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“Don’t do me any favors,” he returned angrily.
“No favors, Lumous.” She used his last name purposely, letting him know she was under no illusions as to any friendship between them. “Here’s the deal. You fucked up in the drill, going ahead of me when I clearly told you I’d be taking point. Not only that, you decided not to clear the kitchen before heading out the back door. That left me alone and vulnerable to any threats in that section of the house.”
“What?” he snorted. “You’re the squad leader. You can’t take care of yourself?”
Talia bit back a growl. “What about ‘team effort’ do you not understand, Lumous? We work as a unit. Not as individuals. If we don’t, somebody’s going to end up dead.”
He had the good graces to wipe the sneer from his face, but still didn’t look repentant. The onlookers, however, all mumbled excuses, quickly packed up, and left the vicinity. They knew Doug had fucked up, and clearly didn’t want him asking for their opinions.
“Now here’s how things will go from now on,” Talia explained, not giving him the opportunity to make any more excuses. “I know you have some stick up your ass where I’m concerned.” She didn’t let on that she knew he had it out for the entire female gender. “But I still see the possibility that you can be an asset to our team. And for that reason, I’ve made an executive decision. From this point forward, you will answer directly to Cisco. He’ll take his intel and instruction from me, buthe’lltell you what your roll will be in any given situation. You and I will not have any words, directly or even indirectly if that’s your choice, after today. How does that work for you?”
Doug grunted. “Fine. I guess,” he allowed.
“Good. But understand this, Doug. I’m watching. And Mason is watching. If you fuck up under Cisco’s command, you’re gone, and maybe Cisco is, too. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” he said, but seemed…relieved.
Given his past, Talia could commiserate that he no longer had to take orders from a lady, but she was also serious about giving him the boot if he went off script in the future.
She was not about to jeopardize the lives of her team-members because he hadn’t dealt with his shitty past.
* * *
By the timethe day wrapped up, it hadn’t been all bad, but Talia felt the need to do something nice for herself as a reward for the shit she’d endured.
Did she dare?
Hell, yes.
CHAPTERTWO
Fleet Eggers removed his headphones and sighed. The latest recording session he’d done with Unisex Poncho had gone poorly. The lead singer had an inflated ego, and against Fleet’s better judgement, he’d leaned the mix heavily on the vocals to assuage the asshole, and… It sounded like crap. He lamented how to proceed. UP’s drummer was the strongest member of the band, and he should have been calling the shots with the rhythms, but the singer had, heedlessly, gone off-script over and over, changing up the beat, which drove Fleet nuts. He wondered how the band put up with the blowhard.
He rubbed the spot above one eye where pain bloomed, attempting to relieve the torment that had been building as he tried to mix things properly. This was easily his fourth or fifth headache this week, and it sucked.
Fleet reached for the ever-handy bottle of ibuprofen and popped several—not that it ever helped—acknowledging it was time to call it a night. It was Saturday, one of his busier days at the studio, but he was normally finished up well before now. His new right-hand person, Everlee, generally helped mitigate his enormous workload, but the last couple days she’d been involved in some kind of SWAT thing, drills of some kind. Hence, he’d been pulling extra hours.
And speaking of SWAT…
Fleet sighed and couldn’t help but pull his phone from his pocket to scroll through his contacts. When he reached the one he wanted, he ran his fingers over the name of the woman who’d intrigued him for weeks, but whom he hadn’t called…yet. Talia had given him her number nearly a month ago at Everlee and Mason’s wedding. He’d met the pretty blonde on the campus of UMaine when she and her team had been called in to rescue Ever from a shooter at the radio station. They’d ended up chatting after everybody was safe, and then they’d reconnected at Mason and Ever’s unconventional wedding. To say they’d hit it off was an understatement. Talia was about the closest thing to Fleet’s idea of a perfect woman he'd ever come across. And that was saying a lot, considering he was thirty-four, and had spent all his adult life in the music world, where beautiful, talented women abounded.
He wasn’t quite sure how Talia had dared give him her number, but Fleet seemed to remember Everlee having a hand in it.
It wasn’t like Fleet to even consider a fix-up, he certainly never had in the past, nor did he do any online dating, but here he was, in possession of a number for a woman who clearly tickled his fancy…and he was chicken-shit to use it.
Talia was on the SWAT team that Everlee had a role in overseeing. She was a squad leader from what he’d ascertained, so he knew she’d be very busy and stressed all weekend, still… He looked at his watch. The team’s drills or maneuvers, or whatever they called their reindeer games, had to be finished for the day.
It was after seven o’clock. Maybe Talia needed food. Fleet certainly did. Dare he call her?
He sighed. Why the hell would he think a woman like Talia would be interested in him, just because she’d been guilted into giving out her contact info by someone who was essentially her boss? She was an extremely pragmatic sort and had a by-the-book look about her, which didn’t surprise him because of her job. He, on the other hand, was free spirited; a bohemian. Not to mention he was of African-American descent and she was…blonde.
Very, very blonde.
Groaning, Fleet thrust his phone back into his pocket as he began the process of shutting down his soundboards. But he continued to lament.
He and Talia were polar opposites, so why was his mind even going there? Why keep up the self-tease?
If he were honest, it was because her pretty visage hadn’t left him over the past few weeks. At odd times and all too frequently, her face and voice came to him. The remembered sound of her laughter lit him up inside, every time. But how could he justify calling her, when he knew better? He’d been hurt inverysimilar circumstances a few years back. And even though he understood history didn’t always repeat itself, weren’t the odds good that it would if he tried to make something happen with Talia?
