“Well, no letting her tie you up for a few days, yeah?”
“That’s my job, dumbass. And I’ll probably have to, or she won’t let me hold the kids. It might cause my arm to fall off.” He rolled his eyes, but there was no heat behind his words. The man clearly loved his other half.
She noticed that the others had put themselves as far away from her and Ildefanso as possible. In a small plane like this, it wasn’t that far, but it was still noticeable, given that the only one in the empty row behind them was the dog.
“Are you okay?” His voice caught in her ear, low and concerned.
“I’m good.” She flashed another look behind them. “These guys. Are they all married?”
He shook his head. “No, none of them are married. They have significant others they’re committed to. TB is probably the closest to married.”
Puzzled, she frowned. “Why is that?”
She recognized the indecision in his eyes before he carefully answered her question. “TB is a Dominant. Flame, his other half, is his submissive. She wears his collar, which is similar to a wedding ring in terms of commitment.”
Her mouth dropped open to an O shape before she caught herself. “Wow. Okay. Guess that tracks.”
“Why is that?”
“Umm… he’s huge. Scary. Grumpy.”
Ildefanso laughed for the first time since they’d reunited. It was short-lived and not full-on, but it was a laugh nonetheless.
“Believe it or not, he’s a huge marshmallow inside. For her and their kids, at least.” He went quiet for a moment, a look of pain flitting across his features. “You’re going to get bombarded when we getto Los Angeles, so I should probably warn you what you’re going to run into. You won’t be expected to remember who they all are, but it might make it less overwhelming.
“So TB and Flame you’ve heard about. He’s our interrogator. Flame is a romance novelist, and they have a son named Axel, who just turned one. They also recently adopted a baby named Paris.
“Demon, our medic, is committed to our handler. Cherry. No kids.
“Nemo used to work for us as our acquisitions specialist. He and his twin, Midas, the guy on the radio, were professional thieves. Anyway, he works for Mythos with his other half, Gem, who was also a professional thief.
“Midas is our computer guy. He’s back home recovering from a bullet to the back. He and his girlfriend, Mouse, adopted two sisters from Syria, named Shakira and Ona, who we rescued earlier this year with Paris and two other little girls.”
“Why are none of them married? It would seem that, statistically, at least one or two of them would be.”
“Technically, we’re all dead. We don’t exist on paper. We all have graves, families we left behind. That was a condition we accepted when we came to work for Tribe. You can’t marry a dead person. Attachments make us vulnerable.” He took a deep breath, then exhaled, turning to face forward. “That all sort of fell apart when Waters met Kubrick. When the guys saw that relationships were possible, they decided not to wait around when they met someone they saw themselves building a life with. Or some semblance of a life.
“Waters, the guy you saw on the cameras, was sent to guard a film director two years ago. She’s Ka-Bar’s sister. We call her Kubrick, and they’re the parents of a pair of twins named Liliana and Catalina, those other two girls we rescued.”
Her heart stung at his words. So all the men he worked with were attached. Maybe not at first, but when they’d started pairing off, it had never occurred to him to come find her. To bring her back to him.
Thoughts like this would get her nowhere. She was a strong,independent woman. She didn’t need a man, especially Ildefanso Colonel, son of a drug kingpin, in her life.
“He left those girls to get captured by a cartel?”
He faced forward. “It’s a much more involved story than what I was able to give you. This is much bigger than one life, and we felt it was the only way to lure out the man we’re looking for. He deemed it an acceptable risk, and he’s counting on us to get to him in time to save him. Once we get you to L.A., we’ll probably head out pretty quickly to try to collect him.”
“And what will I do in L.A.? It’s not like I have anywhere to stay out there or a means to support myself.”
“You can stay at my apartment. You don’t have to worry. There are other apartments in our building. I’ll stay in one of those. I apologize for the sudden detour. We’d hoped to place you safely in Chicago, but obviously that didn’t work out as planned. It will take us a little while to come up with new arrangements since Waters will need to be first priority.”
Place her in Chicago. Not in L.A. Not with him. The other men had women in their lives, even children, but he hadn’t said anything about himself. Did he have a new woman? Was that why he didn’t want her with him?
“And you?” she asked. “Do you have a new woman?”
He recoiled in shock. He actually looked offended at the suggestion. “What? No, Leeza! Technically, we’re still married, and I would never break my vows, even if you believed me dead and gone.”
“Oh.” Heart racing, she couldn’t produce more words.
