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Paige wrinkled her cute nose and grinned at Jane. “Not really.”
“Nice,” he muttered. “Real nice. See what I have to put up with?” he asked Jane.
Jane forced a smile, grateful beyond words for their attempt at playful banter. She took a deep breath, focusing on the open hangar doors. The empty blue sky seemed to mock her with its tranquility.
“So...you guys were close to my brother for a lot of years,” she said. “Through a lot of missions.”
“Jason’s the best of the best,” Paige said. “He never gives less than a hundred and ten percent.”
Faint images of a teenage Jason hefting hay bales that weighed more than he did filled her mind. No matter how dirty or hot or grindingly boring the chore, he did it without complaint. And more. By the time he hit high school, he could outrun, out shoot and generally out-do every man in Redemption Creek.
Tai looked up, his dark eyes softening. “Best Delta Operator I’ve ever worked with.”
“That’s a huge compliment. Tai doesn’t think much of guys from the Army side of things.” Paige reached for her laptop flipping it open again. “I’m gonna check on Bridger’s location.”
Jane picked at the label on the water bottle. “Jason admires you all so much, even if he never said it directly. But I could tell from the way he talked about his team.”
Tai nodded. “The Jay-man saved my skin more times than I can count. We trusted each other completely out in the field. Still do.”
She hesitated, then added softly, “I just wish he’d let you all help him now. I hate that he thinks he needs to handle this mess on his own.”
Tai squeezed her hand. “He’ll call us in when he’s ready. He’s stubborn, but he’s not stupid.”
She was touched by Tai and Paige’s steadfast loyalty, but it also made her ache for the danger Bridger was facing alone, and still injured.She set down the bottle. “Can you tell me about some of your missions? I know most of it is classified, but...”
“Some things are better left unsaid,” Tai began carefully. “This work...it takes a toll. The secrets, the violence...” He trailed off.
Paige put a hand on his shoulder.”What Tai means is that we’ve had to do a lot of things that don’t always sit right on the conscience.”
Reading between the lines wasn’t difficult. “I know you did what you had to do to protect the rest of us.”
“So we thought,” Tai said heavily. “Turns out, not so much.”
“You’re talking about the Consortium. They were in charge of the people you reported to,” she guessed, another piece of the puzzle falling into place.
The team couldn’t have known. Why else was her brother chasing the shadowy organization?
Paige and Tai exchanged a look.
Tai shrugged. “She’s smart,” he said. “She was going to put the puzzle pieces together eventually.”
“Yeah,” Paige agreed, turning to Jane. “Turns out we weren’t exactly working for our side. We were more like a private army.”
Tai shoved the readers up onto his forehead. A deadly fury blazed in his beautiful eyes. “Only no one asked us if we wanted in.”
She took his hand, forcing him to meet her gaze. “You are heroes, all of you. No matter what happened, or who pulled the strings. You sacrificed everything to keep people like me safe. That makes you heroes in my book.”
Tai grinned. “No wonder Bridger likes you.”
She winced. Tai had probably seen the same signs she’d seen. The little glances. The statements she tried so hard not to read into. But Bridger always stopped well short of declaring any feelings for her. Maybe Tai didn’t know…
Now Tai looked confused. “Bridger told you we were sticking around, right? Putting down roots and all that?”
Jane nodded. “Yes, but then he took off for over a month without contacting me. I figured…”She made a helpless gesture.
Tai rolled his eyes. “That’s just Bridger being his normal clueless self when it comes to anything emotional.”
He gave her a meaningful look. Jane’s eyes widened as she realized what he was implying. Bridger had feelings for her.
