“The boss isn’t gonna like this,” Onyx said.

“Which boss is that? Because from where I sit, we’re all the boss.”

“I’ll tell Doc you said that when he rips me a new one.”

“It’s Christmas. He’s not going to do any such thing.”

Aine rested her head on her mother’s shoulder.

“I’m proud of you,” she said.

“Me? Why?” Aine asked.

“I know how worried you are, but you aren’t showing a bit of it to anyone in this room.”

“I’m okay—”

Her mother kissed her cheek. “Neither of you girls think I know anything about you, but you’re wrong. I admit that I wasn’t a very good mother to you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t tell when you’re hurting.”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“What for?”

“That you think that about us.”

“How could you not, sweetheart? I’m the first to admit I wasn’t there for either of you when I should’ve been. If you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you and your sister.”

“As long as you’re part of our lives, that’ll be enough for us, Mom.”

“Can’t you drive any faster?”

“I didn’t fly all the way back from Africa just to get in a car accident on the damn Maryland Turnpike.”

“If you don’t hurry up, Christmas is going to be over.”

“I’m so full,” said Ava, rubbing her belly.

“And yet, you’ll be eating again in a half hour.”

Her sister pouted. “That isn’t very nice, Aine.”

“Tellin’ like it is, Sis.”

“Where are you going?” Ava asked when Aine got off the sofa.

“To clean up.”

“I’ll help.”

“No. Stay there. If you get up, Dasher will too, and I don’t feel like chasing her all over the house.”

“Is that how you’re going to be with your niece or nephew?”

“Only if he or she comes out of the womb walking.”

Aine rubbed her neck and went into the kitchen.

“Tired?” her mother asked.

“Yeah. Wait. What happened in here?”

“What do you mean?” Razor’s mother asked.

“Ten minutes ago, it was a wreck.”

“It was more like thirty minutes ago,” said Madeline, putting her arm around Svetlana’s shoulders.

“It’s called teamwork, darling,” said her mother. “Don’t you know that moms are the ones who really rule the world?”

“I believe it,” she murmured, looking at the spotless counters.

“Oh no,” Madeline gasped when she heard the doorbell followed by the raucous of barking puppies. “Who could that be at this hour? It’s after nine o’clock.”

“Hey, Aine?” she heard her sister call. “I need your help for a minute.”

“She’s gonna be like this until she has the baby, isn’t she?” she said to her mother.

“Longer.” She laughed. “Most likely until that baby is off to college.”

“Aine?” she heard her sister yell again.

“Coming, princess,” she yelled back.

There was no more beautiful sight in the world than the look on Aine’s face when she came out of the kitchen. She smiled and cried—all at once.

“Hi,” he said as she ran into his arms.

“Griffin? Oh my God. Are you real?”

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart. I got here as fast as I could.”

“How? When? How?” she asked, not giving him a chance to answer between her endless stream of kisses.

Striker glanced at all the eyes around the room focused solely on them. “If you all wouldn’t mind excusing us, I’m sure Onyx will answer whatever questions you have. Right, buddy?” Striker squeezed his teammate’s shoulder as he led Aine out of the room.

“Is there somewhere private we can talk?” Striker asked her.

“Come with me,” she answered, leading him through the house.

“What the hell, how big is this place?” he commented as they went from room to room until they reached the door that led to the enclosed porch.

“Tell me what happened. I was so worried. How did Onyx find you?”

“We have all the time in the world for that, Aine. Right now, I want to hear about you. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too. So much.”

Striker kissed her and pulled her body flush with his. “All I could think about was how I didn’t want you to spend Christmas alone.”

“I wasn’t. As you could see, there’s a houseful of people here.”

“I meant without me.”

Aine smiled. “I know. I’m so happy to see you.”

“I have a condo about an hour from here, would—”

“Yes.”

“Yes, you want to go, or yes, you’d mind?”

“Yes, I want to go, as soon as you do.”

“How about right now?”

“You don’t have to talk to anyone, or…”

“I’m here to see you. I don’t give reindeer poop about anyone else.”

Aine laughed, and it was such a sweet sound. There was only one sweeter, and he intended to hear it over and over again once they were at his condo and alone.

“Merry Christmas, everyone!” Aine shouted as she and Griffin stood by the front door and waved.

“I guess you’re gonna want these, Striker,” said Onyx, handing him a set of keys.

“Thanks, man. Uh, I don’t really care right now, but what are you gonna do for a ride?”

“I haven’t slept in over thirty-six hours. The only thing I need right now is a flat surface to fall asleep on.”

“Come with me,” said Madeline. “I have the perfect place for you to get some rest.”

“Where are you taking him?” asked Gunner.

“He’ll sleep in my room tonight,” she told her son. “I’ll sleep in the guest house with the girls.”

“No, ma’am, I can’t do that,” Aine heard Onyx say.

“He can sleep in my room,” said Peggy, walking up to Onyx. “I don’t know how you did it, but you brought Griffin back to my daughter, and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful. I’ll be the one who sleeps in the guest house with the girls tonight.”

“Should we sneak out now?” Striker asked.

“Let me just say goodnight to my mom. She deserves a hug for saying that to Onyx. He does too, actually.”

Griffin put his arm around Aine’s shoulder. “You can hug your mom, but I don’t want Onyx anywhere near you?”

“Why not?”

Griffin made a growling sound. “You’re mine.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “I can thank the man.”

She twisted away and walked over to her mom.

“Thanks,” she told her, hugging her tight.

“I’m happy for you, baby girl.”

Aine felt herself tearing up, and pulled away.

“Thank you,” she said to Onyx, stepping forward to hug him.

“Look!” shouted Sierra. “You’re under the mistletoe. You’re supposed to kiss.”

Before Aine could react, she felt Griffin’s hand on her arm. He made the growling sound again. “Get outta here, Onyx,” he said before he covered her mouth with his.

What Aine thought would be a chaste kiss so they could leave quickly, turned into one that foreshadowed the night to come.

“Let’s go somewhere we don’t have an audience,” she murmured.

“I’m with you, sweetheart.”

They waved a final goodbye and walked out to the car Griffin and Onyx had arrived in.

“I can’t wait to get you alone,” he said, kissing her as he opened the passenger door for her.

“I can’t wait either.”

“My place might be a little chilly, I haven’t been home for a while.”

“I don’t care. You’ll keep me warm.”

“You got that right.”

The hour-long drive to his house felt five times that long. Every few seconds, Striker would look over at Aine, whose eyes never wavered from him.

“Do you know how happy I am to be with you?” he asked.

“It can’t be half as happy as I am.”

Striker brought her hand to his lips. “I thought about you every minute.”

For the first time, she looked away from him.

“Talk to me, Aine. What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing,” she answered, shaking her head.

“No. Come on. You promised you’d talk things out with me.”

“It can wait, Griffin.”

“You either tell me what’s bothering you now, or I’ll pull this car over, and we’ll park until you do.”

“I know I’m not supposed to ask, though.”

“You want to know what happened.”

Aine nodded.

“I’ll tell you now, but once we get to my place, we won’t talk about it again. Fair enough?”

“Yes,” she murmured.

“It isn’t exactly a Christmas story.”

“I know that, Griffin.”

“The call I got on Thanksgiving was to inform me that two of the men who were part of my core team at the agency had been kidnapped in Somalia.” He looked over at Aine, who nodded.

“Go ahead,” she murmured.

“The intel indicated that the kidnappers were Somali pirates—who, historically, are unorganized, under-funded, and that’s if they’re funded at all. By the time Mantis and I got to headquarters, the ransom call had come in.”

“To the CIA?”

“Yes, and no. Tackle and Halo were undercover as journalists in Somalia. The ‘newspaper’ the pirates contacted was actually a direct line to the agency.”

“Tackle and Halo?”

“Knox ‘Halo’ Clarkson and Landry ‘Tackle’ Sorenson.”

“Where are they now?”

“With their families, and don’t ask what that cost me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say their current supervisor wanted them to hang around for a briefing, and I disagreed.”

“I see. How did you find them?”

Striker scrubbed his face with his hand. “You need to understand that what I do, isn’t always…pretty.”

“If you can’t tell me, I understand.”

He took a deep breath. “Mantis and I tracked the pirates to a remote part of Somalia, but we were seriously outnumbered. Worse, we had no means of communication. We decided that Mantis would go back to Mogadishu to get reinforcements while I continued to stake out the pirates.”

When the Somalis went in the direction from which they came, Striker almost shouted out in happiness. If they were returning to Mogadishu, that meant two things. First, that he’d be able to get in touch with someone back home and get backup. The second thing it meant was he’d reconnect with Mantis, who had probably already called in the cavalry.

It wasn’t difficult for him to nab a vehicle. He’d found a lone Somali about to get in one of their decrepit-looking AWD vehicles, hit him over the head with his gun and knocked him out, and pulled him into a grove of trees. He took the man’s clothes, changed into them, and fell into their convoy.

No one paid attention to him during the drive in from the desert, and once he got into the city, he immediately signaled for help.

“We were just headed your way,” Dutch told him when Striker answered his call. “We picked up your twenty about five minutes ago.”

“You got Mantis?” Striker asked.

“Negative. He’s not with you?”

“No, but he’s here in Mogadishu. You haven’t been able to track him?”

“Again, that’s a negative, sir.”

Striker shook his head, willing a good reason for Mantis to be out of range of contact.

“There are six Somalis transporting Halo and Tackle in. Who’s with you?”

“Onyx, Ranger, and Diesel, sir.”

“Outstanding. This should be a slam dunk.” And it would be if Mantis miraculously materialized.

It wasn’t long before Striker noticed his team’s tail. As soon as the Somali bastards turned the next corner, they’d ambush them, get Halo and Tackle, and leave the soon-to-be-dead Somalis behind.

“Everything went like clockwork,” Striker told her. “Until we had to face the fact that Mantis was still MIA. Dutch had a mole in the city, whom he made contact with. After several hours, we were able to confirm that Mantis had, in fact, been kidnapped right outside the city.”

“What did you do then?”

“Dutch ordered Onyx to bring me back to the States, and to be honest, with the shape I was in, it was the right call. He, Diesel, and Ranger went on to look for Mantis. With the information they had from the mole, they felt confident it wouldn’t take them long.”

“Have you heard anything?”

“I haven’t.” What he wouldn’t admit to Aine, or out loud to anyone, was that the team should’ve found Mantis and reported back to him several hours ago. That they hadn’t, filled him with dread. Something had to be wrong.

He’d just pulled into his garage when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and looked at the screen.

We found him, it said.

Striker would’ve preferred Dutch had said, “we got him,” but he wasn’t going to quibble.

Roger that, he answered. Good job.

“What’s happened?” asked Aine.

“They found him.”

“Thank God,” she said, breathing out a sigh of relief that should’ve matched his own, but something still nagged at him.

Striker checked his phone again, but there was nothing more from Dutch. There were a number of possible explanations why he hadn’t sent an update, and many of them were positive. He’d learned a long time ago not to speculate either way until he had hard evidence.

He pushed the situation to the back of his mind, determined to focus on Aine, and the fact that it was still Christmas, and they were together.

“Come on inside, baby,” he said, “I’ll grab your things.”

Striker set the bag beside the front door and walked through his condo, turning on lights and upping the temperature on the thermostat. He leaned down and arranged a couple of logs in the fireplace, added kindling, and lit the fire.

When he turned around, Aine had a gift bag in her hand.

“I’ll be right back,” he told her. Striker took the stairs two at a time, knowing exactly where he had the gift he’d thought about giving her the whole time he was in Somalia.

Aine bit her bottom lip, hoping that Griffin wouldn’t think her gift was inappropriate given they hadn’t been seeing each other very long.

When he eyed the bag in her hand and bounded up the stairs, she worried that he felt obligated to give her something too and had gone in search of something he could find at the last minute.

“I brought you a gift. It’s just something little,” she said when he came back downstairs empty-handed.

“I have something for you too.”

“You don’t have to. I mean, just because I—”

“I would’ve given this to you tonight whether you had something for me or not.”

Aine felt the flush creep up her neck and into her cheeks.

Griffin walked closer to her and put his hand on the back of her neck. “I know we haven’t spent as much time together as either of us would’ve liked, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel a connection to you like none I’ve ever felt before. I know you feel it too.”

She nodded. “I do.”

Griffin pulled a small box out of his pocket and put it in her hand. “You first,” he said.

Aine’s fingers trembled as she lifted the lid. Her eyes met Griffin’s when she pulled the bracelet out of the box. “It’s beautiful.”

“It belonged to someone very special to me,” he told her. “The one person who always loved me unconditionally.”

“Who was she, Griffin?”

“My aunt. Her name was Dorothy, and she was my mother’s sister. She died a few years ago, but before she did, she gave me this.” He ran his finger over the charms, each one adorned with a garnet. “You share a birthday.”

“We do?”

Griffin nodded. “January third.”

“How did you know?” she asked, immediately realizing the stupidity of the question. “Never mind,” she murmured.

“Would you like to wear it?”

“I’d love to.” Aine held out her wrist, and Griffin draped the bracelet on it and fastened the clasp.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Like you.”

Aine felt her face flush again as tears filled her eyes. “It’s a family heirloom.”

“One I want you to have.”

“Will you open yours now?” she asked, handing him the bag.

Striker reached into the small bag and pulled out what looked like a pocket watch wrapped in tissue. He opened the brass cover and found that, instead of a watch, it was a compass engraved with a message.

If you take me by the hand

Open your heart

I’ll help you

Find your way back home.

A.

“Wow,” he said, meeting her eyes. “I love it.”

“Do you?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.

He ran his fingers over it and leaned forward to kiss her. “I’ve never loved a gift more.”

“Me either,” Aine said, running her finger over the garnet charms. “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had. Does that sound silly?”

“Not at all,” Striker answered, pulling her in as close to him as he could get her. “It’s the best Christmas I’ve ever had too.”