“Mr. Owens?” Their office manager’s voice came through the landline on the man’s desk. “The rest of the team is here, and they’re all waiting in the conference room.”
“Thank you, Ashley,” his boss responded in kind. “Please tell them we’ll be in shortly.”
“Yes, sir.” A soft click let them know the well-vetted woman had ended the call.
Uncertainty stole the spark from her previously challenging demeanor, and before he could keep from it, Slade heard himself saying, “It’s going to be okay.”
Shadow looked over at him, her search for assurance obvious in those vibrant blue eyes he could get lost in forever. “Do they know I’m here?”
“Not yet,” Owens answered for him. “All I told them was that I needed them to come to the office as soon as possible.”
“They’re going to be pissed.” She gave a nervous lick of her lips.
“I doubt it,” Slade offered his opinion. “They’re just going to be glad you’re still upright and breathing.”
Owens quickly backed him up. “He’s right. The team was worried sick about you while you were gone. As was I.”
“I’m sorry,” Shadow apologized to her father for the first time since they’d arrived. “I shouldn’t have left the way I did.”
“No. You shouldn’t have,” his boss agreed. “But what’s done is done, and there’s no erasing the past. The only thing we can do now is move forward, and I think the best place to start is for you to finally meet the rest of your team.”
Her gaze slid back to Slade’s as if she needed him to confirm what her father had just said. With a single dip of his chin, he let her know she was going to be okay.
“All right, then.” She blew out a breath and headed for the door. “The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can start discussing the next steps in our plan.”
Owens watched as his daughter opened the door before sliding his gaze to Slade’s. The two men shared a look that spoke volumes, each silently vowing to do whatever it took to make sure Shadow remained safe.
But as he followed her out of the office and down the hallway toward the Tac-Ops conference room, his gut filled with a sense of impending doom unlike any he’d felt before. Not for the conversation that was minutes away from transpiring, but rather for the danger that very well may follow.
Someone in Senator Stanton’s close circle not only knew Shadow’s true identity, but they also wanted the too-smart-for-her-own-good woman permanently silenced. And since she clearly had no plans of backing down from this war she’d already started, Slade and the others would need to be on high alert until a winner was finally declared.
And if he’d learned anything in his dealings with politicians over the years, it was that they’d do just about anything to ensure they didn’t lose.
Shadow stopped outside the conference room door, her shoulders rising and falling with a deep, steadying breath. Without thinking, Slade placed a gentle hand against her lower back, the ends of her long, blonde waves tickling his skin.
“Nothing to be scared of, princess.” He spoke quietly in her ear. “Just go in there and tell them your story. Trust me, these guys are going to understand.”
Appreciation shone in the blues of her incredible stare before she reached for the knob and opened the door. Slade followed her into where his teammates awaited, the murmurs of conversations between the others halting the second they walked into the room.
Owens addressed the team as a whole on his way to his place at the front of the table. “I’d like to introduce you to Alic. Or, as you like to call her…Shadow.”
* * *
Shadow’s heartthumped nervously as the three men sitting around the large, oval table stared back at her with matchingholy shitexpressions. It was like one of those dreams where you were caught standing in front of a group of people wearing nothing more than your underwear and a smile.
This would be the part where you say hi.
“H-Hi.” She suddenly wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. But since that wasn’t an option… “It’s nice to finally meet you all in person.”
“You’re Shadow?” The man she recognized as Beckett “Bones” Stone arched his brows up high. “As in…ourShadow?”
Unlike what she’d expected, the handsome medic didn’t look mad or upset by her presence. With the plan to pull him aside later to apologize for her absence during his fiancée’s harrowing rescue, Shadow focused on the here and now.
“That’s me.” She smiled. “Last I checked, anyway.”
“Oh, yeah.” Garrett “Falcon” Morgan grinned with a nod of his head. “I’d recognize that voice anywhere.
“Well, hot damn!” Bones shot up from his chair and marched her way. “It’s so good to finally meet you in 3D.”
