Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,67

steady my breath as I stormed into the apartment.

Matt and Sean stood stoically at the entrance, Eli paced, and all three turned to look at me as soon as I entered. Hunter sprawled on the couch with Uno, gave me a quick glance over the top of his phone and a casual wave hello. I zeroed in on him, the FBI agent, his nonchalance feeding my irritation.

“We’re trying to figure out—” Eli stepped toward me, but I dodged him and stayed the course toward Hunter without missing a step.

“What the hell are you doing?” If I sounded harsh, I meant to. I needed to find Seb, and as my brother who’d seen how important Seb was to me, Hunter should’ve known to be ready.

He looked up, eyes narrow, brow pinched. “What?”

“You’re just lying there doing nothing while Sebastian is missing?” My heart was beating out my chest, and he had to know if his person was missing—somehow Seb had become my person—I would move the sun and stars to help if he needed. And I needed. Yet, still he sat with his feet on my furniture and his face in his phone.

“Whoa, all right, chill.”

“Chill?” Was he out of his fucking mind? I couldn’t chill. “Can’t you do something to find him? Didn’t you go to Quantico to learn? To help? Call someone! Fuck!” Maybe I was across the line, but Seb was small, and I’d seen his brother and the crew he hung with. Seb would fit in Pete’s pocket, for fuck’s sake. And my brothers weren’t moving. They were standing around letting God only knew what happen to Seb while we sat on our fucking thumbs. “What are any of you doing here when he’s out there alone?”

Eli reached to touch my shoulder, but I slapped him away, and he recoiled like I’d scolded him.

“We checked his apartment and Ben’s. No sign of him there.” Sean spoke with a deadpan, military monotone, but his eyes were watery and flashed with emotion that satisfied me a little.

“And for your information, I’m working on gaining access to the security cameras on the wharf front, so we can track which way he went.” Hunter flashed the phone at me, and when he would normally give me a smug grin for being right, he gave an apologetic smile.

My temper faded, and it was making way for something far more uncomfortable. Fear.

Eli slid his arm around my shoulder, ignoring my efforts to shake him off. “We’ll find him.”

I let my bag drop to the floor and groaned into my hands. “Maybe. Maybe we won’t. Maybe it’ll be too late.” His place had been ransacked. So had his brother’s and instead of doing anything about it, I’d been here playing house and acting like some lovesick teenager.

“Yeah, maybe. Or maybe he’ll come waltzing back in here with a pizza. It’s all possible.”

“I know Owen’s on shift, but where are the others?”

“Brax and Richie are at work, too.”

“I came home as soon as I heard.” Hunter’s smug smirk appeared. “It’s nice to see you in dad-mode again, by the way.”

I growled and Uno cocked her head as though curious about how one of her own species came to hide in a human body.

“Why did he leave? He’s been here for two weeks without trying to run off. Run me through what happened today before he left.”

“Sean and I were in the kitchen. I was about to make some food, came out to ask if he liked beets, and the dude was gone from his post at the computer.” Eli shrugged.

“Right. The computer.” I walked to the office. Matt and the boys followed.

Matt cleared his throat. “He’d had some breakthroughs, but nothing concrete. I took a toilet break, and I doubt he could have made much progress while I was gone. But he wasn’t here when I got out.” He shrugged, but there was a hunch in his back not usually present. He felt guilty like he was solely responsible for Seb’s leaving.

“So, you don’t know if he got into the hard drive?”

“No idea.”

They crowded around me as I pulled out my chair. The desk was set up with Seb’s laptop and the hard drive connected with cables, and it sounded like my computer was still running, too.

“Screen’s blank.” Eli pointed to the monitor.

I looked at the four of them, exasperated. “Have you tried turning it on?”

“We tried Seb’s laptop but it’s all code and weird.” Eli pressed keys on the laptop and its screen showed