Pierce

Chapter One

Pierce~

Pierce was exhausted and irritated as he headed home after a long day at Knight Security. Hunter had called him in early to let him know that his identity had been leaked to Diego Estrada, which was no surprise. He figured it would happen sooner or later, but the whole team seemed to be up in arms about it.

Pierce was relatively unfazed. Hell, it wasn't the first time his life had been threatened and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He was basically a hired gun who made enemies for a living after all. What did they expect?

Sure the news wasn't ideal, but Pierce was confident in his abilities. He wasn't a defenseless civilian with no training. He was a highly trained special operative, a former Marine Scout Sniper who protected others for a living. He was more than capable of defending himself and wished his superiors shared the same faith. 

Pierce was lost in his disgruntled thoughts as he made his way up the stairs to his apartment. As he put the key in the door he felt a crunch under his feet. The sound pulled him from his inner dialogue and looked down to search for the source of the noise.

Beneath his shoe was a single rose with an envelope tied to the stem.

What the hell?

He carefully opened the envelope to reveal the generic greeting card that was inside. The card read:

Keeping you in my thoughts until we meet again.

See you soon.

D.E.

Pierce crumpled the card into his strong fist with a lethal expression on his face.

Then come on motherfucker. I'm ready for you.

Pulling a glock from his waistband he cautiously entered his apartment, sweeping every room for any uninvited guests.

After clearing each room he collapsed in an irritated heap onto his favorite chair. He was fuming knowing that someone in Estrada's crew had been to his home. He only wished he had been there to intercept the message in person and send a bullet between their eyes. 

He balled and flexed his fists with his jaw tightly clenched, trying to relieve the rage that was building inside of him, but the longer he sat there the longer he itched with the need to leave.

Normally he'd call Declan, who had always been game to go out, but Declan had traded in his title of trusted wingman for doting boyfriend since he had found and fell in love with Lexi. Honestly Pierce couldn't blame him, Lexi was incredible and seeing the two of them together did something to Pierce. Something he didn't quite understand yet.

He sighed and ran his hand through his blonde hair, not wanting to dive into those feelings at the moment.

Deciding a night out with Caleb was a much better choice than wallowing in his own rage and self pity, he picked up the phone and hoped Caleb didn't already have plans.

"What's up Hollywood?" Caleb answered on the first ring.

"You got any plans tonight? I need to get out of my apartment and blow off some steam."

"I bet you do. You stormed out with a pretty big chip on your shoulder today."

"I just don't understand why everyone's got their panties in a fucking twist over all this. It's not the first time someone's made a death threat against one of us. It's part of the job," Pierce huffed.

"Cut em' some slack. It comes from a good place. No one's questioning your ability, they're just being cautious."

"Yeah well I called because I needed a wingman not a damn therapy session," Pierce said with a laugh.