Page 71 of Steel

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, gather around.” The captain had obviously been apprised as to the subject matter of the meeting.

“Any idea?” I asked Viper as I joined him in the main room. I could see a hell of a lot of disgruntled faces from being called in on their day off.

“There’s a gang in town. Imagine. In Missoula.” He lifted his gaze. The man had once served time in prison for avenging his sister, killing her abuser, and he could joke about every other crime we’d come across.

Not only arson.

“A gang. Huh? What kind of gang? Girl Scouts trying to sell cookies?”

My voice was a little louder than I’d intended, half the group laughing their butts off. I thought about the gang Axe had mentioned before.

My little outburst annoyed the captain, who was in the middle of an audit with the forestry service and their federal auditors, a regulation that he endured every year. And the one task that always put him in a grouchy mood.

They were already sequestered in the conference room, which is why he was on pins and needles.

He offered me a look that could cut through glass first before shaking his head. “Maybe we should take a step back first since there are some massive heads in the hangar today. I understand we have two heroes in our midst. The Beckett brothers strike again.”

Wow. He was in a worse mood than usual.

Cheers and applause erupted, even whistles from some of the guys. Viper punched me on the shoulder and I threw a look at my brother. The subject of being brothers was still a touchy subject. Not because we were two entirely different people.

Which we were.

Not because there was competition between us.

Which there would always be.

But because the phrase had been brought into existence when Axe had joined the Zullies team. And then there’d been three. Three brothers to create stories, antics and to make history.

Now there were two.

“Well, all I can say is good job in representing the team,” the captain continued while being forced to yell over the crowd.

“Television stars,” Denver threw out.

“Woo-hoo. Good press for the Zullies.” Rock was enjoying himself. Granted, he could be right. We’d had some bad press lately based on a fire in the fall, a situation that had gotten out of control. The fault of an arsonist who’d followed us around, starting other fires to make our jobs a living hell. Then he’d gone and gotten himself killed in the process.

That was the other half of the city and why there’d been a call to shut the program down. That’s why any act of arson was taken very seriously.

I’d wished the arsonist good riddance after almost losing two of our own. Not the best thing to say on camera.

“Yeah, well, that’s not enough.” The jumper with the nickname Raptor seemed more irritated than normal. Maybe because he’d been one of the men who’d almost lost his life trying to save the arsonist.

The captain turned his angered energy his way. “What Axe and Steel did was a damn good thing and that woman and child are lucky to be alive. Needless to say, don’t let it go to your heads.The press might come around sniffing so refer them to our public relations people.”

Oops. I’d already given a plug to the reporters snooping around after the Jeep’s fire.

“Hey, did you get her number at least, Mr. Hero?” one of the Zullies from the back called.

“He already has it,” Axe confided. With another collective sound made by the entire crew, this time my look was one for the history books.

And could easily drill his ass into the ground.

“I have two words,” I started.

“That’s enough. We need to move onto something serious. Chief Taylor. Do you want to start us off?”

“Sure, Captain Daughtry.” The chief of police was a take no bullshit kind of man, which was generally appreciated. “You heard right. We do have a gang in town, which is somewhat unusual. From what we can tell, they’re a group of kids who are likely bored and since they’re out of school, they’re prone to getting into trouble. We generally see an uptick this time of year every year. But this year is a little different. Almost as if their actions are revenge based.”