“Why does he always remind us of that?” A.J. smiled. “But yes, please ask Gwen,” he said before starting for the firepit to say his goodbyes, promising himself he’d come back sooner rather than later this time.
Family was important.
The guys on Bravo and Echo were family, too.
But as he approached the firepit, his eyes moved to the flames licking the night sky, and his thoughts drifted to Marcus yet again.
Doesn’t it feel like we’re always chasing daylight? Marcus had asked the night before his final mission. Just trying to make it to see one more sunrise? One more day? Sometimes I get tired of it.
Yeah, and you’d be bored to tears doing something normal like finance or selling insurance, and you know it. We live for the chase, A.J. had said, a huge-ass grin on his face. He’d patted Marcus on the shoulder, both of them unaware that night was the last moonlit sky Marcus would ever see.
Chapter Four
Washington, D.C.
Ana set a box down and reached a hand around to brace her lower back. “I guess it’s true, once you’re over thirty, your body becomes more sensitive to everything.” She continued to massage her back. “Or my cardio workouts aren’t cutting it.” Sleep deprivation from working nonstop didn’t help either. Plus, her department clearly considered ergonomic office chairs a waste of money.
Adriana rested a tan forearm on top of a pile of boxes, not the least bit out of breath. “You can always join me for workouts.”
“You work out with your husband whenever he’s in town,” Ana reminded her. And maybe what she needed right now wasn’t rest or water but a bottle of wine. She allowed her hand to fall to her side, then circumvented the wall of boxes blocking her path to the kitchen.
When she turned with a bottle of pinot grigio in hand, Adriana was standing at the breakfast bar, which separated the kitchen from the living room in Ana’s new rental. She set her palms on the counter and popped onto the barstool.
“Our reward.” Ana uncorked the bottle with a regular corkscrew and not the complicated device her ex always insisted they use simply because it’d been a wedding gift from their old boss. He cursed the thing every time he opened a bottle, too. Inwardly, she’d always grinned because well, he was stubborn.
“I get satisfaction in just helping out. You don’t need to bribe me with a glass of wine. But I won’t turn it down.” Adriana accepted the glass, her lips teasing into a smile.
She and Adriana were night and day in terms of looks, and, apparently, physical fitness.
Ana had red hair to Adriana’s dark. Fair skin to her tan. Adriana was tall and well-endowed up top. Ana was petite and not even close to filling out a C, let alone a D. She was lucky to fit a modest B cup on a good day.
“I feel like a mistress, you know. A dirty little secret I don’t want my husband to find out.” A dark brow arched as Adriana sipped her wine.
Ana set her glass down and braced the counter. “I’m sorry. We’ll tell Knox soon that we’re friends and that I live in D.C. now. I promise.”
“He won’t be able to keep you a secret from A.J., so I get it.” Adriana’s expression had slowly changed to her thoughtful, I want to say something but don’t know how to face. In the few months they’d been hanging out, Ana had learned to read her well.
Then again, between Ana’s college degrees, training, and working for the FBI, it was basically her job to profile people. Couldn’t turn the switch off, not even with friends.
Work. She didn’t want to think about the nightmare at the office right now. She was being forced to take the day off, so she was doing her best to shut off her brain and forget who signed her paychecks.
“Any particular reason you don’t want A.J. knowing you’re living in D.C. and that we’re hanging out?” Adriana asked, which wasn’t her first time. But Ana was never forthcoming, and Adriana wasn’t a quitter. Nor was she pushy. So, she inserted the question every so often to test the waters. See if Ana would finally swim.
“You saw A.J. with me back in Charlotte. You know how he is.” Ana’s eyes fell to her glass. She’d nearly drained the bottle with their two very full pours. “Flirty. Funny.”