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“Hanging in there, although I won’t be here too long tonight.” The woman rubbed her belly. “This one, along with her big brother, wears me out.”
“You’re having a girl! Congratulations,” Calla said, hugging Decker’s wife.
“Yes, congratulations,” I said, shaking Deck’s hand a second time.
“I’m assuming Rile spoke with you,” he said.
“He did,” I responded.
“Let me tell you something about this one.” He pointed to Calla. “Without Casper, I don’t know if my wife and I would have found our way to each other.”
“There’d be no Huck,” Mila added. “Or our baby girl.”
“That’s not true,” Calla said, her cheeks turning pink.
“Of course it is.” Decker nudged her after Mila excused herself. “You sure as hell put the fear of God Almighty into Adler Livingstone.”
Decker explained that, as a teenager, his wife had been attacked by Livingstone’s father, who’d been Mila’s father’s business partner and had been cheated out of millions of dollars after Judd Knight allegedly stole the patents Livingstone held for the products their company produced.
In his effort to steal the patents back, Mila’s sister got caught in the crossfire and was killed.
“Are you talking about Casper’s interrogation of Adler Livingstone?” Rile asked, approaching us.
“I am,” Decker said. Both men looked at Calla with such admiration. I wondered if she had any idea how much they respected her. It was doubtful, given her typical humility.
“He was a pussy,” she said, taking a sip of her wine.
“Sure wish I’d been able to get surveillance set up to watch that one. In the end, Casper got him to give up his father’s whereabouts. Rile, Edge, and I arrived in time to see Livingstone kill Mila’s dad, but Edge was able to take him out before he killed her too.” Decker got choked up by the end of his recounting, like he had on stage. He cleared his throat and put his hand on Calla’s shoulder. “I owe you my life, because Mila, Huck, and the new baby are my life.”
“I did my job,” she said, clearly uncomfortable being the center of attention.
“Hey, are you talking about how badass Casper is?” Edge asked as he approached. “You must be Spider. Welcome,” he said, shaking my hand before cheek-kissing Calla. “This is my wife, Rebel.”
“You saved my life too,” Rebel said, nudging Calla.
She laughed. “You were zero help, by the way.”
“As you probably know, we were undercover together in the ABT. Slimysonuvabitches,” said Edge. “Rebel was framed for the murder of one of ’em, but thanks to our friend here, we got her cleared.” He put his arm around Calla, and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“You have no idea how badly I needed that mission.” Her eyes met mine, and I wished I was standing close enough to put my arm around her like Edge had.
“Hey, don’t leave me out,” said Kenzie, joining her husband. “Casper was on my detail in Mallorca.”
“Also at Christmas,” said Rile. “Thankfully, there wasn’t a mission this year.”
“Don’t jinx it,” said Edge, slugging him before turning to Casper. “Rile told us to go easy on you, but when have I ever listened to him?” He laughed. “Listen, no matter whether you pick the old crew or the young one, you’ll still be on our team, sweetheart. I’d just rather you be on the Invincibles’ roster.”
“Thanks, Edge.”
The three men walked away with Rebel and Kenzie, giving us a breather.
“They aren’t going to make this easy on me,” she said once they were out of earshot.
I finally put my arm around her shoulders. “Are you leaning in any particular direction?”
“If the Invincibles are North and the Unstoppables are South, I’m leaning East.”
“Neither?” I asked.
