Page 1 of Beyond the Badge: Nox

Prologue

The poundingon his apartment door had Nox cursing under his breath.

“Nox,” he heard yelled through it.

It sounded like Cross.

What the hell did he want?

Pulling in a breath, Nox tamped down his annoyance. He loved his brothers and he’d do anything for them, so he wished he didn’t get so fucking irritated when they tried to include him in shit.

Some days were worse than others. There was no rhyme or reason for it, but today was one of those days.

He’d even struggled with working up on the third floor with the task force and had headed down to his apartment earlier than he should have. If Crew had a problem with it, the task force leader knew where to find him.

Normally, Crew left him alone because Nox spent more than a normal amount of time upstairs working. Usually late at night when he couldn’t sleep.

Or when he didn’t want to sleep.

When he knew closing his eyes would be more difficult than trying to keep them open.

More pounding. “Nox! You in there?”

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, putting down the biography he was reading, then forced himself to his feet and over to the door.

With his hand on the knob, he took a few seconds to brace himself before flipping the deadbolt and yanking open the door.

Aiden Cross, the Blue Avengers MC secretary and a Southern Allegheny Regional PD officer, stood before him with concern not very well hidden on his face. But that wasn’t all…

He was nervous about something.

“Need you downstairs.”

Dread filled Nox’s chest. “Who does?”

“Jamison asked me to come get you for a quick meeting.”

It had to be Blue Avenger business since the prez wasn’t on the task force. But their club’s meetings took time and effort to schedule since it was difficult to get all of them together with their various work schedules. So,yeah, something was off with this whole thing. “About?”

Cross shifted from one foot to the other. “He didn’t say. He only asked me to get you.”

This was smelling like bullshit. “Everybody else here already?”

“Everybody who can be. We’re only waiting on you.”

“I must’ve missed the original memo,” he said dryly, since they did not schedule BAMC meetings on the fly. “You could’ve just texted me.”

“I needed the exercise.” Cross’s Adam’s apple jumped.

Nox wasn’t liking this.

Not at fucking all.

Cross tipped his head and turned. “C’mon. Let’s go before we’re late.”

“Cross,” Nox started with a warning in his voice, but the man was already jogging down the steps.

Setting his jaw, he stepped out and locked the door behind him.

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