airport last night, Jesse had encouraged a quick “who can take the most shots and not fall down” competition, and he also placed a bet that A.J. would lose. A.J. had never been able to say no to a bet or to a competition, and in the end, he was victorious. But he’d been a drunken mess by the time they arrived at the airport. Probably not one of his best ideas, given the bump on the back of his head.
Wyatt and Chris had to practically carry A.J. onto the plane. And Chris had threatened to tape his mouth shut, worried he’d get them booted from flying commercial if he didn’t stop talking about his firearm collection.
“You happen to know why we were called here?” Finn asked Harper.
“No idea why Secretary Chandler called us aside from the obvious.” Harper’s lips eased into a smile. “A mission.”
It’d be their first official mission this year working for Admiral Chandler in his new role as Secretary of Defense. And now Wyatt’s future father-in-law was officially one of the select few to know about Bravo and Echo Teams’ off-the-books operations. To the world, the guys had retired, but hell, they were far from it. Of course, if they were to ever be captured during an op, they’d have to claim they were acting on their own accord under the guise of Scott & Scott Securities. They’d secured four more years of operating when Isaiah Bennett won the presidency, but if the media ever got wind of their ops, it’d be game over.
“How much did you drink last night, by the way?” Harper must have been asking A.J. since he was the only one with sunglasses on in the dark basement to hide his bloodshot eyes. All the ibuprofen in the world wouldn’t get rid of his headache, either. It was worse than the one he’d had yesterday.
“His buddy made a bet.” And that was all Roman needed to say for Harper to get the idea.
“Mmhm.” Harper gave A.J. an accusatory but playful grin, her white teeth showing between her parted lips, coated in that nude gloss that Roman was clearly unable to take his eyes off. Captain Obvious was about as good at hiding his desire for Harper as Asher had once been with Jessica. Only, Asher and Jessica had done their best to make a show of hating each other while secretly wanting to rip each other’s clothes off.
But Roman kept his cool because Roman was, well, Roman. Quiet. Always thinking. Probably calculating odds and measuring the risks if he were to make a move on Harper.
And then there’s me. I drunk dialed an FBI agent. A.J. pulled at the brim of his ball cap in shame.
“You should’ve taken my phone away from me after all those shots.” The cheap plastic government chair groaned beneath the weight of forcing it to move in ways it wasn’t meant to. A.J. finally allowed the chair legs to meet the ground again.
“And miss out on the chance to watch you do something stupid?” Chris eyed A.J. with intense focus as if A.J. were coming around on the last lap at Nascar, and it was a make-or-break moment. Hell, A.J.’s life was all about those moments, wasn’t it?
He removed his glasses at the sudden realization his drunken message last night had been Chris’s doing. “You . . .”
Chris stopped pacing the length of the table and held both palms in the air. “I may or may not have been the one to encourage you to call her.”
“What am I missing?” Harper asked, but then Roman tipped his chin in the direction of the metal door opening from the other side of the room.
“Harper, you didn’t tell us the admiral was bringing Natasha to our, uh, supposedly clandestine meeting.” Chris dropped back into his seat as if he’d get punished by the teacher for standing. “Um, Wyatt, what’s your future wife doing here?”
Wyatt twisted to the side to peer at Admiral Chandler walking toward the table, his daughter at his right, a stack of folders pressed to her chest. He hurriedly stood, clearly surprised to see his fiancée in this so-called Blacklist-like setting.
Now that A.J. thought about it, the place did give off a bizarre feeling aside from being cold, dimly lit, and beneath a closed-down old county jail. Maybe there were ghosts of previous inmates causing that chill in the air?
Ghosts. Goose bumps exploded across his body as he remembered how clearly Marcus had appeared to him