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CHAPTER 14
Samantha
At 0845 hours,I arrived in the kitchen as well-coiffed and professional looking as I could manage after less than four hours of sleep. I poured coffee, piled my plate with homemade pancakes, fresh berries, and soy bacon, and sat at the table in blissful silence. For all of two minutes.
“Look at Bond, she’s all aglow,” Kessler said as she and Li entered the room.
“I’m always aglow,” I told her. “I drink twelve glasses of water a day, use sunblock, and exfoliate regularly.”
Li grinned. “She’s cute when she’s obfuscating.”
“Don’t you two plan to shower before the briefing?” I asked.
“We already have.” Kessler propped her hand on her hip. “But you knew that. You’re just being mean.”
I bit into my soy bacon and grinned back at them.
Alder entered the room with an empty coffee cup and made a beeline for the French press. “Are you two picking on the good doctor?”
“Hardly,” Li said. “More like the other way around.”
“They are picking on me,” I told Alder, happy to bust the tactical crew’s chops to continue deflecting.
“Look at it this way.” Alder sat down next to me. “They’re just jealous of the updates you’ve made to your roster.”
“To be fair, so am I,” Sparks said as she walked into the room.
I glanced at my four colleagues. “Really, you all happen to be having breakfast right this minute?”
“Yes,” Kessler answered.
“Second breakfast for me,” Li said, stacking pancakes and coating them in syrup.
“Just a coffee refill for me,” Alder said, and Sparks nodded her concurrence.
“Ya’ll suck.” I bit into my second strip of soy bacon.
Li sat down between Sparks and Alder. “Isn’t she cute when she goes all southern?”
“If you like that, you’ll love this.” I flashed her my sweetest smile. “Bless your heart.”
“Enough of the southern belle cursing.” Kessler slid into the last chair at the table. “You know why we’re here. We want all the naughty details on the newest member of your roster.”
“Yeah, like did he get a signing bonus?” Sparks snort-laughed at her own joke.
“Don’t be crass,” Alder said. “Bond is the signing bonus.”
I glared at her. “Et tu, Alder?”
“I, for one, am happy to see you mixing it up a bit,” Li said. “All those doctors. Same old same old. And wasn’t one of them at least 50?”
I knew from experience that the best way to derail my teammates’ too-personal questions was to elicit their “ick” response. “Fifty-one,” I answered. “And still enjoying a vigorous and energetic sex life, no erectile dysfunction medications needed. Although, he dropped off the roster eight months ago when he got engaged. Same for Daniel, four months ago. Then there’s Chad, who started discussing feelings on our last phone call, although after the murder vic with my card...” I stopped when I realized my friends were all staring at me. I hadn’t meant to go into so much detail.
“So it was time for some new blood,” Kessler concluded. “And now it’s time for details. Length, girth, places, number of times.”
Li nudged her tactical partner in the ribs.
“We’ll settle for information about any one of those four topics,” Kessler amended. She propped her elbows on the table. “I guess it’s good for you two that we’ll be spending so much time in Chicago this summer.”
