Page 84 of Kyle

“Tomato, tomahto,” Max continued. “I call it sneaking when you come home and quietly go upstairs without a word.”

A thick silence fell in the SUV and I didn’t need to see Declan’s face to know he was pissed.

“I have a lot on my mind,” Dec muttered.

“You care to share?” Max pressed, not knowing when to quit.

“Nope.”

“Right.” I could see Max shake his head in the dim light filtering in from the streetlamps. “You know—”

“Leave it.” Declan’s short answer left no room for argument and Max wisely dropped it.

Declan would share in his own time. Not a second before. And the little he had shared was more than enough for me to understand why he never wanted to talk about his past. My gut twisted even thinking about losing Anaya. I had an all new respect for the man. No way would I be able to go on if I’d lost all that he had.

Chapter 25

“Myles is in charge.”

“Yes, Zane, you already said that,” I returned.

“This is why I don’t employ women,” Zane muttered. “They roll their eyes and throw attitude.”

“And Jasmin’s not a woman?”

“Fuck no. Jasmin’s got balls of steel. She doesn’t roll her eyes, she simply shoots people.”

“And Ivy? She works for you,” Tatiana joined the conversation. “And Violet? And me?”

“Good point. You’re fired.”

“Fired?” Tatiana laughed. “What did I do?”

“Fraternization.”

“Is that somewhere in your employee handbook?”

“See, right there. That’s why you’re fired. My men don’t ask me for an employee handbook. They have a field manual. They also don’t give me lip. Well, that is until they lose their balls to a woman, then they give me nothing but grief.”

There was something working behind Zane’s blue eyes. They were stormy and alert. I’d come to understand the attitude he was giving at the moment was normal. Zane was sarcastic and gruff. But something was off with the way he was looking at us.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Besides the fact you’re standing here givin’ me—”

“Zane. What is wrong?”

On a long exhale his gaze went from me to Emerson then came back to me.

“Askin’ a lot of the two of you. Askin’ a lot of the men. Straight up, if it was Ivy, no way would she be going. I’d have her ass safely chained to my desk. Struggling with my decision. I have two men who are deployed who won’t be dedicated to the mission because they’ll be worried about their women. That’s how operations fail. That’s how good men get dead. And I’m sending two traumatized women into an uncertain situation asking them to relive their trauma.”

“I’m not traumatized,” I denied. “And don’t you dare treat me like I am.”

“Eight years, Zane,” Emerson started. “You know how I lived. What I did. And you know I can handle this. I’ve been in worse situations and I was alone. Now I have you and the team at my back. Don’t start acting like I can’t handle the simple task of talking to a woman.”

“What if Monica is Landry’s partner?” Zane asked.

“Then she is and we’ll sniff that out in a heartbeat,” Emerson answered. “I know the difference.”