“Well, hey there, handsome.” Marge winked at me as she tossed the menu down on the table in front of me. “Haven’t seen you in a minute.”
I chuckled and shoved the menu back toward her. “Yeah, I got called back to active duty pretty suddenly, so I’m restarting my time off with an extra two weeks in compensation for the inconvenience.”
Marge nodded, smacking her gum loudly. “I heard about that mess that went down over at the Omega school. Sounds like y’all handled it pretty well.” She snagged the menu and added it back to the tray balanced on her hip. “Guessin’ you know what you want?”
I ordered my usual triple carnivore burger, fries, and a beer but Marge stayed put, one dyed red brow raised.
“What?”
“No Shirley Temple today?”
Despite all of the stolen moments I’d spent with Ari during the ODI job, he’d never given me any indication that he was interested in seeing me again.
I snorted and shook my head. “Naw, I finally gave up. He’s not interested.”
Marge’s second brow joined the first, but she shrugged and walked away, returning just long enough to drop off my beer. I nursed it while I waited on my lunch, thumbing through the day’s news on my cell phone. When Kade’s number flashed on the screen, I rolled my eyes. Even though he and I had reached a tentative truce during my time at ODI, I wasn’t under any delusions that he was reaching out because he missed my smiling face and endearing personality.
Hitting the speaker button to answer the call, I barked my surname in greeting. “Honstein.”
“Fang, hey,” Kade’s voice had a strange tone. “How’s tricks?”
“Don’t know who that is,” I snarked, intentionally misunderstanding. “What’s on your mind?”
“Ah, well,” Kade huffed and it sounded like he was stifling a laugh. “Nothing on mine. Actually, Chuck’s got a lot on his plate and asked me to give you a call and see if you could swing by ODI tomorrow?” Kade’s voice pitched up, turning the statement into a question.
I heaved a sigh, not bothering to stifle it. “What for?”
“I can’t answer that,” Kade said, sounding absolutely thrilled for some weird reason. “But he said to tell you that if you don’t come in voluntarily, he’ll have to reach out to your C.O.”
Granted, I was on leave and fully within my rights to tell him to pound sand, but what the fuck could he need me for so badly that he’d tattle on me to my commanding officer? I scowled at the plate Marge slid in front of me.
“What time?”
“Noon works best for them, if you can swing it?”
Them? I huffed again. Whatever. “Yeah, sure. I’ll be there.”
“Great!” Kade was beginning to sound downright giddy which made it clear that whatever the reason that I was being summoned to ODI, I definitely wasn’t going to like it.
~*~
“Can you run that by me again?” I knew I was staring at Chuck but since he was glaring back at me, I didn’t think my attitude was the reason.
“Which part of you knocked up one of the Omegas while you were on a mission are you not getting?” Chuck snapped back, his lips pulling back into a snarl.
“The part where it would be fucking impossible because I didn’t fuck any of your Omegas or anyoneelsewhile I was on the damn mission!” I shot back. “How the hell could I knock someone up without sex?”
“Okay, okay,” Kade’s husband, Jeremy, interjected firmly. “Yelling and cursing at each other isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
“Neither is dragging me in here on some trumped-up fucking accusations!” I snapped. “If an Omega told you I knocked them up, they’re lying!”
“Bullshit!” Chuck snarled back. “And the victim didn’t report you,” he continued, still glaring. “He refused to name the bastard who took advantage of him. You were confirmed through the Alpha DNA registration database.”
“Then the sample was compromised or a mistake was made,” I insisted. “I didn’t have sex withanyoneduring the mission!”
“Please,” Jeremy interrupted, clapping his hands to catch our attention. “This isn’t getting us anywhere and we still need to bring Connery into this discussion.”
“What?” I swung around in my chair to stare at Jeremy. “Why?”
