Page 8 of Kane (Ghost Ops #4)
She didn’t respond to the dig. “Thank you for your time. I’ll see myself out.”
Ghost was at the door before she was. He politely opened it for her and followed her through. The door sealed behind them. Kane looked at his teammates. They all wore varying expressions of surprise. And pride.
“Well, well,” Chance said. “I think I like that woman, despite her determination to be aloof. She’s not really all bad, is she?”
“Probably not,” Kane replied. “But she definitely has her own agenda.”
He picked up the Glock and turned it over.
The last time he’d seen it, Dima Smirnov had just used it to terrorize Nikki Crowell.
Thank God Seth had been there, though apparently Nikki hadn’t been entirely immobilized.
Darn kid went limp and stomped the bad guy’s instep.
Nearly gave Seth a heart attack in the split second before he launched himself at Smirnov.
But she was alive and well, and that was the important thing.
“This job gets more and more fun, am I right?” Ethan grumbled.
“First it’s a simple job to surveil a warehouse, which almost gets Chance shot, then we’ve got fucking psychotic exes, a lady who talks to aliens and ghosts, murderous asshats, and then suddenly Russian spies arrive.
But wait, there’s more! They aren’t Russian spies, or not only Russian spies, they’re also terrorists who want to take over the world or some such shit.
And now we’ve got gun traffickers, a homegrown army of assholes, and a nosy FBI agent with more access than God. Is that about right?”
“Yeah, but look on the bright side,” Chance drawled.
“Which is?”
Chance ticked off his fingers. “Southern cooking. Theo Harper’s special dishes.
You don’t wake up in your cozy bed in Bama and then find yourself sleeping on a desert floor twenty-four hours later, or humping through a jungle.
Did I mention barbecue? Miss Mary’s pies. Wendy Cochran’s strawberry cake?—”
“Dude, almost all of what you just said is food related,” Ethan replied. “I’m from New York. We’ve got great food.”
“Yeah, but you don’t have Southern charm. Or The Mystic Chick herself. Rory said Colleen’s about to start writing a column for the Sutton’s Creek Bee. Guess Judy Simpson’s getting desperate to fill the pages. Or Colleen’s got something on her. Not sure which.”
“And why do I care if Colleen’s writing a column?”
Chance shrugged. “Because it’s bound to be hilarious?”
The door opened and Ghost walked in. He didn’t look in any better of a mood than when he’d left.
If anything, he looked more annoyed. Made Kane wonder what Diana had said between the door and the parking lot to put that look on the boss’s face.
Because she’d already said plenty before she’d walked out of the SCIF.
“Well, boys, looks like we’ve got us another unofficial team member. Because that woman isn’t taking no for an answer. Seth, you find anything?”
Because of course Seth had been typing away on his computer from the moment Ghost and Diana left the room.
“Nothing on the diamond trigger. It’ll take some time, but I’ll get a list of the guns that went missing and the receiving dealer since she didn’t bother to share either of those things.”
Ghost tossed the pen he’d picked up onto the table and shook his head.
“Fuck my life,” he grumbled. “I could have been the HOT commander in another couple of years if I’d said no to this assignment.
Washington could have sent somebody else, but no, I had to put duty before self, blah blah blah, and drag all of you with me.
It seemed pretty straightforward at the time.
Couldn’t have predicted Diana Corbin—or you jaded fuckers falling in love. ”
“Sorry, boss,” Blaze said with a grin. “But I’m glad you took the job and brought me along because I’d have never met Emma. Pretty sure Chance and Seth are with me on this one.”
“Amen, brother,” Chance said. Seth echoed with an amen of his own.
“I’m good,” Kane said. “I like what we’re doing with the range and the training. It’s rewarding to help people learn how to defend themselves for a change.”
It didn’t help Hannah, didn’t bring her back, but maybe it’d help some other woman defend herself if she got attacked.
Daphne, for instance. It was time Kane pressed her into learning to shoot.
Past time. She’d taken the self-defense course early on, when they’d wanted to test new material, and she’d been a star.
But, to his knowledge, she didn’t know how to shoot.
Ethan frowned. He looked torn, so what came out of his mouth wasn’t quite what Kane had expected.
“Not saying I love it here or anything, but I’m not complaining.
The Dawg has great food, and the beer’s good.
Kinda like the change of pace, too. Beats sleeping in jungles and deserts, getting eaten up by bugs and digging sand out of your asscrack. ”
Ghost snorted. “Yeah, nothing like sand in your crack. It’s almost as annoying as Agent Diana ‘guess who my uncle is’ Corbin. But at least you can wash the fucking sand away.”
“You gotta admit she’s pretty hot though,” Kane said. “In a touch-me-and-I’ll-break-your-fucking-arm way.”
“No,” Ghost said, pointing at him. “You can charm every woman who walks through those doors if you want, break hearts, fuck around, I don’t care. But not that one. She’s too dangerous and too unpredictable. Last thing I want is you getting tangled up with her.”
He was almost offended. “Wasn’t planning on it, boss. Pretty sure she’s immune to my charm anyway. And I like my balls where they are, so not even trying. You or Ethan can have her.”
“Not me,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “Cold and deadly isn’t my type.”
“None of us,” Ghost added. “It’s bad enough she’s inserted herself into our mission. I don’t want to see any more of her than I have to. She gives me a fucking headache. We clear on that, Demon?”
Kane blinked. Seriously? Why did they all think he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants? Like his brain wasn’t the one in control? They’d be surprised if they had any idea he wasn’t actually as much of a man-whore as they thought he was. Too fucking exhausting for one thing.
“As crystal. Like I said, I like my balls too much to tangle with that one.”
“Good. Maybe we can get some work done then. Too much damned romance lately,” Ghost grumbled. He cued up a slideshow on the overhead. “Let’s get some work done.”