But it’s always a relief when they leave, and I have a few weeks between sessions.
I’m ready to work the ranch with my brother, Ryker, for a couple of weeks. I have some work to do on the firing range, since I want to add another lane and extend it farther, for sharpshooting. I need to clean the armory.
There’s always shit to do.
My phone rings again, but this time it isn’t Bishop.
It’sEagle.
“Madam President,” I say in greeting. “What can I do for you?”
“Why are you avoiding Bishop’s calls?” she asks.
“Because I’ve been working, ma’am.”
“I have a situation, Gid,” she says, and I can hear fatigue in her voice. “I won’t tell you what it is over the phone. I need your help with Blackbird.”
What the fuck has she done now?
Lena is the bane of my existence. She made every day on the job difficult. Every. Fucking. Day.
“I’m no longer—”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass,” she says, cutting me off. “I need you here in twenty-four hours. And Gideon?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You’re taking her back with you.”
Stunned, I hold the phone against my ear, sure I’ve heard her wrong. “I’m sorry, could you please say that again, ma’am?”
“You heard me. Twenty-four hours.”
She hangs up, and I pull my hand down my face.
What the fuck is going on? What has she gotten herself into now?
“No.” Willow shakes her head adamantly as she wipes down her kitchen counter. “Absolutely not, Gideon. I don’t want her here on this property. She’s the reason you got hurt and lost your career.”
It wasn’t her fault.
But I can’t tell my best friend that because it’s all classified.
“You’re getting worked up, Trouble,” Ryker says as he pulls her into his arms and kisses the top of her head. He’s watching me with sober eyes. Ryker is my brother in every way that counts, including in name. Ray and Debbie adopted us the year we moved here.
And then, after twenty years of life as a family, of Ry going pro in hockey and kicking ass, me going into the Rangers and then the Secret Service, we lost them both. Debbie passed seven years ago, and Ray followed her two years later. I miss them like crazy every single day.
But Ryker, Willow, and I, along with Willow’s nephew, Aiden, are a family. These are my people, my best friends. We all live on the Triple Creek Ranch, and they need to know that Lena’s coming here.
“I have security locked down,” I continue, as if I’m giving a report to a superior. “No one gets on this land unless we want them to. I don’t know why they want her to come here. I haven’t had any contact with any of them since I retired four years ago.”
“Then tell them no,” Willow insists, and it about kills me when she has tears in her eyes. “No, handsome.”
“The president of the United States has asked for my help, and although I don’t work for the government anymore, she wouldn’t have called me unless there was no other option. They wouldneverinvolve a civilian unless it was necessary.”
Fucking civilian.I hate that word. I’m not a goddamn civilian.
Except, I am.
