“If you’re going to tease Ronan,” Enzo continues, “you should at least make sure you get the expression right.” Then he makes this dreamy sort of face, which looks absolutely ridiculous on him. “Angel,” he sighs. “Oh, Angel.”
Knox bursts out laughing.
Gage snorts.
Alec at least has the good grace to look sheepish. Which he should, because if he’d kept his damn mouth shut about my visit to Angel’s the other day, my lack of attention could have been chalked up to anything. But no. He had to blab about the three hours I spent at Angel’s house, first helping her out of the snow, then putting up the lights, and finally, taste-testing all six varieties of cookies at Haley’s insistence.
“You don’t have to,” Angel whispered to me immediately after Haley brought up the idea of an official taste test.“She’s gotten into watching cooking competitions lately.” In an undertone, she added, “The ones without cursing, of course.”
I could have made an excuse to get out of it. I could have said I needed to get home to Murphy, since I’d been gone all day. But Murph has a dog door, so I knew he wasn’t waiting with crossed legs for me to get home. Plus, Haley was looking at me with this hopeful expression, and Angel was standing close enough for me to catch the scent of her soap? perfume? shampoo? and I couldn’t stop trying to figure out what it smelled like.
Cupcakes, I decided later. She smelled like cupcakes. And the aroma has still stuck with me, even two days later.
Grabbing another pen, I whip it at Enzo. He’s still making that dumb face, so he’s slow on the uptake, and it bounces off his forehead, leaving a tiny blue dot right in the center of it.
“Hey.” Enzo rubs his forehead, smearing the ink. “What was that for?”
“Youknowwhat it was for,” I reply. “First off, your face looked ridiculous. Second, I wasn’t thinking about Angel.”
Liar.
“And third,” I continue, “if you’re so worried about me paying attention, maybe we should actually get back to business instead of giving me shit.”
“He has a point,” Gage offers. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’d like to wrap things up here. Rory and I have a date night planned, and I’d like to swing by the florist on the way home.”
“He also has a point about your face,” Knox says to Enzo. “Itdidlook ridiculous.”
“And yours didn’t?” Enzo shoots back. “You looked stoned. And drunk.”
“Sorry, Ronan.” Alec’s tone turns apologetic. “I know you just went over to help out. I was just messing with you.”
My irritation fades. “Sorry. Ididspace out there for a second. Maybe I need some caffeine, after all. I had an early shift at the mountain. Five AM. So I guess I’m dragging a little.”
And I was thinking about Angel. But I’m leaving out that part.
“There’s not much left to go over,” Enzo says. “Just the potential pro bono client in Maine, and the multi-company collaboration starting next year.”
Shoving aside thoughts of blonde angels that smell like cupcakes and cramped but cozy kitchens that feel a heck of a lot more welcoming than my large and newly renovated one, I lean forward in my seat and rest my hands on the wooden conference table. “I’m one hundred percent here. No more zoning out.”
My four teammates follow suit; postures straightening and smiles fading to something more serious.
“Okay.” Enzo taps his tablet to wake it. “So the potential pro bono in Maine. She was referred to us by the Blade and Arrow team. They’re all booked, and they thought, with us being close, we might be able to take on the case.”
Blade and Arrow Security is a company similar to ours, staffed by veterans and focused on providing pro bono investigative and protective services. They’re bigger than us, with three branches across the country, and their employees work full time, unlike us, who all have part-time jobs on the side. We know most of the employees through our shared service in the Army, and the founder of B and A, as they often call it, used to be on the same Green Beret team as Enzo.
Alec lifts his chin as he looks over his laptop screen at Enzo. “What’s going on?”
“The woman says she’s been framed by her half-sister,” Enzo replies. “Apparently, the half-sister has been carrying on an affair with this woman’s husband, and she’s been trying to havethe potential client sent to jail, presumably to get her out of the picture.”
Meeting my gaze, Enzo adds, “I’d like to have one of us meet with her in person before we agree to take on the case. The woman lives near Freeport, so I was thinking you might want to go, Ronan. Since it’s up near your old neck of the woods.”
“Sure,” I tell him immediately. “I’m not scheduled at the mountain until Sunday. So that gives me plenty of time to get to Maine and back.”
Enzo nods at me. “Thanks.” He makes a note on his tablet. “I’ll send you all the details.”
I look down at my own tablet to see a notification pop up about a shared file from Enzo. “Got it. I’ll read it over tonight and head up north tomorrow.”
“Perfect.” He gives me a quick smile before his expression sobers. “So, the collaboration. We’re going to be helping out the Brotherhood Protectors on this one. I spoke to Jake, with the Colorado Protectors branch, and he says they’ve found evidence that the trafficking organization they’ve been investigating is expanding, and they’d like to bring in some additional support.”
