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“Sandy’s the oldest girl, right?”
“Yep, she was adopted after me, but she was four when I was two. We were who they started with before Mom and Dad took the show on the road.”
“So, seventeen Drakos plus your parents.”
“Not everyone is a Drakos. Some of my brothers and sisters were foster kids, and some were adopted when they were older, so they didn’t want to change their names, but yeah, in reality, we’re all Drakos.”
Linc smiled. This is what he needed, some time with his friends. Hearing about Jase and his family was doing him good.
“If you’re missing her so much while she’s away, why don’t you go home and spend some time with your folks in Minnesota?”
“Already did that last summer. Right now, I want to save all my time off to spend with Leila.”
“You have it bad,” Jase said with a smile.
Linc looked at his friend and saw nothing but warmth and acceptance.
“What, you’re not going to give me shit?”
“Nah. From everything you’ve told me, and the few times she’s been around and we’ve all hung out, I’m thinking you’re one lucky bastard.”
Linc sat back in his chair and grinned.
“Hey, don’t get too big-headed,” Jase warned. “Just because I think you might have one aspect of your life figured out, doesn’t mean I’m not going to give you shit about the rest of your sorry-assed existence. Remember, we have to go get training in unmanned aerial vehicles tomorrow. Shit, I wasn’t that into video games as a kid. I sure as hell don’t want to be playing them now,” Jase griped.
“I don’t know,” Linc grinned. “I’ve recently become more interested in video games.”
“Probably comes with you babysitting your sister’s kids.”
“Probably not.” Linc said as he took another sip of his beer. “Probably comes from somebody liking to play with my joystick.”
* * *
“I am so sorry I’m late,” Leila apologized as she scooched into the booth and took the menu from the server. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“Leila, don’t worry about it. I haven’t been waiting long at all. These days I have a lot more free time, so I make a priority of going out with friends and not always being on the clock.”
Leila sat back a little in the booth and took a long look at Katherine Cole. She looked different. Not different from when they had been kidnapped. That didn’t count. She looked different from when she had first met her in Syria. She looked at the pretty yellow sweater she was wearing with the cute silk blouse underneath. Leila did a quick peek and saw that she was wearing jeans and some trendy three-inch heels. Katherine actually looked pretty awesome.
“So, what’s the deal? Your whole look has changed. You look happier and ten years younger than when I first met you. I want to know all of your secrets.”
Katherine laughed. She reached out and clutched Leila’s hand. “Everybody else has tiptoed around all the changes I’ve made. I’ve even bought a Mercedes AMG convertible. I’ve heard the term mid-life crisis whispered behind my back.”
“Well, hot damn, sister. Look at you go.”
“I also stepped down from the CEO position.”
Leila frowned. “Is that something you wanted to do, or did someone force it on you?”
“Oh no, this was my idea. When I created this company, I set it up that I could only be terminated because of criminal acts. That will not happen, so if they don’t like how I’m doing things, they can piss off.”
Leila laughed again, then thanked the waiter as he brought her water, bread, and butter. He asked if they were ready to order and since neither of them were, they asked him to come back.
“We better get this figured out, then we can catch up some more,” Katherine said as she picked up her menu. “I recommend everything. I have not had a poor meal since coming here.”
It didn’t take long for Leila to settle on the ahi tuna, and Katherine chose chicken and rice.
“So why did you step down as CEO?”
