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Sipping their soup quietly, they share a smile as they watch the guys shovel their meals into their mouths with nothing more than grunts and deep breaths, so as not to pass out from lack of oxygen while chewing.
The sound of Logan clearing his throat alerts everyone to our collective lack of manners, and the men still, then sit up straighter in their seats.
“You boys still have time to be courteous.” Then, shifting his attention to the ladies, Logan continues, “Dana, Jessa, this is delicious. Thank you.”
The women exchange a pleased smile as the rest of us echo our thanks, and the clanking of utensils against plates evens out as our dinner becomes a bit more formal than it was before.
“How did you get your code name, Jack? Was there an incident in Arizona?” Dana asks.
Grizz and Grey look at me with smirks spreading across their faces.
“That’s a story for another—”
Logan’s bark of laughter surprises me. “Now that’s an interesting story. It had nothing to do with the state we were in. It was more the state of mind Jack was in.” Logan has both girls’ attention. As our team continues to eat, they listen to the story they’ve heard before.
“We were executing a takedown mission on a drug ring operating in a little town outside of Chicago. It wasn’t your average bust though. These guys were into the heaviest of drugs, and they’d started to experiment with cutting in some hardcore agents. They were responsible for spreading those drugs among wealthy kids at parties. A few of those kids ended up dead, and others are still in the hospital with brain damage. We had secured the area, or so we thought…” Logan rolls his eyes at me. It was my job to secure the room, but I missed a hidden closet.
“Jack opens a door to a little cabinet, and out jumps a scrawny kid. He blows an unknown powder into Jack’s face to try to buy some time to get away. Long story short, it was hallucinogenic. The rest of us were all outside, securing the drugs and packing up the trucks, and Jack jumps out a window, naked, and starts running around the area, flapping his arms and yelling, ‘It’s so hot in here.… I’m a Phoenix! I’m rising from the ashes.… I can fly! Why is it so fucking hot?’” Logan ends his story abruptly, waiting for the reaction, and both Jessa and Dana are sitting with their mouths open in disbelief.
Slowly, Jessa meets my gaze, and both of them let out a laugh I’m sure they tried hard to contain.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh.” Jessa takes a deep breath, and Dana wipes a tear from her eye. “You could have been seriously hurt. You jumped out a window?” she asks.
“He was on the first floor. The only thing he hurt was his ego when we showed him the video we took,” Logan answers, and now Grey and Grizz are chuckling too.
“Wait. There’s video of this?” Dana’s eyes are wide, and she sounds a little too excited to witness the most embarrassing moment of my career.
“Another time. So, tell me more about these cupcakes. When will you be making those?” I cut in, and Logan sits smugly back in his seat, grabbing a glass of water and taking a drink. I can clearly tell the fucker has amused himself.
“Oh. I just meant that I’ll modify them and add them to my list.” She opens her mouth to continue, but then she looks over at Jessa and pauses.
Our eyes follow Dana’s to Jessa, who finishes her soup and smiles. Then she shrugs, as though the glance wasn’t important.
“It’s okay, Dee.” She starts looking around the table. “I said you could tell them anything you knew.”
“Okay.” With a little wiggle in her seat, she begins. “I’ve been making a long list of items I want to sell in my bakery when Zane releases us. I can’t decide if I want to have a coffee shop that serves desserts, or a bakery that serves coffee, though—” She tries to continue with her grand plans, but Logan already has some questions.
“What do you mean when Zane releases you? I thought you were working with him willingly.”
Dana looks over to Jessa, who offers another shrug for her to continue, and she does. “Oh, we are. I mean when our work is done and there is no longer a threat to us. Zane set up nest eggs for some of the people who work under him. We’ll get a notification on our phones with everything we need to start over. New names, bankroll, properties, and IDs. It’s our cue to disappear if it ever happens.”
“Interesting.” Logan looks to Jessa, who merely smiles. Then he shifts his attention back to Dana, and I notice Grizz has started to pay extra attention as well. “And you are going to run a bakery?”
“I’d like to. Hopefully somewhere remote, with no internet access. I could bake all day in peace.”
“And what about you, Jessa? What would you like to do with your payout and new identity?” My question flows a little too eagerly, and she looks between me and Logan.
“I don’t know.” Then, looking at her friend, she says, “We just always said that I would meet up with Dana. It would be nice to not be—hunted.”
Logan goes quiet beside me, and, for once, I can’t tell what he’s thinking.
My mind is blank too.
“Time’s up, boys.” Waldo walks into the dining room, followed by Hunter. Grizz and Grey both stand and move to the table with the cake.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but can we grab a piece to go?” Grizz looks at Dana, and she shifts her hair over her face to cover her shy smile.
“Yeah. Sure. I’ll cut you each a piece.” She stands and turns to the men in the doorway. “There are plates on the counter, just help yourselves.”
