“Fine. But later, we’ll play games.Videogames.”
Joe groaned. “I’m no good at that stuff.”
“Look, we shoot at paper targets, no one gets hurt,” Hal said. “Then we virtually shoot at digital targets, and no one gets hurt. Plus, you can be an alien, an orc king, or an alt-universe dictator if you want.”
Joe thought about it. “Hmm. An orc king? I’m in.” He and Hal started for the back door. “Meet us out at the range, Jane.”
She watched them leave and shook her head. Some things never changed. In their downtime, the guys gravitated toward the things they liked. The same things they did for work.
Jane had no complaints. Heck, she’d modeled her lifestyle after theirs. As she went to exchange her business suit for jeansand a sweatshirt, she thought about the many years she’d spent acclimating to a family who made a living hunting bad guys.
She’d learned hand-to-hand self-defense and offensive tactics from a young age. Knife-fighting, weapons training, and map orientation had been staples in her teen years. The softer side of feelings and talking out trouble, not so much.
She checked her phone before exiting the back door. The news app revealed a breaking story about two people violently shot in Seattle. A young couple had been gunned down in what looked like a gang-style shooting during the holidays.
She sighed and put her phone down, intentionally leaving it behind.
Life was hard enough. She needed to unwind with loved ones. To celebrate the coming holiday and figure out what the heck to buy everyone. Some fun target practice with the guys was exactly what she needed to relax right now.
She really had missed them and couldn’t wait until everyone returned.
But as she joined them in the weapons range behind the house, she wondered if the gang-style shooting had any connection to the Mazzucas, and if her old friends at the Seattle field office might be looking into it.
Or telling the Mazzucas all that they knew.
CHAPTER FIVE
Christmas morning brought slush,some practical gifts—socks from Hal and a new calendar from Joe, both of which she loved—and a report from Grace that didn’t shed light on much. Unfortunately, Grace hadn’t found any secrets or scandal lingering around Jane’s Seattle colleagues, though she promised to continue digging.
But Jane hadn’t been bored while waiting for the holiday to pass. Hal put her through her paces with some challenging games of Scrabble and, according to Joe, other nerdy word games. Joe insisted she practice her marksman skills, finding her lacking, which annoyed her into proving him wrong. She’d doubled up on her weight training. And while running—on a treadmill—she’d pored over every article in social media on the Mazzuca crime family that she could find.
Due to the holiday season, the cleaning staff had time off. So Jane also happily scrubbed and vacuumed and dusted the house, secretly pleased the guys continued to make a mess of the kitchen, giving her an excuse to clean up after them.
On Christmas evening, while Hal went out with a lady friend and Joe played Santa with his family out in Tacoma, she had the house to herself. The fireplace crackled and warmed the chillyliving room, the atmosphere cheery since the guys had insisted on getting a real tree, decorated with the ornaments they’d retrieved from the attic.
Jane smiled, spotting a few she and her cousin had made for her uncle and the team, including a few childish drawings of a large group of men helping Santa pull his sleigh. Though members of Team Ten had come and gone, the core group remained.
She appreciated the ease of sharing memories and laughter with Hal and Joe. They didn’t demand more than she wanted to offer. She had no trouble being kind to those she loved and appreciated their snarky attempts to one-up her in everything from games to shooting to a few “easy” jogs around the property.
Like Jane, both Hal and Joe understood and encouraged competition. That was why when Uncle Sam needed results, they reached out to Team Ten, the mercs who got things done. Period.
She wanted to get back to that, the ability to do her job to the best of her ability. To take down criminals and serve them justice.
Despite enjoying the holiday atmosphere and reconnecting with family, the part of herself she’d been trying to ignore itched to be more productive than just cleaning house and building muscle.
Her phone rang, and she practically dove for it, hoping for anything to alleviate the doldrums of being away from work so long.
“Yo, spaz, nice you finally answered the phone.”
Jane swallowed a sigh at the husky female voice on the other end. “Merry Christmas to you too, Raine.”
Her cousin chuckled. “Ho ho ho. So what’s going on that I’m missing out on?”
Jane settled into the large chair near the fireplace and placed her phone down, speaker on. “Well, Hal and Joe still can’t beat me in a foot race. But Joe’s gotten even better with a pistol than he was the last time he was here. I swear he was born with a gun in hand.”
Raine snorted. “No kidding. His mom told me he got hooked on a water pistol at age three. The rest is history.”
Jane smiled. “I can see that. And Hal has been gorging himself on video games and sweets. Oh, and the ladies. He visited one of his friends the day after he got home, but I think he’s out with someone else tonight.”
