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“Wait. What? Miller is a girl?” I asked, sitting up slightly, rolling the tension out of my neck for sleeping butted up against the arm of the couch.
How did I not know this information? I had heard Miller mentioned at least half a dozen times. The Negotiator. Along with Kai, The Messenger, they were the first of the team to go into dangerous situations. But, I guess, whenever someone talked about their coworkers, they said things like the guys or the team. Pronouns weren’t often used.
“Yeah, she’s a character. But she isn’t usually around much. In and out of the office. She’s one of the busiest members of the team.”
“Interesting. I imagine you don’t want to be talking about them right now, though. Since you’ve been stuck with them so much. How about you finish telling me that story about how you got confused as a big-time opium smuggler?” I asked, pulling my knees to my chest, hugging the blankets around me.
It wasn’t a bad way to spend Christmas morning, hearing the crazy stories that spanned decades and several continents. In fact, I would say it was the best one I had spent since my father passed so many years before. Every single one since then had been a big build-up followed by an epic letdown.
This one, though, it was special.
I got to hear Quin laugh too.
Not one of those rumbling chuckles that seemed to ignite my blood, but a loud, rolling laugh that made me picture him knee-deep in the Russian tundra with his head thrown back to the sky, the smile making the skin next to his dark eyes crinkle up.
That was a novelty, something to hold onto.
A Christmas gift, as sappy as that was.
And I was cherishing it.
“Quin, if Finn sprays one more fucking spray of that…” I heard a woman’s voice call out, making Quin let out a growl.
“Minty chemicals. I almost miss the smell,” I admitted, smiling a little as I watched my tree.
“He couldn’t find the mint shit here. And he’s not happy about it. It’s kinda bubblegum-smelling. It’s disgusting.”
“I mean it, Quin. I am going to get the frying pan and…”
“Alright, I’m coming,” Quin barked, then sighed hard.
“You have to go,” I guessed.
“I have to go,” he agreed, sounding regretful. “I have a feeling that if I don’t de-escalate the situation, some hikers are going to be finding a cabin full of bodies six months from now.”
“Okay. You go play lion tamer,” I agreed, feeling a small pang of sadness that it was over already, even though we had been on the phone for almost an hour. “I hope things wrap up soon for you, so you can come home.”
“Me too, babe. Me too. Have a nice holiday,” he told me before ending the call.
I hugged my knees to my chest, wondering if maybe, just maybe, the weird, insistent sinking and soaring at the same time sensation in my gut was possibly telling me something. About Quin. About how I felt about him. About how he probably felt about me too since he kept initiating contact.
I guess, in this situation, time would tell.
He would be back in town in a few weeks tops.
And then I could really see if he was feeling like I was. Like maybe this was something special, something worth exploring, something important.
FOURTEEN
Quin
It was finally, finally fucking over.
We just so happened to luck out that Sergai Korol and the bulk of his protection crew packed into an SUV and headed out of town the day after Christmas, leaving only four guys guarding this mammoth of a compound he called home.
Thanks to some meticulous planning by Smith who had prepared extraction techniques that included stealth and full combat-mode options, we had been able to figure out the guard’s schedules, the best points of entry and exit, and could get in and out without having to raise any kind of awareness.
We were already halfway to the rural airport before our equipment told us that the guards realized she was missing.
Kai sat next to her on the plane, hand curled around hers, whispering quietly to the woman who had fresh cuts and bruises, and was still walking slouched to her side, her busted ribs clearly not on the way to mending.
Gunner would meet us at the airport, take her, and get her lost forever.
Me, well, all I could think about was getting the fuck home. Getting a real shower, sleep in a bed, and a solid meal.
Maybe one I would share with Aven.
Because, quite frankly, shit was happening there.
It was foreign territory for me.
Especially seeing as we hadn’t seen each other face-to-face in over a month. It was strange to me how we could forge a bond without physical contact. But there was no denying that we had. I had told her stories that only the people who had been there – namely Smith – knew. I had laughed and felt lighter while talking to her than I had felt in years. Maybe ever. I had listened to her stories about her childhood, especially about her father who had been a good man by all accounts, and her adolescence with a mother who chose a man over her. She laughed until she likely had tears streaming down her face in recalling some of the insane shit that Benny guy she worked with said day-to-day.
