Nobody's Lost (Rescue Me Saga #5)(79)
As if on cue, the eerily quiet stealth chopper hovered overhead, making ripples in the late-summer air and stirring the dust.
Roman itched to get home. He dug his hand into his pocket and toyed with a small slip of paper at the bottom. Who the hell knew why he kept it, but he did. His fingers had played with it for hours on end, making the thing soften and roll.
“Let’s go, boys.” Rocco stood back, waiting for the team to load first. He had that look in his eyes, wanting to get home, and that had nothing to do with the flu. Winters and Cash hustled too. They were heading home to their women. It’d been a subtle shift as each of them went down that road. But Roman had noticed.
He thought about the woman who’d shoved the paper into his hand, promising it was only one of the many reasons he’d never get her naked. Thinking about that hissy fit over Chinese takeout, he couldn’t help but smile. Beth was something else, and damn if he didn’t want her naked and in his hands.
But for now, all he had was a stupid cookie fortune that said Beware of short life lines. It made no sense. Especially didn’t make sense that Beth was using it as an excuse. Then again, when had she ever had an excuse that wasn’t ridiculous? Each one was more absurd than the last, but that was likely because each excuse came with a slew of almosts.
Almost a touch. Almost a kiss. Almost a moment where neither could stop. But they always did.
The girl had a serious set of brakes when it came to him, and man, he loved a challenge. Swallowing her memory, he pulled himself into the chopper. Rocco boarded behind, and then they swayed, lifted, and moved closer to home, closer to her.
Yeah, he wanted her as a distraction from everything nasty that the world had to offer. He looked around, then noticed his serious lack of participation in the general post-mission bullshit as they all stripped gear.
Rocco groaned. “I need my bed.”
“Probably what’s in your bed,” Parker offered from the safety of an earpiece.
“Ass.” But then Rocco rubbed his temples. “You all haven’t seen shit till you’ve seen pregnancy hormones.”
Winters nodded. “Second that craziness.”
“You two and domestic, parental bliss…” Cash grinned as he unholstered his backup M9 Beretta. “I taught Clara a few counterattack tactics she can throw down in her next game of hide-n-seek.”
“Nothing she doesn’t already know.” Winters smirked at Cash. “Little girl is the queen of the playground. And that has more to do with the defensive maneuvers I taught her than your triangulation tips.”
Cash opened his mouth, but Winters shut him down.
“You guys realize how you sound, right?” Roman shook his head. “Little Clara starting a kindergarten militia won’t go over well with your wife. Tell me someone knows that besides me.”
“I hear ya,” Parker muttered. “Mia would kill his ass.”
Roman eyed each of them. “Christ. Tell me someone realizes that you’re talking about hopscotch or whatever instead of how RPGs were flying, Rocco’s puking, or Cash taking a tight kill shot. Someone has to think of something besides getting home.”
For a long moment, no one said a word. Not only was Roman a single guy not whining about missing the same-old day in, day out, but now he’d pointed out that they had lost their damn minds. All of them except Parker. Hell, if those guys weren’t careful, they’d all lose their edge.
“Seriously, if you weren’t reminded, you’d all get soft.”
Winters cleared his throat. “Roman, man?”
“Yeah?” He loosened the straps to his body armor.
“One word.”
“And what’s that?” He leaned forward, planting his forearms on his knees and shaking his head at the team. “You, my friends, are whipped.”
Cash started laughing. Then Rocco.
“What?” Roman narrowed his eyes.
“You can’t name that one little word?” Winters leaned back, laughing alongside them. “Ready?”
Cash doubled over. Parker and even Jared chuckled in Roman’s earpiece.
“What?”
“Beth,” Winters said, slapping his leg.
Beth. Roman toyed with the fortune that said he would die early and not get lucky any time soon. She was a headache for him even when he was on mission a continent away. “Nice try, *s.”
But the truth was, soon as he had a chance to see her, Roman would be there, willing and ready to play their game, because it might not be today, might not be tomorrow, but he never lost.
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After putting her life on the line to protect classified intelligence, military psychologist Mia Kensington is on a cross-country road trip from hell with an intrusive save-the-day hero. Uninterested in his white knight act, she’d rather take her chances without the ruggedly handsome, cold-blooded operative who boasts an alpha complex and too many guns.
Colby Winters, an elite member of The Titan Group, has a single objective on his black ops mission: recover a document important to national security. It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out operation. But now, by any means necessary becomes a survival mantra when he faces off with a stunning woman he can’t leave behind.