Chapter 19 Cami
CAMI
We entered the building behind the facade.
To my left was an exit door to the side parking lot where Kyle had parked when we’d arrived.
To my right, the enormous space opened in front of me.
The entire center of the space was a gym, complete with exercise mats, free weights, benches, and machines.
Kyle had said fitness was part of the job, but this was far beyond what I’d imagined.
“Rogers can fill in more of the details about HEAT,” X glanced at me, “within the boundaries of classified and close-hold regulations, as we discussed. But HEAT, Headquarters for the Elimination of Advanced Threats, is a covert agency of the US government.”
“As in, something that doesn’t show up on any official budget?” I asked.
She arched an eyebrow.
“I watch spy movies.” I licked my lips nervously. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? A spy organization.”
“We are an IA, an Intelligence Agency. But our agents do more than steal jump drives with specs for doomsday weapons.” She sighed.
“I watch spy movies, too, Dr. Vaughn. Our missions are to infiltrate and undermine dangerous organizations, interrupt planned attacks on the homeland, extract hostages and high-value targets at home and abroad.”
“Do some of those missions require people with military strike-team experience?”
“You’re a quick study.” X and I pivoted so the team’s entry door was to our backs.
We were standing a few feet away from a room to our right with glass from halfway up the wall to the ceiling so we could see into it.
An interesting choice for a spy agency. I assumed that probably wasn’t the SCIF for classified discussions that X had mentioned earlier.
But it was a conference room where Kyle and his teammates were gathered, some of them known to me and some of them not.
They were gathered around a long table, and Bella lay at Kyle’s feet.
Kyle said something that made his teammates glance at him. Some of them smiled. A few of them laughed. Lang scowled. It reminded me of how Kyle was with me when he wanted to put me at ease or draw me out of my unhappy thoughts. And in that moment, I understood something new about him.
“Conference room,” X said, breaking into my thoughts. She pointed to the room beside it. “Commander’s office.”
I nodded. “So that’s yours?”
“No. I understand you know Kat Hartmann. She’s in charge of this branch, this building, and this team.”
“Oh, I thought you were.”
“I’m in charge of the entire agency.”
She pointed to the left wall where there were two separate rooms with glass from halfway up the wall to the ceiling. “The IT room, and tactical and logistics planning space.”
She pointed to the back, where there were rooms behind full walls. “Lounge with a full bar to the left, kitchen with a full fridge to the right. At least it will be until Wheeler and Rogers get to it. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”
“Wait, what about the men who attacked us last night?” I wasn’t sure whether Kyle would be authorized to tell me.
“They were hired guns,” she said. “That’s all we know. Hired by someone, presumably Scott Riker, to send a message. They claim they never met their client in person. I doubt we’ll get much useful information out of them.”
I flinched when she said my ex’s name, then swallowed hard. “So, I’m not safe.”
“You are while you’re in our custody.” She motioned toward the kitchen. “Help yourself to anything you’d like. Hayes’s wife and his sister are in the lounge if you’d like to join them.” She entered the conference room and closed the door behind her, ending our conversation.
Kyle glanced at me through the glass and nodded. I waved. A few others noticed me. I walked toward the back wall before everyone was staring at me. At the same time, a tall woman with long, light brown hair and wearing a pale blue, sleeveless maxi dress emerged from the lounge.
“You must be Cami.” She held out her hand. “Kyle has told us so much about you. Well, he’s told Ben, who has told me.”
I shook her hand. “You must be Savannah, Ben’s wife. Congratulations, by the way, on your wedding and the baby.”
She laid her hand on her baby bump. “Thank you. We’re very excited. But tell me about you. I understand you’re a vet and you own the local clinic.”
“Dial it back, Savvy.”
An even taller woman with short, dark hair emerged from the lounge. I’d only see Ben Hayes twice, once in Kyle’s foyer and again just now in the conference room, but I knew this had to be his sister.
“Mai, right?”
We shook hands. “My reputation precedes me.”
I furrowed my brow. “I’m sorry, I guess I’m a little confused. You know about HEAT from your brother? I can understand a wife or...” Or a what? What was I? “Someone who’s tangled up in their business. But a sister...”
Mai was nearly laughing. “Actually, my brother learned about HEAT from me. He’s two years younger and was two years behind me in joining the Army, then the Rangers, and then HEAT.”
“You and your brother were both Army Rangers? That’s intense.”
“The military thing runs in their family,” Savannah said. “And in this team.”
“Right. Ben and Kyle. Were the rest of them special ops, too?” I asked.
Now Mai did laugh. “Since Pasco’s in that room—he’s the one with the beard—that’s a hard no. But Lang was a Green Beret, and Bond—Doctor Samantha Bond, who’s standing beside Kat—was an Army field surgeon. She’s now the chief medical officer of the agency.”
I bit my lip to keep from asking why they needed a chief medical officer. I didn’t like to think about Kyle being in harm’s way, even though, after what I’d witnessed the previous night, it was obvious he knew how to handle himself in dangerous situations.
“And Wheeler?” I asked about the final teammate.
“Flyboy,” Mai said.
“Former Air Force,” Savannah interpreted. “There’s a little bit of sibling rivalry between the different military branches, so he takes a lot of shit on this majority-former-Army team.”
“Enough about work,” Mai said. “Come on, let’s get you a drink. We need to have some of the good stuff before Pasco gets behind the bar.”
“Ugh, that makes me glad I’m not drinking right now,” Savannah said. “There’s a HEAT...tradition, I guess you could call it, that the IT guys make signature drinks for the team when they’re all together.”
“And I take it that’s a bad thing.”
“The worst fucking drinks you’ve ever tasted,” Mai said.
“On my first team in HEAT, Jason Jensen was our IT lead, and he started it. Now that he’s head of IT for the agency, it seems to have become a job requirement that all our IT people make shitty drinks for their teams. I’m suspicious that he’s holding secret training sessions to teach them how to be so terrible. ”
“And all the teammates love the tradition, no matter how much they complain about it,” Savannah said.
“But you’re the one who said we’re done talking about work, Mai, so get behind the bar.
” She bumped against my shoulder. “So, you and Kyle. As the wife of one of his best friends, he would want me to know.”
Mai quirked an eyebrow as she pulled out three rocks glasses. “Bullshit. If he wanted you to know, he would tell you.” She smiled at me. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want us to know.”
“I think he’d be okay with me saying we’re very good friends,” I answered as diplomatically as I could, since it was Kyle’s place to share his relationship status with them.
They seemed awfully nosy for people who were used to secret-keeping.
But I couldn’t help liking them, probably because they seemed so genuinely happy for Kyle and me.
“Judging from the ultimatum he gave X, I’d say he thinks you’re more than friends,” Savannah said.
Mai slammed the bottle down on the bar and cleared her throat.
“What ultimatum?” I asked.
Mai and Savannah stared at each other. Mai shook her head. Savanna pursed her lips, then frowned. They were having a wordless conversation. I recognized it because after ten years as besties, Gina and I had the ability to do the same thing.
“Please tell me,” I said.
Savannah gave Mai one more sharp look. “She deserves to know.” She looked at me. “He threatened to quit.”
“Quit? For me?” My heart leapt into my throat.
“Yes,” Mai said. “He’s lucky X finds him amusing or she would have handed him his ass and his walking papers.
” She poured generous splashes of whisky in two of the glasses, then filled a third with clear soda and a splash of grenadine, and topped off with a handful of maraschino cherries. She handed that glass to Savannah.
Savannah frowned down at the drink Mai had made for her. “Just because I can’t have a real drink doesn’t mean I want a Shirley Temple. This makes me not blame X for having favorite agents, like one who is named Kyle and not Mai.” She looked at me. “He would never act like such a smartass.”
“Are we talking about Kyle Rogers?” Mai asked. She handed me a glass of whiskey. “Sorry, Cami, I’m joking.”
“He is a smartass.” I lifted my glass in toast, and the three of us laughed as we clinked glasses and sipped our drinks.
I really did like Kyle’s friends, at least the ones who didn’t burst into his house wielding weapons.
“I didn’t get the feeling he’s one of X’s favorites,” I continued.
“She did mention something about the two years she’s invested in him. ”
“Don’t let her fool you,” Savannah said. “She a big... Well, she has a big... She has a soft spot. I think. Maybe a small one.”
“I can neither confirm, nor deny, nor discuss,” Mai said.
They stood on each side of me and continued their conversation over my head, literally, since they towered over me.
I barely heard a word because part of my brain had stopped working when I’d learned Kyle had threatened to quit the job he loved, to leave the team he loved more, for me.
He was an idiot, but he was a sweet idiot, and I was beginning to suspect he was mine.