The bulletproof vest changed the day from intolerable to pure hell. Damon adjusted the straps, sweat already pouring down his back. It had to be well over a hundred degrees, and the inner-city humidity was a killer. Literally.

They’d already lost one guy to heat stroke. He’d had to head back to Vanguard-Merc territory, puking his guts out on the way.

Damon made a quick change to the attack plan, explaining it to his team until he was sure they had it. The Twenty gang house was in an old, rather affluent neighborhood toward Pacific Palisades with some taller office buildings close by.

He shoved thoughts of April out of his mind. She’d asked him to leave the night before, and he’d done so to sleep alone in his crappy apartment at headquarters. Not that he’d slept. He couldn’t blame her for dumping him. There wasn’t a chance in this life that he’d stop doing his job, and that was too much for most people. Not to mention a fragile softball mom who’d lost everyone.

She was smart to find somebody else. Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a knife to the balls.

His radio crackled, and he lifted it.

“Over-watch in position,” Greyson said calmly. “We have visual on two targets guarding the front of the house. Sort of. They’ve taken up position beneath the trees in the shade. But they’re in my scope.”

“Others?” Damon asked.

“Negative,” Greyson replied.

So everyone was inside the house. That’s what he’d figured. “Take positions,” he ordered his team, waiting until everyone had spread out in different directions. Then he took the lead down a side alley that had been made for golf carts until he reached the side stone fence. “Now,” he whispered.

Only two slight pings echoed through the air. Damon leaned around the fence to see two Twenty members down, blood coating their purple shirts. “Two down,” he whispered into the radio.

Then he started counting down. “Now,” he told the two men on his flanks. Ducking low, he ran across the burned yard and past a couple of statues of what looked like gnomes. Reaching the door, he set his weight and kicked hard.

He went in to the left, and the guy to his right went fast.

A bullet winged by his left ear. He turned and fired twice, hitting a Twenty member center mass. Then he swung around. Two gang members rushed out of the nearby hallway, one already firing an AK-47.

Damon dropped to the ground, rolled, and fired three times. The guy spraying bullets flew back to hit the far wall, and then smashed onto the gun on the floor.

The kid next to him shot the other gang member right between the eyes.

Damon stood and pulled the kid who’d shot up from his knees. “Great shot, Byron.”

Byron looked around. “I’ve been practicing.” He was the whiz kid amongst them, and Jax had definitely been training him hard. Apparently, the kid had a pregnant girlfriend to protect.

Damon nodded toward the hallway. “Stay behind me.” He crept close, leading with his gun. Then he listened.

“Kitchen clear,” one of his men called out.

“Rec room and offices clear,” another one bellowed.

Damon nodded and headed into the hallway. Last time he’d done this, he’d gotten attacked by Rippers. Staying on full alert, he cleared a master bedroom, bathroom, and two more bedrooms being used as storage for what looked like a lot of weapons and a cache of drugs.

“It’s clear,” Byron said, his slim body relaxing.

Damon paused, looking around. Something was off, but he wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was him. His head hurt, and both of his shoulders were still sore. He looked around again.

“What?” Byron asked.

Damon straightened. “I don’t know.”

On his last syllable, the air vent in the ceiling crashed down, and a Twenty member dropped, already shooting.

Damon leaped in front of Byron. Pain exploded in his back, propelling both of them into the hallway. He shoved Byron to the right and spun around, firing as accurately as he could. He hit the attacker in the knees, and the guy fell.

Greyson leaped over Damon and punched the gang member in the neck, knocking him out cold. “We need one alive.”

Damon gasped and rolled to the side.

Greyson was there immediately, lifting him to sit.

Agony spread through Damon’s body, and he groaned. “Fuck.”

Greyson gingerly removed the vest and lifted his shirt, turning him. “No broken skin.” He pushed against Damon’s ribs.

Damon coughed in pain.

“Don’t think they’re broken, but you’re going to have a hell of a bruise.” Greyson gently slid the shirt back into place. “You hit anywhere else?”

“No.” His head was ringing, and his left leg felt a little numb from crashing to the floor. “Jesus, Grey. I need a drink.”

Greyson drew a flask out from beneath his vest and handed it over. “It’s supposed to be for medicinal purposes, but this qualifies. Your back is already turning a very cool reddish black with a hint of purple.”

Byron shoved his glasses up his nose, his hand shaking. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”

Damon tipped back a big swig of what turned out to be Jack Daniels. He handed the flask over to the kid. “It was my pleasure. Drink up, Byron. You’ve earned it.”

Byron’s brown eyes twinkled, and he took several swallows of the alcohol before handing it back. “Any news from the other two teams?”

“Negative,” Greyson said, tapping his radio. “We’re more than fifty miles from either, so not enough range.”

Byron sobered. “Okay. Please let me know if you hear from them. They need to come this way to get home, so hopefully they’ll be in range soon. I’ll go organize the squad to start loading drugs, guns, and any intel.” He stood and jogged down the hallway.

Ah, to be young again. Damon made to stand up, and Greyson waved him back down, sitting across from him with his back to the stucco wall and his legs extended. “Take a minute.”

Damon drank another couple of gulps, letting the booze dull the pain. “Okay,” he gasped.

Greyson studied him. “What’s up with you? You seem off.”

“I was just shot.” Damon handed over the flask.

Grey took a good pull. “Yeah, there’s more. Talk.”

Damon studied his best friend. They were sitting in the middle of a gang house with bodies all around them while their team stole everything they could. Seemed liked as good a place as any. “April dumped me. Couldn’t take the danger.”

* * *

April sniffled some more, staring out at the over-bright evening. She’d fed the kids dinner but hadn’t eaten anything herself. Atticus had finally all but pushed her out of the rec room, telling her to go and get some rest.

How could she relax? Damon and the others were still out, probably getting shot at by the Twenty gang.

A knock sounded on her door, and she yelped. Then she ran for it, yanking it open.

Lynne Harmony stood in shorts and a white-T shirt next to Doc Penelope, Vinnie Wellington, and Samantha Steel.

“Sami.” April rushed for a hug. Her friend had been working nonstop at the Century City Bunker for too long. Her curly, brown hair even seemed longer than it had been. “I’ve missed you.”

Sami hugged her back. “Rumor has it I’ve missed a lot.” She moved them inside. “We brought margaritas.”

Tears slammed into April’s eyes. “Oh, Sami.”

Lynne set down a bucket with a sigh. “Where are the glasses?”

“Here.” Doc Penelope shrugged off a backpack and drew out five glasses. One had the Flintstones on it. “Maureen would be here, but she’s busy throwing up from the whole pregnancy thing she has going on.”

Could Penelope sound any less like a doctor? April grinned through her tears.

Lynne reached for the glasses. “I offered to stay and keep her company, but she said she wanted to try and sleep.”

“Yeah, right,” Sami muttered. “None of us is sleeping until the guys get back.”

“Moe might,” Vinnie countered. “She sleeps a lot lately, even if she doesn’t want to. Fell right asleep the other day when I was telling her about some of my FBI cases.” She’d pulled her blond hair back into a ponytail, probably as a way to fight the heat.

“Sometimes your stories do go on for a while.” Lynne poured the four glasses.

“Huh.” Vinnie rolled her eyes. “My stories are funny.”

But, sometimes they did go on a little past their expiration date. April nodded anyway. Vinnie was a lot of fun, and she was their resident shrink. No matter how nutty she became. More importantly, she was a friend. That mattered these days. Big time.

Sami clicked her tongue. “Who made the drinks?”

“I did,” Vinnie said, her blue eyes sparkling.

That might not be a good thing. The smell of tequila wafted up. April peered into the bucket. “What exactly is this?”

“Tequila, lime juice, and real lemons scouts took off trees.” Lynne handed over a full cup and waited until everyone had one. “To the badass men we love. Man, we’re all Wonder Woman. Right?”

April held up her cup and cheered before taking a small sip. Holy crap. She coughed. “I don’t love him.” There was no reason to pretend that she didn’t know why her friends had shown up with so much booze.

Vinnie pulled a chair back and sat gracefully, even in her older shorts and shirt with a bird on it. “You sure about that?”

April gestured everyone into chairs and dragged a folding one over to join the party. “Who cares? Either way, he’s never going to give up being the first guy in the door. You know. The one who gets shot right off the bat.”

“But he hasn’t,” Sami said reasonably, taking another deep drink. Her brown eyes widened. “Wow. This is great, Vinnie.”

Lynne beamed. “Vinnie makes the best drinks. We all have skills.” She sighed and pointed at herself. “In love with the leader of Vanguard, an ex-gang member, ex-Delta Force commander, and a guy who shoots first and asks questions later. Also known as Jax Mercury.”

April took a bigger drink of the potent brew, and her stomach heaved but then settled.

Vinnie pointed at herself. “In love with a former sniper, Seal Team Six member who looks as deadly as he is and was aptly named when they called him Raze Shadow.”

Okay. There was a theme here. April took another big drink, and this time, her stomach left her alone.

Sami sighed and pointed at herself. “Let me think. In love with an adorable Texan lawman who’s also a medic and the first one to dive into anything dangerous. He’s been shot a couple of times lately, and he jumped into a hovering helicopter to save me. Tace Justice was also named well.”

These women were stronger than she was. Right? April took another drink as the sun started to go down and the air cooled just enough to be unbearable. “What about you?” she asked Penelope.

Penelope looked over her shoulder at the doorway. “I don’t think we even want to go there right now. Marcus Knight is out there, and no doubt he can hear everything.”

What was there to hear? Curiosity grabbed April.

Penelope took a big drink of the mixture and then started coughing wildly.

Lynne slapped her on the back, unconcerned. “I get why you’d panic, April. But he’s coming back tonight. You have to believe that. So do you want to be waiting for him and some probably good loving, or do you want to sleep alone, wondering how it went?”

That was an unfair question. “I can’t do it. Can’t commit.”

Sami looked at her over the rim of her chipped glass. It had a yellow flower on it, but the stem had faded away. “Has he asked you for a commitment?”

April paused. “Well, no.”

“Why not?” Vinnie slurred, smacking her on the arm.

“Because we’re keeping it casual.” April might’ve slurred a little, too.

Sami sighed. “Then what the heck is your problem?”

What was her problem? There had definitely been one when she’d thought she was having a heart attack, but now, in the haze of the tequila, she couldn’t remember what it was. “I’m not sure.”

Penelope swayed on her chair. “Should we tell her?”

“No.” Lynne hiccupped. “Definitely not. No, no, no.”

April frowned at the woman who used be the head of infectious diseases for the CDC. Her blue heart glowed eerily through her shirt. “Why not?”

“Because, sister,” Lynne snorted. “You gotta figure it out yourself.”

“Yeah,” Penelope said, falling right off the chair.

Vinnie gasped. “Penelope.”

The door burst open, and Marcus strode inside. He took in the scene. Then he moved over and gingerly lifted Penelope up.

She snorted and laughed before hiccupping.

He sighed and looked around. “Everyone move, now. We’re going back to headquarters.” Pausing, he pierced April with his green-brown gaze. “You coming or not?”