Brackish laughed when Smoke placed devices beneath the lip of the table Green and Senator Miller were sitting at all with the breathless hostess at his side, not seeing his sleight of hand. Brackish and the rest of the team would hear everything from their conversation right down to the sound of pants rubbing together.
“How’s it going?” Chad asked as he looked over Brackish’s shoulder.
“We have such good sound, we’re going to hear the friction of Green’s pants when he gets a boner for the pretty senator,” Brackish said smugly.
Chad groaned. “TMI, Brackish, TMI.”
“Well, we can also read their body temps, so we’ll know when either one of them gets all hot and bothered and be able to detect their heart rates. Thermal dynamics can see how much the senator actually wants our little Green.”
“Little? Who in the hell are you calling little?” Green asked as he stepped into the room.
Brackish spun around and grinned at Green. “We’re just getting the sensors placed in the restaurant so we know when you’re smoldering for the senator,” he told him, while clicking a button and shifting the image on the screen.
“The senator is hot, but I don’t go for the power-hungry types,” Green said with a shrug as he sat across from Brackish. He wasn’t interested in looking at the computer. He trusted his team. They all trusted each other.
“I like a powerful woman,” Smoke said through a microphone that came through loud and clear. He’d just exited the restaurant and was on his way back to headquarters. “It makes it so much more fun to tame them.”
“I’m going to replay you saying that at your wedding,” Brackish promised.
Smoke laughed. “I’m not worried about that as I’ll never get married,” he assured them.
“That’s what I said too,” Brackish said with a laugh. “Stupidest vow I ever made for myself. Now that I have Erin in my life, I realize what a blessing she is. Besides, can you imagine how lonely it would be to go home to an empty house for the rest of your life? Why would anyone choose that?” For once there was no teasing in his voice.
“I have to admit it sucks sometimes,” Eyes said as he entered the room. “But it doesn’t suck so much that I want to give up my freedom of coming and going as I please.”
“I thought the same thing,” Sleep said. “And sometimes the marriage isn’t perfect, but that’s when we grow the most. I’m a better person with Avery in my life than without her, so I’ll take marriage any day of the week over my bachelor life before her.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Chad said as he lifted his coffee cup and took a long swallow.
“I’m going to work out. The waiting is driving me crazy,” Green said. The team went back to what they were doing as Green headed to the state-of-the-art gym they’d insisted on having at the facility. They worked hard, and they needed to not only keep fit but burn off energy on a daily basis. They all spent a lot of time in the gym.
When he finished pushing himself to the limit and headed to the showers, his phone pinged. He pulled it from his pocket and found a message from one of the senator’s lackies stating she needed Green’s address so he could be picked up. A pang of irritation filled him. He didn’t like being fetched, and he didn’t like being under their control. He would’ve much rather driven there himself. But he’d play their game for now. His team would be nearby with a car if and when he wanted to leave.
He’d been staying at the ops center since he’d come there, not because he couldn’t afford a place, but because it had everything he wanted, and he wasn’t seeing anyone, so he hadn’t needed an undercover house. Now he did. The day before Chad had figured out they’d want to know where he lived, so they’d found a place and hired a host of movers and decorators who were nearly finished installing everything a bachelor would have in his home.
I can get there on my own, Green texted the lackey back, just wanting to show the entire team working for the senator that he wasn’t a lapdog. There was a fine line between acting starstruck and being a puppy dog.
I must insist, sir. I’ve been given direct orders to drive you myself. MB.
Green looked at his phone having no idea what the MB was about.
What is MB? He texted back.
Mallory Black. I’m the chief of staff for Senator Miller. Please send your address and I’ll be there to pick you up at 5:30.
Green knew Mallory’s type instantly. Male or female, this type of person was a go-getter without the experience or that thing to be the boss, however always wanting to be next to the boss, hoping some of the praise and accolades would spill over on them. Some assistants, which is what they really were, were okay people. But throwing out their titles said a lot about them.
Green didn’t argue with Mallory, but sent his address, knowing his alter ego — the man they thought he was — would be excited about getting picked up. He threw his phone on the bed as he stripped and headed for the shower, getting ready quicker than he wanted so he could get to the house before MB arrived.
He barely beat her there.
With no surprise, at exactly 5:30PM on the dot, a blacked-out SUV pulled into his driveway. Before the text came that his ride was there, he bound from the house with a smile and a wave to the driver.
Green couldn’t stand the fakeness of it all. Through every adventure he’d taken in life, he’d made sure to be himself. It didn’t matter if it was while he held a long gun in the freezing cold, the scorching heat, or the melting humidity of a location he was at, or if he was sitting in a board room where he was in command as the youngest person in the room by at least twenty years and making decisions that moved millions and millions of dollars — he was always himself. There were many sides to Green, but fakeness and insincerities weren’t a part of him at all. Being fake made his skin crawl.
He moved down his sidewalk, opened the passenger door, and climbed inside. He immediately shifted as he turned and held out a hand. “You must be Mallory. Great to meet you,” he said. “Love the ride.” He was putting as much enthusiasm in his voice as he could.
Mallory, dressed exactly as he’d expected, was already backing from his driveway. She ignored his hand and gave him a brief look of disdain as if he were a bug on her expensive heels, and she was far too important to be playing taxi driver to a punk like him. He was instantly intrigued. She might be dressed the way he’d expected in a sleek, fitted business suit with thin wire-framed glasses, little makeup, and no fragrance to speak of, but there was fire in her eyes that had his body stirring in a way that shocked him.
Once they were on the street, she took a breath and seemed to remember to act civilized. His hand was still in the air as a challenge. She sighed, reached out, and clasped his fingers briefly in hers. “Mallory Black. It’s good to meet you,” she finally said. Then she faced forward and focused on driving.
The zing of electricity that shot through him at their very brief touch surprised the hell out of him. He hadn’t felt that enticing jolt of electricity in a long time. It was too bad she wasn’t the senator, that she wasn’t the mission.