Chapter 1

Keldin Allen Somme walked out of his high-rise apartment with the ease of a scared fox. The recent college graduate was so skittish recently that it was a miracle that he could leave his apartment at all.

It had been three months since he had broken it off with his long time lover. He and John had been together since he was twenty and John was eighteen. After a drawn out argument, John had cheated on him. In his own bed.

Keldin was a one partner type of guy so it had crushed him. He had tried to make it work but the trust just wasn't there anymore. So he had moved out of their apartment and across the country to San Francisco where he had lived before.

He had gone to school and gotten his degree in finance then started working with the family business. His older brother was the international liaison of the family so he had someone with him at all times. At twenty-four, he was already a multimillionaire with a good job, good family, and good friends.

They had taken care of business together, and when things got tough, they leaned on each other with so much it was hard to breathe. He had so much to do at any one time he was fine working odd hours. He barely slept anyway so he might as well make use of the time he was awake.

Keldin walked into work with his head held high. It was still tough for him to be alone but he was steadily getting used to it. Even the last guy he had talked to had said he was too much to handle and had opted to remain friends.

"Hey, Keldin," Minnie Perkins said as he walked by the front desk. "Your brother and Tyler are in the conference room. They asked me to tell you to meet them there when you got in."

"Thanks, Minnie," he replied. He took the elevator to the third floor, took a left and walked to the end of the hall. Whenever they showed up at one time, it meant there was a new job that needed to be done. If they were in his domain, it meant it was his turn to figure things out.

He entered the room with a sigh, closing the door behind him. "Hey, guys."

His brother turned around to look at him. "Hey, Kel."

Austin Sinclair Somme was Keldin's identical twin. He had the same auburn hair, height and build as his brother. The only difference was their eyes. One of Keldin's was green. Austin was looking at him with those crystal blue eyes that somehow saw everything.

In this instance, he was looking at him with concern. He looked him up and down for the longest, eyes lingering on his face for a long moment.

"I'm fine, brother. What's the case?" he asked. He sat down with an easy sigh and opened his computer.

"Skander Giles; age 22. Son of Senator Peter Giles. Graduate of Colombia University and a graphic designer. He's being targeted because his father's supposedly signing a bill that would force others like us to sign the list," Tyler replied as he handed them a file.

Tyler Michael James was the resident linguist and security technician. He knew sixty-seven different languages. Like the two of them, he had a super high I.Q. and could come up with anything that would help in a time like this. It also meant he was their Intel guy.

The list as they'd come to call it was a registration for those who weren't considered humans. Many in Congress thought it would make life a little easier on them if they knew who else was in their world. God forbid something be different.

Right now, it was a secret but it was slowly gaining momentum. If Congress brought it to a vote, it was sure to pass because people were afraid of anything different.

"Who are we sending out for this mission?" Austin asked as he skimmed the file.

"She asked for you, Keldin."

Keldin looked up from studying the file in front of him. He licked the corner of his mouth. "Why me?"

"This is a delicate situation. A few months ago, Skander was a victim of gay hazing in his company. He was sodomized by a foreign object and badly beaten. If any man other than his father or brother gets around him, he gets skittish. If these factions get a hold of him, there's no telling what might happen to him. Your experience with this situation gives you the most qualification."

Keldin stared down at the paper. He had been lucky. When he came out, he'd had a huge support group. His best friends had chased the bullies away from him when they came to pick on him. There was one time he almost had a run in but luckily he could fight.

He looked at the kid's picture. He looked younger than twenty-two. He had black hair with blue undertones. The eyes that looked at him were a haunted green. This boy had gone through some things for that look to be there.

"Keldin?" He looked up into his ex partner's eyes. There was compassion in his eyes. He knew how Keldin felt about things like this. "Are you going to take it?"

With one more look down at the frightened boy, he nodded. "Yeah, I'll take it. Someone needs to help this boy."

Tyler nodded. "Your team's already been assembled. You leave on the next flight to New York."

Keldin nodded and they were dismissed. He collected his bag and left the room. After getting back on the elevator, he hit the basement button.

As the elevator descended, his thoughts returned to the boy. He was going to have to tread lightly on this. If he scared him in any way, there wasn't going to be bringing him back to their side. His gut told him to get the kid and get back to San Francisco so he had the company at his back.

His team was assembled when he stepped into the bunkers. His reconnaissance technician Deuce Martin was lacing his boots as Keldin began stripping for the mission. The back door opened as Abigail Suez walked in. The only female on the team and the sniper was a tough little cookie. Keldin saw her take down two sumo wrestlers alone. The final two were Landen Donovan, Intelligence extraordinaire, and Cougar Jordan, weapons expert. The two had been glued to the hip since Keldin had put his team together.

"Where are we going, boss?" Deuce asked as he made sure he had extra clips for his weapons just in case he needed them.

Keldin slid his thin Kevlar vest on then tightened his belt. Slipping his twin Glocks into their holsters at his back, he replied, "New York. Our new charge is there. We're going to retrieve him and bring him back here."

Abigail frowned. "This must be a sensitive subject then."

Deuce looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Usually we're only asked to go tend to situations in our Sector only. If we're asked to go to a different Sector, it's to either back up another team or to go on delicate situations." She turned to her boss. "Why are we going to New York?"

He had never lied to his team before so there was not a reason to now. "A kid was sexually assaulted and we're going to collect him before anything happens to him on his father's account."

Landen's brow furrowed. "His father's account? Who's his father?"

"Senator Peter Giles."

Cougar nodded. "Enough said. Let's go."

Keldin was happy his team understood. They knew he was gay and they still respected him. That meant more to him than anything and it made him an even better leader.

They piled into a black SUV. Leaving Deuce to drive to the airport, Keldin took the time to plan his strategy for locating and extracting.