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“And we can’t forget it,” Roman added.
“Okay.” Hank clapped his hands once. “Let’s get our shit together. We don’t have any time to waste. Everyone check in with Swede once you have your ride all set and are ready to take off. Tell him which route you’re taking. There are radio headphones for all of you, so check in often. Let’s get it done, people.”
Roman spoke up before they could walk away. “Hank, can you have Swede do me a favor while we’re all out searching?”
“What’s that?” Hank wanted to know.
“Have him check to see if there are any military or patriotic-type events on the calendar for the next few days, especially the weekend. Anything that would be a target for these idiots.”
“Will do,” Hank assured him.
Roman looked at Beck. “Ready?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, then. This way.”
He led her to the big pickup parked next to the tent where he was bunking, a giant on oversized tires. She remembered from the short time they’d worked together that he’d always favored large vehicles of any kind. But the attraction of the truck was nothing compared to the big Ducati locked down in the bed. She wondered if it was the same one he’d had when they were on that mission together. She forced fond memories of that beast from her mind.
Roman shifted his gaze to her, the look he gave her intense and penetrating.
“One thing I want you to be sure of,” he told her.
“What’s that?”
He touched her shoulder and turned her so she was facing him.
“Remember this. The Brotherhood Protectors all look after each other. That’s the only way it works. I’ve got your six, Beck. Always. The same goes for the men your friends are partnered with.”
She knew what “I’ve got your six” meant. It was a military phrase that meant, “I’ve got your back.” It came from an old pilot system in which directions corresponded to hours on the clock. When they’d worked that op together, he’d definitely had her back, her six, and she knew he’d have it now.
But hearing it settled her. She wasn’t surprised. She knew enough about the Protectors……and Roman himself from the op they’d worked together……..to be aware that was how they operated. Still, it settled her to hear him say it.
“Same goes,’” she told him. “Just like last time.”
His eyes locked with hers as he studied her for a long moment. Then he nodded. “I remember. Now let‘s go find Leslie.”
”Yes.”
“Okay. Ready to roll?” He paused, studying her once more.
Beck just nodded, but she couldn’t help the heat that streaked through her again. Was she imagining what she saw?
She remembered how careful they’d both been on that one mission, and even the night they threw away all restrictions, taking their explosive heat away from the others on the team and giving no hint that they spent ten hours engaging in the wildest sex she’d ever had.
For a hot instant, she saw the same smoldering look in his eyes. Again. Just like in that first meeting with Hank. Then it was gone, and she wondered if she’d imagined it.
Stop it! For all you know, he just wants to tell you he’d like to be friends.
But, oh god, she couldn’t help wishing it was something else.
Cut it out, Beck. Right now, focus on Leslie. Afterward…
Yes, afterward. She was too much of a professional to let herself be sidetracked now. But Roman McClain was the only man who had ever had that effect on her. It had been smoldering inside her ever since that night, and now, seeing him, it seemed ready to burst into flames. She dug deep for every bit of professionalism she possessed and shoved everything else to the back of her mind. When Leslie was safe, when the training session was over, and when the Loyalists had been taken care of, then she’d do her best to see exactly what Roman meant with those heated looks he kept giving her. But they were both trained professionals and knew what they had to do.
“Let’s get this thing ready to roll,” he told her, letting down the tailgate and leaping into the truck bed. His muscles flexed as he rolled the sleek bike down to the ground and checked it over. When he was finished, he motioned to Beck. A faint grin teased at his lips.
“Still remember how to ride this thing?”
It was similar to one they’d used on the op they’d done together. Her face flushed hotly as she remembered one ride she’d taken on it, a trip she’d never forget no matter how much time passed. Even now, after all this time, just the sight of him still affected her.
Damn, Beck. Get your act together. Focus on Leslie.
She didn’t realize how close to her Roman had moved until his hand cupped her chin and tilted her face up to him. She was stunned at what she saw. Wasn’t this Mister Self-Control? But instead, his eyes burned into hers with a raging hunger that scorched her and made her nipples harden and the pulse between her legs throb with insistence. Great. Right in the middle of a mission.
“Let me just say this,” Roman told her, “and get it out of the way because we have a crisis and that takes precedence. Losing my focus is definitely not who I am. You know that.”
“Agreed.”
“But I haven’t forgotten what happened four years ago, either, Beck. Or anything else, no matter how hard I tried. I made a huge mistake walking away four years ago. I thought that was the smartest thing to do because it’s what I always did, but it really was the dumbest. I didn’t realize it until it was too late. We had something I stupidly threw away because I didn’t think I had a place for it in my life. A place for you.”
“Roman—” she began.
