Walker (In the Company of Snipers #21) - Irish Winters Page 0,58

drives. There just had to be.

Chapter Eighteen

Did anything ever, ever make Alex Stewart happy? At least momentarily pleasant? Guess not. But just once, couldn’t he be pleased that the operation to USP, Lee, hadn’t ended with innocent lives lost? How hard could it be to pull that bullshit stick out of his ass?

Persia rolled her right shoulder to force the cramp out of her neck. It had gotten tighter with every passing minute. What more did Alex want? Her blood on a rock? She and Zack had already surrendered their firearms to the local sheriff. They’d given statements that should’ve matched the Marshals’ statements.

Yet there Alex stood alongside Zack, in a terse conference with Warden Everest over at the burned-out red sedan, while she cooled her heels inside the TEAM helicopter. Waiting for what she didn’t know. Yet when Alex had told her to climb aboard, she’d obeyed. Whatever they were discussing, it had better be good, and it had better not be about her. Alex, Zack, and Everest had been squared-off for a good fifteen minutes now. From where she sat, it looked as if the guys were going after each other. Which totally fit Alex’s MO, but Zack and the warden? Persia had no idea what sparked this testosterone-filled confrontation.

Oh, you did not just glare at me! Did you? Damn you, Alex!

“Well, bless my heart,” Persia muttered, stabbing a middle finger salute over her right brow, sending him precisely what she thought of him. The ass!

Yes, it was a passive-aggressive response, but she doubted he’d catch it. Or understand it if he did. She sucked in a deep, cleansing breath before she lost what was left of her cool, calm, and obedient demeanor. The last thing she needed was to scramble out of this chopper and tell him what he could do with his uppity, do-as-you’re-told, I’m-the-male-here attitude. Luckily, he and Zack had just turned from the warden. They were marching her way.

Persia swallowed her snark. Alex’s scowl couldn’t have been clearer, nor his steps any quicker. Rapping a curt index finger in the air, he signaled his pilot to get ready for takeoff, then climbed aboard with Zack at his heels. Both men belted into the jump seats behind the pilot and across from Persia before they donned their ear protection.

Pissed at being treated like a novice when she was anything but, Persia glared right back at Alex. Sliding a pair of silencer earbuds into her ear canals to protect her hearing, and to make sure she connected with the helo’s dynamic communication system—and her boss!—she crossed her arms over her chest, prepared for whatever nasty thing came out of his mouth next. How did Kelsey stand living with him? Yet they were having a baby. Their second child! Ugh. The thought of them procreating...

Persia banished the visual of her boss under the covers with any woman on earth from her mind. She couldn’t imagine him ever being that kind of sweet or romantic. Annoyed that she might’ve jumped ship too soon, that she would’ve been better off staying with either the Bureau or the Agency, her foot set to tapping. Still waiting.

At last, Alex looked up from whatever had captured his interest on his phone and spared her one of those guy chin stabs. “Marshal Goodwin says you saved his life, that you hit all your marks. Good work.”

So not what she’d expected to hear. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, but now, Warden Everest wants you on his payroll in a bad way,” Zack growled, as his brows clashed like two streaks of dark lightning across his forehead. He crossed his arms over his chest in the classic sign of ‘the-subject-is-closed.’ But it wasn’t. “Said he’s prepared to offer you whatever it takes, that you deserve a hiring bonus. Says you’re the best he’s ever seen, that you shouldn’t be working for a contractor. Dumbass is probably calling his senator right now to make it happen.”

“How would Everest even know who shot who?” Persia asked, not sure she truly understood what was happening. “He wasn’t there. He was hiding back in their van.”

“No, but he and Goodwin are tight, and Goodwin contacted Everest as soon as you guys had everything under control,” Alex said as he flicked the speck of mud that had dared tarnish the sleeve of his tailored suit jacket into outer space.

For a former Marine, this guy sure didn’t look the part. His agents dressed business casual most days, but Alex was always dressed for success.