“Let me.” Ellory rushed over and scooped up the rogue veggie.
Alyssa straightened, palm spread over her stomach and a smile on her beautiful face. “Thank you. I can still bend, but it takes a little longer now.”
“No problem.” Ellory rinsed off the vegetable and set it on the cutting board with the rest.
Alyssa pushed a spare knife her way, so she began chopping, the familiar sound soothing after the intensity of the war room even though Ellory probably fit in better there than here.
“You settling in okay?” Alyssa’s tone was casual but her eyes sharp.
“Getting there.” Ellory worked through a cucumber, concentrating on keeping the slices the same size. “I’m still figuring out how everything works here.”
“It’s a lot,” Kennedy spoke up from her spot nearby. She had sliced the loaf into long halves and was spreading garlic butter thickly over each. “It took me months to stop feeling like I’d wandered onto a movie set.”
May laughed, the sound rich and warm. “I still have those moments. I came from a family of men who specialize in explosives. Walking into this”—she waved a wooden spoon at all of them—”made me wonder if this was actually my life.”
Sophie walked in, followed by Elin. Both women wore slightly glazed expressions after emerging from the data that meant life or death.
“They kick you out?” Opal called over to them.
Sophie wordlessly headed straight for the wine that Izzy set on the counter.
“We gracefully excused ourselves.” Elin’s smile was wry. “But only after Dante went a little alpha on us, saying he could handle the rest of the work.”
Kennedy sucked in a small gasp, butter knife halting mid-spread. “He didn’t!”
Sophie poured herself a glass of wine. “Don’t worry about giving him a piece of your mind, Kennedy. We were almost finished anyway.”
She knew from working with Sophie, Elin and Dante that the trio were close and fiercely protective of each other, acting more like siblings who got on each other’s nerves at times.
Ellory kept chopping while listening to the conversation flowing around her. The women moved like a task force of their own, passing bowls and never getting in each other’s way, making it obvious they practiced this dance almost every day.
Opal brought the pasta water to a boil, the steam making her black hair wave at the ends. May shaped meatballs like she specialized in the dish instead of explosives. And Izzy helped Kennedy by setting the garlic bread on baking sheets, ready for the oven.
Ellory thought about that look she and Ash exchanged in the war room. For that brief, throbbing heartbeat, she felt exposed…like everyone could see exactly what they’d done in the darkest hours of the night.
And what was still happening between them.
A hot blush crawled up her throat, and feeling Alyssa’s gaze moving over her, she cast around for something to say.
She picked up another cucumber and began slicing. “So how did you all end up here?” The question emerged before she could second-guess it. “I mean, I know you’re all with guys on the team, but…were you assigned here by other government agencies?”
Alyssa and Kennedy exchanged a glance. Kennedy grinned. “Well, Alyssa and I worked together. She was an ambassador. I was her assistant.”
Ellory turned to Alyssa in surprise.
“Until I became one of Cipher’s targets. Blackout was brought in as my protection detail,” Alyssa said.
May spoke next. “I was brought on to work with Charlie after an explosive was shipped to a military base. I fell for AJ when we started working together.” May saw Ellory’s confusion and smiled. “You know him as Chickie or Henner.”
“So many names.” She chuckled even as she realized that she too used Ash’s first name in between the sheets.
Say my name.
A heated shiver worked down her body and settled low in her belly.
Izzy drifted closer to Alyssa. “I was a hostage and Alyssa negotiated for my release way before Blackout. But when I surfaced into the public eye again, Cipher set his sights on me too. That’s when Hudson realized he couldn’t resist me. He fell for mehard.” She flashed a grin that had all the ladies laughing.
Elin shared a story about how she believed her ex—Mason—to be dead. But her superior skills as a hacker allowedher to learn the truth…and they’d been together ever since. And of course Sophie was recruited by Con to crack Cipher’s cryptograms.
