“Yeah, I was neither disappointed nor surprised,” Joey said dryly.“But it’s dark, and I won’t be able to get out until dawn.”
“You’retrappedthere?”Gideon asked, trying not to panic.He scrambled to a sitting position, mind racing with exfil scenarios.He should call Clint, he should alert the team, he should—
“It’s fine.We’ve done this before,” Joey said calmly.And then his voice dropped, and Gideon could swear he heard the snow falling around him.“It’s just this time I’ve got a real reason to leave.”
“I’d come get you,” Gideon said, and he heard the hardness in his voice and knew that, of all people, it would give Joey comfort.“I know I’m not an army, but you and me—”
“We’d do all right,” Joey said, and hesoundedcomforted.“Thanks, Gid.”Some of the anger slipped from his voice.“I’ll be okay.”
“My father would love to meet you,” Gideon said simply.
“That’s a nice promise.Merry Christmas, Chadwick.”
“Merry Christmas, Carlyle.”
“I’ll see you on the twenty-sixth.”
“Stay warm.And safe.”
“Stay single.”
Gideon wanted to laugh then.As.If.He opened his mouth to say something else, but Joey ended the call, and Gideon had worked enough missions to know you didn’t call the guy out in the cold.
There was another picture, though, and Gideon stared in fascination at a mountain lion stalking out of the cave.The picture was taken from an elevated perspective, and Gideon realized Joey had cut off the convo so he could climb a tree.
He wanted to laugh, but his chest still ached, a stupid, purposeless thing.Downstairs, he could hear Trisha and his father talking—simple, easy conversation about pot roast and salad, and the smell of dinner was wafting up the stairs.Trisha had domestic help, and there was a lively conversation coming from the kitchen as the table was set, and Gideon suddenly wanted Joey here with everything in his heart.
Another picture.This one bloody, because the mountain lion had brought down a hare, and somebody wouldn’t go hungry tonight.
Sleep well, Carlyle.Get warm.Find some food.He texted the words, not wanting to get more sentimental but wanting Joey to have better.
As long as I don’t kill anyone, it will be a good night.
Gideon heard himself telling his father that he and Joey were not nice people.
Predators want full bellies and safe homes too, he thought.
He stood and dressed for dinner, remembering to wet-comb his wild flyaway hair.As he made his way downstairs in his loafers, he found himself missing his wolf, their cozy den in the city, and the feeling of being on the hunt together.
He found himself angry at the mountain lion threatening his wolf.Together, he thought grimly,together,they could make a feast of the lion and cozy up in their own safe cave.
SUCH Astrange twin plane of existence.On one plane, Gideon spent the next two days with his chest constricted, in a constant state of panic while he worried about Joey, living for the vibration of his phone against his thigh.Texts likeOut of the compoundorStaying at a hotelkept him grounded, gave him peace, allowed him to return to his other plane of existence, where his father and stepmother were trying hard to have a peaceful holiday.
The third time Trish watched him jerk upright at the dinner table and then surreptitiously check his phone, she laughed.
“Gideon,” she said warmly, “you can just put it next to your plate.I get it.You’re worried about somebody.It’s got to be hard being here when you want to be there.”
Gideon did what she asked and then turned a truly apologetic face toward the kind woman who had tried to mother him for nearly thirty years.“I am so grateful to be here,” he said, meaning it.“I appreciate you and my dad, and the decorations and the good food—I didn’t want to be rude.”
Trish had never been beautiful—not by the standards of Gideon’s father’s friends.She had an unruly mop of curly hair that had once been red, a round face, and a round bosom and plush hips and, as far as Gideon could see, didn’t regret a single morsel to cross her lips, nor should she have.Her smile was glorious, and her eyes—a little droopier than they had been thirty years ago because she had no time for cosmetic surgery and no shyness about aging—lit up with a joy for life that made the years fall away.
Now she gave Gideon a soft look that made him wish, not for the first time, that he’d been less reserved as a child.Hesoshould have let himself be mothered by this woman.
“It’s okay to be worried about someone,” she said.“I don’t know if this is job related or not, Gideon, but it doesn’t matter.I used to worry about your father when he had a long commute.I worried about you when you were deployed.Your father and I spent an entire year jumping at every text, because you had gone dark and we were waiting foranyword.”Her eyes grew bright.“I remember your Christmas text that year.We memorized it.‘I’m fine.Merry Christmas.Have a drink for me.’” She gave half a laugh.“We had an entire bottle of pino grigio for you, Gideon.I don’t know if we ever told you that.”
Gideon gave her a helpless smile.“No,” he said.“I didn’t know that.I hope it was a good one.”
She shrugged.“It paired well with chocolate.My point is, I get it.You’re worried.Keep the phone on the table and tell us about this… colleague that you’re so worried about.Don’t worry—nothing classified, and we’re quite fine with violence.Watch it all the time on TV.”
