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The second woman couldn’t have been more different. She was trim and compact, with glossy dark hair. There was something about the way she wore her smart gray suit and three-inch heels that reminded me of the way the team wore their camouflage gear. Gabriel looked great in anything, but when he dressed like a soldier, he looked right, somehow: you were reminded that this is what he does. This woman wore her suit in the same way. She ran halfway to the SUV: her heels didn’t seem to slow her down at all. Then, as she saw Bradan get out, she stumbled to a stop and just stared, captured, like she was seeing him for the very first time.
Bradan gave her a grin and held out his arms. And the woman ran, faster than I would have thought possible, and jumped into his arms. Bradan locked his arms around her and spun them in a circle, their heads pressed together and their eyes closed, both of them breathing hard. Stacey. Bradan had talked about her a little, when we were recuperating at the field hospital. How he’d met her the day he left the cult. How they’d fallen for each other, despite their very different backgrounds. How she’d helped him through the difficult process of adjusting to normal life, a battle they were still fighting every day. It was the sort of powerful, intimate love that took your breath away and I felt myself tearing up.
The final woman wore a light gray two-piece and she came with an important accessory: three guys in dark suits who stood at a discreet distance and kept a watchful eye on her as she raced over to the car, long mahogany hair bouncing and wumped into Kian’s chest. He put his hands under her ass and pulled her in tight as they kissed like there was no one else there. I looked at her, then looked at the bodyguards. Gabriel had told me about her, but it was still a shock to see her in real life, not on TV. That’s actually her. Emily Matthews. The former President’s daughter.
I squeezed Gabriel’s hand nervously as the women hugged and kissed their men. They were all so relieved to have them home safe. How were they going to feel about me, when I was the reason they’d been in danger?
I needn’t have worried. As soon as Bethany unwound from Cal, she gave me a huge, warm grin and hurried towards me. Rufus ran along with her excitedly, then realized Cal wasn’t beside him and ran back to him, woofing and jumping around him until he came, too: clearly, he wasn’t letting Cal out of his sight for a while.
“You must be Olivia.” Bethany had the most calming voice I’d ever heard. “How are you doing?”
I started to answer and then stopped. I wasn’t sure how I was doing. One part of me was drunk on relief: it was over, I was safe and back in the US and with the man I loved. But there was also that panicky feeling: I didn’t know anyone here and, the thought of starting a whole new life in a strange town was overwhelming, especially when I was feeling emotionally burned out. Everything was made worse by the jet lag. I froze, helpless.
Fortunately, I was talking to exactly the right person. “Oh, you poor thing,” she murmured. And she gently put her arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I felt myself immediately relax. “Everything’s going to be okay,” she told me, and I believed her. Then Rufus started alternately licking my hand and butting his furry head up against it for scratches, and that made me feel better, too. When she released me from the hug and smiled at me, I knew I’d found a friend.
She introduced me to Emily and Stacey. “We’ve been planning, while you’ve been away,” Stacey told me. “We’re going to have a barbecue tomorrow to welcome you all home. In fact, I need to go talk to Colton about using his grill.” And she hurried off.
Emily and Bethany shook their heads, grinning. “Stacey used to run a chain of bakeries back in LA,” Emily told me. “She’s still figuring out what she’s going to do here in Mount Mercy, and I think all that organizational energy’s been building up. This may be the best planned barbecue in history. She’s had everything on standby each day, because we weren’t sure…when you were coming home.” She exchanged a quick glance with Bethany, and I realized this barbecue wasn’t just a celebration: it was what the three of them had used to keep themselves occupied, while their men had been away. The team had only meant to be away for two nights, but in the end, they’d been away for double that. These women must have been through hell.
