“Where’s my coffee?”Cooper asked, pretending to be offended.“How could you bring Rad one and not me?I’m wounded.”
“She texted me earlier and said her brand new coffee maker was broken.What can I say?I’m just putting out fires left and right—no pun intended,” Boone joked.
“Too soon,” Xaden said, lifting up both of his hands.“My God, man.Too soon.”
“Damn straight that’s too soon to joke about fires.That one last week was all over the local news.We’re lucky they didn’t catch the damn forest on fire.Let’s just stick with the coffee crisis for now,” Cooper said, flashing Radley a grin.
“It must’ve been sabotage,” Radley said.“My enemies have found a new way to mess with me—depriving me of my early morning caffeine fix.”
“That’s cruel and unusual punishment,” Cooper agreed.
“It really is,” Radley said, breathing in the aroma of the dark roast and then taking a sip.“Boone, I owe you.I’ll never argue with you again.”She brushed back her hair, the men looking on in amusement as she smiled in contentment.
“You two not argue?Come on now,” Gage protested.“That’s like saying the sun won’t rise in the morning.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying that,” Xaden said.“You two enjoy fighting probably as much as you’d enjoy fucking.”
Radley sputtered, nearly spitting out her coffee.
“That’s enough!”Holt barked, striding into the conference room and catching Xaden’s comment.
Boone glared at his teammate, daggers shooting from his gaze, and Radley felt her own cheeks heating.Somehow, all of the men had gotten the wrong idea about her and Boone.Yeah, they’d sat next to each other at dinner last week, and they’d been working side-by-side each day, but that was it.Nothing was going on between them.If they argued a bit, so what?That didn’t mean it was some sort of foreplay.Boone could be pushy.Overly protective.He was gruffly handsome but too damn cocky for his own good sometimes.Boone liked having control of the situation just as much as Radley did—and therein lay the problem.
Radley would never be the type of woman who let a man run her life.
She’d gone out with the team for drinks over the weekend and made sure to socialize with all of them—not just Boone.When the men had decided to stay and watch a game, she’d split.Boone texted her to check in, and while she appreciated it, he was just doing his job.
Boone was keeping her safe, and that was all.
“I’m just calling it like I see it,” Xaden said with a chuckle.“Planning their future wedding and all that.Sorry boss,” he told Holt as the older man glared at him.
Radley felt Boone’s gaze on her, and she flushed.When her eyes rose to meet his, she noticed that he looked pissed.He was worried about her, she realized.Boone was mad because he thought Xaden had embarrassed her.Such was the drill when being the only woman working amongst men.While she had plenty of female colleagues at the agency, she often was the lone female working with multiple males, depending on her assignment.The guys on this team enjoyed bantering with her, and Radley had no problem with it.
Apparently, however, Boone did.
She looked away, frustrated with herself that she was attracted to him.The absolute last thing she needed right now was to be dating—especially a man she worked with.Ironically, her sister Riley had fallen for the Navy SEAL she’d been working with in Oahu.She was happy for them but also happy on her own.
“Let’s get right down to it,” Holt said, bringing her focus back to the briefing.“We’ve had several new developments.”
“What’s going on?”Gage asked.
“It seems that the U.S.servicemembers we believed to be involved in the terror plot actually are not.”
“What?”Radley asked in surprise.
The other men sat up straighter, anxious to hear the update.
Holt nodded.“Knox did some more digging.He was trying to discover their identities, as everyone is aware, given our belief that they were working with the homegrown terror cell.Instead, it seems they were doing their own investigation and got caught up in our net.”
“What kind of investigation?”Boone asked with a frown.“That doesn’t make sense.”
“The sister of one of the servicemembers went missing one month ago.She was previously dating a member of the terror cell—Blake Shepperd.The U.S.servicemember was conversing with some of the members in a chatroom on the dark web, trying to track her down.He led them to believe he wanted to work with them.”
“Holy shit,” Xaden said.
“And he’s definitely not involved in plotting the attacks?”Cooper asked doubtfully.
“Negative.He was brought in for questioning,” Holt told them.“The man’s been trying to infiltrate the terror cell simply to locate his missing sister.”