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Bishop searched the deck, the grass, and back inside the house, looking for… what? It wasn’t that something was missing. It wasn’t that he’d only been on the team for less than a couple weeks and hadn’t become this close. That would come; he could tell.
It was that someonewas missing. He missed Ella. Simple.
Locke joined them, pulling a chair next to him. “Unknown, coming in slow and steady, nine o’clock,” he said quietly.
Over Beth’s shoulder, Jax made his way over, small-talking through the group. While Bishop and Locke had started on together, this guy was likely their third. Conversationally, he’d been lumped together as part of the new recruit trifecta.
Jax stopped short, doing a double-take as Beth pulled the baby from her boob. Bishop stood, stuck his hand out, and introduced himself, followed by Locke.
With a quick hello, Beth put the baby against her shoulder. “I’m Beth.”
“You know me,” Roman said.
Jax joked about something and dropped to the bench on the other side of Roman—and that baby let out a belch with reverberations as Beth patted its back. Bishop, Locke, and Jax froze, and he couldn’t speak for the other two, but he was floored. There were grown-ass men who couldn’t pull that off after shot-gunning a six-pack.
“Go eat, Beth.” Roman grabbed the little monster.
“Nice meeting you, Jax.” She tossed Roman a cloth. “Here.”
Roman walked off, kind of bouncing as he went, with his kid in one hand and a beer in the other.
“Well, fuck me,” Jax breathed out. “Wasn’t sure what to expect. This wasn’t it.”
Locke took a swig of beer.
“No kidding,” Bishop agreed. There they sat, the three new recruits, surrounded by people who had been together for years, maybe decades.
Jax twisted the cap off his beer and flicked it at Bishop. “I heard that your job is keeping eyes on a hottie. Nice.”
He shoveled a spoonful of chili into his mouth, wanting to answer “She’s pretty smart too,” but opting to stay as silent as Locke.
“I’d stay with that gig as long as possible, brother.” Jax tipped back his beer. “Not that it wouldn’t be fun to head out and blow some shit up, but paid to sit back and hang with some bangin’ chick?” He whistled. “Yeah, I’d do it.”
Bishop cracked his neck, catching Locke’s glare. They were all the new guys, but this wastheirnew guy, and his first impressions were crashing, kamikaze-style. “So you have any assignments?”
“Nothing that has me trailing a set of tits and an ass like whoa.”
His fists curled. Jesus Christ, Bishop wanted to lay into him. Too overprotective? Yeah. Maybe. His collar felt as though it were strangling him, and he shifted, needing to get the hell out of this conversation before Jax said too much. Bishop couldn’t stand much of the bro’d-out bullshit.
“Man, have a little respect,” Locke snapped.
Jax’s beer froze midway to his mouth.
Bishop should’ve said that before Locke had, but he was glad it’d been done. Paranoia that he was too close to Ella had caused him to stay quiet. So, fuck, now he was second-guessing and not reacting the way he should, not wanting to speak up when he normally would.Damn it.
Thiswas why he shouldn’t screw the job. But really, it was why he shouldn’t have kissed her when there was no chance of taking her to bed.Thatwas a game-changer.
Bishop gave Locke an almost-imperceptible chin lift—a thanks for having his back when he couldn’t figure out how much was too much.
Nicola walked over. “Your next assignment, should you choose to take it…”
Thank God for Nic’s unknowing break in tension.
“You’re in charge of Titan orientation?” Jax asked.
“Brother.” Nicola pivoted, glaring. “For all you should care about, I’m in charge of your world.”
Mental fist bump to Nicola. There was a definite hierarchy that Bishop needed to figure out. If Rocco was second in command and Parker handled operational logistics, it seemed that Nicola told them where to be when it came to team building.
“Report to GUNS tomorrow.” She turned, looking over her shoulder. “It’s like Candyland for operatives and agents but better.”
Just like the world knew of Titan, GUNS was world renowned. Nicola, in his mind, might have been in charge of team building, but she had just elevated herself to being in charge of fun.