“You know the rule! I need to be able to get a latte that I know wasn’t spit in by some jilted lover of yours.”
Parker pushes Omar’s shoulder. “To be fair, I didn’t know they worked at the coffee shop until I met them at the new tapas place on Second.”
Darting her eyes to Abigail, she throws Rafi a narrow-eyed warning. “The bigger point is that all of you have gotten sloppy with the weapons locker and could stand to be more aware. I’m happy to help you organize things, but one, I am plenty busy with intercepting and translating communications. And two, I’m neither your maid service nor your mother.”
Anders, who can’t help himself, says, “Bet you’d look good in a maid costume, though.”
Parker gives him a saucy grin. “You know it.”
DB sighs heavily and the entire room quiets down. “Are y’all done impressing our newest recruit with how professional we all are?”
We all turn our attention to Abigail, and while she doesn’t look impressed, there’s a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. We may win her over yet.
“Excellent. Any opposed to this operation?”
No hands go up.
“All right. Thane, you take it from here.”
I thumbs-up my boss and we walk through the particulars. Abigail has a few smart suggestions, which we implement. Ronan has been quiet for most of the discussion, but as we wrap up, he walks up to me, looking disgruntled.
“What’s up, Ro?” I casually ask, as though I haven’t repeatedly relived the slicky-hot feeling of pushing my cum into his body.
“Why didn’t we discuss what I’ll be doing?”
I shrug, confused. “You’ll be doing the same thing you always do, supporting us from here.”
His face heats up and the most beautiful little snarl lights up his pretty lips. “No. I’m going on this op. DB said I could.”
It’s now my turn to look confused. “Why would you be going on this op with us?”
He narrows his eyes at me and speaks with the tiniest hint of a growl. “I need to be able to see an op close up so I can make better decisions.”
“You did see an op close up. A little too close for my liking.”
I pick up one of the guns that Parker was talking about and walk over to the cabinet to begin the process of taking it apart and cleaning it. Ronan follows me, undeterred.
“You and I both know that op wasn’t typical. I need to be there on a typical op so I can be absolutely sure I’m making the right calls in the heat of things.”
I grab the double-ended utility brush and make sure to take care of the gun’s finer details. “Not gonna happen.”
He pulls the brush from my hand, then the gun. “It’s already been approved by DB.”
I nail DB with my least pleasant look, lifting my eyebrows.
DB shakes his head. “We’ve already talked about this, Thane. He’ll do better in here if he understands more out there.”
Turning to Ro, I grit my teeth. “You had to know this would piss me off.”
“I warned him,” DB says, amusement playing in his eyes.
“I was unmoved.” Ro says, smiling as he rests his hands on his hips.
Looking at his hands, he curses the gun powder now on his jeans. Meanwhile, I try not to think about kissing a path from his hip to his cock and instead try to figure a way out of this.
I turn to Ro and put a finger in his face. “This isn’t over.”
“Fine by me.”
