Stryke's POV

"Stryke, you listening?" Hex snapped his fingers in front of my face. I nodded sullenly, just to affirm what he wanted to hear. The rest of the guys gathered around the table looked at me expectantly. Zero and Rift were off getting who knows what and I was left to do some tracking.

"I heard you, I heard you. You want me to follow them for the next few days. It'll be fine."I grumbled back to them. Hex sighed but otherwise left me alone. Hey, I'd had a hard few days!

We had gathered some info since our first get together a few months ago in August. Now it was snowing and in the middle of December. I didn't mind the cold so much. It didn't bother me like the others. I was a Colorado native, and I was born in this weather.

"They'll be at the airport in two days. Just keep an eye on them. See if you can find out if our targets are coming back any time soon. No conflict, okay?" Ryder commanded. He was our leader. We took all orders from him. Disobeying meant punishment. Hex was his second in command.

"Stryke, we need you to leave your weapons out of this." Hex told me. I could hear Storm and Eagle snicker a little. My face paled significantly.

"What if I encounter trouble?" I fired back. Storm folded his hands into his chest and cracked his knuckles. He could crack a boulder with his fist if he so wanted.

"Anything can be a weapon. You of all people should know this! You are our weapons expert, remember?" Storm jabbed playfully. My face darkened at his comment but otherwise I didn't fire back.

"I'll leave them out of the mission." I told them, but made no promises.

"Take them out." Ryder commanded. With a sigh and an eye roll, I opened up my brown jacket, slid three knives out of the inside sheathes, took two out of my boots, and pulled a small gun from another hidden pocket.

"All of them." Hex reminded me gruffly. Staring him dead in the face, I reached behind me, and slid can of toxic liquid across the table. Storm admired it. After that came the backup knife, the backup poison, and a pack of pills.

No one questioned it.

"My bow is in the car, along with two more guns." I sighed. I watched the familiar weapons placed away in safe keeping. Their handles felt familiar, their weight comforting in my hand. It was an extension of me and it was being ripped away from my grasp.

"We'll trust you not to use those." Ryder commented. I nodded. Our meeting finished as we stood up. Ryder was staying at the bar for a while with Hex while they planned some things out. Rift and Zero, now unable to use their motorcycles, were staying close to Colorado Springs. Storm stayed in his friend's house just thirty minutes south of here. Eagle was in the Bird's Nest, the place he called home. It was his own abode in the mountains. We wouldn't be meeting for a while, so he was free to travel back to the mountains.

Rift and Zero walked out with me. Seven trucks parked together in the lot. There was Ryder's truck which needed a wash badly, a green truck which was Storm's, Eagle's brown Ram, Rift's red, and Zero's dirty silver. He had taken that out on the last scouting mission a day or two ago. My own truck was parked near Zero's. It was my black truck that served me well.

"Heard you just got a new tat." Rift's eyes perked up in the dark. I threw my hood over my head to discourage some of the biting cold winds. It was true. My sleeve tattoos had just been finished up by my artist in Denver. O the top of my shoulder was a wolf, then a lightning storm, and along my wrist to my elbow, I had lyrics scrawled in flowing letters.

I admired Zero's tattoo of the dragon for a moment. His dark jet black hair obscured part of the tail of the flying beast. My hair was dark, but his was the deepest color of us all.

He was 25 when he got the tattoo, I remember that clearly. He had shown up to the meeting and we all had to look at it for a moment. My tattoos started when I was 20. I was 23 now.

We're broken, imperfect, we're all made the same...If I could turn back time would you still be there...This is not what it is only baby scars...

Those were only some of the lyrics that sang up and down my skin. Zero and Rift inspected them with a sly grin.

"Isn't it ironic we're hunting they guy who wrote these lyrics?" Rift questioned. I rolled down my sleeve with a snap and opened my car's door. These weren't for me.

"He'll be hunted by irony's hand, I guess." I mused. With a wave farewell, I started my truck. It rumbled like thunder and backed out. The lot was slowly emptying as I drove away.

These scrawling lyrics weren't for me. They were for my mom. She died two days ago, and I was to busy to be by her side. These were for her, but the first was for me. I knew I was broken, but I was broken beyond repair. People could be fixed, like weapons. You tenderly put the pieces back together. I, however, was beyond anything that could patch up my heart.

Her last words still lingered in my mind. From weeks ago, when I had visited the house just once . She caught me while I was leave.

"Nobody is beyond being saved." I muttered to myself her words. The road flew by and with it, the memories. I knew my destination, and when I arrived there two hours later, I parked my car in the lot and pulled out a blanket from the back.

The horse barn was familiar from my childhood. It was abandoned now, out in the middle of lost fields and twisting back roads only a familiar neighbor would know of. I think I could park here for now.

When I woke up, it was a little later in the morning. Eagle had slipped me the address early last night, telling me where to find it. The house wasn't far from here.

The rest of the day, I spent tracking the girl. She went in and out of the house frequently. I saw the younger sibling and kept mental notes. At noon, I saw her leave with the tall man. Austin, our target, was outside. They took a silver car out of their street. I followed their trail to the grocery store, and then followed them back outside.

The next morning, I was up early to watch their car leave the street. This time, it had an older women, plus Alan, Austin, and the two girls. I turned on the radio and threw an extra pair of sunglasses on my head as I followed them.

By the time I got to the airport, I stuck by their group and overheard the gate. B45 was their gate number. They got held up in line. Luckily for me, I managed to bypass some of the traffic and waited at the gate for their arrival.

Two younger kids sat in the row with me. I let out a small sigh as the parents left and I thought about the two kids of trouble. Fortunately, they behaved very well. I was, in fact, surprised. An older lady sat at the complete opposite end of my row.

The family I was tracking hadn't shown up yet. I brushed my dark brown hair out of my face and inspected the tattoos on my neck using the reflection from my phone. They were just visible over my light winter jacket.

By the time Austin and his group came over, they sat down in the row right in front of me. I had a clear shot through my sunglasses. The younger girl and the eldest daughter, Ryder's two children, settled around Austin and Alan.

Rae and LP, I had to remember that.

The oldest girl, Rae, she caught my eye for a moment as I took of the sunglasses. I couldn't help but smile. The long blonde hair framed her face perfectly and her smile knocked me off my game for an instant. I was stunned.

I got up to move and watched from the corner of my eye as she kissed Austin. Something inside of me steamed at the petty display of affection. I meandered slowly over to where they stood, hoping to hear a snip it of info. This was what I was here for, after all.

"Goodbye, Rae. I'll see you later." Austin spoke to her. She smiled and as they parted, I processed the info. Okay, that meant he would be coming back. But when, when would he return?

I watched from the corner of my eye, attempting to look busy. As she turned around, I maneuvered just in front of her so that I bumped into her shoulder. Rae looked embarrassed for a moment, muttering a return apology.

"I'm sorry." She blushed as her pretty face turned to look at me. I grinned at the sight.

"Don't worry about it, pretty girl." I responded, trying to act casual. Seriously, this was Ryder's daughter we were talking about here! Wait, a sudden idea formed in my head. She had already started to move away towards the rest of her family. I decided to play it cool and walk to other way. I turned around to look behind me and caught her eye. Lifting my hand in a wave, I watched her move away from me.

This might actually work.

Notes

Now we know the mystery guy! Keep reading to watch his plan unfold, and keep tabs on Austin!

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