“Yes, Ma’am.
“The dog is cleared.”
“And me?”
“Secret Service records take a hot minute to come through oursystem. Our tech is working as fast as he can.”
Rafe stood still, his body at parade rest as he waited for the people on the other side of the camera to do their thing. “Want me to move aside so you can verify the others while we wait?”
“Nope, you’re cleared.”
“Thank you, Ma’am.”
Sage waved at the camera, “Tell old Boss if he needs to verify my ID
then he needs glasses.”
“Good afternoon, Sage, we have a computer and some equipmentset up for you in our war room.”
Sage glanced over his shoulder at Castello, one eyebrow raised.Whatthe hell?
Castello shrugged, he had no clue why Fritz had called them here; if there was a computer set up for Sage then was this a job they needed his team to work? They would find out soon enough.
“Zack,” Castello jerked his chin toward the gate camera, “You’re up.”
He ignored the way he could see his second in command’s jaw tighten.
“Sir, you need to take off your shades.”
“No, Ma’am.” Zack replied, his tone firm, “That I won’t do.”
“Then you do not come inside our compound.”a male voice spoke.
“No clearance, no entry.”
“Sorry, Sir,” Zack turned to Castello, “I shall be waiting here with the vehicles.”
Castello could feel his jaw dropping, he had never seen Zack refuse a direct order before or refuse to remove his shades for verification. What the fuck was that about? He thought back over the last time they had been in the field with Team Panther, and with Rock and Grif. Not that he had to think very hard, he remembered every second of those days in his dreams. His dreams just hadn’t been focusing on his team. Fuck, now that he did focus on
it, Zack had kept his shades on then too.
“We are going to have a discussion about this, man.”
Zack’s massive shoulders moved in an ‘eat shit’ gesture, “Sure thing, Boss.”
A light mounted on the top of the gate post flashed yellow. The electronics on the gate mechanism whirred to life, and the gate slid back.
“Panther coming through.” a voice Castello recognized called.
Immediately, Team Lynx swiveled to face the gate with weapons at a ready position.
“Stand down.” he informed his guys. Jeez, they were jumpy as hell today. Was there something he was missing? They were essentially visiting old friends. “What the hell is wrong with you all?” The guys didn’t have time to respond before two men stepped through the gates. “Matt.” Castello held out his hand to the first man. “Good to see you.”
“Likewise, Castello, thanks for coming.” Even as Matt shook his hand, Castello could see him scanning his team. Verifying that these were the men he had met before. He saw the instant his gaze landed on Zack. Matt Garrett frowned at Castello’s second in command. “Still an asshole, I see.”
“Yup.”
Castello looked from Matt to Zack; with a similar tall, muscular build, dark hair, and skin that spoke of native American heritage, they looked enough alike to be brothers. Every damn time he saw them, he thought the same fucking thing.
