next to them. “Well, have you decided where you want to live?”
Gabe let out a snort of laughter. “One place is about as good as another to me as long as it’s stateside. I came from a military family, so I’ve never been in one spot for very long.”
“How do you feel about Los Angeles?”
“L.A.?” The grizzly tossed back the rest of his drink and let is swirl on his tongue as he thought about it. “I guess that would be all right. Just like any other city, right?”
The cowboy tipped his head from one side to the other. “Sort of. It’s got a hell of a lot of people in it, and a decent percentage of them just happen to be shifters. There are more of them than the local conclave has been able to keep track of, actually, and it’s recently come to light that some of them are forming gangs. It could be incredibly dangerous for shifters as a whole if this is allowed to get out of hand.”
“What exactly do you want me to do about it?” Gabe had spent his entire military career trying to hide his true identity from anyone who was pure human, and the other soldier shifters he managed to find were few and far between. The idea of connecting with so many more people like himself was an intriguing one.
“Not just you, but a group. See, the SOS Force was started in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Drake Sheridan, a Special Forces Medical Sergeant. As the need for the Force expanded across the country, the Dallas unit was formed. After you came to see me on the ranch, I talked a bit with the guys in Dallas and with Drake himself. It seems that we may need to start up yet another unit, this time in L.A. We’ll have to find all the right people to staff it, all shifters, all former Special Ops.” Vance pointed at him with the mouth of his beer bottle, his eyes steady. “I’ve recommended you.”
Gabe lifted his empty glass to get the bartender’s attention. He watched the liquid swirl in the glass for a long minute as he thought. Gabe was the type of man who liked to take action. Not only did he not mind being busy, he lived for it. There was nothing worse than sitting around idly, and even in the Delta Force, he’d had his share of that. This could be one hell of an opportunity, and he didn’t think he could dare pass it up. “You’ve got yourself a recruit, Vance.”
“Hell, yeah!” Vance rang his beer against Gabe’s glass. “We’ll be working on a list of other potential members, and we’ll get you set up with a headquarters building out there in L.A. Garrison, who’s part of the D.C. unit, is great with construction, so you’ll have everything you need.”
Gabe smiled. When that mortar had blown him up and left his ribs peppered with shrapnel, he thought he’d lost everything. His job and the missions he’d worked so hard on for the U.S. Army had all gone down the drain and left him with no direction and no future.
But he was about to have it all back and more.
In theory, commercial flights should be downright luxurious compared to the planes he’d been on with the Army. The seats were more comfortable, someone brought a snack and a drink, and the chances of having to jump out the side door were pretty minimal. Even with a normal landing, there was no concern about having to head straight off to war.
But being seated in front of a small child who couldn’t sit still and continuously kept kicking his seat made Gabe wish he was flying with good old Uncle Sam again. The talkative man to his right wasn’t making things any better.
“Ah, the good old city of Los Angeles,” he announced in a voice worthy of a cheesy game show. He ran a hand through his bleached hair and flashed a blinding white grin. “Is this your first time?”
Gabe nodded. He’d gotten used to talking to all sorts of people in his work with the Delta Force, learning to connect, despite cultural and lingual differences. So many locals from the various countries he’d worked in had been kind and welcoming, but this character was something else. “Yes, it is.”
“Whoa, baby! You’re in for a real treat. You haven’t traveled at all if you haven’t been to the City of Angels.”
Gabe stifled a laugh.