Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Instead of a debrief, almost everyone went to the hospital to meet baby Gwendolyn—after showering and changing because Rachel didn’t want any “filthy peasants” around her kid. The room was packed with people, which meant it was good Rachel had gotten her suite after all. And what a suite it was, Ryan thought as he raided the fully stocked kitchenette for snacks. All that was missing was their own personal butler.
Rachel had the TV on in the background, with continuous BBC updates on the scandal rocking British politics and law enforcement. There were cheers—muffled so as not to disturb the baby—when they showed footage of former Minister Giles Fitzwater being led from his office in handcuffs.
Elle, who’d taken the attack on their server personally, was huddled in a corner with her precious laptop, searching for new server farms to store their data.
“What we need is at least one backup server,” she said to anyone who’d listen.
“That sounds expensive,” Callum grumbled.
“Not as expensive as the legal fees to get you out of prison would have been,” Elle replied cheerily.
“Could someone please fetch me a pair of sunglasses?” Rachel said. “Elle’s clothes are blinding me.”
Elle glanced down at her yellow jeans, boots, and fluffy yellow sweater. “It’s my freedom color. I’m wearing it until I get over my stint in a cell.” She shuddered at the memory.
“Please let that be soon,” Rachel said.
Rachel didn’t look like a woman who’d just given birth—although, to be fair, Ryan hadn’t been around too many of those, so he had no real point of reference. She did, however, look like royalty who’d just given birth. Her hair and makeup were worthy of a front-page photo in any tabloid newspaper, and she was dressed in deep-red silk pajamas. Through the door from the living room area, Ryan could see a hospital bed and all the usual medical equipment. Except the bedroom was much fancier, and there was a sofa in it too.
“My turn.” Katrina held out her arms for the sleeping baby doing the rounds.
Harvard handed Gwendolyn to Katrina, who got all teary. Ryan caught Sarah’s eye and noticed she was also blinking back tears.
Women.
“That’ll be you soon,” Rodrigo said from beside him. “Having a proud dad moment while everyone goes gaga over your baby.”
“Yeah, but it won’t be in a suite that wouldn’t look out of place at the Ritz.”
“Gotta say,” Rodrigo said, glancing around, “I like how Rachel does things. Five-star hotels when you’re on the run, exclusive hospital accommodation when giving birth. It gives Benson Security some class. We need a Rachel on our team.”
“You’ve got Abasi.” Ryan nodded toward the man lounging in the corner, amusement on his face as he watched everyone. “He’s minted.”
“True,” Rodrigo mused. “Hey, Abasi,” he called. “You have more money than you know what to do with. How about you fund our team’s ops? Rachel pays for five-star hotels when they go on a mission, don’t you, Rachel?”
“I don’t do it for the team.” Rachel had her phone back in her hand, where it belonged. “I do it for me.”
“I do like comfort,” Abasi drawled.
“Then it’s settled.” Rodrigo caught Rochelle’s eye. “Can we make sure he goes on every away job from now on, no matter who’s been assigned?”
His boss smiled widely. “I’m sure that can be arranged.”
“Not sure Katrina’s too happy with that plan,” Abasi said, his gaze on Dimitri’s sister. “You don’t like where my money came from, do you?”
Her expression was cold. “How about we argue about that when we get back to America? Right now, I want to focus on this cutie.”
“She has all her fingers and toes,” Harvard said again, proudly, making everyone grin.
“Yes, she does,” Katrina cooed at the sleeping princess. “She’s the most beautiful baby in the whole wide world, aren’t you, Gwendolyn?”
Ryan rolled his eyes. There was the sound of muffled laughter before Dimitri and Megan stumbled into the room.
“Did we miss anything important?” Megan asked, all wide-eyed and innocent.
She was fooling no one. Their clothes were rumpled, Megan had bed hair, and her shirt was buttoned up wrong.
“Oh, for the love of Gucci,” Rachel said. “Please tell me no one saw you going at it in a supply closet.”
“It was an empty office, I’ll have you know,” Megan said, completely unbothered. “And no, there were no witnesses.” She looked almost disappointed.
Dimitri just grinned and shrugged in a “what can you do?” kind of gesture.
Claire, who sat in Grunt’s lap on a dining chair near Rachel, wasn’t happy with her twin. “We talked about this, Meg. There’s a time and a place.”
“Oh, give over. You’re practically welded to your husband. You can’t even bring yourself to find your own chair.”
Claire raised her chin. “It’s not the same thing.”
Megan just huffed and helped herself to another tiny finger sandwich. Ryan had been unimpressed by the minuscule sandwiches, which was why he’d headed to the kitchen on arrival. Now, he had a plate of proper, man-sized sandwiches to eat.
“Do we have an update on what’s happening?” Dimitri asked, pulling up a chair. “Where’s everybody else?”
Elle pointed at Callum. “He told the triplets to get lost while we were still at the station.”
Callum scowled at her. “I told them to go blow off some steam and take their time about it. I’d had enough of them.”
“Did their mother ever arrive?” Abasi asked. “That’s all Evan could talk about. His mum riding in to save the day.”
Rachel replied. “Ms. Patel told me she’d updated their mother, and after their call, she decided to return to Scotland. I expect she felt the triplets were in good hands.”
“More likely, she’s had enough of them too,” Callum said.
Isobel patted his shoulder and pouted. “Did my grumpy Scot have a hard time in the big house?”
“No.” Callum folded his arms over his signature gray Henley. “I was enjoying the peace until they dumped Logan in my cell. Then I spent the rest of my time educating him on how Benson Security really works.”
Ryan almost choked on his sandwich from laughing so hard. Rodrigo helpfully thumped his back.
“I remember those lectures,” Ryan said when he could breathe again. “I almost feel sorry for him.” He looked around at the rest of his friends. His family. “Almost. Those guys are a pain in the backside.”
“Funny,” Katrina said with a glint in her eye. “They remind me of you.”
“That doesn’t get any funnier no matter how many times you lot say it,” Ryan said.
“Where’s Violet?” Dimitri asked. “And Noah?”
“Violet’s downstairs, getting her nose reset,” Megan said with a wince. “She managed to break it in the cell.”
“All that tile,” Elle said with a nod. “It’s dangerous.”
“Noah’s on a call with his wife and kids,” Harvard said. “He could be a while.”
“And Lake?” Megan asked.
“At the police station,” Rachel said. “Filling them in on everything that’s happened. I expect we’ll all have to make statements soon.”
Elle’s head snapped up. “Not in a cell or an interview room, right? I hated that place.”
“No kidding,” David drawled.
She frowned at her husband. “Not all of us are so used to being locked up that we take it in our stride.”
“You weren’t locked up,” David said. “You were undercover in a hostile environment. It’s the perfect opportunity to find out what the target knows.”
Harvard pointed at David. “And that’s why you’re a master spy while Elle’s in charge of all things cyber.”
“You need to run a class on the techniques you used to get information out of the commander,” Katrina said. “I’d love to know how to do it.”
“Happy to be of service,” David said.
“Hey,” Joe said from the doorway. “Planning the workshops is Julia’s job.”
They turned to see Joe, Belinda, and Beast—who had Julia with them, all tucked up in a wheelchair.
“Julia!” the cheer went up, and the baby fussed.
“If you lot don’t behave,” Rachel scolded them, “the nurse will take the baby to the nursery so she can get some sleep.”
There were quiet murmurs of sorry, Rachel .
“I had to come see the baby,” Julia said as Joe rolled her into the room. “We cleared it with the doctor first.”
Harvard took Gwendolyn from Katrina and carried her to Julia, who took her from him with the utmost care. Julia’s face lit up as tears ran silently down her cheeks.
“Oh, Rachel, she’s the most perfect little soul I’ve ever seen,” she said. “You’ve done a wonderful job, and you’re going to be an amazing mother.”
Rachel sniffed before suddenly becoming engrossed in her phone. “Seeing as almost anyone with a uterus can become a mother, I don’t imagine the bar’s set too high for making a go of it.”
Julia snuggled the baby close before returning her to Harvard. “You’d better take her; my back’s a little sore, and she’s a heavy girl.”
Everyone in the room focused on Julia.
“Your back’s sore?” Isobel said. “When did that start?”
“A while ago.” Julia blushed under all the attention. “I think it’s from being in bed in the same position for too long.”
Joe put a hand on her shoulder. “You know, maybe we should get someone to check you out while we’re here.”
For a second, everyone forgot Julia wasn’t Rachel and waited for her to protest. Instead, she smiled up at her husband and said, “It couldn’t hurt.”
Rachel snorted. “Oh yes, it can. Make sure they give you drugs.”
“Lots of drugs,” Claire agreed, and Isobel nodded vigorously.
“Back soon,” Joe said, wheeling Julia toward the door.
“Have them put her in the room we just vacated,” Rachel called after them. “I’m still paying for the damn thing, so at least I’ll get my money’s worth.”
Ryan shook his head. Typical Rachel. There was no way she was still paying for a room she wasn’t using, but she’d be damned if she’d let anyone know she was being kind to a friend. He glanced around the room and noted that no one else was fooled by her either.
Harvard gave her an indulgent smile and kissed her forehead. “We should probably order some food, seeing as everyone will be here for a while.”
“Yes!” Ryan said quickly.
“Why will they be here for a while?” Rachel protested. “And do we have to feed them? We fed my family when they were here for lunch. Are we feeding everyone now?”
“I’ll order pizza,” Ryan said helpfully.
There was a loud chorus of noes, which woke the baby.
“Great,” Rachel said, reaching for her daughter. “Now look what you’ve done.”
“Yeah,” Harvard said with a slow smile. “Look what we did.”
Everyone smiled at them—well, except for Callum, but he didn’t appear as annoyed as usual, so that was something.
“Okay,” Ryan said. “What about Thai food?”