Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Why are you whistling?”
Gunnar frowned at Remi in confusion. “Huh?” He scanned Remi’s desk, looking for evidence that he’d overindulged in Monster already. “Why are you giving me the side-eye?”
“You’re whistling, and now you’re all defensive about it,” Remi pointed out. “Did you and Jorja have fun last night?”
Rage blasted through his veins, bubbling like champagne, as his hands fisted at his sides. In three steps, he was across the room and yanked Remi out of his chair. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“Whoa.” Marco stepped between them. “Settle down, Boss. Remi was only asking how your date went last night. Because it sounds like you had an awesome time.”
“Do not…” He sucked in a breath as his rational side reclaimed dominance over the man who wanted to hoard a new relationship and keep it private. He shook Remi, then dropped his hands. “…Just don’t.”
“Sorry.” Remi sheepishly went back to his computer.
Gunnar refused to apologize for wanting to protect Jorja from the teasing his guys were more than proficient at.
She’d be here in a couple of minutes, and he didn’t want her walking into snickers and smirks.
Given their conversation in the bathroom, she’d run as fast as she could, and if their crap meant he had to chase her all the way to Hamburg, then he wasn’t going to be very happy.
“I don’t think we should take this one.” Colt brought them back on track. “We don’t know if it’s connected to the list.” He nodded to the whiteboard Remi had placed in the corner of the room. “Two more names have been crossed off it since last night. There is only the Czech dude and you left…”
“Shut it, Colt, I’m not hiding behind the castle walls,” Gunnar replied. “I have a life to live and a job to do.” He picked up the offer which had come in overnight. “We don’t tell the DOD no unless it’s a complete shitshow.”
“We don’t do stupids either,” Talon added. “Going out in the open when we don’t know who is knocking names off the list is stupid, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you,” Gunnar grumbled. He glanced at the door. Nope, he wasn’t waiting for her to appear. He was checking it was open, as it had gotten warm in here all of a sudden. “I lead. Period.”
“You’re still…”
Gunnar scowled at Marco. “If the rest of that sentence is injured, then fuck off.” The sound of Jorja clearing her throat stopped him in his tracks. He spun around. “Hey.”
“Don’t you hey me.” She placed a Yeti mug on the desk next to what he now considered her desk. “Why are you all mad this morning?”
“He won’t listen to reason.” Remi, the traitor, jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “Maybe you can talk sense into him.”
“You think he’ll listen to me if it comes to work stuff? I know exactly zero about what you do. If it wasn’t in a movie, which I’m guessing isn’t accurate, then I’d be winging it.”
Smart girl.
“They’re not accurate,” Gunnar told her. “We have a job…”
“So do it.” She booted up her computer. “Is there something smelly about the job? Because if there is, then listen to your gut.”
Thank fuck, she wasn’t going to tell him not to do it.
Although to be fair, he wasn’t sure if she fully understood why the guys were telling him to stand down for this one.
But he figured it couldn’t hurt to give her the information the guys were concerned about.
Not that it would change his decision if she didn’t like it.
“We don’t know if it’s connected to the list or not. ”
“I don’t know enough about it to have an opinion.” Her hands paused on her keyboard, and she looked over her shoulder at them. “What would your decision be if I wasn’t here?”
“I’d go.”
“You don’t strike me as a stupid man,” she said finally.
“But neither are the guys you have here with you. Listen to their concerns, mitigate the risks as much as possible, and see where that leaves you. It’s what I do when I’m hacking into somewhere.
” She glanced at the others. “How do you know whoever is doing the hunting won’t come here?
I found you. I’m pretty sure that person is better than me at finding those who don’t want to be found.
Unless you think all the men on that list were careless? ”
“That’s what I’ve been telling them for the last ten minutes.
” He crossed the room and pressed a kiss to the top of her head before he knew what he was doing.
“Thank you for being reasonable.” He heard an intake of breath from someone behind him and twisted his arm back to make a ‘shut up’ hand signal.
Thankfully, whoever that dumbass was he didn’t say whatever he’d been about to.
“Don’t get used to it,” Jorja warned. “I think I’ve met my reasonable quota for the rest of the month. Soooo…”
He bent down next to her ear and whispered, “Bring it, baby.” Then he straightened and went back to the war-table. “Do what we always do,” he ordered. “Check the intel, double-check, and then verify everything again. We go wheels up at zero hour.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Remi scoot closer to Jorja, but couldn’t hear their whispered conversation.
He had to trust that Remi wouldn’t be a dick.
If he was… then there was an ass-kicking in his near future.
Gunnar sat down and pulled the intel packet closer.
After skimming through the information provided, he grabbed his legal pad and paper, then went back to the beginning to take notes as he read it again.
When the US Government offered them a job, it required his full attention, and with this one he didn’t have the luxury of allowing his mind to wander.
Only time and boots on the ground would tell them if they were heading into a SNAFU situation or not.
Until then, he was getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and preparing for war.
* * *
Jorja waited until the door to the courtyard closed behind them and turned to wrap her arms around him. “You better be careful, Gunnar, or I swear I’m going to be so mad I’ll make your ex-wife sound like a freaking puppy.”
“I’ll be as careful as I can be and still get the job done,” he promised. “Will you stay until I get back?”
She nodded against his chest, her bravado now gone.
How on earth did spouses do this every day of the week?
She considered herself to be more than a little stable and a hell of a lot self-sufficient.
But the urge to beg him not to go was so close to falling out of her mouth that she wasn’t sure if she trusted herself to speak without actually begging him not to go.
“Thank you.” He tipped up her chin. “I promise I’ll do everything in my power to get this job done and come back to you.”
She noted that he wasn’t giving her a guarantee, damn it.
She wanted promises and she needed guarantees.
But she knew he wouldn’t give her either.
She’d spent hours tracking the IP address, and even with all the bells and whistles programs Remi gave her access to, neither of them could connect the person the job had come from to anyone on the list. “I know you will.” She steeled herself and stepped back. “Let’s get you to the trucks.”
He glanced at his watch. “Yeah, I gotta go. We have to be on the tarmac at midnight or we’ll miss our takeoff slot.
” He tucked her hair behind her ear in a move she would forever think as classically him.
He cupped her face and pressed a slow, lingering kiss to her lips before pulling back.
“Take no shit from Remi,” he advised. “Feel free to smack sense into him if needed.”
“I don’t have my baseball bat.” She forced a smile and hoped he took it at face value.
He moved her to one side, opened a cupboard she hadn’t noticed before, and produced a Louisville slugger. “I got you.” He handed her the bat. “Feel free to use it as needed. Just don’t aim for his head. It’s fucked enough as it is.”
“No headshots for Rembrandt, got it.” She placed the bat in the space between the door frame and the wall, propping it in the corner. She’d bring it upstairs later.
He grinned and unlocked the door. “Good girl.”
Why did that sexy growl of his always make her shiver?
Damn him anyway for making her reassess and second-guess everything she’d believed of herself for years.
She’d never enjoyed the dominant-submissive dynamic in a relationship before, but this man…
Gunnar McKinley, she decided was more than worth exploring it.
He was a man she could easily choose to follow…
Three black trucks were lined up in the parking area with their noses pointed toward the gates. Jorja swallowed down her fears… could you call it fear when it was mostly apprehension over the uncertainty? She decided she could call it anything she wanted to. Fear of the unknown more than anything.
When they reached the trucks, Gunnar dropped his hand from her back and climbed into the driver’s seat of the first truck. He winked at her, tapped his fingers to his forehead, and fired up the truck. Before she found her voice to ask him not to go, the gates were already closing behind them.
“Shit.”
“You got this, George.” Remi appeared through the archway. “Gunnar’s tough; he’ll deal.”
“And his thigh, will that deal?” She’d been reluctant to bring it up to Gunnar before he left as she didn’t want him to think that she didn’t think he was capable.
That’s a lot of thinking!
Yup, it was. But she was winging it here. She followed Remi back to the main kitchen and sat down when he gestured to a chair.
Seconds later he placed a tub of ice cream, a spoon, and a glass of wine in front of her. “Sometimes you either need to eat or drink away the worry.” He shrugged. “It’s Gunnar’s cheesecake gelato.” He grinned at her. “I wouldn’t dare touch it if he was here. He’d kick my ass.”
She picked up her spoon. “You raid the fridge every time he goes out, don’t you?”
“Damn straight.”