rel="nofollow" href="#u6cb133fa-aa7b-56b9-bb41-dd53ec3ff2b4">Chapter 13
Chapter 1
“You should have seen the look on Nova’s face when Tazer face-planted him on the mat at the gym.” Creed Thomas clapped a hand on Casanova Valdez’s back.
Casanova chuckled, remembering that day. “Hey, no one told me she was a black belt in judo. And look at her.” He pointed to Steele. “She looks like a damn powder-puff model.”
Nicole Steele, also known as Tazer because most people didn’t know she’d hit them until they were lying flat on their backs, glanced at the tips of her fingernails. “Looks can be deceiving.” That was the dichotomy who was Tazer. Completely at ease, but ready for anything.
As he sat at the table filled with his teammates and a select few residents of Cape Churn, Oregon, Stealth Operations Specialist Casanova Valdez was surrounded by people he liked and trusted. His teammates. They meant the world to him. He liked his job, the people he worked with, and he felt he was contributing to the greater good of society. But something was missing.
His gaze followed Molly McGregor as she served the other occupants of the dining room at the McGregor Bed & Breakfast, where the team had chosen to gather with members of the local community to celebrate victory.
He and Tazer should have been on their way back to D.C. The next flight out would be the following morning. They hadn’t even left Cape Churn when they’d received the news. Thank goodness. They’d been having lunch at the Seaside Café when their flight from Portland had been canceled due to a mechanical issue with their plane. At that point, Gabe had invited them to a victory dinner at the McGregor Bed & Breakfast his sister operated. It gave Nova the chance to see the pretty bed-and-breakfast owner again. He couldn’t seem to get her out of his mind.
Molly’s movements were quick and efficient, her every greeting accompanied by a sunny smile. Light blond hair swung about her shoulders, falling in long loose curls down her back, her green eyes sparkling as bright as the crystals dangling from the chandelier that hung from the center of the spacious dining room. She treated every guest like family, making them welcome and including them in her happy disposition. Nova liked being around her. She made him feel as if he’d come home when he walked into McGregor Manor. He hadn’t felt that way since his grandparents had died.
“Bet you think twice when you flirt with a woman, huh, Nova?” Creed elbowed him in the arm, bringing him back to the conversation and his friends gathered around the table. Their hostess, Molly McG., ducked out of sight through the swinging door to the kitchen.
His lips twisted in a wry grin as he recalled the first day he’d met his teammate in the gym at headquarters, the beautiful and deadly Nicole Steele, or Tazer as they’d nicknamed her. “Tazer schooled me,” he admitted.
“Damn right.” Tazer’s lips curved in a sensuous smile as she leaned back in her chair, so beautiful she could easily have graced any glossy magazine cover. Instead, she, too, was a member of the elite SOS team, sworn to protect the country and step in when other federal agencies weren’t enough. “And what did you learn?” she asked in her smooth, husky tone.
“Never underestimate a beautiful woman.” Unfortunately, he hadn’t learned the lesson well enough the first time around. A trip to the jungles of Bolivia, falling in love with the daughter of a drug lord, and losing her and almost losing his life had been the lesson he’d learned the hardest. A face-plant on a gym mat didn’t even compare.
“Well, no matter how you met, I’m glad we’re on the same team,” Creed said. “Without your help, the entire Western Seaboard might not be here today.” Creed raised his glass. “To success.”
Everyone at the table raised their glasses to toast.
Nova lifted his glass of water. What they’d done had been deemed a preemptive strike against a terror cell planning to attack and devastate major cities on the West Coast, including Seattle and Los Angeles.
“To success.” Nova sipped the water, wishing it was whiskey. Alcohol and driving on a foggy night didn’t mix, and he had a long drive ahead of him to get to Portland. The rescheduled red-eye flight departed in the early hours of the morning and he didn’t want to get up at zero dark thirty to try to make that drive from Cape Churn in a hurry.
As soon as he could bow out gracefully, he’d be on the road. In the meantime, he enjoyed visiting with his coworkers and new friends. Especially the owner of the B&B, who was as nice to look at as a field of white daisies. Molly McGregor, that perpetual smile on her face, breezed in from the kitchen carrying a pitcher of water. She topped off glasses around the dining room.
Sure, he’d sworn off commitment a long time ago. But that didn’t mean he’d sworn off women. A man would have to be blind not to appreciate her.
Molly was the sister of Gabe McGregor, the local cop who’d helped them find and neutralize a very dangerous man. The man responsible for trafficking uranium into the United States. Their target had been in the market to sell the uranium to a warped individual creating dirty bombs with enough explosive power to blow Los Angeles and Seattle off the face of the planet.
A backhand to his chest woke Nova out of his musings, yet again.
“Hey, now, don’t be getting any ideas about Gabe’s sister,” Tazer said. “I might get jealous.”
“Since when have you ever been jealous of another woman?” Creed asked.
Tazer pouted. “I was jealous of one last week in the airport. Her Jimmy Choo shoes had me ready to knock her over and rip them off her feet.”
“And who’s Jimmy Choo?” Gabe asked.
Sitting beside him, his wife, Kayla, laughed out loud. “A designer, silly.”
Gabe glanced around at the others. “Am I missing something? Since when are shoes worth killing for?”
Kayla rolled her eyes. “You’re such a man.”
“Tazer has a fetish for shoes.” Nova glanced at his female teammate. “I’m surprised you restrained yourself.”
She admired her fingernails. “They didn’t look my size, or I’d have found a way.”
“Everyone all right here?” Molly stopped by their large table, her hair escaping the clip holding the sides up and back away from her face. “I’m sorry, we’re just packed tonight.” She pushed a loose strand behind her ear. Her hand drifted down the long column of her throat to where her shirt came to a V over generous breasts.
Nova’s pulse beat a little faster and he shifted in his chair.
