Shaking his head, he let out a sigh. What the hell did he just get himself into?
CHAPTER FOUR
“Rumor has it that you asked a girl out,” Tash said with a smirk from the passenger seat of Xander’s Range Rover.
“Oh, holy shit,” Xander grumbled, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel.
“What?” Tash asked, the picture of innocence. But they’d been teammates for nearly eight years, so he knew that I’m-so-innocent thing she did was a crock of shit. “I heard from a very reliable source that you swooped in and rescued her from some douche, kissed her, charmed the shit out of her, and were all googly-eyed by the end of the night.”
“Moon-eyed,” Abbot chimed in from the back seat. “I’m pretty sure Carmichael said Xan was all moon-eyed.”
“Oh, pardon me. I stand corrected.” Tash grinned from ear to ear.
It was seven thirty in the morning and way too early for this bullshit. When he’d met up with the team he’d picked to review the security at Pacific View Resort, he’d hoped for a nice, quiet morning. No such luck.
Xander was the head of the personal security division for Hudson Security, an elite team of mostly former special forces and alphabet agency operatives. They currently had three teamsof three, and he led Team One, which consisted of himself, Natasha “Tash” Silver, and Bennett Wilson, who was following them in another Hudson Security vehicle with Carmichael, who was the lead for Team Two. Samantha Abbot was the lead of Hudson Security’s four-person cyber group.
He glanced at Tash. “You know, Carmichael being yourvery reliable sourceis nothing but trouble.”
She shrugged. “You’re just salty because he’s not wrong. Besides, it’s not like you’ve denied any of his intel.”
“I’m sure I can pull the resort’s video footage once we’re there, and we can see it all firsthand,” Abbot said with a little too much enthusiasm in her voice.
“It’s way too freaking early for this,” he muttered, scrubbing a hand over his jaw.
“Oh, suck it up, bud. How are you not used to us by now?”
How, indeed? Tash was a damn fine operative. The woman was a fierce fighter and lethal with any sort of blade. All in all, an absolute badass he was happy to have watching his six. Abbot’s talents were more focused on all things digital, and she was no less impressive. He’d happily take a bullet for either woman.
However, put the two women together—a comical yin and yang of personalities—and they turned into annoying little sisters who were all about giving him shit. He didn’t have any siblings, but he’d been reassured by their colleagues who did that this was normal. Standard operating procedure even.Yay me. All he knew was that he needed to shut this conversation down ASAP.
“Besides,” Abbot said, oblivious to his growing headache, “it’s your fault for being all moon-eyed in front of Carmichael. You know the only thing he loves more than gossip is pus?—”
“Eww. Nope,” Tash cut in. “Donotfinish that sentence. I swear, I don’t need that image in my head this early in the damn morning.”
Abbot laughed. “Sorry. You do have a point.” There were three blessed seconds of silence before she piped up again. “So you want me to run a check on this girl for you?”
“Holy shit, no.” He groaned, pulling into the Pacific View Resort’s parking lot. He caught Abbot’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “And make sure Bean and the rest of cyber don’t run one either.” He put the car in park, thankful they’d arrived at their destination, and got out of the SUV. Rounding the hood, he met the two women at the front. “Now, can we not talk about this? We need to focus. Be professional and shit, okay?”
Abbot snorted while Tash chuckled and gestured with her hand. “After you, oh paragon of virtue.”
Rolling his eyes, he met Wilson and Carmichael in front of their vehicle.
“Thanks a lot, asshole,” he grumbled to Carmichael.
His supposed friend burst into laughter. Because of course he did.
“Hey,” Carmichael said with his hands raised. “Wasn’t it my duty to report to the team what we observed last night?”
Xander shook his head. “I’m sure you forgot to regale them with tales of you and the blonde, though.”
Abbot snickered, shouldering her laptop bag. “A blonde? Geez, could you be more predictable?”
Carmichael wrinkled his nose. “Nothing actually happened with Hazel last night.”
Xander snorted, slapping him on the shoulder. “Right, dude. We’re talking about the same chick, right? Tall, blond, dead ringer for Barbie, and looked like she wanted to devour you?”
“You know that no one here believes you, right?” Tash teased.
