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"What the fuck are you doing here, Hancock?"

This w

as bad Worse than bad Hancock being here in theseTitan was after Grace or at the very least had been sent to recover her

Fuck

CHAPTER 8

EVEN though Hancock didn’t so et a full view of the other man Hancock watched coolly, his are that he wasn’t a threat

Which was pretty daht so themselves Rio should know He’d been one of them for ten years

He’d lived and breathed those shadows He knehat Titan hat they were capable of What their purpose was They weren’t black or white They were so gray that it was easy to get lost in the different world they lived in A world where there were no rules and the law didn’t apply

He and Hancock had served together Rio had saved Hancock’s life in ould be Rio’s last mission with Titan Rio had walked away, never looked back He hadn’t wanted to look back Only now his past was staring hi that past and present were on one hell of a collision course

"What are you doing here, Hancock?"

But he knew He knew exactly why Hancock was here, but he wanted to hear it fro to let Hancock know that it would be a cold day in hell before he ever touched Grace

"Put down the gun, Rio I’ed up See?" He held up his arms so Rio could see the strap of the rifle and the pistol that was holstered just below his arun just where I have it Now talk"

"I’et a free pass This tiardless of how My team is at least two miles away They’ll stay there until you’ve had time to move out"

He lifted his head a notch so he stared Rio in the eye

"Next tio through you"

A growl rose froe at the man he’d once called friend

Then he turned sideways to look at where Grace lay on the ground, broken and so very fragile Then he stared back at Hancock "Take a good look, Hancock See what you’ve done Is this what it’s co on innocent women?"

Hancock didn’t so much as flinch "It’s a job Just like all the other jobs You know the drill, Rio Don’t act like a fucking choir boy You may have joined up with Captain A about who you were and where you came from Your hands are just as stained as mine, and you’ll never wipe them clean I owe you You savedout of theseain"

Rio took a step forward Then another Until he was nose to nose with Hancock and could feel the other man’s breath on his chin His voice was cold, so chilled that it made the air around them seem warm "You don’t need to underestimate me You stay the hell away from Grace Peterson I’ll take you out, Hancock, and I won’t have a single regret"

"Guess we knohere we stand I’"

Hancock took a step back, turned and then one before Rio could say or do anything further As questionable as Titan ma [e a a sy be, they had a code and they lived by it It would have been easy for Hancock to take a stand Make a grab for Grace He could have pinned Rio and his men in the mountains With an injured Grace, it would have been next to impossible for Rio and histhemselves or her killed

But Hancock was a hard-ass bastard who had a code of honor even if it was a twisted sense of justice Rio had saved his life once and now the debt was paid Not only had Hancock looked the other way, but he’d tipped his hand and let Rio knoas after Grace

He only wished to God the information made him feel better

He turned back and hurried to Grace, his jaw clenched

"What the fuck was all that about?" Terrence demanded

"Not now, T," Rio said in a clipped voice "We need to get the fuck out of here before Hancock decides he’s been charitable enough for the day"

Alton and Browning quickly set to work padding the bed of the truck with a bedroll They even took their shirts off and laid theive Grace as o lifted Grace froround, and Rio hopped into the back of the truck, leaning against the crackedNext, Grace was carefully laid on the bedroll and Rio covered as , black as night but dirty and tangled from her ordeal He tucked as ed one of the shirts over her head so she wasn’t visible Not that it mattered, really Hancock and Titan knehere she was and they sure as hell knehat she looked like There was little need in concealing her They just needed to get the hell out

Diego cli and Alton piled into the front with Terrence Diego positioned hiainst the backjust as Rio had so that Grace was between thes stretched out, they provided stability, or as much as they could, so Grace didn’t move from side to side

Rio slid his hand underneath the T-shirt covering Grace’s face and rubbed his thuently over her cheek

Stay within there You’re not a quitter, so don’t fucking quit onyou the hell out of here You’ll like it where I’et better

There was no response No stirring in his mind He hadn’t expected one Grace was beyond her endurance He wasn’t convinced she’d survive this no matter how much he willed it to happen And now that he knew Titan was involved, he knew they would be relentless There would be no stopping theer were they taking on soovernment Buried so deep that only a few even knew of their existence Highly trained The best of the best Funding Backing They were invincible