AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s not one to stroke egos.” Robbie yanks his chair back and scrubs his hands through his hair. “The game just changed.”
“Let’s retrace our steps.” Talon’s voice is a lot calmer than the storm in his eyes. “Shipment was delivered tonight, no doubt about that.”
“What did James mean by ‘now you know what to do’?” Ace growls.
“Now it’s us.”
“For the last week, it’s been us,” I respond.
Robbie looks up, exhaustion, anger, and disappointment all evident. “No, just the six of us. Max, when he can be read in. Dad will be the face of the partnership. He’ll take our failure in stride, explaining there was bad intel. From here on out, it’s the men in this room. We’re on our own.”
Finn relaxes, letting out a caustic chuckle. “Old man is a brilliant bastard.”
“Am I missing something?” My frustration has me vibrating.
“We have all the resources at our back but no longer collaborate.”
“They think we’re incompetent?” Major cracks his knuckles. “We’re not the ones—”
Robbie raises a hand, shaking his head. “To them, we fucked up. But to us, we uncovered a weak link, a mole, a leak—whatever the fuck it is. We now have the autonomy to work without reporting up the chain.”
His words sink in and I relax. “No more pussy-footing around and playing political checkers?”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
“Hell yeah!” Talon claps his hands together. “The band is back together.”
“With two more members,” Finn corrects him.
“Reminding you we are at the Reserves this weekend, and I’m getting married next week.”
Robbie cracks a small smile. “Then when you get back, we take the fuckers down. Our way.”
The tension in the room evaporates and takes on a new sense of determination.
Yeah, we do this our way.
18
ROWAN
I scrub my hands through his thick hair once more, styling it to the side. “What do you think?”
Cruz stares in the mirror, assessing his new cut. His eyes come to mine, shining brightly. “Where the hell have you been all my life?”
“No regrets?”
“None.”
“Miracle worker.” Alex kisses my cheek, bringing his mouth to my ear. “I owe you.”
“Heard that!” Cruz yelps.
I glance at Shayla and Ginger, and we burst into giggles at the same time.
During his vacation, Cruz became a fan of the shaggy, surfer, beachy look. He hasn’t cut his hair since. He was almost out of the awkward stage when Alex begged me to intervene.
I thought it was growing out cute but had to agree that Cruz is a naturally clean-cut guy.
