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She shook her head in disgust, wishing bodily harm to her former brother-in-law.
“I can stay, too,” Erik offered, “I just need to run home and grab some things.”
“That’s okay,” Wendy soothed, giving his hand a warm squeeze. “I know you’ve got some work planned. Frieda has my back, don’t you, Frieda?”
Frieda nodded readily, throwing her arm over Wendy’s shoulder.
“You bet I do,” she replied. “We gals gotta stick together.”
ChapterTwo
“Ithought we were done with field work,” Regan grumbled, standing next to Erik. It was five a.m. and they were both approaching the back door to Wendy’s house. Regan was, to put it nicely, uncomfortable with the idea of returning to a formal life.
“This is an exception,” Erik explained, rolling his eyes as he stood by his friend. “We’re so close to catching these people. You might be the piece we’ve been missing to all this stuff to stop. Besides, I thought you liked being a good guy?”
Regan rolled his bright green eyes and let them land on Erik.
“You had to go there, didn’t you?” he asked dully.
Erik chuckled as he knocked on Wendy’s back door.
“A good coach knows how to get every player in the game,” he retorted.
The back door opened, and Frieda appeared, giving Erik a quick smile before turning a suspicious eye toward Regan. Despite his grumpiness, Regan felt a stir of amusement as he saw the woman. She reminded him of a woman he’d met in Belarus who was running an underground hospital: middle-aged, strong, attractive features, and a general air of “down with the patriarchy.” Regan liked her immediately.
“Well, get in here,” Frieda stated, rolling her eyes. ”You’re going to let all the cold in.”
“Frieda, this is my friend Regan I was telling you about,” Erik explained as the two of them walked inside. “Regan, this is Frieda. She’s one of the Strauss sisters.”
“Is Erik here?” Another woman’s voice called from further inside the house.
“Yep, it’s him,” Frieda shouted back, giving Erik a look. Then in a quieter voice to him, she said, “Why don’t you go in and find her?”
Regan watched as his once stoic friend made a worried face and immediately asked Frieda how the night went.
“It was rough,” Frieda confessed with a sigh, crossing her arms. “Neither of us got much sleep, and she kept looking out the window to see if the car came back.”
“I should have stayed.” Erik groaned, already going further into the house to look for Wendy. A moment later Regan and Frieda both heard sounds of hugging and whispered words, and as if in unison, rolled their eyes at the same time.
“I thought you military guys were supposed to be all hard and unfeeling?” Frieda asked, catching Regan rolling his eyes.
“We are,” Regan agreed, his tone hard. “He’s malfunctioning. That’s why he got kicked out.”
Frieda’s eyes grew big as she asked in a whispered voice, “What?”
Regan broke his facade then, chuckling as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Kidding,” he promised her, giving her an apologetic smile. To this, Frieda clicked her tongue and swatted him on the arm. Regan only laughed harder at her response and shook his head.
“In all seriousness, though, Erik used to never be that way,” Regan went on. “Used to be one of the hardest guys I know. Now look at him! Practically speaking baby talk.”
“It isnotbaby talk,” Erik stated, returning to the mud room with an eyebrow raised at Regan. “And I’d keep my mouth shut unless you want these lovely ladies to know you were willing to risk it all on a?—”
“No need to finish that sentence,” Regan stated, cutting Erik off. His eyes turned to Frieda, who was smirking at him in amusement. “He’s an evil man.”
“I can see that.” Frieda chuckled.
“Enough playing,” Erik urged, nodding for them to come further into the house. “Come on. We’ve got no time to lose and we’ve got to talk strategy.”
