“I think she knows most of it.” Nissa furrowed her brow, trying to recall what she had already told her. “I think the only thing you wouldn’t know is that I was recruited into Mossad for their Combat Intelligence Collection Corps after my military service. Or did we discuss that?”
Evie shook her head, impressed. “I knew you were Mossad before you joined Shin Bet, but not what you did there.”
“And I still can’t tell you exactly what I did.” Nissa chuckled warmly. “But I’m sure you can draw your own conclusion.”
“So that’s why Mom never noticed you when I asked you to follow her,” Evie realized. She had often wondered how Della never noticed Nissa, whom she had spent time with socially, tailing her when Evie wanted to make sure she wasn’t drinking again.
“Well, that and a variety of wigs,” Nissa said with a smirk before nodding toward the blonde woman sitting on Evie’s other side.
Evie turned toward her, smiling as she waited for the introduction. The woman was taller than both Evie and Nissa, standing around five feet seven, and fairly muscular, as shown by her toned arms and calves. She had ash-blond hair, bright cornflower-blue eyes, and that effortlessly “girl-next-door” prettiness.
“Paula Denton,” she said shortly, offering a polite but distant smile. “Formerly with the CIA.”
She didn’t elaborate, and after a brief, awkward silence, the blonde man across from her cleared his throat, drawing Evie’s attention.
He was tall, probably over six feet, though she couldn’t tell by how much. He was shorter than the man sitting beside him and Thorn, but taller than Tommy. With broad shoulders, dirty blond hair, and blue eyes, he looked like someone who had probably been a quarterback and homecoming king.
“Aaron Denton,” he said with a warm smile, though his eyes flicked over her appraisingly. “Also former CIA. But I’ll add that my wife and I both graduated from Harvard Law.”
Evie smiled and inclined her head politely. If he hadn’t said they were married, she might have assumed they were siblings. They both had that clean, all-American kind of good looks that were blandly inoffensive and slightly boring. The wayAaron mentioned Harvard felt more like an attempt to one-up her than to provide context.
“Hi!” The man next to Aaron, Cole, leaned forward with a warm smile. “Nice to finally meet you, I’m Cole Wright, former army, been out for about two years.”
Evie felt her smile become genuine. Cole was effortlessly warm and welcoming, and seemed genuinely thrilled to meet her. Tall and slender with sandy brown hair and pale blue-grey eyes, he also appeared to be the type of person you would see, but not notice, if that made sense.
“And we met in the reception area.” Lana smiled at her from Coles' other side. “But I’ll wait until our coffee date before I go too in-depth with the background.”
“That’s everyone for now. Recruitment is a slow process, and I’m looking for the best.” Tommy stretched as he stood, letting out a low groan. “I’m sure you’ll all get to know one another over the next few weeks, but for now, you’re free to go, unless Nissa has something she needs to cover.”
“Just need to go over some quick housekeeping things.” She logged on to her computer, and a second later, she was sharing her screen with the TV monitor at the back of the room. “Lana and I have finished the new reporting system and uploaded it. This will help streamline the process and ensure that all reports follow the same format. When you have a chance, please review and update your past reports using this format. There’s no rush on that; they’ve already been submitted, but don’t procrastinate on it either.”
“Oh, that’s much simpler,” Cole remarked, nodding in approval as Nissa scrolled through the new reporting program. “Nice job.”
“That’s what we were hoping.” Nissa smiled. “Other than that, please make sure all expense claims for this quarter are in by the end of next week if you want to get reimbursed.”
She disconnected from the screen at the back of the room and logged off the computer. “That’s it for me.”
“Perfect, then everyone but Cole and Nissa may leave.”
"I'm looking forward to working with you all." Evie smiled as everyone else stood up and left the room, Thorn giving her another huge hug and telling her he would see her at dinner that night before heading off. When it was just the four of them, Tommy grinned.
“Before I give Evie the grand tour of the rest of the floors, I wanted to ask if you two could train her in self-defence for my peace of mind."
“Tommy…” Evie sighed. “You already made me take self-defence classes, remember?”
She had hated every second of them. Fighting wasn’t her strong suit, and even Thorn had shaken his head in dismay more than once during their sessions.
“You are improving,” Thorn said mildly as he helped her off the mat. “At this rate, you will be proficient by the time you are eighty.”
Evie groaned and put her hands in the small of her back, stretching to relieve the ache. Even when Thorn went easy on her, he still managed to throw her every time. “Maybe I should just get a gun.”
“In New York?” He raised an eyebrow. “You would have better luck winning the lottery. But yes, perhaps I could help you apply for a concealed carry permit, purely for my amusement.”
The memory made her smile, and she was pulled from it when Tommy came around the table and gently squeezed her shoulders, helping her to her feet.
“Nissa also has a ballet background,” he said, “and she can show you how to use your dance training to fight and how to use your opponent’s size against him.” He grinned. “Which is where Cole comes in.”
“Looking forward to being the bad guy,” Cole chuckled, giving her a quick salute before following Nissa toward the door.
