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“Thank you.” Benjamin sat on the wooden chest at the end of the bed and rubbed his eyes.

I knew from his posture his body hurt. He’d refused treatment on his shoulder, which I respected, and I knew his head would be scrambling to catch up.

The last twelve hours would have been a whirlwind. “Mr. Paul?”

“Just Paul.”

“No first name, or is that your last?”

“Just Paul,” I repeated then felt like an ass for my sharp tone.

“It’s complicated.” I felt I needed to explain a bit.

“I had sort of a family once, but the people in this house are all the family I need now, and here there’s no need to have any name other than Paul.

” I felt the lump that came when I thought of my biological family and my shitty father.

I’d never really had anyone who loved me, not like here.

Then Talya’s gorgeous face popped up, and I slammed that door closed so fast I swore I felt a breeze.

“Understood.” He let it go. “Ah,” he tilted his head, “any word on Nicole?”

“Nicole?”

“Nicole Winter. She’s the war correspondent I was working with over there.”

I mentally flipped through his file and couldn’t recall that name. “I thought you were working with Kimberly Ann?”

He jammed the pad of his thumb into his eye and shook his head.

“Kim was a mess. One explosion, and she was out. I’ve worked with Nicole on and off for years.

The woman chews through cameramen like Skittles.

” He gave a huff. “Anyway, after Kimberly left, I ran into Nicole, and I worked with her until we were separated, and I was taken. I’d hoped you guys got her out too. ”

“Sorry, man. Her name’s not been mentioned, at least not to me.”

“No worries. Knowing her, she’s sittin’ in some Cartel’s back yard sipping tequila.

” He chuckled while my brows pinched together.

That was an odd comment to make. He must have caught my confusion and closed his eyes with a head shake.

“Ah, of course, most likely her reputation isn’t known here.

They keep her pretty quiet.” He stood. “Let me get my head on straight, and I’ll fill you in. ”

I wanted to push, but I remembered my house training and didn’t ask anything else. “I’m glad you’re all right, Benjamin.”

“Ben, please,” he looked around, “and thank you. I promise I’ll be better tomorrow.”

“You’ve been through a lot. Give yourself some grace.” I nodded and checked the time; it was time to gather my team in the conference room. “See you down there when you’re ready.

The families only had a few more moments together, so I hurried downstairs to round up my team.

They jumped up from the table and carried their dishes to the kitchen.

I continued to the conference room. Daniel and Frank were already there.

They were looking around at the new command center I had finished building six months ago.

Frank grinned as I stepped inside. “Impressive. I know I saw it when it was first finished, but now after seeing it live…” He pursed his lips and whistled. “I mean, what you were able to pull off this last mission was truly remarkable.”

“I don’t have to tell you the enemy is better, smarter, and stronger than only a year ago. We need to match that and be ten steps ahead.”

“Agreed.” Daniel added, “The protection you offered the teams was invaluable. If we hadn’t known that wall of Cartel was almost on us, I don’t think the teams would be here at all. They made it home and in one piece, because of you.”

I didn’t like the attention, so I changed topics. “Does the name Nicole Winter mean anything to you guys?”

Frank set down the controller he was admiring and threw a quick glance at Daniel. “Why do you ask?”

“Apparently, Ben Bale, our new house guest, was working with her before he was captured.”

Frank shook his head. “He supposedly worked with Kimberly Ann Smith, but I did hear she’d been deployed home for mental health reasons. After Ben’s military team was killed and he was taken, you were sent in to get him.”

“According to him,” I pointed to the ceiling, “he hoped she was brought out as well.”

Daniel moved over to one of the keyboards and typed her name into our database.

A flicker of the screen later, and a stunning woman with fierce green eyes and brown hair to just below the collarbone stared intensely from the other side of the camera.

Her brows were perfectly manicured into a slight arch that accentuated her slender nose, smooth cheekbones, and pretty, pink lips.

I huffed at how gorgeous she was, but I saw a look in her eyes that told me she didn’t take shit from anyone.

My gut feeling, this woman would be a handful, especially to those she worked with.

I silently thanked God that Cole had never made us work with the press.

We had bigger fish to fry than babysitting the media.

“Nicole Winter, born and raised in Billings, thirty-five years old, actively worked as a war correspondent for the past fifteen years.” Daniel scanned the screen. “She’s got quite the bio.”

“Where?” I stepped closer to the screen.

“Southern Mexico and a little time in El Salvador.” Daniel scoffed at something. “Seems she’s worked with several cameramen over that time. She’s had at least twenty so far.”

“Damn.” I knew a WC and their cameramen had to be in sync to do their job, so the fact she didn’t get along well with others was interesting.

Daniel whistled. “Seems she’s provided some seriously impressive information to the government over the years.”

I noticed Frank was quiet, so I turned to look at him. “What do you know?”

“Not much, but I know she’s under Bruce’s umbrella.

” General Bruce had his own reputation for bending the rules, so it didn’t surprise me someone with her impressive track record would get her orders from him.

My guess would be she was told to get in, do whatever was necessary, and get out.

“Which means I don’t know much. Bruce keeps a tight lid on things.

But I know she’s one of the best if not the best WC out there,” Frank continued.

“She’s obviously gained the trust of a few major players down there. ” He studied the screen.

“Like who?”

“Santiago Garcia, Mateo Tomas, Matias Lucas, to name a few.” A cold shiver raced down my back at the mention of those names. I had to sit down. He was right; they were all major players in the Cartel.

Daniel leaned in to read something. “Look who she’s with here.”

He brought up a photo, and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw her shaking hands with my ex-lover Talya’s father.

The very man I’d helped to take out another major kingpin, Martin Castillo.

Talya’s parents wanted to move up and needed Castillo out of the way so they could take his place.

I shook my head. That was a whole other life for me, and things were different now.

“So, Paul, have you ever run into her?” Daniel pointed at her press picture he brought back up.

“I don’t think so. I’d remember those eyes.” Again, I glanced at Frank and wondered what other secrets he knew, because surely, at some point, we could have or would have crossed paths.

“Who’s the hottie?” Mark commented as he filed in with the others.

Daniel switched off the screen. We needed to debrief before we jumped into that one.

“We’ll get there,” he assured him.

“First, let’s start from the beginning.”

After we dissected and logged our mission, some of us decided to head to Zack’s for some celebratory drinks.

It was one of the traditions we’d started years ago to help blow off some steam.

It gave the wives some much-needed time with their husbands and without their kids.

It was wonderful that everyone lived together, kids and all, but it was also incredibly important to carve out alone time for the adults.

We needed time to bond and keep our heads on straight.

I was happy that Keith’s date, Liza, headed toward the table.

She was a kick-ass weapons finder at Camp Green and had proved to be a huge asset to our organization.

The wives did their best not to pry too much into what was going on with the two of them.

The loss of Keith’s wife, Lexi, had left him and his two kids stunned and grieving.

He’d been through the wringer over the past year, and it was important for him to find some happiness.

At least that was how Dr. Ivy explained it when she was trying to make the point that I should be doing the same.

“Sorry for being late.” Liza smiled at Keith and then the rest of us. “Juliet flaked on me again, and I had to cover most of her shift at camp. I have no idea what’s going on with her, but something’s not right.” She took the chair next to Keith.

“No problem.” Keith poured her a beer. “Hopefully, whatever it is clears up soon.”

“Cheers to that.” She tapped his glass and took a deep breath.

I couldn’t mentally pull up who her friend might be, and I knew mostly everyone at Camp Green. “Who’s Juliet? Is she new?” I took a swallow of my own brew.

“New? No, not really,” Liza ran her finger down a drip on the side of the glass. “She’s been there way longer than me. She worked in soldier placements for quite a while, then was moved to my position to give me some much-needed time off, but so far all I’ve done is work more.”

Keith leaned back slightly to stretch his shoulder. “I’ll speak to Frank.”

“You don’t have to do that, Keith. I was only complaining. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

“You won’t,” he assured her and smiled. Then we all glanced up as a blur of color whisked up to the table.