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The girls were readying to help them move.
Haven getting her own place meant he wasn’t going to be seeing as much of her as he usually did during the holidays. He’d expected it at some point, but just not so soon.
She definitely wasn’t his little girl anymore, but that was how it should be.
It wasn’t long before most of the food was gone and dessert devoured. Duncan had been holding off, but now was as good a time as any to talk to his team and see if what he had planned had any takers.
“Elite Squad,” Duncan said, standing and gaining some curious looks from everyone except for Cal and his people. “Can I see you all in my study?”
The four stood and followed Duncan down the hall to his home office, with Solace taking up the rear. He shut the door, and then waited until they’d settled in the seating area before joining them and sitting down in one of the leather wingback chairs facing the group.
“You all did something not many people could pull off in such a short time.”
“We were honored you wanted us to help you, sir,” Cal said, looking around at his teammates. “And I have to admit, it was good working together again. I’m gonna miss you guys when you leave.”
“Of course you are,” Garrett said with a smirk. “I’m a delight to be around.”
“Delightfully irritating,” Solace said, laughing and settling back in her seat.
“This is whatI’mgonna miss,” Declan said, laughing and pointing between Solace and Garrett. “You two bicker like an old married couple.”
A shiver of irritation ran up Duncan’s spine at that, but he shook it off as the group started to rib each other. He knew good and well Solace and Garrett weren’t interested in each other romantically, but he still didn’t like the idea of it.
“Would you like to keep working together?”
Everyone turned their attention to him with varying degrees of surprise in the sudden silence.
“What do you mean?” Cal asked, sitting forward.
“It’s an idea I’ve been toying with for a while,” Duncan answered, meeting each of their curious stares. “Each one of us has a particular skill set that people need—sometimes individually and sometimes in a joint effort. I’d like to see what we could do with that.”
Duncan sat back and watched while they eyed each other. He could swear these four communicated telepathically at times. They were that in tune with each other. He might have been in on the link himself because he knew exactly when the decision had been made among them.
“So what will we be called?” Solace said, her gaze holding his.
Duncan smiled.
“I was thinking, The Elite Protection Agency.”
THE END