“Oh, for the love of Paul Konerko,” Emily complained, looping her arm through Christian’s. The Brit looked dapper, as always, in a tailored Hugo Boss suit. Emily looked pretty spiffy, too, in a red knee-length slip dress. She’d deigned to put away her yoga pants and ratty sweatshirts for the occasion. “You two keep that up for much longer, and I’m gonna need to bleach my eyeballs.”
“Oh, let them have their fun, darling.” Christian hugged her close. His English accent made the last word sound more like dahling. “It’s not every day a bloke learns he’s going to be a father.” He looked meaningfully at Emily. Just last week they had announced they were expecting a bouncing baby boy sometime around the first of June.
“Knew you had it in you, partner.” Mac had risen from the sofa to slap a hand against Boss’s back.
Then everyone crowded around Becky and Boss to offer their congratulations. The dog, excited by the activity, raced around the group, barking happily, his tail whacking people on the backs of the knees and making them wince.
Rusty saw Sonya hold back from the celebrating group. As the newest member of BKI’s tight-knit assemble, she still wasn’t confident in her place. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, understanding what it was to be the odd man out. He wanted to assure her that to love a Black Knight was to become a Black Knight. “I’m so glad you and Angel made the trip from Paris. It’s a long flight, and I know how busy you both are.”
“Angel wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” When she grinned up at him, Rusty understood why Angel was crazy about her. There was goodness in her eyes and sweetness in her smile. Both proved that beneath her tough Interpol agent exterior lay a heart of gold.
Of course, he would always think he and Ace had the most epic love story of all time. But he could admit that maybe Angel’s and Sonya’s came in a close second.
“Hey!” Ozzie yelled around the clamor of voices. “Quiet down everybody! I have it. Becky, if it’s a boy, you two should name him Jedediah Isaac.”
“What?” Becky wrinkled her nose, sharing a look of confusion with Boss. “Why?”
“Because then he’ll be Jed I. Knight.” Ozzie mimed a three-beat drum solo. “Bah-dum-tiss.”
Everyone groaned as Steady Soto and his pretty wife, Abby, emerged from the hall leading to the kitchen. Given Steady’s disheveled hair and Abby’s kissed-off lipstick, there wasn’t much question what they’d been up to. “What’d we miss?” Steady asked.
“Becky’s pregnant!” Emily announced, doing a happy dance complete with finger guns. “Finally!”
Steady and Abby cheered, and the excited questions and raunchy jokes about Boss’s aging pistol still having a few rounds left started up again. Then the alarm on Boss’s watch went off. He glared down the thing as if it’d personally offended him.
“Well, shit.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I’d hoped to run all this by you guys before they arrived, but I didn’t want to fuck up Ace and Rusty’s big day. Then I was having so much fun that time slipped away.”
“Maybe they won’t come.” Becky glanced out the windows at the swirling snow. “Maybe the blizzard kept them away.”
“Hope so.” Boss made a face. “Didn’t realize everyone would be staying over when I extended the invitation. Where the hell are they gonna sleep?”
“We’ll put them in the foreman’s cottage,” Becky patted his arm reassuringly. “There’s the sofa and the blowup mattresses and—”
“Excuse me,” Ozzie interrupted. “Run all what by us?”
Boss didn’t answer. He simply stomped over to the far wall where Becky usually kept one of her rolling tool chests. After hitting the big red button affixed to the bricks, a beeping sound had everyone turning to the opposite wall.
“What in the world?” Sonya murmured from beside Rusty, her eyes wide as a section of the wall slowly slid open. Two seconds ago it had been a seamless brick expanse. Now, it revealed a growing black hole.
“It’s the Bat Cave,” Rusty told her.
“Bat cave?” She blinked in disbelief.
“I’ll explain it to her.” Angel appeared beside them. He disdainfully tossed Rusty’s arm from around Sonya’s shoulders, the look on his face saying Get your own.
Rusty chuckled and stepped aside. Angel was a smidge proprietary when it came to Sonya. Okay, so maybe more than a smidge.
Feeling a warm, familiar hand slide into his, Rusty smiled over at his husband. Husband! I have a husband! “Any clue what’s going on?” he whispered from the side of his mouth.
“Not one.” Ace shook his head.
Together they watched as the wall continued to slide on hidden tracks, the black hole getting larger and larger until the smell of damp concrete filled the shop. For a while, there seemed to be a whole lot of nada in the Bat Cave. Then, squinting, Rusty was able to pick up movement. Within five seconds, six men appeared out of the gloom to stand in the opening. They all wore cargo pants and combat boots. Army green duffel bags hung from their hands and from around their shoulders.
Rusty recognized their hip-shot stances and the looks on their faces. Looks of intelligence mixed with the kind of toughness and stoicism that only came about after a person had danced with the devil too many times to count. To a man, they were military, certainly. Spec ops most likely.
Rusty looked over at Ace and raised a questioning brow. Ace shook his head.
“The president of the United States has realized there are certain things she needs accomplished that can’t be done using traditional forces,” Boss announced.
