Landon looked from him to Derek and back again. “Thanks.”
Ivy ran her hand through her waist-length, dark hair. “Okay, that makes six of us.”
“Five,” Danica corrected. “I’m supposed to go undercover at Chadwick-Thorn on Monday. It’s taken weeks for the Bureau to get me in there. If we pull out, we may not get another shot at them.”
“Good,” Clayne said. “I don’t want you going.”
Danica’s dark eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry, babe, but I don’t want you within a hundred miles of a damn hybrid. They’re too dangerous.”
“But I’m supposed to be okay with you going up against them, right?”
“That’s different. I can handle myself,” Clayne told her.
Angelo winced. He might not be able toconnectwith women, as Derek put it, but he knew that probably wasn’t the best thing to say.
“Excuse us,” Danica said, grabbing Clayne’s hand and dragging him inside.
Angelo frowned as Danica slammed the door closed. “Do we need to run interference in there with those two?”
Ivy shook her head. “No. Clayne may have the sensitivity of a bucket of mud, but his heart is in the right place. He’s as afraid for her as she is for him.”
Angelo shook his head. That only confirmed serious relationships and dangerous fieldwork didn’t mesh. He never wanted to be in the position of seeing the woman he loved having to deal with him deploying to dangerous places over and over, or worrying about her while he was on the other side of the world. That was something else he’d learned a long time ago. A soldier’s wife wasn’t the only one who paid the price when he went on a mission.
Derek leaned back in his chair so he could see through the glass door into the living room where Clayne and Danica were arguing. “Things look pretty tense in there to me.”
“They’re fine,” Ivy said. “Right now, we have a bigger problem. Like who else we’re going to recruit for this little search-and-rescue mission.”
Angelo took another look at Clayne and Danica and saw them hugging. Apparently, Ivy knew what she was talking about when it came to men and women.
***
Angelo was thoroughly unimpressed with the DCO offices. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but an unmarked set of glass doors in the parking garage of the Environmental Protection Agency wasn’t it.
“This is just the place where the politics are played,” Landon explained as Clayne opened the door for them. “All the real work happens out at the training complex near Quantico.”
Angelo made no comment. Any organization that needed to have a separate set of offices just so politicians would have a place to play wasn’t an organization he wanted to work for. He looked around the lobby and grimaced at the white walls, generic DC tourist pics, and marble accents. How the hell did Landon put up with this crap?
The click-clack of high heels coming down the hall interrupted his musings. Angelo dragged his attention away from the framed photo of the White House and did a double take. For a second, he thought it was Ivy—though he had no idea how she could have gotten here before them when she was with Derek and Danica getting their personal gear together—but then he realized it was her equally beautiful sister, Layla. If she wasn’t ten years younger than he was and already hung up on his former lieutenant, Jayson Harmon, he definitely would have done some serious flirting when he’d met her at Landon and Ivy’s wedding.
Her dark eyes widened when she saw them. “Landon.” She did a quick scan of the lobby. “Is Ivy with you?”
“No. She’s at home.” Landon frowned. “What are you doing here?”
Layla’s fingers toyed with the strap on her shoulder bag. “I had a job interview.”
Landon’s frown deepened. “A job interview?”
“Uh-huh. I got it, too. John wants me to start on Monday.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, looking at each of them in turn. “Please don’t say anything to Ivy, okay? I want to be the one to tell her.”
“Yeah,” Landon said. “Sure.”
“Awesome. Thank you.” She grinned. “Okay, I’m outta here. Jayson and I are going to celebrate. Nice seeing you again, Angelo. Clayne.”
Angelo barely had time to return the greeting before she hurried out the door, her high heels echoing behind her.
“I’m guessing Ivy isn’t going to be happy about her sister working here?” Angelo asked.
