Hollywood sat staring at his plate, hungry but too agitated to eat.
This business with Hannah had really riled him up, and his normally healthy appetite had all but deserted him.
She was a tiny little thing, and it didn’t matter that she was a thirty-something capable woman. Hollywood couldn’t help but feel protective towards her. It had nothing to do with how attractive she was, and his feelings towards her were in no way romantic, but… shit! JT was supposed to be like a brother to Hannah, and he’d obviously upset her badly.
That just wasn’t right. And it certainly wasn’t what he’d come to expect from members of the Alpha-Stalwart family.
He took a sip of his long cold coffee, not even noticing the liquid was room temperature.
It didn’t seem to matter who they were, how old or how pretty, Hollywood had a protective streak a mile wide when it came to women and children, and to think that all that hurt had been caused by someone Hannah would consider a close friend, just made it doubly painful in Hollywood’s eyes.
“Are you still fretting over Hannah?” Kris sat down in the seat opposite, placing a fresh mug of coffee on the table in front of him, and pushing another mug across the table towards Hollywood.
“You didn’t see how upset she was.” Hollywood shrugged at the big, bald Russian. “I should’ve called Danny to go after her.”
“I thought you said she didn’t want you to contact Danny.” Kellen glanced over from the little kitchenette, where he was heating something up in the microwave oven.
“She didn’t.” Hollywood nodded. “But sometimes you have to do the opposite of what people want you to do, if it’s for their own good.”
“And who makes that decision?” Yuri sat down next to his brother. “You?”
Hollywood shrugged.
“Maybe I should’ve.” He admitted. “But instead of going with my gut, now I’m left wondering if JT has found her, and if he has, whether or not he’s upset her even more.”
“Who’s upset whom even more?” Evan asked, as he wandered back into the dining area carrying a take-out bag, followed closely by Logan who was carrying a couple of bottles of juice.
Hollywood glanced up and shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter.” He grunted, knowing he was only a short step away from losing his shit altogether, and with the object of his anger having just walked in, he didn’t think it would be a good idea to continue with the conversation.
“Well, that’s fucking rude!” Logan’s accent was unmistakable. “The man asked you a perfectly polite question and you shut him down? Not cool, man. Not at all.”
Hollywood glanced up towards Kellen as if to say, ‘Can you believe this asshole?’
“We were having a conversation about Hannah if you must know.” Kris explained. “How she and JT have had words, and he’s upset her quite badly.”
“Really?” Evan was surprised. “I thought those two were really tight. Like brother and sister tight.”
“They are, normally.” Kellen confirmed, taking a seat at the table, placing his plate and cutlery in front of him. “But something has caused a big bust up, and JT said some stuff which has really fucked up their relationship. She went out to clear her head, and he’s gone after her, hopefully to apologise.”
“Typical female behaviour.” Logan snorted. “Can’t get your own way so you throw your toys out of the pram and wait for the guy to come crawling back with an apology, regardless of whether he’s in the wrong or not.”
Hollywood jumped to his feet, ready to defend Hannah, but the sound of Kellen’s chair flying backwards and hitting the wall, stopped him in his tracks.
“Listen to me, you little fucktard!” Kellen growled, slamming his hands down on the table that separated him from the Scot, making the plate and cutlery rattle. “You’re the reason for all the fucking tension in the first place, so if I was you, I’d keep my mouth shut about whatever fucked up opinion you’ve got about Hannah, Nikita Federova, or women in general.”
Logan stepped back, more in surprise rather than fear of what Kellen would do next.
“Me?” He laughed. “What did I do? I haven’t even spoken to Hannah for two days. She’s all chatty with you guys, but hardly looks in my direction.”
“That’s because she’s worried that your attitude towards Nikita Federova is going to get us all killed.” Hollywood pointed out. “You’ve been a complete dick every time the woman’s name is mentioned, to the point where half of us are wondering about how stable you are. For some reason JT seems ready to jump to your defence, and that’s caused a bust up between them. As of thirty minutes ago, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this whole operation is cancelled. Finito, fucking kaput!”
“You’re saying this is all my fault?” Logan snorted in disbelief, but Hollywood noticed his skin had paled considerably.
“Well, who do you blame?” Kellen retorted. “You obviously have issues which the rest of us know nothing about, and Hannah is the person responsible for putting this team on the ground and making sure we’re all fit to do the job. If JT is covering something up, then it’s no surprise that Hannah’s freaking out, as in her mind, if something happens to one of us, the blood is on her hands. She takes that responsibility very seriously.”
“My issues are none of your fucking business.” Logan snarled. “They don’t stop me from doing my job, so none of you need worry on that score.”
“That’s exactly the point, though, isn’t it?” Kris pointed out. “Not knowing what your issues are leaves us all very twitchy. We don’t know whether you’re going to be reliable or not under pressure. I like to know that the men I’m working with have got my back like I have theirs. If they have a weakness, I need to know what it is, so I can compensate for it in whichever way works for the team.”
Hollywood could almost hear Logan grinding his teeth together.
“My attitude towards Nikita Federova stems from a woman I had to deal with during an operation in Afghanistan.” He growled. “She was responsible for eight of my friends dying. That’s as much as you need to know about my ‘issues’. How I deal with the Russian woman once we’re on the ground will be totally professional, and I guarantee you, she won’t have a single cause for complaint. So, none of you have any need to worry for your safety. I’ve managed with this in my head for almost six years and not fucked up a mission yet. I’m not going to fuck this one up either.”
“That’s good to know.” JT’s voice made Hollywood jump. “Logan, please report to Hannah’s office, where you can go over that story again in greater detail. She’s the one you need to convince that you’re up to the job.”
Logan looked like he was going to argue.
“Or you can take up an alternate, less stressful job at Alpha Company.” JT said calmly. “Your call.”
“Yes, boss.” Logan started towards the door, his face a mottled red, either from anger or embarrassment, Hollywood wasn’t sure.
“And for the record, if you want to call anyone around here ‘boss’ in future, then the title goes to Hannah.” JT explained to everyone in the room. “She’s earned it, and the respect that goes with it. You’ll… we’ll all do well to remember that.”
Hollywood nodded and watched his team-mates do the same.
“She’s staying?” He asked, before he realised the words had come out of his mouth.
“She is.” Hollywood could almost hear the sigh of relief in JT’s voice.
“Good.” He nodded. “Because if she’d have walked, I’d have gone with her. An operation like this can only work with Hannah Simons at the controls.”
His team-mates nodded their agreement, but it was JT that Hollywood was staring at.
“You’re absolutely right.” JT smiled. “And she’s quite capable of kicking me in the ass again, if ever I make the mistake of forgetting it.”
Hollywood watched JT walk out through the door and had to admit the guy had class to get himself out of a fucked-up situation like he had done.
Ok, so JT had been an idiot to get himself into the mess in the first place, but then, they could all talk themselves into trouble every once in a while. It was a skill known to be present in the DNA of almost every man on the planet.
Hollywood glanced around at his team-mates.
“Come on.” He picked up his coffee mug and took it to the sink where he rinsed it and left it to dry. “Hannah will be ready for the final briefing at two o’clock. We don’t want to be late for the boss lady.”
For some strange reason he was feeling more optimistic about this mission than he had been for a few days.
Just knowing that the Queen of Badass was going to be running the show made him feel a whole lot better.