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I refilled the medical bag from the supplies the team had brought with them: I wanted to be ready if anyone got hurt. Then I was finally able to properly clean and re-dress Marcos’s wound with a sterile dressing.
The men unpacked rations they called MREs and there was complicated bargaining as they traded the sachets with each other. Gabriel plucked one out for me and set the entree heating in a pot of water over the fire. “Stew,” he told me. “It’s the least worst.”
I was so hungry, I would have eaten anything. And actually, the stew wasn’t bad: meaty and hot and very salty. There was a sachet of chocolate pudding, too, and candy bars and cookies. I devoured it all: it was the first proper food I’d had in days.
I started learning names. The older guy who reminded me of a cowboy, with his Texan drawl and his deep tan, was JD. The stocky, bearded one with the country accent was Colton. The Irish one was Bradan: when he’d had a gun in his hands, he’d seemed confident and tightly efficient but now, sitting around the fire, he seemed awkward, almost shy.
And finally, there was Danny: funny and charming, with a rough, London accent and these amazing green eyes. He was full of stories about him and JD: the two of them had served together for years, in Delta Force. “You remember that time in Germany, in the sauna?” he asked, an infectious grin spreading across his face.
“No,” warned JD. “Don’t go telling them about—”
“We’re in Berlin,” Danny told us, ignoring him completely. “CIA black op in conjunction with German intelligence, we’re following this German banker who’s been funneling money to a terrorist group. He goes into this posh health spa. We wait, but he doesn’t come out. We start getting worried we’ve lost him. So, eventually someone has to go in to have a look. JD says he’ll do it. So, in he goes…and he finds our bloke in the sauna. Proper European-style sauna.” Danny paused for effect. “No clothes allowed.”
JD sighed and covered his face with his hand. We all leaned forward, rapt.
“Well, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, right? So, in JD goes, sits down in the steam, tries to blend in. But then one of the banker’s mates goes in and tips him off that he’s being followed, and the guy does a runner.” Danny creased at the belly, trying to laugh and talk at the same time. “So, JD…”
“I’d had to take my radio off,” JD explained. “I couldn’t call for backup.”
“So, JD comes running through the lobby of this spa,” choked Danny, “butt naked, chasing after this guy who’s also butt naked. Tackles him right in front of a busload of tourists. People are screaming. Taking pictures. To this day, if you search on the internet for naked hotel wrestling match—”
Everyone was laughing now, even JD. It was the first time I’d seen the big Texan smile. “Wait,” he said. “Remind me, why was it you couldn’t go into the sauna?” Danny hung his head, abashed. “He was hungover,” JD told us. “He’d hooked up with this German intelligence officer the night before, one of his exes.”
I shook my head in amazement, still laughing. The two of them were as close as two guys can be, but at first, I couldn’t get my head around the friendship: JD was older, serious and sensible, always doing things by the book, while Danny was clearly the party guy. But as the stories kept coming, I began to see it. Danny lightened JD, acted as his escape valve so that the weight of leadership didn’t crush him. And JD reined in Danny’s excesses.
JD and Cal took a turn on guard duty, and I found myself talking one-on-one with Danny. He told me about growing up in London, about stealing cars as a teenager. He gradually leaned closer, flashing me those cocky grins… Me being me, it was some minutes before it clicked. Wait. Is he flirting with me? Men didn’t normally do that. I felt myself flush, flattered but unsure what to do.
And then suddenly, the flirting stopped, like a switch had been thrown. I couldn’t work out why until I glanced across the fire and saw Gabriel looking steadily at Danny. Had Gabriel just warned him off, like, she’s mine?!
No one had ever done that to me before and it made a hot bomb go off in my chest, the warmth spreading out to fill me completely. I looked at Gabriel over the campfire and he stared right back at me, the flames dancing in his eyes, making him look even more devilish than usual. I could feel myself weakening, melting…
I hadn’t stopped thinking about the kiss. And when I’d changed, on the other side of the tree from him, I’d been self-consciously aware of how close we were. I’d stood in just a bra and panties for a second and some tiny part of me had almost wanted to reach around the tree and pull him round to my side. Then I’d realized how crazy that was—I didn’t do stuff like that—and I’d quickly scrambled into the military clothes.
