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The operator shot Daniels a wary look for confirmation.
The bullish man was rubbing his wrists, his jaw clenched, but he nodded.
“Do what he says.”
CHAPTER 4
CHASE WALKED INTO Angelo’s, a pizza restaurant on the Southwest waterfront. In full military sweep mode, he scanned the dining room, his mood sour as he struggled to pinpoint the source of the uneasy feeling at the back of his mind.
He feltbehind.
He didn’t like it.
It had been a beautiful day for a baseball game and an even better day to cultivate new business, until he’d been jolted from his favored position left ofboom—where he could stay ahead of nefarious activitiesbeforethey occurred. He had waltzed into Avalon Park smack in the middle of a nastyboom.
Determining whether today’s incident was a glitch or something more sinister would require a deep probe into the system. In the control center, the entire security team was poring over every console, checking every display, but even the main operator was only a highly skilled technician, not a software engineer.
There was nothing left for Chase to do but let Daniels try to clean up the mess, and to get out of his way while he did it. He was frustrated. When he was deployed and found himself squarely inboomterritory, he could always take out his frustration by finding the enemy. That wasn’t an option here.
A waving hand reached above the heads of the other diners, and at the back of the restaurant he found what he was looking for.
His family.
Chase relaxed into his civilian self and smiled his relief at seeing them safe. His nineteen-year-old daughter, Madison, and his twelve-year-old son, Luke, were sitting with their backs turned.
Madison was tall and lithe with a shock of pink hair. At least, it was pink today. Tomorrow it could be blue or purple or some outlandish combination of colors. He was used to it now, but when Madison first began experimenting with her hair, Shay had had to remind Chase that he was no longer in the army, Madison was never in the army, and their daughter’s flavor of self-expression wasn’t hurting anyone.
Shay had a point. She usually did.
Madison had been way ahead of them both. Constantly changing up her look—and keeping her parents, and the world at large, on their toes—forced everyone to reckon with her intelligence, her wit, and, most of all, her character. A brilliant strategy, really.
Beside Madison sat Luke. His hair was a floppy shag, but so far still a natural brown. Luke was the most introverted member of their family, quiet and serious. He could be even more intense and inscrutable than his mother. He was equally content, and adept, with a soccer ball or a video game controller.
And then there was Shay, seated with her back to the wall. As he made his way toward the table, he kept his eyes on his striking wife, her long, dark hair pulled back, her green eyes and full lips, and a sensuality that even a crisp business suit couldn’t conceal.
She smiled when Chase caught her eye. Even after twenty years of marriage, that smile never failed to make his pulse quicken. She was a formidable woman, currently using her razor-sharp mind as an attorney in the service of Avalon Communications. While he would have liked to believe that FIRST had landed its contract with Avalon Park on their own scrappy merits, Chase suspected it had more to do with the CEO’s esteem for Shay.
By the time he joined his family, Shay’s expression had settled into a smirk, one eyebrow tantalizingly lifted.
“What. Did. You. Do.”
It wasn’t an invitation. It was an interrogation.
Chase held his hands up in a gesture of humility and innocence. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You’ve always had a flair for the dramatic,” said Shay, but her arched eyebrow began to settle.
“You honestly think I would cause a stampede? There are safer ways to get someone’s attention.”
She gave him a final suspicious glance, but her smirk was now dangerously close to breaking into a wide smile. As he slid into the booth beside her, he noticed Luke passing a five-dollar bill across the tabletop to Madison.
“What’s this?” asked Chase, pointing between them. “Why is money changing hands?”
“Luke lost a bet,” said Madison.
Chase looked at Luke. “Did you honestly think I could screw up that badly?”
Luke shrugged and Shay burst out laughing.
