“One virgin sex on the beach for our dear Matthew,” Papa P said, handing me a brightly colored drink topped with a tiny umbrella. “And one virgin mojito for Jonah.”

“Otherwise known as fancy fruit punch and mint limeade,” Ezra teased, delicately sipping from the two tiny straws in his own drink.

Cain pulled at his hand. “Honey, those are drink stirrers, not straws.”

“Hey, they work like straws, so I don’t really care what they’re called.”

I returned to my conversation with Pax.

Pax had a simple water next to him, having declined the wave of brightly decorated mocktails that were pouring out of Ezra and Cain’s kitchen under Papa P’s guidance. “We’ve finalized the meeting with Deamer, so now everything is a go.”

“So the next step is what?” I took a sip from my drink, which was surprisingly good, though I was seriously missing the ability to drink alcohol these days.

“Well, first we need to—”

Jonah tugged at my arm, pulling me away from the conversation.

“Hold on, babe.” I tried to turn back, but he held my arm tight.

“Can’t we let work go just for this evening? You guys have been working hard all week. This is supposed to be a night to focus on the baby. Besides, Noah and Boomer are almost done with the steaks on the grill, and it will be dinner soon.”

“Just a moment, Jonah. Let us finish this conversation.”

I tuned back to Pax’s explanation of how we would be coordinating with Sara’s team. “—and they’re setting up surveillance, both personnel and satellite, ahead of time.”

“Will we have the room wired from the start?” Cain asked.

Pax shook his head. “We’ll probably have some lines on the ground, but I will actually be equipping you with a transmitter patch. It will blend with your skin if they end up searching you for some reason, and it will also serve as a GPS tracker should things go completely south.”

“I still don’t see why we can’t just keep Cain out of it completely. All we have to do is wait until they’re in the building and then nab them,” Ezra growled.

I felt the power of our collectively repressed eye rolls like a mini earthquake.

“For the last time,” Pax said, “We’re doing this one by the book. I understand you meatheads like to smash and bash, and normally, I’d be on the same page as you. I don’t play well with rules. But this isn’t your choice. It’s not my choice. It’s Matthew’s and Cain’s, and I know you respect your mate enough to let him make his own damn decisions.” Pax’s glare seemed to indicate “or else.”

Jonah wrapped an arm around me. “Hey babe, did you see the afghan Cindy crocheted for us?”

I pressed my lips together. I wasn’t going to argue with my mate in front of everyone, but I couldn’t understand why he needed me to share his obsession with all things cute and baby right now.

“Come with me,” I murmured, grabbing Jonah’s hand and pulling him into Ezra’s workout room. It was the only room on the first floor we could conceivably have some private space right now.

“Babe,” I said as the door shut behind us. “What’s going on? I told you I wanted to work things out with Cain and Pax. We’re on a deadline, here.”

Jonah’s shoulders drooped and I just then noticed the beautifully crocheted afghan in his hands—waves of turquoise and blues, like the sea.

“I just… I don’t want to lose these moments,” he said. “We only have our first baby once. We don’t get a chance to try again.”

His words were like a knife in my heart. I dropped the afghan and stepped closer to wrap my arms around his waist, needing to be close to him as we continued the conversation. His arms immediately went around my back.

“I’m not trying to ignore the baby stuff, Jonah. I’m just trying to make sure we’re bringing our baby into a safer world. You know I’m not safe until Chad is behind bars, and that means our baby isn’t safe either. I can’t rest until I fix that.”

Jonah squeezed me tightly, and I waited with bated breath for the response I could feel him working through.

“I know that,” he said finally. “And I agree with you to an extent, but… we can’t just ignore life even when things are dangerous and rough. What’s the point of living, then?”

My mouth dropped open at the uncharacteristically artistic words from my nerd. “I guess you’re Shakespeare in more ways than one,” I murmured.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I kneaded my fingers into his back. “I don’t know how to do what you’re asking of me,” I admitted. “With being undercover, my personal life has to come to a stop when I’m on a mission. It’s always been either being on a mission or living for me, and never the two shall meet.”

“But your life has changed,” Jonah said softly. “Don’t you think your priorities and tactics should change in response? You’re not alone anymore. You have me. You have the baby. Stopping life doesn’t just affect you, it affects all of us.”

I closed my eyes and rested my face against my mate’s neck. “Why do you have to be so damn smart?” I asked.

“It’s kind of my thing,” he said with a cocky tone.

I dug my fingers into his ribs, and he squirmed away with a very manly, not girly at all shriek.

I chased after him with my fingers extended just as the door exploded inward.

“Hand check,” Ezra bellowed.

Jonah and I flashed him middle fingers in unison.

“Excellent,” Ezra said. “Carry on. I shall inform the others you’re indisposed and they are welcome to your steaks.”

He closed the door behind him and I started after him. “No fair, taking advantage of a pregn—”

Jonah grabbed my hand, swinging me into his arms and kissing me soundly.

“What was that for?” I asked breathlessly when he let me come up for air.

“I love you,” he said simply.

“Will you still love me if your teammates eat our share of the steak?”

“I’ll still love you,” he said. “It’s my teammates who should worry.”

I smiled. “Ooh, I like it when you get feisty.”

“I might even ask Pax to let me borrow his new knife.”

I cracked up at that, imagining Jonah swinging that shiny monstrosity around. “I think the glitter on that thing is more terrifying than its actual ability to cut.”

Jonah opened the door. “I would agree with you, and that’s saying something. Pax let me test that blade out and it’s terrifyingly sharp.”

I paused as the commotion of the party echoed down the hall toward us. “Are we good?” I asked.

“Are you going to set work aside for the next hour?”

It was hard to get the words out, but Jonah was right. My life had changed, and I had to change with it. “I promise to focus on real life for the next hour. No more danger. No more plans.”

Jonah kissed the tip of my nose. “That’s all I ask for, Agent Sugar Bear.”

As we rejoined the party, David pulled me aside, and I waved Jonah on to protect our steaks.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

He rubbed his fingers through his hair. Of all the omegas, I’d really only gotten to know Cain and Pax, and that only because we were working so closely together. Well, that and Cain being Jonah’s brother. It helped that Cain and I had a bit of a shared past, even though we’d had different experiences working under the cartel. There was a level of almost silent communication between us—as if we were able to let the other one say what we were thinking instead of talking all over each other. Pax… Pax was on his own fucking planet, but it worked for him.

“I know Jonah bought you guys just about every damn thing a kid could need, and that’s why you’re not having a shower, but… I’ve been thinking lately about how neither of you have parents, and it’s been bothering me.”

Oh lord. This was going to be one of those emotional moments I didn’t do well with. I had to cut him off before he got started. “It’s okay, David. My parents passed a while ago and they went peacefully. I’m okay.”

David flushed. “I’m not trying to volunteer to be your dad or anything. You’ve got to be at least ten years older than I am!”

That surprised a laugh out of me. “I’m not that old!”

His grin was cheeky. “Well, maybe I’m that young.”

“Maybe I should volunteer to be your dad,” I teased.

“I’ve already got two between mine and Boomer’s. Four if you count Ray and Papa P.”

“So we’ve settled we’re not going to be each other’s fathers. Glad we got that straightened out. But you seem like you do want to say something, so spit it out.”

David held out a plain blue bag I hadn’t noticed him holding. “When Tony was little, Mama C and Ma got together and put together a book of our families’ histories. Personal stories from the grandparents and aunts and uncles. It was one of the most meaningful gifts I ever got. And… well… you may not have a blood family, but you have this family. The team. I’ve been working on this for a while for everyone, but I wanted you to have the first copy.”

I pulled out a slender, hardcover book and opened it to find page after page of photographs and stories of each member of the team, their mates, their kids… even a picture of Jonah and Cain when they were kids.

“Where did you get this?” I whispered, surprised at the harsh lump in my throat.

“I may have asked Pax to hack into some social services databases. It’s handy to have a hacker around.”

“Do they know yet?” I asked.

David shook his head.

I stared at the photo for a moment longer, stroking my finger over the page.

“There’s room for you to add your history,” David said. “It’s expandable. Who knows how many kids we’ll have to add in with the way my brothers—”

I grabbed David in a fierce hug. “Thank you.” What words would be sufficient to tell him how thankful I was for this? How his gift filled a hole I hadn’t even known was there?

And his gift only hammered in Jonah’s request—that I not stop living in my pursuit of the mission and safety.

“Matthew? Where do you want to sit to eat? I prepared your plate.”

I let David go and wiped my eyes, carefully sliding the book into my bag. David wiped at suspiciously bright eyes as well.

“I’ll be right there,” I told Jonah, then turned to David. “Do you mind if I share this with everyone after cake?”

David smiled and shrugged. “If you want to. I know it’s just a little something…”

“It’s everything,” I told him, and David’s face glowed with pleasure.