Epilogue
Camel and Bailey’s housewarming party was in full swing. It was late afternoon and the grill was smoking with meat. They’d just moved into a cute three-bedroom house with an in-law apartment in the suburbs, and today was the day they’d invited the team over to celebrate.
Blade sat in a chair by the outdoor fireplace and watched the dynamics of all the couples present. Viking and Ivy. Cage and Christina. Cowboy and Miranda. Money and Ella. And now Camel and Bailey. Not to mention that Neo was giving off a weird vibe around Kayla.
It was interesting even if completely foreign to Blade.
Bailey had a huge smile on her face as she walked up to Camel with an empty platter for the steaks. He took the plate and set it down, then wrapped an arm around her and kissed her as if his life depended on it.
Man, Blade would have never in a million years bet that Camel would fall for anyone. The dude was like a block of ice on missions. Nothing rattled him. Nothing until Bailey, that is. Blade would never forget the moment he’d squeezed Camel’s arm and stopped him from killing those two bikers. Oh, they’d deserved it, no doubt. But it would have created more problems for HOT than they needed. Ghost had taken a chance sending them on that op in the first place, so they had to stick to the letter of their task.
But man, seeing Camel like that—it shook Blade up a little bit. Because his teammate had never been anything but logical and cool and utterly precise in all he did. Until Bailey.
Guess love did that to a man. Because Camel Kamarov was totally in love with the gorgeous woman clinging to his side. She even called him Alexei, which Blade hadn’t known was his name until he’d heard her say it. Blade shook his head as he took a pull from his beer. Never woulda thought his stoic teammate would fall so damn hard.
But, yeah, if the woman he’d loved were chained to a bed in a bikers’ brothel, Blade probably would have lost his shit too. It was bad enough that Blade had found another woman chained up like that. He’d been sick over it, but it had been strictly duty for him. He’d gotten her out and turned her over to the medics, and though he still thought about the sheer evil of it sometimes, he didn’t know the woman and wouldn’t even recognize her if he saw her again.
That’s how it was supposed to be.
“Man, what’re you thinking about so seriously over here?” Neo said as he ambled over and sank down, beer in hand.
“Nothing really. Stuff.”
“Yeah, I hear you.” Neo took a long drink of his beer.
“So what’s up with you and Kayla Jones?” Blade said, going in for the kill. Because why not?
Neo jerked his head around. “What are you talking about?”
“You keep looking at her. She looks at you sometimes.” Blade shrugged. “Just wondering.”
Neo let out a breath and shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just being friendly.”
“Ah, okay.” Friendly. Riiight. “So you want to get out of here in a little bit, head for Buddy’s or maybe that new place down by the water? Maybe we’ll find a couple of SEAL groupies, get laid—”
“Not really feeling it tonight,” Neo cut in. Blade wanted to laugh but didn’t. “I got things to do at home when this is over.”
“Yeah, I hear you. Just a thought.” He waited a couple of beats before speaking again. “Man, sure is a cute baby.”
Kayla sat in a chair with little Ana cradled in her arms, feeding her a bottle and making faces at her. She was a gorgeous woman with a pretty face and lots of blond hair piled on her head in a messy knot. No wonder Neo was intrigued. But she was also a woman with a little baby, and Blade was pretty sure Neo wasn’t ready for that kind of complication.
“She is a cute baby. Not too fussy, you know? My sister’s kids cried all the time at that age.”
Blade wouldn’t know. He didn’t have siblings. Didn’t have any friends with babies. All his friends were right here. Well, some of the other HOT team members had babies, and he considered them his friends, but he didn’t hang out with them very often.
“Hey, y’all ready for steaks?” Bailey said as she walked by with a steaming platter.
“Hell yes,” Blade said as he stood and followed her to the big picnic table.
Everyone fixed a plate and they all ate and talked and laughed for a good couple of hours. There was a game of beanbag toss, some horseshoes, and a lot of laughter. When it was time to go, Blade thanked Bailey, congratulated Camel on his excellent taste in women, and headed for his Jeep.
He was halfway home and feeling weirdly out of sorts when his phone rang. He answered. “Yeah?”
“How was the party, Blade?”
He recognized that voice. His heart kinda squeezed in his rib cage at the sound of his commanding officer on the other end of the line. What the fuck had he done wrong to warrant a personal call?
“It was great, sir.”
“Excellent,” Mendez said. “Need you to come in, Blade. Ghost and I want to talk to you about something.”
Holy shit. He’d fucked up now. Was it the fighting? Must be the fighting. But sometimes he had to blow off steam, and a good match could do that. He wasn’t supposed to risk his body that way since he was a government asset, but sometimes… Hell, sometimes it was necessary.
“Yes, sir. I can be there in fifteen minutes, sir.”
“We’ll be waiting… And Blade?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t mention this to your teammates just yet.”
“I, uh, of course not.” Not telling his teammates implied he’d still be around to talk to them. Which was a relief. “I’m not in trouble, sir?”
“Not yet,” Mendez said with a chuckle. “But you haven’t heard the assignment. Or seen the woman.”
“The woman?”
“We’ll talk when you get here.”
“Yes, sir. On my way, sir.”
The line went dead. Blade floored the Jeep. An assignment. A woman. It didn’t make a damned bit of sense. He laughed suddenly, exhilaration flooding his veins.
No, it didn’t make sense. But that’s what made it a challenge.
Bring. It. On.
About time things got interesting…
THANK YOU!
Thanks for reading this Hostile Operations Team story! If you want to find out what happens with Adam “Blade” Garrison, then click on the title:
Adam “Blade” Garrison is assigned bodyguard duties for the wife of a tech billionaire. But nothing is as it seems in Quinn Halliday’s world — and no one can be trusted.
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