It’d been unbearable to not wrap Audrey in my arms when she broke down and started to cry. And to walk away from her with tears cutting down her face had gutted me even more.Butshe had Trevor and Ryder to hold her up, and who was I to do it?
“Talk to me about Wyoming now that we’re away from civilian ears.” I needed to shift gears before I unraveled. “Tell me you twoconvinced the president’s new point man we’re good as we are. No more recruits.”
“Fine,” he grunted, thankfully giving in. “Ryder reminded them our unit’s purpose is to track enemies and create target packages for the government. We don’t need more than three of us to do that.” There was a note of irritation edging his tone. “But they insisted we need backup in case things go sideways like they did with Seraphina’s case.”
Also known as the op where we took down my ex-wife.“Everything worked out okay.”
“Well, you did die on us. So, not totally okay.”
“For five seconds. Doesn’t count. Didn’t even see the other side. I was joking about the whole near-death-experience thing.” I shook my head. “Please tell me you hit them back with a good argument.”
“We told them if we need backup, we’ll call President Bennett’s dark money SEAL teams again, like last time.”
I couldn’t believe we were now one of those off-the-books teams, too. I’d always heard rumors over the years that there were different clandestine units working for different presidents and a select few high-up cabinet members, but to now be one of them? It was wild.
The op that had brought Seraphina and Ryder together last fall was the one to change us back to active-duty status and have us report directly to President Bennett and the secretary of defense, Admiral Chandler.
“But apparently,” Reed continued, “getting an assist from POTUS’s SEALs ‘might not always be an option,’ yada-fucking-yada.”
I reached back to rub the knots forming at the base of my neck.
“So I pitched the idea of standbys.” He flipped on the blinker as we approached Audrey’s neighborhood. “Vets who don’t want to operate full-time but miss getting their hands dirty. They’d be ready to roll on short notice when needed. Decent payday, too. We’d get them classified status like we have, dot the i’s and cross the t’s and all that, then we’d be good to go.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Hell, I could see Trevor doing that.”
Trevor?“No, I’m not operating with him.”
“There something we need to know about him? He another Mitch?” His tone edged into protective mode, like Audrey was suddenly his little sister, too.
Too bad I don’t see her that way.“No, it’s not that.” I stared at the cab’s ceiling, jaw tight. “I just ...”
“You just what?” When I didn’t answer, he filled the silence. “I thought you were done with all that. Thought Beth screwed you up for good. You seriously catching feelings for the boss’s sister?”
“No, of course not,” I said a little too fast, too defensively. “And yeah, I am done. With vows, marriage, and all that nonsense. Good for Ryder, he found the real deal. But me? Never again.”
We pulled onto Audrey’s street, and I silently thanked God this conversation was about to die.
“Standbys,” I muttered, dragging us back on track. “POTUS bite?”
“Not sure yet. He’s—”
“In the Middle East in a meeting, right.” I shook my head.
“But I think he will. We’ll have a two- or three-man team we can call in as needed.”
“Not a bad idea.”As long as Trevor’s name never comes up again.
We passed the cruiser the sheriff had outside Audrey’s house; the deputy inside gave us a nod as we rolled by. I tipped my head in return. Beau must’ve given him a heads-up that we were coming over to check the place out.
Reed parked in front of the one-car garage, and I was out before the engine ever cut off. I glanced up at the small two-story house with pale shutters. Something about it reminded me of my childhood home in Vegas.
“Let’s just get this over with. I don’t want to be away from her long.”Shit. Freudian slip.“I mean, from everyone,” I added quickly and ignored the what-the-hell look he shot me.
Reed unlocked the front door and disabled the alarm once we were inside. We cleared the house room by room, ensuring no one had slipped by the deputy.
Once we confirmed it was clean, we began looking around. For what? Hell if we knew. Just something. Something someone had broken in to get if it wasn’t a random break-in.Unless they were here for Audrey. Not an idea I wanted to entertain.
By the time we reached the primary bedroom, we still hadn’t stumbled upon anything helpful. So this was our last shot.
I paused in the doorway, feeling awkward about invading her personal space.
