Page 19 of Russian Rescue

Wes sat up and looked at me, furrowing his brow and mouthing, “what?”

I brushed him off as Brooks answered, “It was really great working with you. An honor. Seriously. Alpha team are legends around here. We all aspire to do half the kickass cool shit your team accomplished in your years here.”

The fact our team had legendary status caused my frown from being called a civilian to soften.

“Stay safe out there, Brooks. I hope someday we can all find a way to meet and shoot the shit. I know you and Wes are breaking protocol being pals, so hopefully, you can bring us into the party one of these days.”

“Hell, yeah,” Brooks answered quickly. “I’m all about breaking protocol to meet Alpha team in the flesh. Just tell me when and where, and it’s going down.”

“I look forward to it,” I said. “Well, we can’t thank you enough for your help. Anytime I can repay the favor, just ask.”

“Will do, Piper. Nice working with you. Brooks out.”

“You said you were hungry?” Oleg asked when I set down the phone. “I’ve got leftover Tikka Masala. I’d order you some fresh stuff, but they closed for the night an hour ago.”

Chuckling to myself over Marcus’s accurate assumption, I smiled. “We would love some. Thank you, Oleg.”

“Yeah,” Wes agreed. “I’ve barely eaten in a week. I’m fucking starving.”

Oleg pressed off his thighs and disappeared through the kitchen door.

“So, this is the famous Oleg’s place, huh?” Wes asked, looking around at the modest apartment. “I’ve only been here virtually on your bodycams. You weren’t kidding. It really smells like Indian food in here!”

“Told you.” I bumped him with my shoulder. “Hey, you never told us you’ve been running ops for other Elite Stealth Force teams.” I arched an eyebrow.

Wes waggled his eyebrows. “Feeling a little cheated on? Jealous?”

“No,” I answered, though he wasn’t completely off base. It was a little strange thinking of Wes running other teams.

“Don’t be jealous.” He bumped me back. “Unlike you guys who signed up willingly, let’s not forget the entire reason I ended up on your team was because I hacked the FBI and got the offer to join the team or live out my life in a black site. When you all retired, I did too, but the government still owns every single molecule of my body. If they need me to run an op for a team, I run an op for a team. It’s not a regular thing, maybe a few times a year when they really need me. I doubt you know this, but instead of having a hacker assigned to each team, there is now one hacker who runs all the teams. Her name is Ada.”

“Just one?” My brows rose.

“Yep. I guess they realized since we can work from home in our underwear that there’s no reason to have dedicated hackers. They actually offered me the gig after we retired.”

“They did?”

“Yep.”

“And you didn’t take it?”

“Nope. I’ll fill in on occasion when Ada is busy on a mission with one team and they just need a stand-in for a while, but I would never run another team other than Alpha willingly. I’m loyal like that, so don’t be all jelly over there that I’m cheating on you.”

Knowing Wes remained loyal to our team made me smile. “Aw. You do love us the best.”

“Of course, I do. Alpha team for life, baby.”

“So, what did you think of being in the field today?”

He let out a long exhale. “It’s pretty crazy. I can’t believe you guys did this all the time. The bullets, the danger, the nonstop adrenalin rush.”

“Pretty awesome, right?”

His beautiful blue eyes widened. “Well, if you call feeling like any second could be the last one you’re alive ‘awesome,’ then yeah. Pretty awesome.”

I kicked my feet up on the coffee table. “Yeah. I’d call that pretty awesome.”

“Adrenalin junkie,” he teased, bumping me with an elbow.