Page 69 of Baby Take Me Home
“This group doesn’t need another speech from me.” I glanced around at my former team members, my found family. “But you do need to hear that I love you, each and every one of you, and I’m so glad to see you again.”
We lifted our glasses, and Ashlee came to my side and clinked her flute against mine. “Here’s hoping it’s not as bad as it looks,” she whispered.
We threw back our drinks. It was worse than we’d expected.
“What was that?” Samantha asked. “I’m going to need the ingredients so I know how worried to be about a mass morbidity event.”
Jason grinned. “You know I can’t share my recipes, but trust me, we’ll all be fine. Oh, I forgot to announce the drink’s name. That was the Band on the Run. You know, because we were like a band, then we got split up, but we’re meeting up here like outlaws. On the run. And in honor of the man who wrote the song, Sir Paul McCartney,” he glanced around the crowd, “who is English, in case anyone lives under a rock, my special ingredient was Earl Grey tea.”
Cynthia puckered her lips. “Is that why my mouth feels like I’ve been eating mothballs?”
“I take issue with the idea we’re on the run,” Mai said.
“She’s right. We’re not breaking any laws or any rules to be here,” Martin said.
The conversation devolved from there, ending in a challenge for everyone to take a second drink of Jason’s disgusting brew. Only the eight of us formerly on the Alpha Team took up the gauntlet. As we swallowed and grimaced, a familiar voice cut through the noisy festivities.
“Thank god I’m late. I worried I might make it in time for whatever Jensen is subjecting you to this time.”
I turned around to greet X and did a double take. She was dressed from head to toe in fire-engine red, from her one-shouldered blouse with ruffles down the single sleeve and matching wide-legged pants, to her red, open-toed stilettos. Several wolf whistles went up from the crowd. Her black hair hung loose and flowed past her shoulders.
“Calm down, people,” she admonished. “I’ve brought a friend and I don’t want you to scare him away. Darling?”
A handsome, well-dressed, middle-aged man joined her. There was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t quite place him. He slipped his arm around X’s waist. “Well, it’s an honor to finally meet you, and to put faces to the Alpha Team profiles.”
Then it clicked. “Senator Bradley?” I asked. “One of the chairs of the Senate Subcommittee?”
He held out his hand and I shook it. “You must be TJ. Yes, the agency—” he glanced over his shoulder at X “—and its leader has always had a staunch supporter in me.”
“Don’t let his good nature fool you,” X said as Jason handed her a champagne flute with actual champagne in it and began handing out glasses of the same to everyone. “First we were friends,” they grinned at each other and I pretended not to notice the look that passed between them, “then enemies, then frenemies, then enemies again,” she raised her champagne glass to him, “and now friends once again.”
Still smiling, the senator said, “That last one is my favorite.”
I introduced him to Ashlee and he commended her for her award-winning series of articles about Calder and the Carbonados. The rest of my former team introduced themselves and their partners. Then we went silent, almost as if by agreement, and X gravitated to the center of the crowd.
“Thank you for all coming,” she began.
“Wait, you invited us here?” Martin asked. “I thought the invitation came from TJ.”
“We were under the impression it came from you,” I told him. “How did you pull that off?” I asked X.
She glanced at Jason. “I know people.”
“I was happy to do it,” Jason said. “Even if she wouldn’t tell me why it was so important to bring us all together or why it had to be a secret.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Cynthia said. “It’s a reunion. The start of an annual tradition.” While the crowd cheered, Cynthia glanced at X’s face. “No, that’s not it.”
“If you would let me speak, Kessler wouldn’t have to ask questions to gauge my reaction.” X smiled again at the senator. “It seems a new Subcommittee has been formed to oversee a few CIA stealth sub-agencies. Senator Bradley is not a member of the new oversight group, but he has been an advisor to them, and he has recommended they fund a few groups to follow the HEAT model.”
“Does that mean you’ve been tapped to set those up?” Samantha asked.
“Yes,” X said. “Things won’t be exactly the same. They never are, are they? But this will allow me to hire the best and brightest from various agencies,” she glanced at me, “not to mention bring back retired operatives who have left government service for various reasons. That last part is the reason for the secrecy around our gathering.”
“Fuck me,” Jason said, “we’re not here as the band on the run, we’re here for the band reunion!”
X lifted her champagne glass. “Jensen has stolen my thunder, but yes, I want to reunite the original Alpha Team members.” The team cheered. X glanced at me. “TJ, would you come back to lead them?”
I looked at each and every one of my teammates. I loved them, believed in them, and would be a fool not to jump at the chance to work with them again.