it. Just wondered what it sounded like coming from you. Would it be actual words? Or do you use different inflections of grunts to convey what you want to say?”

Ice tilted his head to the side as he stared at him, as if he was trying to figure him out. The decidedly wolf like move made Hazard laugh.

“I’m funning with you, Captain,” he said as their transport pulled up. “Let’s get back to base and get some grub.”

To his surprise, Ice sat next to him in the cargo area of the vehicle, leaving Jax to sit on the opposite bench with Ortiz. Then shocking him further, Ice spoke without any prompting.

“A gunman hiding in the walls. Wasn’t expecting that.”

Was that an invitation to talk about the mission? Hazard certainly hoped so. He clutched the proverbial ball Ice had tossed him and ran with it. “Me either. But when I saw that seam in the paneling shift I knew something was up. I bet that wasn’t the only secret panel in there. The mansion is probably full of little hidey holes and secret passages.”

“Drug lords do love their secret rooms and tunnels,” Ice agreed.

“They seriously had a shooter in the wall?” Jax asked.

Ice nodded. “Yeah. But Hazard took him out.”

The conversation between them continued as they rode away from the farm on the way back to their temporary base. Ice was spare in his speech, but he did contribute and he listened in a way that made it clear he wanted to talk.

Hazard played it cool, but inside he was howling with happiness. He’d won over the captain. Not only had Ice struck up a conversation with him, but he’d called him Hazard instead of Mitchell. He was smart enough not to call attention to it or say I told you so, but damn he was glad that it had happened.

Hazard cast a quick glance over at Ortiz. She was watching them with a smile lighting her brown eyes. She appeared happy to see that a barrier had fallen between Ice and the newest member of the team.

To Hazard, it felt like the final piece of a puzzle locking into place. Jax accepted him. Ortiz accepted him. And now Ice had given him a tacit stamp of approval. He truly was a part of the 448.

Chapter 7

August 17, 1982

22:00

Northern Illinois

“So, Ice. Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

Hazard adjusted his position before answering. He lay prone on a bed of leaves, night vision goggles trained on a large, Tudor style estate out in the boonies of northern Illinois. It was surrounded on three sides by a large field and fronted by the densely wooded area where the 448 hid in wait. They were there based on a tip that Brian Lewis, the owner of the house and a shady character in the shifter underworld, could shed some light on the kidnapping plot of the councilwoman’s daughter.

Intel had Lewis leaving for his weekly spa appointment within the hour. They were waiting for him to come out of the house to make their move. It should be soon. Earlier a guard had come out to start one of the cars waiting in the drive, a big Cardinal red Toyota Land Cruiser. It was warm, even at night, and apparently Lewis didn’t like to ride in a hot car. The Cruiser sat idling in the driveway while the guard walked a few paces away to grab a smoke.