Chapter Twenty-Two
Declan
Declan escorted Lily into the new headquarters for Ghostpoint Security and knew, without question, the team was going to give him a hard time. He’d talked about her, a lot, but until now he hadn’t introduced them to her.
Steele and Holden were going over plans for an addition to the facility—a training room that would give them enough space to work out in properly—when they walked in. “Holy shit, it’s about damn time you brought your woman by, Dec,” Steele said with a grin.
“We were beginning to think you were ashamed of us,” Holden joked. “Hey, Sasha, Echo, Nikolai, get out here. Dec’s brought his woman by to meet us,” he added, raising his voice so the others could hear him.
Declan groaned at their teasing. “And now you know why I kept her away.”
Lily laughed. “They’re not so bad.”
The other three came into the main room from different directions, and Declan slipped his arm around Lily’s waist to pull her closer. “Everyone, this is Lily. Lily, this is everyone,” he said with a wink. “The wiseguy there is Steele, the walking tank is Holden. And obviously that’s Nikolai, Sasha, and Echo.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Lily. We’ve heard a lot about you,” Echo said. “Dec here has it bad for you, girlfriend.”
Lily grinned. “Yeah, I know, but that’s okay since it’s pretty much mutual.”
“Oh, I like you. I can already tell you’re going to be good for our Declan,” Sasha told her. “He actually smiles now. Do you have any idea how hard it used to be to get that man to crack even a small smile? It was like pulling teeth!”
Declan glared at her and they all laughed in response. “Ignore them,” he grumbled in Lily’s ear.
Lily kissed his cheek. “It’s okay, they’re just glad to see you happy.”
“Dec’s a lucky bastard, that’s for sure,” Steele said with a nod. “Did he tell you about the new business?”
Lily nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s great. I assume you’ll be adding more to your staff? Otherwise y’all are going to be very tired because you’ll never get a break.”
“Gorgeous and smart—you lucked out, man,” Steele said with a laugh. “Yeah, we’re already working on that.”
Declan tightened his arm around her. “Don’t I know it? Like Steele said, we’re already working on adding to the staff. There are a few others who left Special Ops for various reasons; we’re reaching out to them first, then going from there.” There were always ‘vigilante’ types who worked well with others that they could reach out to as well. In their line of work they’d met a lot of different people.
Lily
When they first entered the building, Lily was a little nervous about meeting the team he’d spent so many years with. They knew him in a way she never would. Would they approve of her? It wasn’t like her to care so much about what others thought but these people were important to him. “I have to say, I’m pretty lucky too. I mean, have you looked at him? He’s hot,” she said with a wink at her mate. “But, seriously, I’ve seen how controlling some Alpha males can be with their mates. Declan doesn’t try to control me. Not too much anyway.”
“Something tells me if he did that, there would be hell to pay,” Echo said with a laugh.
“Hell yeah, there would be. When my father tried that shit, I disappeared for six years.”
“Oh yeah, I definitely like you,” Sasha said.
“Me too—she’s feisty—she’ll be keeping Dec on his toes,” Steele put in.
“Keeping our esteemed leader on his toes is a good thing,” Holden said with a grin in Declan’s direction.
“All right, all right, I’m beginning to regret bringing Lily here to meet all of you. Where’s the respect for your leader?”
“We’re just showing you how much we love you,” Nikolai deadpanned.
They all laughed at that. “Yeah, yeah,” Declan grumbled and shook his head.
“Now I know why you like them so much; they’re definitely an interesting group of people,” Lily said after a moment.
“Hear that, guys? We’re ‘interesting’,” Steele joked. “My job here is done.”
Sasha shook her head at him. “He can be serious when he needs to be. The jokester is Steele’s way of dealing with shit.”
