Cade barely waited for the double click of the lock on the War - Room door to sound before he pushed Rio against the wall and studied his face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Rio’s hands came to rest on Cade’s waist. It was bugging him, why the hell was Cade jumping to his defense in there? Did he think he was not capable of standing up for himself? “Why do you get all growly when your boss questions me?”
“I just do.” Cade shrugged. “I kinda like looking after you.”
“You’re crazy,” Rio snorted out a laugh. “You barely know me.”
“Then tell me more.” Cade braced his strong arms on the wall at either side of Rio’s head, caging him into place.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything. What makes Rio tick. What you like, what you hate. What you’re afraid of.” Cade’s fingers traced along Rio’s neck. “What makes you happy?”
Happy. What did that feel like? Rio wasn’t even sure he knew what that meant anymore. He supposed the closest he had ever been to being happy was in these quiet moments with this crazy-assed warrior. And maybe before, when his grandparents were alive, before his father had come for him. Though he could barely remember those times.
“Tell me?” Cade smiled down at him. If he moved his hips just a tiny bit, Rio knew he would be able to feel Cade’s dick. “What are you thinking about?”
Rio chewed on his bottom lip, to tell the truth or to press closer, let his body show Cade what he was feeling yet again.
“Words, Rio.”
Bossy asshole was reading his freaking mind.But even in his head, Rio recognized the fond tone he had taken to using when his inner voice bitched about Cade. “It will sound crazy.” He blew upward out of the corner of his mouth, aiming for the hair that had fallen over his eye. “But I was thinking, for the longest time, the closest I’ve come to being happy is when I’m with you.” His cheeks burned at the admission, but Cade’s satisfied smirk sent a jolt of pleasure through him.
“It’s a crazy world we live in,” Cade whispered. He dropped his head to plant a kiss on Rio’s lips. “We must be a little bit crazy to survive it.” The sound of laughter had both of them turning to look farther down the corridor.
“Shit.” Cade muttered softly, “Wait for the teasing.”
“Canoodling in the corridors, Cade?” Selene said as she and Harper approached. “Never thought you would be the one necking at work.”
“You didn’t see the display at the safe house in Brazil.” Harper fanned herself with the book she carried. “Haawt.”
“Um.” Rio blushed furiously. Way to make an impression. He was supposed to work with these people and here he was… and at least one had seen him and Cade as they kissed and dry humped their way through the safe house… Argh, just argh.
“Rio, meet Harper and Selene.” Cade refused to be embarrassed. Ghosts were a family, and these two were the delinquent little sisters, put here to make him bat shit. “Girls, this is Rio… he’s mine… be nice.” The warning was necessary. These two would tease the ever-living fuck out of POTUS, never mind a regular everyday person, just for shits and giggles, if they thought they could make him blush.
“Get to work,” Cade pointed to the door, “Systems are up and running.”
“We should, too.” Rio gestured to the War - Room door. “If we work now, we have time for us later.”
“Yeah,” Cade liked the sound of that. If he got Rio anywhere near his suite, the only place he wanted to go was bed. And right now, they didn’t really have the time to show the bed some action, the justice it deserved. He pressed one last swift kiss to Rio’s lips. “We work, then we fuck.”
“Good.” Rio adjusted his dick in his pants. “Let’s get to work then.”
“Yeah, we have shitloads of intel for you to look at,” Cade waved Rio on ahead of him, “People, names, stuff like that to verify.”
“Okay.”
“Does it feel weird to be going against your family?” Cade was pleased to see all the systems and maps were once again up on the screens. The War - Room silent had been weird as fuck. Now, with all the humming and buzzing of the machines, it sounded like home.
“How do you mean?” Rio took the chair, Cade pointed him at and sat at the table.
“He's still your father.” Cade pushed for more, not because he didn’t believe Rio, he just understood what it was like to cut off all you had known and start again.
“My father took me from my abuela’s house, left her, my mother, and my abuelo vulnerable to El’ Mencho. That bastard killed them.” He looked across the desk at Cade, “I have no love for those assholes. If I can help you rid the word of their parasitic presence, I will do it without a second thought.” He shrugged, “The CIA, they thought I was sending them information because I wanted a green card. I would have given it to them for free if they had asked.”
“I know.” Cade had his systems pull up the information they had on everyone he could think of who was associated with both El’ Mencho’s cartel and Hezbollah. “You start adding on any information you have, known associates, aliases, what they like for dinner or to drink, any address or houses we haven’t listed. No detail is too small. If it pops into your head, include it.”
“Yes.” This Rio could do. Here he didn’t have to hide that he was filing away information. “If you look in my laptop bag, inside the lining you will find a flash drive. That has everything I gave to the CIA.”
