Taking Fire (25 page)

45

“Somebody want to tell me what that was all about?” Bobby asked into the lazy quiet.

It was after nine p.m. on Sunday, a week after his mishap in Syria. Around five o'clock, every member of the ITAP team and their wives and kids had trooped into the Levines' Georgetown home to see him.

“How'
s the shoulder, Boom? And who is this vision beside you?”

“Can't keep a good man down—especially when he's got a nurse who looks like this taking care of him.”

It was ridiculous. One corny—not to mention leading—line after another, as they arrived carrying casseroles, cakes, pies, or salads to add to the “impromptu” potluck.

Impromptu? Hell, it had been a setup from the get-go. And he'd felt like a bug under a microscope as they'd all filed by him.

The entire Black Ops team—Black, Jones, Reed, Mendoza, Green, Wyatt Savage, Luke Colter, and even Sam Lang, who was retired—had dropped by, and Bobby had gotten the distinct feeling that they'd all gathered for something other than well wishes.

Even Carlyle, Santos, and Waldrop—the only bachelors left on the ITAP team—had made an appearance. They'd brought the keg.

The crowd was gone now. The kitchen had been cleaned up, the kids had played until they dropped, and their parents had carried them to their cars. Meir, who now had a raft of new friends, was sound asleep in his bed.

Only Jamie and Rhonda Cooper and Mike and Eva Brown remained.

The evening had cooled off, so they'd moved to the front porch to enjoy the night sounds and the soft summer breeze.

Bobby sat on one end of the wicker love seat, Talia close beside him. He still had to wear the damn sling, but his shoulder was feeling better each day.

Coop and Brown were sitting on the top porch step, each nursing a whiskey. Their wives were nestled between their thighs on the step below them, Eva sipping wine and Rhonda enjoying a beer.

No one answered his question, so Bobby tried again. “I repeat. Somebody want to tell me what that was all about?”

When they still remained suspiciously silent, he looked pointedly from one to the other. “
No
one
has an answer for me?”

Coop looked at Brown, then shrugged. “That was about your friends coming to wish you well.”

“Right.” Bobby turned to Talia. “You buying that?”

She grinned. “They
were
concerned about you.”

“Not as much as they were concerned about
you
. So who let the cat out of the bag?”

“It wasn't me,” Mike said quickly.

Coop asked, “What cat? What bag?”

Rhonda gave her husband a look. “Man up, or I'll do it for you.”

“You're a hard woman.” Coop grinned at his wife and turned to Bobby. “I might have accidentally mentioned that you'd proposed to Talia. It was a slip, okay?”

Brown snorted. “Accidentally. Right.”

“Anyway, next thing I knew, the rest of the guys wanted to meet Talia. So did all the wives.” Coop lifted his hands. “What better way than a potluck?”

Bobby grunted in disbelief. “Next thing, you're going to tell me you baked a casserole.”

Coop looked a little wounded. “What if I did? Turned out pretty good, if you ask me.”

Eva chuckled.

“He's been trying to get in touch with his feminine side,” Brown said helpfully.

“Stop teasing him,” Rhonda scolded. “I love a man who cooks. It's sexy.”

“So—did I pass?” Talia cut straight to the heart of the matter.

Rhonda smiled at her. “With flying colors. But the truth is, none of them could imagine Bobby in the role of dad.
That
was the real draw.”

Bobby smiled. “Well, I guess they know now.” He still had a lot to learn about fatherhood, but the love had come naturally. He was filled with it.

They all fell comfortably quiet then, and Bobby closed his eyes in contentment. The woman by his side, the little boy sleeping upstairs—he was one lucky SOB. He had it all. More than he'd ever hoped for. More, probably, than he deserved.

Cooper and Brown—his brothers in every way but blood. He'd lost them once. Never thought he'd get them back—or be as close to their wives who he considered sisters.

And he had the girl. He'd lost her once, too. Lost a part of himself when she'd left him. But she was here now, and so was their son. He had it all.

“So,” he said, feeling full and rich and settled, “I'm getting itchy, sitting around this house so long. How about we go out for breakfast tomorrow morning? Just the six of us.”

“Fine by me,” Coop said.

“I'm in,” Brown added.

“Want to draw to see who's buying now or wait until morning?” Coop dug into his hip pocket for his wallet.

Mike, who always seemed to lose this contest, did the same. “Let's get it over with.”

Mike carefully slipped out his tattered and torn jack of hearts. A bullet hole pierced the center of the card, a reminder of what he had been through.

Coop eased out his own one-eyed jack, the edges blackened by fire.

“I need a little help.” Bobby smiled at Talia, who helped him remove his jack of spades from his wallet, the fragile card sliced through the middle by a combat knife yet still holding together.

“The stories these cards could tell,” Brown said, his expression a little melancholy as he rose and walked over to Bobby.

“I'm glad they can't talk.” Coop stood and joined them.

“I'm just thankful I'm alive to remember.” An unexpected swell of emotion took Bobby by surprise. He looked up and met his friends' eyes. “And I'm thankful to be here with all of you.”

Their gazes held for a brief, intense moment of brotherhood. They were all that was left of the One-Eyed Jacks. They'd been betrayed and estranged but never beaten. And their bond had never been stronger.

Breaking the spell, Mike gathered the three cards and gently shuffled them. “Talia, you do the honors. Close your eyes, and pick one.”

Bobby met Talia's smiling eyes and could see she'd already made her pick. She'd picked him. Eyes wide open.

“No need, gentlemen.” He held her unwavering gaze. “Winner buys, and I feel like the biggest winner who ever walked the earth.”

Don't miss the first two books in
New York Times
bestselling author Cindy Gerard's exciting One-Eyed Jacks series!

Eva Salinas lures Mike Brown from the sultry streets of Lima, Peru, to the desolate Idaho wilderness on the hunt for the cold-blooded traitor behind a fatal military operation that haunts them both.

Killing Time

Tension sizzles in this second book in the One-Eyed Jacks series: a sexy, pulse-pounding story featuring special ops agent Jamie Cooper and a female cyber analyst as they fight for justice and fall in love.

Running Blind

CINDY GERARD
is the critically acclaimed
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author of the wildly popular Black Ops, Inc. series; the Bodyguards series; and more than thirty contemporary romance novels. Her latest books include the One-Eyed Jacks novels:
Killing Time
,
The Way Home
, and
Running Blind
. Her work has won the prestigious RITA Award for Best Romantic Suspense. She and her husband live in the Midwest. Visit her online at
CindyGerard.com
.

Also by Cindy Gerard

Running Blind

The Way Home

Killing Time

Last Man Standing

With No Remorse

Risk No Secrets

Feel the Heat

Whisper No Lies

Take No Prisoners

Show No Mercy