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“Getting in is the easy part,” one of the former SEALs on the call—the youngest, Nate—said. “You know that.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Adrian said. “For now, Owen, do you and Sam mind some house guests?
“Not at all. Why don’t we all meet in Birmingham? Come up with a plan in person?”
“I can pick up Nate and Zach on my way,” Gabe said with a nod.
“No need to get me,” Nate said. “Em and I are in Tupelo right now, in a vacation rental. We’ll meet you all there.”
While the others talked about the wheres and the whens of getting to Alabama, Drake hesitated. “Do you think all of us need to go? The twins are still so little, and?—”
Adrian put a hand on his shoulder. “Take care of your family, Shep.” He looked at the other men. “You all have families also, and we aren’t SEALs anymore. There’s no obligation to come.”
Zach snorted. “Are you giving us an honest-to-God out? Where was this concern over letting us make our own choices when we had to tandem jump out of that helicopter because we didn’t have enough bail-out parachutes for everyone? As I recall, you told me to?—”
“You say that as if staying in the helicopter with a failed engine was an option,” Adrian said, and I had to bite back a giggle.
“You know I’m coming, jackass,” Zach said. Nate and Gabe echoed the sentiment.
After agreeing to meet in Birmingham in the next three days, the former SEALs ended the call, and Adrian turned to me. “Can Elias make it to Birmingham that soon? Seriously? If he needs more time, we can take it.”
That flutter again. Damn it. “He’ll be bouncing off the walls by tomorrow,” I said. “It’s going to be a long drive, but we can manage with?—”
“Lots of stops,” Adrian said. “I promise.”
SEVEN
ADRIAN
Inever used to enjoy driving with the radio on, but seeing Elias smile and relax in the backseat instead of flinching in pain with every pothole was definitely making me a fan. “We’re getting near a rest stop,” I announced as we passed a blue sign advertising as much. “Do we need a stop?”
“I’m fine.”
Nataliya turned in the passenger seat to look at her son. “Are you sure, sakharok?”
The boy nodded. “I promise to tell you if I’m hurting.”
“What does it mean? Sakharok?” I asked. I’d heard her call him that several times now, and I was curious.
Nataliya smiled. “Literally, it means ‘piece of sugar,’” she said. “He’s my sweet baby.”
“Mama!” Elias whined. “I’m not a baby.”
She pursed her lips, but that wasn’t enough to hold back the laugh that burst out. The pure amusement on her face was beautiful, and my stomach flipped over. Just like it did when I touched her hand yesterday. What the hell is wrong with me? We were in the middle of a mission—I had never had trouble reining in an attraction before, especially when I had a task taking up so much of my focus and concentration, but the more time I spent around her, the harder it was to ignore how she made my skin feel like it was crackling.
“Of course, you’re not a baby, sakharok,” she said in her most serious voice…but Elias couldn’t see her face as well as I could. She was trying so hard not to coo at him, and the red spreading across her cheeks made me think it was a losing battle.
Elias harrumphed in the back. “Adrian?”
It was a little surprising to hear him say my name. He hadn’t really addressed me directly yet. “Yeah, bud?”
“Did you have more successful or unsuccessful missions when you were a SEAL?”
The question shocked a laugh out of me. “What?”
Elias repeated his question. “I’m reading a book about a spy, and he always succeeds. Is it like that in real life?”
I snorted. “Unfortunately not, bud,” I said. Hell, we wouldn’t be doing this if all I had were wins. It was a bitter thought that I did my best to shake off. “While my team always did their best to come up with an ironclad plan, sometimes bad stuff happens anyway.”
