Page 45 of Russian Rescue

“Well, now who’s acting like a whacko? What, you planning on shooting Knox and Marcus?” I furrowed my brow.

“Can’t be too careful.”

We watched silently until the black sedan pulled to a stop. The doors opened simultaneously, and Knox and Marcus stepped out.

“It’s them. Good.” Piper shoved her pistol back in her waistband.

Knox stretched tall, his heavily tattooed arms reaching high above his head, which was already high off the ground due to his six-foot-three frame. With his thick beard and the muscles that looked like his skin stretched over balloons, he resembled a Viking warrior. The first time I’d seen him, I remember worrying that he could crush my skull with his bare hands. Over a decade later, he still looked like he could.

Marcus mirrored the stretch. While he was also impressive in his height and muscle mass, he portrayed a much cleaner image with his short hair and clean-shaven face. Marcus could put on a suit and blend into society, where Knox would stick out like a sore thumb. Granted, when they’d been active agents with the Elite Stealth Force, Knox hadn’t had any tattoos. No identifying marks had been one of the requirements for recruitment, so he’d gone a little crazy after retiring and had covered his body in all the tattoos he’d always wanted but couldn’t have.

The two men couldn’t have looked more different, but at the same time, they both emitted the exact same energy. The kind of energy that said, “fuck with me, and I’ll slit your throat.”

Which was funny because it was true.

“Hey, guys!” I called from the window while I waved.

They saw me, and each lifted a hand while smiles stretched across their faces. I hurried out the door and trotted up toward them.

Knox lifted his dark eyebrows and stared at me with shock on his face. “Damn, Pretty Boy. You sure clean up nice.”

“Thanks, Beefcake,” I taunted as I ran a hand over my new, darker-colored hair. “Incredibly Handsome Man is ready to go undercover.”

Knox’s lip twitched with his hidden smile. “You really gonna call me Beefcake right to my face, Pretty Boy? Just because you’ve put on some serious muscle mass—”

Marcus let out a puff of air. “Yeah. Seriously. You’ve been working out.”

Before I could respond, Knox placed a huge hand on my shoulder. “Don’t think I won’t kick your ass, Pretty Boy.”

If I didn’t know him as well as I did, I would have slunk down to the ground from the weight of his threatening stare, but I knew damn well Knox loved our playful banter.

“Ah, come on, Beefcake. You love it, and you know it.”

Knox held his stare for a long pause, then his shoulders shook with laughter. He wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled me in for a noogie. “Good to see you, Pretty Boy. It’s been way too long. And yeah. You look good, kid.”

“Seriously.” Marcus shook his head as Knox let me go. “I wouldn’t have known it was you.”

“Yep. I clean up really good.”

Piper walked up beside me as I gripped Knox’s hand and folded in for a brief hug, then I moved on to Marcus.

“Hey, guys.” She hugged them each behind me. “So glad you could come.”

“Of course,” Marcus said. “Anything for Pretty Boy.”

“Incredibly Handsome Man,” I corrected. “In fact, I’m so damn handsome now that Piper even went and fell in love with me.”

All three of their mouth’s dropped open, but Piper’s morphed into a giant oval of shock.

I struggled to stifle my smile while she stuttered out, “I... I am not in love with him.”

Knox’s eyebrows shot to his hairline as his smile grew while he passed a glance between us.

I shrugged. “She’s still in denial, but she’ll figure it out eventually. Won’t you, Piper?”

Piper slapped my arm, causing Knox to dissolve into a fit of laughter. Marcus joined him shortly after.

“That is not true!” she argued, but it only caused the three of us to laugh harder.