scowled. “I think it’s you who needs to—” Brian dropped his words as if sensing he was on the verge of getting decked by a man whose job it was to take down bad guys, and as far as A.J. was concerned, Brian was ranking high up on that list right now. “Nothing happened in Vegas,” he shot out before retreating into Caleb’s house, probably to change and cool off.
Maybe I need a moment to calm down, too?
A.J. pivoted to see Chris exiting the house, work phone in hand. Did he already have news about Brian from Harper? The woman was a goddess behind the keyboard, but that’d be pretty fast.
“Don’t say it. Don’t even say it,” Wyatt called out as he hoisted himself out of the pool.
“Just talked to Harper,” Chris announced, a nervous grin on his face.
“I’m guessing it wasn’t about Vegas,” A.J. said on a sigh.
“You bloody jinxed us, didn’t you?” Wyatt scoffed as he joined them, water dripping off his body.
“Time to sober up, boys. We gotta get to the airport in Birmingham.” Chris sounded like a kid who’d just been told summer vacation was canceled. Since when was he ever anything but ready, willing, and excited to spin up?
And then A.J. followed Chris’s line of sight to Rory, who was standing in the glow of the fire talking animatedly to Caleb now. A.J. shook his head but kept his mouth shut. Another one bites the dust.
“Shit, if I don’t make it to my wedding on time . . .” Wyatt growled out while grabbing a towel and drying off, Finn and Roman quickly doing the same.
“Our ops rarely take a month,” Chris said with an upbeat tone that had A.J. cringing as he glanced at Wyatt. Echo Three grimaced as the significance of his words hit him. “Aww, fuuudge,” he said as if Bravo Four’s daughter was around, and he was trying to watch his sailor’s mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“I think we need to throw your arse into the pool,” Wyatt said, only half-kidding. “Hey, A.J., is there a swamp around here?”
“You got gators down here, don’t ya?” Finn grinned.
“A few here and there have made their way to our neck of the woods.” A.J. peered at Chris.
“So, anyway. D.C., at least we’re heading toward your fiancée.” Chris’s smile broadened as he focused on Wyatt. “You know, bright side.”
“Seriously, brother.” Wyatt waved a finger in Chris’s direction with one eye closed as if prepping to snipe him, but he was struggling to keep a straight face because, well, Echo Three had a habit of making all the guys laugh. And as far as A.J. was concerned, that was a good thing. He’d take humor any day over the wicked darkness that threatened to spring up on them from time to time.
“I guess my brothers and Jesse will need to wrap up Brian’s interrogation,” A.J. said, disappointed he’d have to leave home so soon after just getting there. Plus, part of him felt like he was leaving Marcus behind, too.
“Maybe Rory should give us a lift to Birmingham since we’re all too drunk to drive,” Chris suggested.
“We can Uber it.” Wyatt rolled his eyes at Chris’s lame attempt to spend more time with Rory.
“Hate to break it to y’all, but there ain’t any Ubers out this way.” They’d probably end up asking Rory, and Chris would get his way. Although, A.J. doubted they’d all cram into one SUV. “I’ll have to call my dad to drive a few of us.”
“And what will you tell him?” Finn asked, obviously curious as to how that conversation would go.
“He knows I work crazy hours. We’ll be fine.” A.J. turned back to Chris. “You happen to ask Harper about the Vegas thing?”
“She said, and I quote, ‘You frat boys are on your own with that, and while you’re at it, leave A.J.’s sister the hell alone,’” Chris repeated her words in a high-pitched voice, sounding nothing like Harper, but eliciting a laugh out of everyone nonetheless.
“There’s someone I can ask,” Wyatt commented. “If she can hack the CIA without getting caught, a few Vegas cams should be no big deal.”
A.J. assumed Wyatt meant his cyber genius, twenty-one-year-old daughter, and he was on the verge of saying yes when Finn held both hands in the air, dropping his towel.
“She did what?” Finn’s eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed the towel off the ground.
“You boys do remember we work for Uncle Sam, right?” Roman chuckled before heading inside Caleb’s