Elissa crossed her arms and actually stood on her tiptoes. “Mister, I am two seconds away from uninviting you to my wedding.”
Jake pointed at Camden. “You can’t because it’s a double wedding and I’m his best man.” He turned his attention to Camden. “Unlessyouwant to uninvite me too.”
“Enough!” Lach roared, stopping the fight instantly. “Camden, go get Psychic, Malcolm, Nash, and Eric—” he ordered, then swore to himself when he remembered Eric and Samantha had picked the absolute worst time to elope and weren’t expected to return for another week.
“Belay Eric,” Lach said as Camden looked like he was going to correct him. He stood up and kicked his office chair backward until it hit the wall. “The rest of you assholes, follow me to the conference room. I’ve had it with this infighting shit. One way or another, it endsnow.”
“Boss—”
“Jake. I. Said. Enough.” Lach pushed past him and marched down the hall, Sam at his heels.
“He meant you when he said asshole, Jake. Girls can’t be assholes,” Elissa mumbled behind him.
Lach stopped and spun around. “Oh, yes they can if they keep arguing when their asshole boos tells them tocan it.”
As he stomped the rest of the way to the conference room, Lach could hear his support staff chattering then quickly cutting off their conversations like birds in a jungle sensing danger. Yup, Watchdog was fucked if he didn’t get this under control.
Gina had left him her orders, but fuck it. He was about to ignore them. Hell, he was already ignoring them. Wouldn’t be the first time. She’d just have to deal with it when he found her. He bit down hard on the pen case because he couldn’t get his damn heart to stop hammering thinking about her. When he found her, everything would change. He’d never, ever let her out of his sight again.
That’s when all the bad had happened in the past. Whenever he let her go. Every time.
Damn fool.
Lachlan opened the door to the main conference room and took his usual seat at the head of the oblong table. The room looked out on a courtyard filled with obstacle course stations designed to train security dogs and keep them in shape. He remembered going over the design with Gina before they’d even found the building. He’d insisted the dogs would be the heart of the operation and Gina merely nodded in agreement, then she snapped her fingers and made it happen.
Fuck. Where are you, lass? His heart lurched while his skin tingled. He couldn’t afford to let his emotions get in the way and distract him. Not now. He needed to be the captain of this ship and stop what was shaping up to be a mutiny.
Jake threw himself into a chair. Elissa sat as far from Jake as she could, arms crossed and glowering at him. Jake glared back.
“Fuck.” Lachlan growled. “Fine. I’m going to start early just so that I can be assured you two don’t kill each other.”
Jake started to open his mouth.
Lach practically read his mind. “So help me God, Jake, if one smart-aleck word comes out of your mouth about Gina killing Walker, I’m grinding you into dog food.”
Jake’s mouth practically clapped shut.
Just then, Nashville jogged into the room with Costello just behind him. “Camden said y’all were in here for a meeting.” He quickly read the room, the tension between his fiancée and one of his best friends, and took a seat beside Elissa. He dropped a protective arm around the back of her chair and gave Jake a warning look.
God, it killed Lach to see the two of them at odds. Normally, he’d have to treat them like they were kids in school, separate them for whispering jokes to each other during a meeting, but today he was more likely to stop them from fist fighting. And judging by the way Costello sat beside Jake, the fight would be two on two. Lach was surprised by that. Costello always said there was no such thing as psychics despite his nickname and uncanny ability to sense danger moments before it struck. Today though, he was right—if he was siding with Jake in thinking Gina was guilty, he really didn’t have psychic powers. And man, did his choice have repercussions. Just when Costello and Nash had patched things up after an assignment gone sideways, they were again at odds.
Gina, it kills me to think this, but you couldn’t have done us worse.
It was up to Lachlan to fix it, even if it meant betraying Gina’s wishes.
Lach looked at the conference room door, willing Camden and Malcolm to appear but it stayed empty.Fine, so be it.
“Jake, close the door and we’ll get started. They can catch up.”
Jake tipped his chair back, reached behind him, and slammed the door.
“First thing you need to know,” Lach said as he chomped down on the pen, “Walker and Kyla are alive.”
Jake’s eyes grew round before his brows lowered in confusion. “Not dead? But the cameras, theSea Prompt?—”
“Gone, yeah. Blown to smithereens, just like you saw. What you didn’t see was Walker rigging the ship to blow. He wanted out of Gina’s little friends’ group.”
Everyone in the room looked at him in shocked silence.
