Page 54 of Deep Cover

Reid squeezed her arm and left her side, joining the guys in line to grab a paper bowl for himself.

She drifted toward Stina. The woman held a glass of some pink, frothy drink with a paper umbrella sticking out at a jaunty angle.

She smiled at Stina. “What is that?”

“The guys can’t drink.” Stina took an unbothered sip. “Nobody said anything about us.”

Jolie stood a few feet away at a corner of the sundae bar, dumping ingredients into a blender. She tossed Caryssa a grin. “Ever had mudslides? Stina introduced me to them years ago. Trust me, you want one. It makes whatever Cannon picks for tonight’s movie go down a lot easier.”

She threw her head back in a laugh. Now she understood why Cannon had said no debate when Stina started to question the movie choice.

She gathered around the whirring blender with Jolie and Stina. Under different circumstances, these ladies might have been her friends. Real friends, unlike any she’d had in years.

“If you have to pre-game yourselves with alcohol, Sierra team’s commanding officer clearly has terrible taste in movies.”

The ladies laughed and nodded. Reid, a few feet away, turned to look at Caryssa, a smile in his eyes that made her heart perform a little flip.

After the drink finished mixing, Jolie poured it into a cup for her and added an umbrella and a straw.

“Do the other teams do this too?” Caryssa asked.

“The movie nights?” Stina laughed. “God, I hope not. But the women who live there must be strong enough to keep the men in check.”

Caryssa looked at her. “Women?”

“Wives. Girlfriends.” Jolie pushed the cup toward her. “We’ve only talked to a few of them. May’s with Charlie team. Sophie too. Eden and Farah are with Alpha.”

“And they live on the bases?”

“Yes. They have jobs there too. Roles with the teams.” Stina took another sip. “Blackout isn’t exactly a normal workplace.”

The umbrella in her drink suddenly became very interesting as her mind caught on one detail.

She’d spent days looking at this place as a military installation she’d somehow been dropped into. Reid’s world. Cannon’s team. Armed men disappearing down tunnels to do jobs nobody else could know about.

She hadn’t considered women being part of it, outside of Jolie and Stina.

But it seemed there were. Women who had found a place inside all that secrecy. Built lives there. Made friends. Fell in love. Became part of the strange family growing around these teams.

Her gaze found Reid across the room. He was laughing at something Rome said, completely unaware that Caryssa’s understanding of his world had just shifted beneath her feet.

Until now, she’d assumed there was no place for her.

But a woman named May had one. Sophie. Eden. Farah.

The realization stole a little of her breath.

Maybe this place didn’t have to belong only to Reid.

Maybe, if things had been different—

No.

She shut that door before it could open any wider.

But when Reid glanced over and caught her staring, the warmth in his eyes made it impossible not to wonder what might be waiting on the other side.

With her drink in hand, she claimed a corner of one sofa and tucked her legs up under her. From the corner of her eye, she saw Reid crossing the room to her and her pulse climbed the closer he got. Which was absurd. She wasn’t a smitten twenty-something anymore. She was a grown woman. An FBI analyst.