At the sound of his name, he turned toward me and walked toward me. “Hey, what’s up?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you. What the hell is the matter with you?”
He frowned at me, looking surprised. “What are you talking about?”
I gestured toward the field. “All that. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Nico glanced around and seemed confused. “What?”
Sighing, I pointed toward his brothers, who stood in a clump, pulling bottled water out of a cooler. “You chewed Mateo’s and Gabriel’s asses out for some pretty simple mistakes. Then you made that kid over there feel like shit for just stepping wrong. Everyone out here is walking on eggshells around you today because you’re snapping at them left and right. What’s going on?”
As I spoke, I could see Nico’s face go from a defensive scowl to an embarrassed frown. He sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s the stress. It’s almost too much to handle. I didn’t even realize I was being like that.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Nico shrugged. “It’s a big day. Luis is supposed to call this afternoon.”
Once Felipe had returned with the brothers from the reptile shifter clan, Luis had gone to work setting up the plans to infiltrate the safe houses. Today was the day they’d planned on attempting reconnaissance of one of the houses. I knew it was important, as well as dangerous, but that didn’t make it any easier to see Nico like this.
“I really just want Luis to call and let me know if things went well,” Nico said.
Luis and the brothers were going to fly into a nearby city and drive the rest of the way. It would have been quicker and more efficient to fly directly into the city they were being held in, but the royals were smart. They’d likely be watching incoming flights. Plus, with the kind of money and influence they had, they could just pass along a few bribes to get the passenger manifest to any flight they wanted. They'd know Nico or his friends were on the way before they ever landed. Luis was doing this the safe way. It simply made things take a lot longer.
Thankfully, both safe houses the royals had used were in the United States. The final meet at the end of the month would also be in the States. At least that's what we all thought. I knew it didn’t really matter where that final meeting took place—it wouldn’t end well.
“I think you need a break,” I said. “Let one of your brothers or Felipe run the training session the rest of the day. What do you say?”
Nico looked pained and glanced back at the field. I knew he wanted to stay.
“Listen, you were pretty hard on everyone today. It might be best if they take a little break from you.”
Nico sighed sadly and gave me a single nod. “Yeah. Probably for the best. Maybe I can do better tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be in a better mood.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” I said, relieved that he agreed with me.
“Felipe?” Nico called as we walked toward his friend.
“Yeah?” Felipe was in the middle of eating a granola bar.
“I need to blow off some steam. Can you take over for me?”
Felipe raised his eyebrows and glanced around to make sure he couldn’t be heard. “So, Maddy told you to stop being a dickhead?”
“Shit,” Nico hissed. “Basically, yeah. Can you make sure we run the op I was talking about? Out in the woods with limited visibility?”
Felipe waved him on. “Got it, got it. Go relax.”
Nico took my hand, and I led him up to the house. I could tell he felt bad about how the day had gone. By the time we got to the back porch, he was in a pretty pathetic mood.
“I hate that I was so hard on everyone. I’m the alpha, but the Lorenzos have always led by being calm, kind, and levelheaded. Like my dad and my grandpa before him.”
I stopped walking and put a hand on his chest. “Hey, it’s okay. Everyone has a bad day. Even an alpha. I bet if you asked your dad, he could tell you some stories about times he was a really annoying asshole.”
Nico laughed at that. Seeing his smile was better than the depressed frown he’d been wearing. It gave me a happy little flutter in my stomach, knowing I’d been the one to lighten his mood. I wanted to kiss him. The moment for that disappeared as his phone chirped in his pocket. He yanked it out, and his eyes went wide.
He glanced up at me. “It’s Luis.”
“Answer it,” I said in a hushed whisper, as though I might ruin the mission if I spoke too loud even though they were hundreds of miles away.
