Pierce

Chapter Forty Four

Pierce ~

Pierce was carrying six bags of groceries, letting Natalie carry only one as they returned to their new apartment. Despite his full hands he reached up and punched in the door code, letting them into the lobby. The complex was like a damn fortress with two coded entry points - one at the door and the other in the elevator in order to make it function. He let Natalie punch in the elevator code to make sure she remembered it.

"You certainly are chummy with the door man already." Natalie said with a chuckle.

"Hank? I've known him for years. He's retired military who needed a cushy job when he came home from overseas to be with his wife and daughter. Hunter reached out to him for me when I told him we needed a new place."

"Really?" she was clearly amused with him.

"Why do you think I liked this place so much? Like I said, safety first from now on."

He shot her a wink as the elevator stopped, chimed, and opened.

The sound of his cell phone vibrating in his front pocket and rustling bags caused Natalie to turn her head. She giggled with smirk smeared across her face as she watched him try to pry the phone out with his hands full of grocery bags.

"A little help here?" he chuckled.

She gladly obliged and slid her hand in his front pocket, retrieving the phone, but letting her hand linger there for a second or two longer than necessary.

Letting his head fall back onto his shoulders he groaned at the feeling of her hand in his pants.

"You better watch those hands beautiful. The doctor only cleared you for light physical activity."

"We could do something light." she purred, smiling up at him.

"Baby there's nothing light about what I wanna do to you right now."

She bit her lip at his words, swiping her finger across his phone and holding it up to his ear for him.

"Lockland," he said, maintaining eye contact with Natalie.

"We got a lock on him, Hollywood. Solid intel."

Nate's voice echoed through the speaker and wiped the flirty grin from Pierce's face.

"Where?" he said flatly, setting down the groceries quickly and taking the phone from Natalie's hand.

"Small compound right outside Tijuana, not far from where you were kept."

Pierce nodded as his tactical mind started racing as he discreetly moved into the next room.

"Listen if you guys are gonna move on this it's gotta be soon. He's running scared, probably won't stay in one place for long."

"You call Dec?"

"Not yet. Thought you'd want to be the first to know," Nate said honestly.

"I appreciate it, brother."

"I'll give him a call and I'm sure he'll call Bravo in within the hour, Delta too most likely."

"Thanks for the heads up."

His thoughts instantly turned to Natalie and his mind started running through every horrific scenario that could possibly happen while he was gone. He wasn't ready to leave her yet and the thought of both Bravo and Delta teams being out of reach didn't sit well with him at all.

"Hey, what would you think about sending Claire and Lexi over here to my place? Alpha team's state side this week on leave and I'm sure Axel wouldn't mind staying with the girls until this is finished."