Page 19 of Zero
“Zero—take me off speaker.” Tex told him.
When I glanced at Rei, he exhaled and did as Tex said. They had the rest of the conversation in private and Rei hung up.
“What was that?” I demanded.
“There are things about what we do that is strictly need to know.” Rei explained. “Tex needs to know he can trust you and I need to know you won’t be talking to anyone about the intricacies of all of this.”
“The intricacies? My brother is missing.”
“First thing you’re going to do is calm down.”
I slammed my foot on the brake, causing cars behind us to do the same then swing around us, honking and giving us the finger. Ignoring them all, I glared at Rei. “You’re not going to tell me to calm down. What is your problem?”
“My problem?” Rei chewed on his lips for a second, but I could see he was raging. “My problem—okay. Let me tell you what my problem is. My issue is your brother hasn’t told me anything and when I asked if he’d done ops before he lied.”
“But—”
“No buts.” Rei growled. “And now, I don’t know how to help him—do you get that? Do you get that because he lied, I don’t know how to help him?”
“You’ve been to any of these places?”
“Yes. But all of them have different reasons why ops would happen there.” Rei exhaled loudly. “Guns, drugs, intel, prostitution…I don’t know what angle Justice was working and that makes this harder than it should be. So, when I ask questions or make suggestions, it’s not because I want to be an asshole. It’s because I need to know to figure out how to do this and I do not appreciate your insinuations or asinine comments, got that?”
I swallowed.
Before I could speak, he pushed from the jeep, ran around and opened the driver’s side door. “Out. I’m driving.”
Stunned, I fumbled my way out and around the vehicle. I barely had my seatbelt on again before he was back on the road.
The house in Runaway Bay was Justice’s. He’d bought it a year before as the dreamhouse for himself and his fiancée. When that ended badly, everyone—Bev, Sarge, myself—wanted him to sell the place. But Justice merely locked it up and kept it there.
It used to be a happy place. It was the one location on earth where I felt completely safe, untouchable. That was until the darkness descended and Justice was left a shadow of himself.
It seemed hard he would ever come back here.
Still, I climbed from the jeep and walked with Rei up to the front door.
When I reached for the keypad, Rei grabbed my arm and pulled me back. He stepped around me, hunched down and peered at the pad.
“Strange.” He mused.
“What is it?”
“Its activated.” He rose and reached for his gun.
“I honestly don’t think we need…”
But Rei wasn’t listening. He’d toed the front door jar and was moving inside. Though my heartbeat drowned everything else out, I entered behind him, grabbed the baseball bat from behind the backdoor and followed.
This was a part of Rei I didn’t expect. He was a joker—teasing me since the moment we’d met. But in the last few minutes, I saw why he was special forces. His body had changed, the look in his eyes, even the way he walked.
He cleared one room after another, the destruction wasn’t as bad as Justice’s place, but it was obvious someone had been through the house and they had been looking for something. Once Rei was satisfied there was no one there, he began taking a closer look at everything—an askew picture frame here, an overturned frame there. He took a keen interested in a decorative lamp that sat beside Justice’s favorite lazy-boy chair.
It was a ghastly looking thing that was made out of what looked like stained glass. The truth was, I didn’t remember when Justice had bought it. His fiancée would have chopped off her left boob instead of buying the thing.
“When did Justice get this?” He pointed.
“I don’t remember.”
