“There you are.”
He opened his eyes. “I was never lost.”
“But you’re avoiding.” Elin folded her arms across her chest. “The op goes live tomorrow.”
“I figured. Guess I’d better dig out my work boots.”
Her lips curved in a faint smile but the small crease between her brows told him her mind was still churning. “Everyone wants to see you before you go.”
The motto around here was work hard, play hard. And whether it was the entire team deploying or a solo mission, they never wasted an opportunity to play hard.
“Fine.” No point in swimming against the tide. “What’s going on tonight? Another movie no one watches?”
She shook her head, amusement tugging her lips into a full smile. “We’re all going downstairs. Casino night.”
The basement of the mansion housed a shooting range in one wing as well as a lot of wide-open space. But it was the women who realized the house was larger than the basement—at least at first glance. Then they discovered a secret room where the former multimillionaire who built it had a hidden gaming room and bar.
Elin took a step toward him. “Everyone’s already down there.”
He pushed to his feet and rolled his shoulders to shake off the weight of his thoughts. “Let’s go.”
They walked together, not talking, until they reached the door leading to the basement. The closer they got, the louder the hum of voices became.
The door to the secret room was open, and the soft glow from the twinkle lights the ladies hung up cast a golden light across the concrete floor. The space didn’t have the glitter of the Vegas strip, but it boasted a bar, gaming tables and a couple slot machines on one wall.
Sinner stepped in, and Con gave him a chin lift of greeting from his seat at the bar. He wasn’t drinking on the job but cradled one of Sophie’s famous energy smoothies.
Sinner dipped his head in recognition before swinging toward the card table. A game of poker was heating up, and the guys were ribbing Ash about the number of poker chips stacked in his corner of the table.
He caught the grin Ash wore and was happy to see he was beginning to relax and integrate into the team after the years he spent off the battlefield and behind a desk, recruiting men to Blackout.
The ladies were hanging out with their significant others, all enjoying the fun.
Sinner also registered whowasn’tthere.
Opal.
It just solidified what he already knew—she didn’t do bonding.
Abandoning her blender, Sophie rounded the bar and cut a path toward him like a missile with a purpose.
“There you are.” She jabbed a finger at him like she was about to issue him a citation. “You promised.”
His lips twitched. “I promise a lot of things. Narrow it down.”
“The tattoo.” Her eyes sparkled.
Ah. That.
The skill was just a stupid piece of his past he’d mentioned once, and of course Sophie’s mind was a steel vault.
He’d spent a short stint as a tattoo artist when he was a teenager in Chicago. Back before Quantico absorbed him. Back before he became Blackout and ceased to exist.
He’d gotten good—good enough to have an appointment book that stayed full and a shop owner who was happy to have more cash in his pocket.
He eyed Sophie, a former professor who now operated as the team’s cryptologist, cracking all of Cipher’s codes.
“You’re really doing this tonight?”
