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“How’s Jase doing?” Brax asked the men leaning around Gideon’s granite kitchen countertop. He knew that his teammate was currently with his parents in Missouri, with Bonnie and the twins, but he hadn’t heard much more than that.

Everybody looked over at their lieutenant who shrugged. Brax definitely wasn’t going to get any answers from that quarter.

“I talked to him four days ago,” Nolan said. “He sounded in great spirits, and I didn’t believe a word of what he was saying. In Germany they did a great job on repairing the break. He has a lot of hardware in his body now. The doctors were really hopeful that he could get back to eighty to ninety percent of where he was. But it’s the surrounding muscle that’s the problem. In another week he’s going to go to Walter Reed for some intensive physical therapy. He’s bound and determined to get back to where he was.”

Nolan took a long swallow of his beer. So did Kostya. It was clear that neither one of them wanted to say that a full recovery wasn’t likely.

Dammit.

It was time to change the subject, and Gideon did.

“She’s got one hell of a case,” Gideon said, referring to Jenny.

They all looked to the women huddled in the living room.

Brax had worried when so many women had shown up, but as he looked them over, he realized that they would be gentle with Jenny.

“I don’t think she wants to sue New Era Cyber Tech,” Brax said as he leaned his forearms against Gideon’s counter. “She’s just trying to get through each day. I’m hoping talking to the ladies will be the impetus she needs to go to a psychologist so that she can start living her life again.”

“Is she still in the hotel?” Linc asked. “Or has she returned to her apartment?”

“That’s the problem, she doesn’t have an apartment to return to. She moved out when she took the long-term assignment in Dhaka. She hasn’t left the hotel since she got there, except for the three times with me. This field trip makes four. The only apartment-hunting she’s done has been online.”

“Agoraphobia?” Nolan asked.

“Maybe,” Brax admitted. “I’m really not sure. That’s why I think she needs to talk to a professional. I’ve seen her have two panic attacks. One at a crowded mall and another when we went to a quiet restaurant. Then there’s the fact that she doesn’t feel safe in the hotel room. She shoves a heavy chair in front of the door each night.”

“Maggie ended up with night terrors after Kyle tried to kidnap her. She’d wake up screaming. No matter what I’d do or say, they weren’t getting better. She ended up seeing someone in Jasper Creek. The woman really helped Maggie,” Nolan explained.

“I really thought you would stay there,” Kostya said.

“Maggie likes it here. All the Omega Sky women have been great, but she misses the small-town feel of Jasper Creek. I’m not sure, but I think she would be happier down in Tennessee. If that’s true, then we’re moving. Trust me, boss, if that ever comes to pass, you’ll be the first to know,” Nolan told his lieutenant.

“Dammit, don’t tell me that my old boss is trying to recruit you for his shitty security company. You’re a SEAL, dammit,” Kostya growled.

Brax, Linc, Gideon and Nolan laughed.

“I dare you to call Onyx Security a shitty security company in front of Simon Clark.” Gideon grinned.

Kostya rubbed the back of his neck, then took a sip of his beer. “I’m not taking that dare.” Then Kostya turned to look at Nolan. “Is he recruiting you?”

Nolan lifted up his hands, palms out. “He knows that Maggie has a lot of friends in Jasper Creek, so he told me that if we ever moved back to Tennessee, there would be a job waiting for me. Apparently, he’s getting more business than he can handle.”

“Good for him,” Kostya smiled sincerely. “Good for him.” Then he scowled. “But if he lures you away, he and I will be having words.”

It took Jenny a while to figure out all the players when she sat down in Gideon and Jada’s living room. Of course, since it was Jada’s house, she caught onto who Jada was. She was the gorgeous black woman who had set out all of the munchies and shooed the men away.

Then there was Lark Barona. She was married to Kostya Barona. Jenny didn’t really remember him from her rescue. Brax had explained that Kostya was his team leader, and that Lark was an investigative journalist. She wondered if she still did that line of work since she was so late in her pregnancy.

“You were kept in a hole in the ground?” Maggie clarified.

Leila nodded. “Not one of my favorite adventures.” She shrugged.

“Don’t downplay it,” Lark Barona said quietly. “What happened to you was horrific.”

Leila closed her eyes and shrugged. “I’m still working on that. Humor is how I cope. But when it happens to someone else, it’s horrific.” She turned away from Lark and leaned across the coffee table to Jenny. “Honey, I was in that hole for a day and a half. How long were you kept captive in Bangladesh?”

Jenny swung her head around, taking her time to look into the faces of each of the five women who had gathered today to give her support. All she saw was kindness and empathy.

“Three weeks. I was kept in a shack. To begin with, it had a clay floor, but it was monsoon season, so eventually it was a floor that was six inches of mud. I had a bucket for a toilet and they fed me roti bread, rice, and when I was lucky, lentil soup. I was so sick that in the end I thought I was just going to drown in the mud, and that didn’t sound too bad, you know?”

She hated the fact that she’d been this close to giving up. Her tears welled up.

Brax’s sister CiCi was sitting beside her. She grabbed her hand and held it tight, just like her brother would have.

“The important thing is that you didn’t. You survived,” CiCi murmured.

“What is it with being rained on?” Leila asked. “I swear, these assholes like it when we get rained on.”

“What happened to your captors?” Jenny asked Leila.

“Dead. Every single one of them. What about yours?”

“I’m not sure.”

Leila looked over at the men drinking beer in the kitchen. “Linc?”

He must have been listening in because he gave her some kind of sign. She turned back to Jenny. “Your captors are dead, too.”

Jenny looked at her, stunned.

“But I think there were a lot of them,” Jenny protested.

Jada picked up her half-full glass of wine and sat back in her chair. “Honey, that’s how they roll. Someone goes after us, or some woman in distress, they take care of the problem. We’re not privy to the particulars, but we know that in the end, we’re safe.”

“That’s not true, sometimes we see what happens,” Maggie piped up. “I had nightmares for a long time.”

Lark leaned forward. “Because of how Nolan took care of that crazy man who tried to kidnap you?”

“No. Thinking of that calms me down. But thinking about how Kyle could have ended up taking me and I would have disappeared and never seen Nolan or Iris ever again.”

“How did you stop the nightmares?” Jenny asked.

“I started with a counselor down in Jasper Creek. That’s where we were when Nolan took leave for a while. Then when we moved here to Virginia and got married, Nolan found a way for me to choose from a couple of different psychologists. I found a man this time, and I see him from time to time. Not often, maybe every other month.”

“That’s what Brax thinks I need to do.”

“Why?” Lark asked.

You could really tell she was the leader of the pack of women, just like her husband was the leader of the men.

“I’ve had a couple of panic attacks in front of Brax and he’s concerned.”

CiCi gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m betting if you’ve had a couple of panic attacks in front of Brax you’ve had a lot more when you weren’t in front of him, right?”

“Yeah,” she admitted quietly. “But it doesn’t make sense. I’m out of Bangladesh. I’m here in the States. I should be fine.”

“That’s not how these things work,” CiCi countered. “I had someone help me. I didn’t have them for panic attacks, but after spending so much time in the hospital and thinking I was going to die, it took me a long time to accept that having a future was my new normal. I couldn’t cope. Our brains and emotions sometimes need to be healed by a doctor just like our bodies do.”

“Hmmm, I never thought about it like that,” Jenny admitted.

“Yeah, I’m smart.” CiCi smirked. “Just don’t expect it to run in the family.” CiCi raised her voice for the last two sentences.

Everybody in Gideon and Jada’s house laughed, except for Brax, who glowered at his sister.

What would it be like to have a relationship with someone where I could tease them like that? Oh hell, be honest. I want to have a relationship with Brax where I could tease him like that.

“How come I get the feeling they’re talking about me?” Brax asked the men in general.

“Because they are.” Nolan grinned.

“Do all the rest of you think so, too?” Brax asked as he looked each one in the eye.

“Definitely.” Linc laughed.

“No question.” Gideon grinned.

Kostya just nodded.

“Great,” Brax sighed. “That’s just what I need.”

“Sorry, Brax. That’s just the way it goes during the courtship time. Don’t you remember how bad it was for Gideon?” Kostya asked.

Brax thought back to Jada’s antics and grinned. “Yeah. Thank God, there is no way that Jenny will ever be as bad as that.”

“You better be knocking on wood.” Gideon smiled. “You just tempted the Gods of Love.”

“How bad is it for her?” Nolan asked. Brax wasn’t surprised at his question. Everybody knew the struggle that Maggie had. Nolan had been a mess worrying about his woman and being the primary caretaker for their young daughter as Maggie got back on her feet.

“I’m not really sure. The rest of you were in more of a relationship with your women. I’m not even in the courtship stage. We’re just friends. I’m not even convinced that I want to be in the courtship phase.”

“So basically, you’re lying to yourself,” Linc said. “Maybe you’re the one who needs to see a shrink.”

“Look, I’ll admit we bonded a little when we were in Bangladesh, but now that we’re in the States, it’s different. Friends. We’re just friends.”

“How many times have you called her since we’ve been home? How many times have you gone out with her?”

“Not many.”

“How many?” Gideon drawled. “Take a guess.”

“I dunno.” Brax thumbed his fingernail across the label of his empty beer bottle.

“We’ve been back for nineteen days. I say you’ve called her nineteen times and you’ve taken your friend out of the hotel four times. Anybody else want to put a wager on this?” Nolan asked as he looked around the kitchen,

“I think he’s called more than once a day. My bet is thirty-eight calls and he’s taken her out twice,” Kostya guessed.

“I want in on the action,” Gideon chuckled. “I say?—”

“Enough already,” Brax interrupted. I’ve only been able to talk her out of the hotel three times, and I’ve called her twice a day since we’ve been home. There. Are you satisfied?”

“Damn, that was going to be my bet,” Linc said as he opened the fridge and brought out more beers.

“One is enough,” Nolan said as he waved his hand. “I’m on toddler duty tonight. Mrs. Fuentes is a dependable babysitter, but she always gets Iris to sleep during the day, so by the time we get home, our little angel is raring to go.”

“Thanks for the info,” Kostya said. “I don’t think Lark and I will be using her then. The last thing we need is having a kid who doesn’t sleep at night.”

“Good luck with that. I might have missed the time when Iris was a newborn, but I’ve been living through teething. It’s hell, man.” And with that bit of warning, Nolan went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and took a healthy swig.

“I don’t want to think about it. I say we bring our focus back onto Brax. So, what have you and Jenny been talking about?” Kostya wanted to know.

Brax turned back to the women and saw that Jada, Maggie, and CiCi were coming their way. It must be meal prep time . He definitely knew that Jenny and Lark didn’t cook, so that’s why they were still in the living room. He looked over at Linc and raised his eyebrow.

“Cooking isn’t Leila’s thing. Which is great, since I like doing it.”

“That’s great, then I’m putting you to work,” Jada said as she rounded the kitchen island and smiled up at Linc. “Any of the rest of you want to volunteer?”

“What are you making?” Gideon asked.

“Street tacos and all the fixings.”

“I’ll leave you to it.” Gideon gave his woman a lingering kiss.

“Enough making out, there are vegetables that need slicing,” Linc objected. “Out.”