Rory shook his head, his hands propped on his hips, as he lifted his gaze to the heavens. "I pray. I go to mass. I even remember to respect my elders and help little old ladies across the street. What the hell did I do to deserve this?"
Noah clapped his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "You breathe, Rory. Remember that. When Malones breathe, shit happens. It's cosmic. It's their fate."
"You suck, man." Rory grimaced. "Bella's gonna kill me."
"Beats me killing you," Noah grunted. "I can make it hurt worse."
Rory glared at him. "Man, you are so clueless. You don't know Belle at all, do you?" Then he grinned rakishly. Noah remembered that smile. A smile he had once had himself and it didn't bode well for Noah. "You are in for such a surprise."
Jordan watched as Noah stalked into the briefing room, nearly half an hour late, but the vision that met Jordan's gaze had his eyes narrowing.
Dangerous. Powerful. Like a big jungle cat, all smooth moves and predatory awareness. This wasn't a cold-blooded shark. His eyes weren't icy. They would never again be that Malone blue, laser surgery had darkened the color to a navy blue rather than that neon sapphire blue they had once been. The color of Jordan's, and his brother Rory's.
Those eyes had been hard, cold for five years now. Until tonight. Tonight, they were wild, fierce, as Noah paused and stared back at him.
"We need to talk." There was a snarl, an animal quality to the tone that had Jordan's brow lifting.
"Hey there, wild card." Tehya chose that moment to move behind Noah and pat his butt.
Jordan knew what the other woman had done, but he didn't expect Noah's reaction. Tehya had been patting Noah's ass for years, mostly to piss Jordan himself off, and Noah always ignored her. This time, he caught her wrist, loosely, and stared down at her.
"Don't." He said the word softly, gently enough, that Jordan came slowly to his feet.
Tehya's impudent smile was enough to make a man grind his teeth.
"Oh, all that testosterone." She pretended to shiver. "Watch it, Noah, I'll start thinking you're claimed or something."
Or something. Jordan sat down as the minx carried the stack of files to the briefing table and winked back at him. "The others will be up in a few minutes. Ian and Kira were running late as well."
As she moved through the door, Noah turned, closed it softly and locked it as Jordan leaned back in his chair, propped his elbows on the arms and steepled his fingers in front of him.
"You have a problem, ?" Jordan asked.
Noah turned back slowly and those eyes raged.
"You knew she was dating," Noah stated.
Jordan contained his smile as he nodded. "It was in the report I give you every month. You know, the one you toss in the trash can after simply asking me if she's safe and if she's alive?"
Noah paced closer. Danger surrounded him, fury pulsed inside him.
"She's dating." His lips pulled back from his teeth furiously.
Jordan tilted his head and stared back at him. "And this is your business how? Nathan Malone is dead, wild card. Remember?"
Noah flinched. He jerked back as though stung, his expression instantly closing.
"Unlock the door," Jordan ordered him coolly. "We have a briefing and a mission to complete." He turned his attention to the files Tehya had brought in. "Noah." Jordan lifted his head, staring back into those furious blue eyes. "Her husband didn't want her. Did you think she'd wait on him forever?"
Perhaps that was exactly what a part of him had believed.
Noah took his seat slowly, forcing back emotion, forcing back the rage. He'd worked too many years at putting his past behind him, but somehow, in all those years, he'd never imagined Sabella allowing another man to touch her. Likely because Noah had never been able to touch another woman.
He had sworn himself to her. Heart, body, soul. All he was, all he could ever be, belonged to that woman.
The man that had been born from the ashes of hell in no way resembled Nathan Malone. He had known that the day he found some clarity in his mind, months after his rescue. He was no longer the man Sabella had married. But the man he had become still claimed that one part of Nathan Malone's life. Noah Blake claimed Nathan's wife.
As the others filtered into the room, Noah stared at Jordan Malone. He'd even forced himself to forget the fact that this was his uncle. That Rory was his brother, that Grandpop had been his base all his life. He'd let go of everything but the wife.
"Okay, here's what we have." The lights dimmed as Tehya passed out the files and Ian and Kira Richards stood to the side of the large-screened LCD monitor that hung on the wall across from the briefing table.
Five dead men, American, Russian, Israeli, Australian, and English. They were the Elite Operational Unit, code-named, marked by the sign of rebirth and of death. A black sun and a scarlet sword. Dead men. They had signed their lives away for the chance at vengeance.
Jordan and Ian commanded the group. The rest of Durango team, Reno, Kell, and Macey, were their backup. They knew who he was, what he was, what he had walked away from.
"The Black Collar Militia." The first of the photos began to flash.
"Angelina Rodriguez, the wife of a Mexican-American Texas Senate hopeful, killed, their brand on her hip. 'BCM' was indeed branded on her slender hip. Emilio Rodriguez dropped out of the senatorial race when his wife's body was found and a message indicating that his twin daughters would be next. The FBI covered the murder to allow an investigation into the BCM. Stated cause of death was accidental, due to the fact that she was found in her vehicle, in the bottom of a ravine not far out of Odessa where she had been visiting."
The photos glared back at them from the screen. The woman was pretty. Long black hair, dark brown eyes. A generous smile in life, a grimace in death.
"Added to her death." More photos, these of illegal Mexican aliens found throughout Texas and New Mexico. Victims, Noah knew, of illegal hunts. The BCM brand was buried on the flesh of their backs, some on the bu**ocks.
"We have a dozen hunts and deaths," Jordan stated. "We have three dead FBI agents sent to investigate the information that BCM is based in Alpine. Two men, one female. Their bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, teeth pulled, fingers removed. DNA identified the bodies."