Hidden Away (KGI #3)(96)

She lowered the candy and scrunched up her brow. “Is it safe?”

“I wouldn’t have suggested it if it wasn’t. Rio is a paranoid bastard. He’s made this place virtually impenetrable.”

“I’d like that.”

Garrett pushed in closer to her, swaggering as he said the next. “Skinny-dipping?”

Color rose in her cheeks. “Garrett! I don’t want anyone seeing me.”

“Did I mention this pool is completely enclosed? No one will see you but me, honey, and I’m going to end up seeing you whether you wear a suit or not. I just figure it’ll make my job easier if you forego a suit from the start.”

She laughed. “Incorrigible!”

“Yes ma’am, I am,” he said. “My mama has said so many a time.”

She shook her head. “Okay. Skinny-dipping it is. But if anyone else sees me, I’ll kill you.”

He lowered his mouth to hers with a growl. “If anyone else sees you, I’ll kill them.”

“YOU ever think we spend most of our time in transit?” P.J. asked as she hopped into the boat beside Cole. Behind her, Dolphin, Renshaw and Baker piled into the next boat while Steele stood on the dock coolly surveying the river.

“I’d say we spend most of our time getting jerked around,” Cole muttered. “First it’s f**king Alaska. Now it’s the damn jungle. I hate the f**king jungle.”

“You only say that because you got shot the last time we ventured into the jungle.”

“It was a ricochet,” Cole pointed out.

P.J. shrugged. “You still took a bullet and had to be carried out.”

Cole scowled as he stared at the smaller woman who serenely stared over the water. Steele climbed aboard and gave the motion to shove off. Damn woman was yanking his chain again and, as always, he rose to the bait beautifully.

“I wonder what we’ll have here,” she said as she turned. “In Alaska, it was BAFB. I guess here it’s BAFS.”

“BAFS?” Cole asked cautiously. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.

“Big-ass f**king snakes,” she said cheerfully. “They have anacondas here. They can swallow a man whole.”

“Great. Just f**king great.”

“You’re way too easy Coletraine,” Steele said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“I hate snakes. They freak me the f**k out.”

P.J. patted him on the arm. “I’ll protect you, Cole. I won’t let the big bad snakes get you.”

“I’m tempted to feed you to them.”

Steele chuckled and turned his attention back to the river as the boats glided soundlessly through the water.

“I hope wherever we’re going, we get some sleep,” P.J. said with a yawn.

“The accommodations will be up to Rio,” Steele said through his teeth.

“Great,” Cole said glumly. “I think the man’s idea of first-class accommodations is having a rock for a pillow.”

“Rio has a nice place here,” P.J. piped up.

Steele raised an eyebrow while Cole turned sharply. “How the hell do you know what Rio has?”

P.J. shrugged. “He told me about it. Sounds like a nice place. He worked on it for years. Pretty high-tech too.”

“You had an actual conversation with Rio?” Cole asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, he’s cool.”

Cole’s gaze narrowed. “Just how well do you know him?”

“We talk.”

“When the hell do you have time to talk? When we’re all together for a mission, there sure as hell isn’t time for chitchat.”

“Duh, I have a life outside our missions, you know.”

Cole’s mouth popped open. Granted he didn’t know jack about what his team members did outside the job. If he was honest, most of the time they lived, ate and breathed the job. Sometimes they spent weeks together, day in, day out. It was hard to imagine anyone’s life outside the team.

“I saw him when he was in Colorado a few months back,” she said with a huff of impatience. “He knew I lived in the area so he looked me up. We had a few drinks. Talked shop.”

Cole scowled again and glanced over at Steele to see how he took the news. He appeared as unruffled as ever, but then that was Steele. He never interfered in their private lives. When they were on a mission, their asses belonged to Steele. No questions asked. They followed his command without question. But when they finished, they each went their own way, and until now, Cole never gave a thought to how his teammates lived when they weren’t together.

P.J. was a good looking, very in-shape woman. She was smart. Sharp as a tack. And she could damn well look after herself. Any red-blooded male would be tripping over his tongue to hook up with her.

Now it was going to bug him to wonder what had happened between P.J. and Rio. Not that it was any of his business. P.J. was just a teammate. Nothing more.

But as they slipped farther down the river, Cole couldn’t help but imagine P.J. with Rio.

He scowled harder.

Thirty minutes later, they docked at a bend in the river. It was a moonless night and they were far enough from any town that the entire area was shrouded in a cloak of darkness. Cole’s eyes rapidly adjusted and he caught movement at the other end of the dock.