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Jenny felt the steady beat of his heart under her palms, and her breasts ached and her core melted. “It better be sooner than that,” she whispered.

“We’ll see. Now let’s get you back to the couch. Do you need ice on the ribs, or heat?”

Jenny thought about it. “Heat.”

“Okay, then.”

“But don’t think you’re getting out of telling me everything you know.”

“It’s not much, but I’ll tell you everything,” he promised.

How in the hell was he so lucky? He hated paperwork, and somehow, he was stuck with the gear accountability report for the month. What in the hell had he done to deserve this nightmare? Oh yeah, he’d requested PTO on the day everybody had to beat their obstacle course records. According to Linc, that was hell. Kostya must be getting them ready for another mission.

Brax had already tallied everything he’d needed when he went to the armory, now it was just a matter of inputting it into the computer. Gideon had laughed at him for not putting it into the tablet in the first place, thereby skipping a step. He was probably right, but trying to fill out those little columns and rows on the computer as he was accounting for everything was just asking for errors. Brax preferred his method, even if it took a little longer.

So far, everything was coming out perfect. That was because Nolan was responsible for gathering all of the gear at the end of each mission. Nolan was as OCD as they came when it came to the job, and thank God for it.

“You almost done?” Mateo asked as he popped his head over the cubicle where Brax was working.

“I need fifteen or twenty more minutes.”

“You would have been done already if you would have just⁠—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

Mateo shrugged. “We’re going to Marti’s Grill for a beer. You in?”

Brax considered it. CiCi was at his house with Jenny, and the idea of talking to some of his teammates sounded good. “Yeah, I’m in.”

“See you there,” Mateo said. Then he was gone.

Brax finished up in twenty minutes, but before he closed down his computer, Kostya came around the corner. “How are you doing?”

“Fine. Everything came out perfect.”

“No big surprise. I’m going to hate it if Nolan ends up leaving to work for Simon in Jasper Creek.”

Brax chuckled. “Yeah. Just don’t put Ryker in charge, then you’ll be all right.”

Kostya nodded in agreement. “How’s it going with Jenny?”

“Fine.”

Kostya didn’t respond, at least not verbally. He just raised his eyebrow.

“Is this a counseling session?”

“Do you need a counseling session?” Kostya asked.

“I was thinking of doing it over beers tonight, but this might be better. It’s killing me that someone is out after Jenny.”

Kostya came in further into the cubicle and leaned against the side of the desk. “Understandable. Is that all?”

Brax shook his head. “You know I’ve been talking to her every day since she got out of the hospital, right?”

Kostya nodded.

“I’m in deep. She’s something else. Strong. Funny. She has a big heart, and cares about a lot of people. But she doesn’t let people in. She doesn’t believe that people will be there for her.”