---Sage's POV---

Seconds before I woke up completely, I was yanked up from the floor and hauled out of the room. My eyes flew open and tried to look around before I remembered that they had blindfolded me. I perked my ears and started counting the steps, trying to build a mental layout of their headquarters.

We took a few turns and had to go up a few stairs, occasionally tripping over my feet while my guards laughed and yanked me up roughly. As soon as we came up the last set of stairs, we made a sharp right and instantly I was thrown forwards, crashing into a door and forcing it open under my weight.

I cursed softly as I slammed hard into the floor, hearing some amused chuckles in the room I fell into before it grew eerily silent. My heart was thumping wildly and only aggravated my headache, so I took deep breaths and tried to stay as calm as possible.

My skin prickled with all the eyes on me and I had to hold back a shiver from the coolness in the room. I wasn't exactly dressed to keep myself warm; I only had a pair of sweatpants on and one of my casual shirts. The door slowly creaked shut behind me, adding to the building tension in the room.

A hand landed on my shoulder just as I managed to crawl on my feet, a grunt slipping from my lips when they kicked in my knees, which buckled them and forced me to crash down painfully. The hand on my shoulder was joined with one in my hair, gripping painfully tight and yanking my face up before the blindfold was removed.

I opened my eyes warily and stared straight into a spotlight and groaned in agony. Damn, its like they knew I had a concussion and were trying to make it worse. A humorous smile barely managed to keep off my face; they were the ones that caused my condition so I was rather sure they knew I was ill.

"So this is the great hacker that managed to get in and out of our system?" A voice stated with clear disbelief as he slowly walked closer. Cracking my eyes open slightly, I tried to look past the light to stare at the man's face and tried to take in everything I could relay to the guys.

Call it gut instinct but I just knew they were going to come after me with guns blazing and when they managed to find the Black Sun's location, things would turn hectic and probably quite dangerous too.

"Honestly, I expected a little...more. Then again, I was rather surprised when my men informed me that you were providing a small base for Neptune.  Well, like father, like son, right Sage?"

"Shit." I blinked and kept my expression blank although on the inside, I felt a bit of panic rising up. If they really knew who my father was, they might execute me before the guys were even here. Unless they thought-

"It's a shame your father couldn't keep his nose out of our business; that's why we arranged that little accident for him to happen. But you...well, it depends really."

"Depends on what...sir?" I tacked on sarcastically, gaining a thump on my head as the man in front of me growled and made the mistake of stepping closer so I could see his face. Grey was smirking slightly as he tilted his head back and nodded.

"Ah, you want to play games now, do you? No worries, we'll get what we want, one way or another." He looked up and stared at the two men behind me before nodding and turned on his heels. I felt bile rise in my throat as I was yanked up and dragged away to god knows what.

I just knew they were going to start the torture, trying to find out how much I knew of their organization and whom else was informed of this knowledge. Nobody safe for my family and Neptune exactly knew what I found out and I needed t keep that to myself for as long as possible; giving these men the idea that my siblings knew more than just rumors would be hazardous.

My body was weightless for a second as I was tossed into another room, the door slamming shut behind me as I collided with the floor, groaning as the motion jarred my head and created bursts of blinding pain.

The men laughed and said something before moving away, but I couldn't pick it up with the thumping headache. As I shuffled on my hands and knees, I heard a scared whimper in the room and glanced up. A young man, probably in his late twenty, early thirties was cradling his clearly fractured wrist against his chest, avoiding to make eye contact with me.

Another prisoner? What's he in for? Clearing my throat painfully, I winched and moved to place myself closer to the walls. Those guards weren't stupid, since they kept my hands tied behind my back and with that mangled wrist, my fellow prisoner wasn't going to be able to help me out.

"Hey."

His brown eyes flitted to me for a second before he looked down, holding his hand closer to his chest. I felt the sympathy bubbling up; it was obvious this guy has been through a lot, his hair was a mess, his clothes mangled and torn apart and I had to swallow a few times at the infected bite wounds in his legs.

Did they...have they used him as target practice for dogs?! My medical education and interest for the human body took over as I assessed his wounds, focusing on the wounded man across me rather than the state I was in.

From first glances, he had a broken ribs, maybe a fracture in his legs along with several mauling wounds, distinct by the ranging severity of the wounds. On some the dog had simply latched on and released, but in others, its instincts to shake the prey till death had torn the wound open, creating a ragged edge that was quite difficult to heal.

Pushing myself back up, I slowly made my way towards the man before I slid down beside him. A smile crept on my face as I heard him sigh and shiver as our skin made contact. The poor bloke was freezing!

"Hh-h-i..." He stuttered, teeth clicking in cold before he cuddled a bit closer, biting his lip when he bumped several of his wounds. From up close the man looked even worse, a slight sheen of sweat above his lips and brows and a sickly paleness to his skin.

He coughed a few times and slid further down the wall until his head bumped against my shoulder, where he sighed again and closed his eyes. He murmured something and I had to lean down to understand the soft muttering before I realized he said his name.

Timothy.

"I'm Sage." I responded, trying to keep Timothy from focusing on his wounds and keep him awake. Judging from how he was still shivering and shaking, he might had a case of hypothermia, and I couldn't let the need for sleep take over until he had warmed up some more.

Surprisingly, Timothy froze at hearing my name before his shivering got worse and worse, along with a soft, keening sound. "Hey, hey Timothy, what's wrong? Calm down, please." I hushed, frustrated that I couldn't use my arms to help him calm down.

His shoulders shook and I felt a few cool drops on my legs, making me realize he was crying before he blinked up at me. "I'm sorry!" He managed to croak through his tears, shivering all over as he looked down in shame. I didn't understand why he was apologizing but didn't need to wait long for an explanation.

Timothy took a few gasping breaths before he muttered, "I- They k-kidnapped me, threatened to g-go after my fiancée if I didn't...if I didn't-" He stopped and rubbed his hand over his face, his other arm laying limply on his stomach as I felt miserable in the kids place.

Finally, the pained truth slipped from Timothy's lip just seconds before he passed out. "I'm the reason you're here."

---Declan's POV---

The sounds in the room were drummed out as I stared at the map in front of me. Josh was whispering into a phone, shaking his head and motioning with his hands as he talked to HQ.

We were still at Mother's house, no doubt to the surprise of the Black Sun; they probably thought to run us off if they went after us, if they realized we were here because we already knew of them.

My eyes drew back to the bright red pins on the map, where we guessed Sage was brought to. Thank the gods that my love was so smart that he had already figured several of the hiding spots out and informed us of them.

Sharp typing and muttered curses rang in my ears, drawing my gaze towards a frustrated Richard as he was trying to use Sage's evidence to form a flawless plan. We had to, if we wanted to catch every single member of the Black Sun. We couldn't afford to let the bigger fish slip out and only catch the small fry.

No way in HELL were they going to get away with this!

Every second that ticked away was one too much, more time wasted on trying to persuade the HQ that we needed to act and act right freaking now! While those old goons were hesitating and annoyed with trivial things like paperwork, my lover's life was on the line!

"Yes, I know sir. Yes...What? No we can't wait and organize a meeting, we- Yes, Sir, I apologize-" I tuned Josh's conversation out and chose to focus on Samuel as he was staring over Richard's shoulder, nodding or shaking his head and some things he had come up with.

"No, the Northern edge is too visible to be dropped off...Dusty?" I blinked and looked up, reacting to my codename and sighed mutely before walking around the table towards Richard and Samuel. On the way there, I caught a glimpse of my reflection and grimaced before briskly passing the mirror.

It was close to midnight and none of us had a shuteye or something to eat, though Samuel did prepare dinner for the kids before we sent them all to bed. The girls were exhausted to say the least and we even took turns to check on them, just to be on the safe side.

Davy had staid up for the most and looked mostly like me; black rims underneath his eyes and his jaw set in an almost angry tick as he glared at the laptop of his brother, trying to read in between the lines to see if we missed anything.

"Davy?" my voice sounded raspy and cracked, as if I had been crying all night long and I swallowed slightly as everyone's eyes turned on me for a millisecond, eyes flitting over my expression before they went back to business.

"Nothing yet." He said tiredly, rubbing in his eye with a fist while he peered at the screen and scowled slightly when Josh was about to open his mouth for the umpteenth time. "I'm fine!" He added, making Josh nod before he went back to the conversation. He never took his eyes of his boy though.

The looks they shared created a small spark of pain in my chest, but I swallowed it down and instead buried myself under piles of work, thinking of a plan whilst trying to figure out where those men took my fucking man!

Two days passed and my emotions were becoming more and more explosive. Samuel had forced me to eat this morning, since I wasn't taking care of myself. He even went as far as to point out that Sage was going to skin me alive when we saved him.

Davy had been a great help too, suggesting several ways to get more Intel and he even snatched the phone out of Josh's hands and laid it in on our HQ, questioning them on their stalling techniques and the fact that while they were busy playing chicken, the big shots of Black Sun were getting away with corrupting the state and claiming lives of innocent soldiers.

Everyone in the room had grown silent, Josh completely pale and stunned before HQ declared that they would contact us later. Josh had all but hauled Davy on his lap and kissed him till they were both breathless, grinning ear to ear when HQ decided to give us free reigns, as long as we briefed them beforehand.

"Dusty? Hey Declan!"

I blinked and shook my head slightly, feeling tired and woozy before I realized I must've dozed off, staring into the distance and ignoring my food on the table. Josh was shaking my shoulder before he chuckled. "Damn, what were you thinking about? I have called for you three times already." He said in feint annoyance.

"How cheeky and amazing your boyfriend truly is." I said with a dry chuckle, hearing Josh laugh beside me before I grew serious again. "Let's gather our equipment and go over the plan before we set off."

Leaving the scent of freshly baked bread and fried eggs behind us, we walked upstairs to our little room and started collecting everything we would need. I opened my gun and checked the safety pin before I made sure I had a full clip. Josh was busy cleaning his colt up when Richard came into the room with a small frown on his face.

"What's wrong Echo?"

"Hmm? Ugh, I think one of my programs is broken." Richard sighed in frustration as he dropped down on the seat, rubbing his hands over his eyes and grunted. His brown eyes looked tired and irritated, probably from staring at the screen all day long.

Samuel stepped in too,  his nose in the files he was going through, no doubt Intel on all the different locations. He popped his head up for a second before he frowned. "What's wrong with the programs then?"

I looked at Richard too, who was almost tearing his hair out as he grunted, "It just doesn't make any sense at all. The two people we tagged never left the area in the first place. So-"

"Uhm, guys? What is this?"

Everyone looked up at Davy, as he held a needle and empty package in the air, searching our faces for answers. "I swear, if any of you do drugs, I'm gonna- Hey!" He snapped when Josh snatched the empty wrap out of his hands and observed it closely before wordlessly passing it onto Richard.

I let out a choked laugh as I realized what they were holding, a hand slapped over my mouth as an intense wave of relief flooded over my senses. My knees wobbled a bit as Richard instantly darted out of the room in search for his laptop, screaming on the top of his longs to contact HQ.

The room was a flurry of movement, papers fluttering through the air while Josh instantly took the call as I sat down on shaky limbs next to a befuddled looking Davy.

"What just happened?"

I shuddered out a sigh and glanced at Sage's brother, a wobbly smile stretching on my lips. "It appears we found a way to the head of the snake. Your brother is a genius to have come up with this. But if the Black Sun founds out they have bright red dot on the backs of their heads, they'll zone in on Sage. We need to move fast."

Davy glanced at the empty casing of the tracker before he blinked, the pieces slowly falling together until it clicked. "We're closing the net, aren't we?" I nodded as we both stood up and headed for the living room, where all our gear was ready for takeoff.

I'm coming for you Sage. And nobody better steps in my way.