Thorns (Sequel to A Dozen Roses)

Chapter 12 Pick a Side

Chapter 12
Mitch POV

Ian's new team was nothing like our original team. They joked around too much and hardly took anything seriously. I mean sure my team joked but we knew when to take things seriously.

Although the minute we stepped off the elevator I was pulled into the tightest hug of my life by Jason. Such a small guy is stronger than you think.

"Oh god Mitch I thought I'd lost you forever." Jason cried, and I hugged him back as tight as I could, "When I heard they were bringing you back I was so happy." He pulled away and set his hands on my shoulders.

I could see the lack of sleep in his eyes and his hair was tousled in a mess. It was a look I had common seen on Jerome or Adam when we had a big case.

"Your first big case and something like this." I mumbled chuckling. Jason smiled and slung an arm around me taking me towards my office. When we opened the door I stared at it horrified.

"Yeah sorry Mitch, Ian let the new guy redecorate..." I was gone for god knows how long and they decorated my office?! Angerily I ripped the posters off the wall as fast as I could shoving them in the trash can and stomping it down with my foot.

"This place is an office!" I spat at no one in specific, "Not a second bedroom! You don't put up posts of girls in bikinis on the wall!" Jason snickered while I sat down at my desk booting up all my computers.

It appeared Ross could only get into two of my twenty computers. Either that or he just chose to use these two monitors. The way it was set up was it ran to four different hard drives and those four ran to five monitors each. And none of them but two had been touched.

Thankfully all my personal files were stored in a locked file on the desktop of the far monitor. So they hadn't been touched.

Jason sat down in my other chair, which I mostly used for a foot rest, to watch me for the time I was in here. Ian didn't want me left alone by myself for even a moment, except to use the restroom of course.

"So um, what happened while you were there?" My fingers fumbled over the keyboard and I backspaced to fix my mistake.

"It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good either."

I suppose while we were in there it could have been worse. Tyler and Jerome suffered more than I did, because they're stronger than me and they fought. I wasn't trained against interrogation, so my instinct was to just do what they wanted.

"Are um, are Tyler and Jerome...?" I sighed and leaned back in my chair.

"Jason things were tough there. But when I left they were both still alive. I don't even think they know I'm gone as in out of the country, hell the continent." I ran a hand through my hair distraught at the whole idea. "I didn't want to leave them but Adam just....he assured me that they would be coming home."

"How can you trust his word anymore? The mans gone rouge! He's corrupted." Jason exclaimed sharply, "I mean I may not have known Adam as long as you did, but he doesn't seem to be the same person you once knew." I spun around in my chair to face him.

Jason hardly knew Adam the way the rest of the team did. Adam wasn't a monster like Deadlox and his crew. The Adam I knew was kind and Caring, he was smart and put way too much sugar in his coffee.

I remember when we rescued Tyler from Seto, and Adam stayed up for three days with him because Tyler was afraid of nightmares. Adam was Ian's main babysitter if we weren't on a case, and he loved that little boy so much.

"Adam isn't a monster." I said softly, "Deadlox is manipulating him, playing with his emotions. That was always his one weakness was his heart. He loves too much, wears his heart on his sleeve. It's killing him." I spun back around to my computer and begun opening files and moving some stuff around.

"We still have to arrest him ya know. You saw what he did to Quentin. He's a murderer and since he's working with Deadlox, he can be charged with assisted murder, helping a wanted criminal, avoiding arrest." Jason sighed, "Adam would basically go away with them forever.

That's why they do what they do now. Deadlox and his crew have been on the run for years, because they've been committing crimes since a young age. If police or FBI were to catch them now they would go to jail forever or possibly even get the death penalty.

"You know here in Virginia they have the death penalty." Jason said as if reading my mind, "Lethal injection or the electric chair I believe. They could do that, Deadlox and Adam could die for their crimes." I whipped around in my chair and stood up fists clenched at my side.

"You don't think I haven't thought of that Jason? Adam is my best friend, no my brother, and I don't want anything to happen to him. We're going to take down Deadlox and bring Adam home ourselves. He's not going to jail and he's not getting charged understand me?" I took a deep breathe staring him down.

"You either help bring him home or you leave this team right now. Pick your side Jason Universe."

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Hey guys! So if you noticed the photo attached to this chapter. That's the cover for the third book that will be coming out when I end this book (Not for a while) I have a ton of ideas and I know how this story line will go and I'm 100% sure that there will be a third book.

Whatcha guys think of the chapter and the cover?
~Shadow