The Almost One Night Stand

Chapter 19

Victor's POV

Something wasn't right about Gabe's mission. That explosion was just one of several red flags I'd noticed over the past few weeks. What was the Academy really after here? They'd sent Gabe on a global chase with no clear purpose other than to observe this man, Laurent Phillips. When I search him, I get little to nothing and definitely nothing that would warrant a manhunt like what the Academy has launched.

Gabe kept ignoring my calls which only worried me more. I tried once again, and he finally picked up, "Hey Vic."

"What the hell, man, I've been freaking out over here and you aren't answering. Is everything okay?" I grilled him.

He seemed distracted when he answered, "Yeah, well, I've been a bit busy."

I snapped, "Well excuse me for worrying when my brothers almost get their asses blown up."

"Hey, I didn't fucking mean it like that, Vic. Nimue found out about the explosion and she, uh, was freaking the fuck out," he said.

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. He did tell us she knew about the Academy. I can only imagine what went through her mind and seeing that explosion on the local. "Fuck, man, I'm sorry. I forgot about that." I let out a huge sigh, feeling like an ass now. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, it's all good now," he said. "Any ideas on what the fuck happened? All we know is we were sitting there one minute then the whole fucking thing blew up after we drove off."

"About that, why did you guys just suddenly pull away? I mean, if you didn't see anything, then what made you leave? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you did, but it just doesn't make sense," I said.

Gabe was silent for a moment. "Uh, I don't really know how the fuck to answer that, man. Look, there's some stuff going on here that I can't talk about right now, but we will. I need to get back. I'll let you know what the London office says later today." He quickly hung up before I could say anything. Just what the hell did he mean 'we'?

"Vic, you okay man?"

I must have been staring at the phone when Kota walked in. I shook my head and set the phone down, "I guess. Just an odd conversation with Gabe."

He laughed, "Well that's not really that unusual. Do they know what happened with the mission?"

I shook my head, "No, and that's part of the odd. Neither of them seems to be too damn worried about any of it. They're more worried about Luke's girlfriend."

He cocked his head to the side, "Hey, don't read into it. We used to be the same way with Sang. Luke's priorities are different now."

I shook my head, "I think you missed the part where I said 'they," I said again.

His eyes went wide, "You think? No, wait, would they?"

"I have no idea, Kota, but Gabe seemed seriously invested in Luke's girlfriend and how upset she was over the explosion. I mean we all missed the whole Gabe and Luke thing for years. Maybe they've reconnected and she's into it. He did tell us at the diner that polyamory was common over there and she wasn't bothered by it." I rubbed my eyes which were tired from staring at computers all night.

"Have you even slept yet?" Kota asked.

"I'm going now. I just wanted to talk with Gabe first," I stood, closed the computer, and stumbled to my room, falling into the bed.

I woke a few hours later to a pinging sound coming from my computer. Shit! I jumped up to check the alert, then quickly dialed Corey.

"Vic, what's up, man? It's like five am," he groaned.