Taking It Slow - Reese Knightley Page 0,18

but they weren’t out of the woods yet. Not until he knew Fury, and more importantly, Spencer, was safe.

“Bowman and two of his accomplices got away,” Maddox reported at the thirty minutes from breech mark, but the captain hadn’t said the words that would take away Liam’s worry.

“Fury has been located,” Oliver called out.

River’s camera swung around to show three black figures coming out of the line of trees along with Oliver, Blade, and Dillon. The camera cut away and Liam eased his clenched fists.

“Who’s that?” Spencer asked from somewhere off screen.

“Um…” Oliver stepped back into the monitor’s line of sight and Spencer followed.

He was filthy, covered in sweat, and his face held lines of dark camouflage grease, but he was the most beautiful thing Liam had ever seen.

“Is that the colonel?”

Oliver nodded and when Spencer held out his hand, Oliver plucked his earpiece out and handed it over.

“Colonel?” Spencer rasped, stepping into view of the camera attached to the Infinity vehicle.

“Captain,” he responded, his gaze locked on Spencer. It took some effort, but Liam managed to hold back every expression from his face as the whole room turned to look at him.

“Thanks for the backup.”

“Speak for yourself!” Lincoln Beckett snapped, coming to stand by Spencer and glaring into the screen. Beckett was a fucking rebel, but the man was downright lethal and Liam had personally hand-picked the guy for Fury, just as he had Spencer and Eagle.

“We really need to work on our communication.” Spencer squinted at the screen and Liam felt pinned by the man’s expressive blue eyes.

Infinity broke out in laughter.

“You all suck,” Link snarled and stomped away.

Liam grunted. “Report back to base,” he said and yanked his headset off.

“Carry on,” he told the room and turned to stride out of the area. He snapped the door closed when he stepped out into the hallway.

Once there, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, counting to ten.

That ops hadn’t even been a close one and it wasn’t that Fury and Infinity didn’t do this shit every time they went out, but this time had been different.

Fuck. Not only was Bowman still on the loose, but Liam had another very real problem.

He still had it bad for Spencer Turner, very, very bad, and he wondered how the hell he was going to keep his feelings on a friend-only level.

Spencer

He grinned and handed Oliver’s earpiece back. Liam’s rough and commanding voice still rang in his ears. He could have stood and listened to the colonel give him orders all fucking day long.

“This blows,” Link snarled again from where he stood next to him and Eagle.

“They were sent to help,” he reprimanded Link.

“No, not Infinity. That fucking Bowman flew the coop.” Link yanked off his ball cap, ran his fingers through his longish hair to comb it off his forehead, and replaced the hat.

Spencer turned and headed across the parking lot.

“We’ll get him,” Eagle responded, following him.

“The colonel a friend of yours?” Link asked, coming to stride next to him.

Spencer thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, he is.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Eagle chimed in.

“Why?” He frowned at Eagle.

“Just nice to have friends in high places is all.” Eagle grinned.

Link snorted and stomped ahead of them. “Why the hell was he having Major Samson giving us orders then?”

“I don’t know,” Spencer lied. He knew damned well why Liam had Major Samson give orders to Fury. It had to do with his refusal to report to him. Which now sounded silly as all fuck. Spencer felt guilty as hell about it.

“Well, at least we know who our real boss is,” Eagle shouted after Link.

“I liked Major Samson!” Link shouted back and flipped them off.

Eagle laughed loudly. That seemed to piss Link off even more and before long, the soldier was gone.

It wasn’t like any of them had a say in who they reported to. The Army wasn’t a fucking corporate job where a person got to pick their coworkers or take time off when their itty-bitty feelings were hurt.

He wasn’t sure about having Liam for a boss when he was so attracted to the man. There, he admitted it to himself. Even though their lifestyles made it impossible to be together, the sexual awareness was off the fucking charts. He knew Liam felt it too.

Not only that, but Liam was comfortable to be around and Spencer realized he had more in common with Liam than he’d first thought. They’d clicked last weekend. Which was odd