“Nice of you to join us,” Bauer said dryly, slanting him a sidelong look.
“I was busy,” Nate said as he slid into a chair beside him. “Didn’t hear my phone the first time.”
Blackwell leaned over from his seat behind him and arched an eyebrow, staring at his neck. “Dude, is that a hickey?”
“No.” He tugged at the collar of his utilities, feeling his face heat up.
Blackwell laughed. “If she gave you that, I can only imagine what other marks you got. No wonder you didn’t hear your phone.”
“It wasn’t like that, I was sleeping.” Not alone though.
Jake Evers thumped him on the back in congratulations. “That good, huh?”
“Shut up.” His personal life and his reputation with the ladies was an ongoing source of amusement for the guys, especially the taken ones. But Nate didn’t kiss and tell so they were getting nothing from him about this latest girl. One date had turned into two very enjoyable days and nights and if things finished up here tonight in time, he was hoping for a third.
“Well, good for you,” Cruz said on his other side. “Sow those wild oats while you can, my man.”
Nate arched a brow at him, relieved that none of them had seen through the ruse yet and he hoped they never did. The truth was, he wasn’t just an easygoing guy as talented with medical skills as he was with a firearm.
No, the real him was a fucked-up mess and the women were merely a form of medication to treat the ever-present darkness inside him. Demons that still haunted him from his childhood and others from his deployments overseas that he battled on a daily basis.
Nate planned to make damn sure no one ever saw that ugly part of him. Especially these guys, whose respect meant more to him than anything. “You make it sound like you speak from experience. You planning on settling down or something? You been holding out on us?”
Cruz just gave him a secretive smile and shrugged. “Nope.”
Well, now Nate was dying to know who this mystery girl was who put a smile on Cruz’s movie-star face. He turned to Vance, Cruz’s best friend on the team. “You know anything about this?”
“’Bout what?” he asked in his deep voice, trying to sound nonchalant.
Nate narrowed his eyes. “You know what.”
Vance flicked him a glance, one side of his mouth curving up, the half-grin exposing teeth that were shockingly white against his dark skin. “Nope. Don’t know anything. And what about you, my man? This latest girl got you wrapped around her little finger yet?”
“What?” Evers leaned forward once more, looking all kinds of interested. “Schroder’s gotten himself lassoed?”
“No, I—”
“Man, I never knew you were into ropes and kinky shit like that. Thought that was Bauer’s deal,” Blackwell teased, earning a dark, quelling look from the biggest member on the team. Bauer was a former SEAL, the very embodiment of badass, and he had a personality to match. Guy was all business, serious all the time, though he’d lightened up some since hooking up with his live-in girlfriend. Around Zoe, Bauer was a completely different person.
“I’m not getting lassoed, trust me,” Nate clarified, straightening in his seat. He was only twenty-eight, way too young to be tied down to a long-term, committed relationship. Way too young to be tied down to only one woman, for that matter, even if he found one willing to take him and his issues on.
“It’ll happen,” Evers said, sounding convinced as he leaned back in his chair. “One day the right woman’s gonna come along and blow your doors off like a breaching charge. Hell, if it can happen to Bauer, you definitely have a chance.”
“Gee, thanks,” Nate muttered, glancing back at Bauer, who was ignoring Evers’s words.
Nate was saved from more ribbing when the rear door to the room opened and his commanding officer, Matt DeLuca walked in. A legend within the HRT, he took up position at the front of the room and waited for Celida to join him. “All right, everybody listen up. We’ve got a time sensitive situation unfolding that needs to be handled tonight.”
Nate noticed two others slip into the room, a man he recognized from the New Orleans conference as Alex Rycroft and—
Holy shit, it was the woman from the night of the Ramadi op. Briar Jones. She looked surprisingly hot for a woman who was supposed to be dead.
Nate couldn’t help but gawk at her as DeLuca spoke, filling them in on all the details. They’d been told she’d been assassinated and dumped in a lake.
He darted surreptitious looks at his teammates, noticed them all stealing glances at her as well. Everyone but Tuck, who didn’t seem at all surprised that she was standing in this room. Had he known she was alive this whole time? Had DeLuca been covering for her?