Leo blinked several times as he stared down at the plate of cookies. Snapping himself out of it, he looked up at King.

  “You made these for me?”

  “I had help,” King said, hoping he hadn’t overstepped. “I know you said your mom made these for you, so I imagine they were pretty special. Since you didn’t get them at Christmas, I thought you might like them now as a sort of reminder that I’m here for you and cheering you on. I hope I didn’t overstep.”

  Leo’s eyes welled, and King cursed under his breath, ready to apologize, when Leo flew out of his chair and threw himself at King.

  “You’re amazing,” Leo said, breathless, before kissing King within an inch of his life. King held him close, returning the heated kiss, loving the feel of Leo’s soft lips, eager tongue, and warm mouth. Leo’s body shivered against King’s, and if Leo wasn’t in the middle of work, King might have been tempted to carry him over to the futon and have his way with him, but that would have to wait. King ran his fingers through Leo’s hair before reluctantly moving away.

  “You can do it.”

  “Actually,” Leo said sheepishly. “I already did.”

  “What?”

  “I got number five.”

  King whooped and grabbed Leo, spinning him around and kissing him hard, loving the sound of Leo’s laugh. They were so close. He put Leo on his feet, King’s smile matching Leo’s.

  “I’m so proud of you.”

  Fireworks exploded outside the glass doors, and King checked his watch. Five minutes until midnight. He pulled Leo with him, slid the glass door open, and stepped out onto the balcony with Leo. Fireworks lit up the cloudless sky, the display put on by beachgoers and the community, an impressive spectacle of colorful bursts. King pulled Leo in front of him, his arms wrapped around him, and hands on his chest, their fingers laced together as they watched the show, the water’s surface reflecting the shimmering sparkles raining down from the heavens.

  Down on the beach, people counted down, and King turned Leo to face him. “I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather be right now than here with you.”

  Cheers floated up, and Leo slipped his arms around King’s waist. “Happy New Year, Ward.”

  “Happy New Year, sweetheart.” King kissed him, losing himself in this magical moment, the fireworks in the sky feeling like the ones going off in his heart at the knowledge that after all this time, he’d found his person, the one man who understood him, who loved him just the way he was. Leo might not have said as much, but King knew. He could feel it in Leo’s kiss, in the way he clung to King like he was everything.

  King lost track of how long they stood in each other’s arms kissing until Leo shivered. “We should get back inside,” King said, rubbing Leo’s arms. The temperature had dropped this week, with the late nights falling into the high thirties. The breeze coming in from the water added to the winter chill in the air. Inside, Leo turned to King.

  “Thank you. I couldn’t have done any of this without you, or the guys. The last one’s going to be a bitch, and then we have testing, but I know I can get it done.”

  “I’ll leave you to it, then.” Another quick kiss, and King left Leo with his fish-shaped sugar cookies, which were quickly added to the list of Leo’s favorite fish-shaped snacks.

  Unfortunately, Leo hadn’t been kidding about the final part of the program being a bitch. It was hard for Leo not to get frustrated with every passing day that he couldn’t get the final piece completed, but King did everything he could to make sure Leo had what he needed—plenty of water, food, snacks, and sleep, despite Leo trying to argue with him about “going a little longer.” King did his part by wearing Leo out good and hard every night. After more than one round of King pounding Leo into the mattress, there was nothing but soft snores coming from his sweetheart until morning.

  The guys did their part, keeping Leo in good spirits throughout the month of January. When February came along, King was starting to get a little stir-crazy himself, mostly because he wanted some time with Leo that didn’t include being watched over by NSA agents or Bowers breathing down their necks. Bowers’s weekly visits had become a test in restraint for King, and usually involved the guys keeping King away so he wouldn’t plant one in the guy’s face every time he had a go at Leo for not being done. Everyone was starting to feel it. The guys were missing the men they loved, their beds, their homes. King made sure the guys took shifts, so they got to go home and spend some time with their boyfriends, but this had to end soon.

  King checked in with work to make sure everything was okay and that Mason had all the support he needed. King hadn’t intended on leaving Mason on his own this long, even if he wasn’t entirely on his own. Jay was being a star, helping Mason run a tight ship, despite his little altercations with Ryden. Apparently, Jay and Ryden didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but Mason suspected it might be down to something sparking between the two. King hoped whatever it was sorted itself out, because the last thing he needed was a damned office romance, especially involving his irreplaceable executive assistant and the hot-headed Marine. No one needed Jay breathing fire and snapping people’s heads off. King promised he’d deal with it the moment he was back at the office.

  Leo came up for air, and cookies, getting up from his chair to stretch his delicious little body, his shirt riding up to reveal all that tantalizing skin, his lounge pants dipping dangerously low, exposing a patch of skin King loved to nip at. King stood, and Leo threw up a finger. “Nope.”

  “What?”

  “You sit that sexy butt back down, soldier. I have work to do, and that’s not going to happen if I get distracted by your sexy muscles.”

  King grunted and dropped back down onto the couch, arms crossed over his chest. Just a few more hours until bedtime. Since when was he so impatient? He’d spent days in hiding, through all kinds of hellish weather and abysmal terrain, barely moving a muscle, waiting for his target, and he couldn’t wait until evening to pounce on his boyfriend? King scoffed.

  “I can wait.”

  Leo rounded the couch, his eyes narrowed. “That so?”

  King lifted a brow. “You forget who you’re talking to. I once conducted a fourteen-hour interrogation nonstop, without so much as breaking a sweat. Hell, I’ve been interrogated. I didn’t break then, and I won’t break now.”

  “I see.” Leo took a seat on the coffee table in front of King, his arms on his legs as he leaned forward to study King. “Nerves of steel, huh? Immovable.”

  “Yep.”

  “So, if I um—” Leo got up and straddled King’s lap. “—did this, you’d be fine?”

  “That’s right.” King didn’t so much as budge. He prided himself on his resolve. When he put his mind to something, no one—Fuck, that feels good. King gritted his teeth but remained unmoving as Leo cupped him through his pants, his lips inches from King’s. Oh, so that’s how Leo wanted to play this. Okay, he was game. “Just know that when I get my hands on you tonight, you’re going to be begging me for mercy.”

  Leo’s smile was wicked. “You mean like you’re going to be doing in a minute?”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “We sure will,” Leo said with a shrug, licking a trail up from King’s bottom lip to the tip of his nose, making King swallow hard. “Maybe I’ll break you, maybe I won’t. But I’ll have one hell of a time trying.” Leo slipped his hand up under King’s shirt. “What if I unzip you right here and suck your dick?”

  Little shit. Leo wasn’t going to win this.

  “No? Okay, what if I sit back, and give you a little show? Pull my cock out, get myself off, come all over my hand with a dildo up my ass.”

  King jerked. “What? You have one? How do I not know this?”

  Leo shrugged. “I was saving it for when it was just the two of us.”

  The thought of Leo on the bed writhing with pleasure as King jerked him off and fucked his tight little hole with the dildo had King jumping to his feet, Leo wrapped around him. With a hand under Leo’s ass so he wouldn’t fall, King walked him over to his desk and deposited him on his chair with a growl.

  “Looks like I learned something new about you,” King grumbled.

  Leo blinked at him. “That I like sex toys?”

  King almost choked on air. “That. And, good God, you’re evil. Sure, you just get back to work while I take my blue balls back to the couch with the image of you and that thing shoved up your ass. Fuck me.”

  Leo’s cheeks went bright red, and his smile faded, his tongue poking out to lick his bottom lip. “Would you, um, ever consider that?”

  King leaned in, his grin wicked. “For you? I’ll think about it. Have fun coding with that hard-on.”

  Leo’s glare was adorable, and King chuckled, placing a quick kiss to Leo’s lips.

  “Shit, guys, I’m sorry for interrupting.”

  They turned to Jack, who stood at the top of the stairs.

  “I just got a hit on something.” Jack motioned behind him, and they hurried after him down the stairs to the dining room, where the guys were still gathered, only this time they were huddled around Jack’s laptop. They made room for King and Leo next to Jack when he resumed his seat.

  “Thanks to Leo, we’ve had access to all the analysts in the bunker, along with whatever they’ve been working on. We set up an algorithm to analyze their activity and alert us when something out of the ordinary happens on their end. Until now, it’s mostly been little things, like Harold checking his social media accounts—he’s a bit of a d-bag, but came back clean—or Miranda sending her mom an encrypted email to let her know she’s okay. Those are false positives, and the system knows to ignore them unless certain words or phrases trigger an alert. Anyway, one of the analysts triggered an alert after sending an encrypted message hidden within their code to an outside source.”

  “Who?” King asked.

  “Heather Wallace.”

  “I knew it!” Leo thrust a finger at the screen and the profile of Heather that popped up.

  King turned to him. “You did?”

  “Yes! I should have known. It was so obvious. How could I not have seen it? It was right there in front of my face, or rather in front of her face. Oh, that sneaky sneak.”

  King peered at him. “So you think she’s behind all this?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “What evidence do you have?”

  “Evidence? How about my witnessing her evil with my own two eyes?”

  “What did you see?”

  “Remember when you asked to borrow her headphones?”

  “Yes.”

  “When you walked away, you should have seen the way she stared at your ass. Her eyeballs were like laser beams. Pew! Right at your butt. Like she wanted to snuggle with it. She doesn’t get to snuggle with it. Only I do!”

  King stared at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Whoa, back that pony up,” Ace said, his lips twitching from how badly he clearly wanted to laugh. “So, what you’re saying is, Heather is obviously working with the Russians to kidnap you because she stared at King’s ass.”

  “She didn’t just stare at it, Ace. She was studying it.” Leo spun around and marched across the room before marching back waving a finger at no one in particular. “Yes, he has a fine ass, but that ass is not yours, Heather! You don’t get to take a mental picture of it and store it away for later.”

  “Leo. Sweetheart.” King brought Leo’s marching to a halt. His indignant expression was very cute.

  “Hm?”

  “Her staring at my ass, does not make her one of the bad guys.”

  Leo narrowed his eyes. “Well, it makes her guilty in my book.”

  “Oh boy.” Joker patted King’s shoulder. “Good luck with that.”

  “Leo. Darling. Love. Please focus.” King quickly held a finger up to stop whatever Leo was about to say. “Think about it. Are you really prepared to send someone to prison for treason and a host of other crimes because they stared at your boyfriend’s ass?”

  Ace popped up behind Leo, smile huge. “Boyfriend?”

  “Now is not the time,” King warned, his gaze still on Leo.

  “Gotcha.” Ace disappeared, and King gave Leo a pointed look.

  “Well?”

  “Fine.” Leo rolled his eyes. “We’ll just have to find some ‘evidence.’” God help King, Leo had actually used air quotes around the word. With a quick kiss to Leo’s brow, King turned back to Jack.

  “Do we know what the message said or who she sent it to?”

  Jack nodded. “Our decryption program is working on it now, but Heather’s got some pretty mad skills. Not as good as Leo, but she’s good. It’s going to take a few hours.”

  King nodded his thanks, and the guys went back to their posts in the apartment downstairs with the exception of Ace who dropped down onto the couch when his phone rang. With a big dopey smile that could only mean Colton was calling, Ace tapped the screen and put the phone to his ear. “Hi, baby.” The color drained from Ace’s face, and King went on high alert. “Baby, slow down. Tell me what happened?” Ace started pacing as he listened before coming to a halt. “What? Calm down. Are you okay? Good, that’s what matters. Who’s there? Ryden and Mason? Where are they? Can I talk to one of them? No, that’s fine. Just stay inside the house, okay? Yeah, I’m coming, baby. It’ll be okay. You’re okay. I love you.” Ace hung up, and the fear in Ace’s eyes had King immediately at his side.

  “What is it?” King asked.

  “They found a bomb under Colton’s car.”

  “What?” King put a hand on Ace’s shoulder, offering comfort, and hopefully calm. Ace needed to use his head now, even if his heart was most likely going into overdrive.

  “Colton was going to meet his father for lunch, and you know Sanford always double and triple checks everything before he lets Colton anywhere near the car. Anyway, Sanford was running through his regular checks on the SUV, and he found the bomb. It doesn’t have a timer or anything, so my guess is it’s rigged to go off when the car door opens. Colton called Mason right away. He’s there with Ryden and a shit-ton of our guys. Colton’s freaking out.”

  “Go,” King told Ace, cutting him off before his best friend could protest. It wasn’t the first time Colton had been targeted. The timing was for shit, but King wasn’t going to take any chances. “Take Lucky and Joker with you. Keep me posted.”

  Ace nodded. He brought King in for a quick embrace. “Watch your back.”

  King gave him a final squeeze before releasing him. “You too.”

  Ace had the same feeling he did. It didn’t bode well, but there was nothing they could do. King wasn’t about to leave Colton out there, vulnerable and distraught without Ace. Whatever the reason behind this latest development, they’d get to the bottom of it.

  Chapter 10

  Watch your back.

  The subtle warning from Ace to King hadn’t escaped Leo’s attention. Something was wrong, and it had nothing to do with the bomb under Colton’s car. At least Leo didn’t think so. What if someone was trying to get to him? Leo was terrified for Colton. Maybe it was all unrelated, but Ace warning King meant he thought it could be. Was it the same men who were after Leo?

  “Shit, this is my fault,” Leo said, taking a step back.

  “Hey, no,” King argued gently. “None of this is your fault.”

  “What if it’s the men trying to kidnap me? What if my being at Colton’s house for Christmas put him in danger? What if they found out where I was and thought I was still there?” Leo started pacing, but King quickly put a stop to it.

  “Leo, we can’t allow ourselves to get caught up in the what ifs, okay? Until we know more, let’s not speculate. The guys are going to get to the bottom of this. Just like those bastards showing up at the bunker wasn’t your fault, this isn’t either. We will deal with it. Tell me you understand.”

  Leo nodded. He knew King was right, but it was hard not to feel guilty. Colton had been kind, insisting they were going to become good friends and that Leo was welcome to visit anytime, talking about how he was looking forward to seeing Leo at their weekly Sunday dinners. Leo had been dumbstruck by the invite until King nudged him, asking if he’d consider it. As if Leo would turn down the chance to become a part of King’s family.

  King pulled out his phone, set it on speaker, and after the first ring, Jack answered. “Hey, did Ace fill you in?”

  “Yeah, he just left with Lucky, Joker, and Chip. I’m going through Colton’s security feeds. The cameras must have picked something up. If I find anything, I’ll let Ace know and then report back to you.”

  “Great.” They heard Red’s muffled voice in the background. “What did he say?”

  “He said to tell you he’s making dinner and we’ll bring it up in about half an hour, but to call if you need something sooner.”

  “Okay, thanks.” King hung up, following Leo, who took off upstairs. “Leo? What’s wrong?”

  “I have to finish this. I can’t keep putting everyone’s life in danger.”

  “Hey, hold on a second.” King took Leo’s arm, bringing him in close. “I thought we agreed this wasn’t your fault.”

  “No, I know that, but the longer this takes, the longer everyone I care about is in danger. There’s something that’s been bugging me,” Leo said, taking a seat in his chair.

  “What’s that?” King was looking around the room, like he was trying to figure something out.

  “Why haven’t they tried again?”

  King turned his attention back to Leo. “What?”

  “The Russians or whoever sent them. Why haven’t they tried again? Let’s say they did go to Colton’s because they found out I’d been there. Why now? Why haven’t they shown up here? It’s been almost two months. Are you telling me they just gave up?”