2. Jasmin
Jasmin
“Debrief in five. I have to hit the head. All you asshats better be ready with after action reports in the conference room, Z is on his way in,” Colin barked at us as he passed the armory where we were unloading our kit.
“Hey, Drew, you sure you ready to give all this up?” I asked, spreading my arms wide and turning in a circle, gesturing to all the weapons on the wall.
“Baby girl, I got ten years on you. My old and broken body has put in enough time. It’s time I let the young bucks take a turn.” Drew flashed a smile and flexed his perfect biceps.
Old and broken body my ass! At thirty eight, he was in better shape than any young buck I had ever seen.
Every man on my team was shit hot. It was like super heroes bred with the hottest male revue you had ever seen.
Each one drool worthy and cocky as hell, not that I could blame them.
They all came from elite Special Forces teams from various branches of the Military.
It really was unfair that I was surrounded by eye candy all day, yet they were off limits .
It was a prerequisite for working at Z Corps. You had to be former Special Forces. I was the only exception, but I had damn well earned my place in the company. I had made it to Red Team, the top tier, and each of my teammates knew I belonged there.
“Awe. What’s the matter, old man, you got sand on your clit again?” Jaxon laughed as he unloaded his heavy gear.
Leo let out a deep bark of laughter. He was the largest of the team, standing six feet three inches; he was a huge wall of muscle wrapped up in a hot Italian package; tanned skin, dark hair, and green eyes with flecks of gold splattered throughout.
I am still amazed that someone so gigantic could be so agile and quiet when he moved.
“Dude, have you seen Drew’s woman? I’d give all this shit up for a pair of tits… umphf .” Leo couldn’t finish his sentence. Drew’s size twelve boot bounced off his hard, muscle packed stomach and hit the floor.
“Man, you are dangerously close to eating steel. I will beat your ass, brother or not. Watch your mouth, that is my woman.” Drew gave Leo the death glare.
Not many people would cross Drew willingly.
He had skills that only a person in the Army Special Forces gained over many years.
And he had eight such years. Leo loved to taunt Drew about his wife, Julie, who was stunning.
She was the exact opposite of me. She was sweet and yielding, to my brash alpha personality.
Drew was a Dominant to his core, needing a sweet and submissive woman to fulfill him.
He had found that in Julie. She was the only one who could bring him to his knees.
I longed for that, the beauty that was their life, but I knew it would not be in my future. I was nothing if not honest with myself. I knew I was hard to handle and a pain in the ass. I had yet to meet a man that could handle my need for control, let alone get me to bend to his will.
“Yes, please! Can you take off your shirts? I think I have baby oil in my locker. I am always game to watch a little oil wrestling,” I deadpanned, looking between the two Goliaths.
“Have you ever heard the words, sexual harassment? I am more than a piece of meat, Jassy.” Leo feigned outrage as he slipped his shirt off in a slow, sexy show, reaching behind his neck as he pulled the fabric over his head from behind.
He made it into a production, showing off his hard biceps and flexed his pecs.
Swear to Christ, that man’s arms are as big around as my waist.
I shook my head to clear my vision of the sexy show Leo had put on and finished taking off my plate carrier. I swear with that damn vest off, I felt ten pounds lighter.
“Call me Jassy again, Leo, you won’t have to worry about Drew’s beat down. I’ll shoot your ass myself,” I joked.
I loved all these men; they were the big brothers I never had. We were a family. Even though they were big and obnoxious, I knew these men had my back and I had theirs.
I was especially close to Drew. He had covered me more times than I cared to remember when we were in the Army together.
But, in the end, I was the one that saved his life.
I have two bullet scars to show for it. We ran several missions together during my time in human intelligence.
It was his Special Forces team’s job to clear the area before I came in to collect my data.
During one op, his team missed a hostile hiding in a secret cut-out in a closet.
When the asshole jumped out of his hidey hole, I saw him first. I acted on instinct and adrenalin and stepped in front of Drew, taking one in the vest and two in the shoulder.
“And just because you’re leaving the team, don’t think I have forgotten you’re still naming your firstborn after me. I didn’t take two in the shoulder saving your sorry ass for nothing.” I winked at Drew.
I glanced over at Eric as I strapped my concealed carry holster back on and secured my Sig in place.
He looked like someone had just kicked his puppy.
It was obvious he was not happy that this had been Drew’s last op.
Drew was Eric’s partner; nobody on our six person team was ever left without backup.
“You okay?” I whispered as I walked past Eric to get to the door. I didn’t want to draw attention to him. I knew the rest of the guys would smell blood in the water and bust his balls over being torn up that Drew would be done after today.
“Yeah, thanks, girl. Just thinking. Did Z say anything to you about the new guy?” Eric asked. Before I could reply, I heard the front door lock click. Signaling someone had just entered the back part of the office.
“C’mon. Z just got here, time to debrief.” I patted Eric on the shoulder and hollered back to the rest of the team. “If you children are done with your jack assery, Z is here.”
The rest of the team finished up and followed me into the conference room situating themselves around the table, while I made a beeline for the one cup coffee maker.
“Fuck, Jasmin. With all the coffee you inhale, I am shocked as shit you can shoot straight.” Eric commented on my coffee consumption .
But, fuck, I was going to need caffeine to make it through this debrief. Thank all things holy, Z had finally put a one cup coffee machine in here. When the guys made drip coffee, it tasted like oil and mud had procreated. Needless to say, it was nasty as fuck.
There was seating for eighteen around the large table, with a sixty inch LCD screen on the wall above a credenza which I knew held every high end brand of liquor imaginable behind the hand-carved wooden doors.
This was the room where we planned our missions and Zane met with future clients.
It was a well-appointed room. Not too ostentatious, but luxurious nonetheless.
Eric grabbed a pen off of the table and immediately started chewing on the end; his tell that something was bothering him. I would have to ask him later what the deal was, but it was too late now. Z and Colin had already walked into the room.
“Eric, you just cannot help sticking things in your mouth. There something you wanna tell us, man? You’re totally turning me on over there,” Leo threw out as he laughed at his own joke.
“Go fuck yourself, Leo! At least I don’t chew on those shorty Cubans you like so much. You trying to tell us something? You know, size does matter,” Eric volleyed back .
“Ah, a dick joke. I can promise you I have never had a woman complain about the size of my cock, or what he can do.” Leo was quick with the dick come back. Those are never far behind in the insult cache.
“Is that because the GHB hasn’t worn off by the time you’re finished?” Colin chimed in from across the table.
“He wouldn’t know what to do with a woman that wasn’t tied up or gagged.” Drew pulled out the big guns, noting Leo’s affection for bondage.
Zane Lewis walked over to the table, and the banter stopped, and all eyes shot to our boss.
“Good work tonight.” Z complimented us as he looked around the table. “Jasmin, great fucking shot. Clean. One and done.” His voice was filled with pride.
I couldn’t help but feel smug; damn, this man was good on my ego. Not that I needed any help in the ego department. I was cocky as shit. “Thank you, LT, my words exactly.”
“I gave Garrett the go ahead to start analyzing the machines you brought back. This is top priority. I have fuckers from every three letter agency in Washington breathing down my neck about this asshole. I’d love nothing more than to put another bullet in this fuck chop’s head for stirring up a shit storm.
” Z looked like he was ready to blow a gasket.
“There is a metric shit ton of information for Garrett to go through. I think that boy nearly creamed in his perfectly pressed pants when he saw the boards from some hot shit new computer hardware company. Fuck if I know that geek shit. I just want to know who in the mother fuck hired Deepweb336.” Z sneered, his normally handsome face turned up like someone had taken a shit on his shoe.
He raked his hand through his jet black hair, a sure sign of his building frustration.
Shit was about to get hot real quick, Z was nearing DEFCON one. The last time I saw Z this mad, some idiot had tried to take out a senator while we were in Kandahar almost causing an international incident.
Z tossed file folders into the middle of the table indicating we should all take one. He pointed the remote toward the LCD screen and pulled up a group of images with his tablet.
“There is no good time to do this, so I am going to get it out of the way now. I am not happy about losing one of my best operatives. Drew, you have been an invaluable part of this company as well as to the Red Team. You will be greatly missed, brother.” Z cleared his throat and continued, “Drew has agreed to stay on as a part-time consultant, strictly behind the scenes. Mission support and logistics. As you all know, I have struggled with whether to promote someone up to Red Team from one of the other teams or hire from outside the company. With that being said, I have decided to hire from the outside. I simply cannot afford to disrupt one of the other teams. I hired Lincoln Parker. He just got back stateside after being dark on an op for two years. I would be surprised if most of you don’t at least know his name. ” Z stopped to look around the table.
I did the same and wondered who the hell this Lincoln Parker guy was. And why that name had my team’s eyes lighting up like the holy grail of operatives was about to grace us with his presence. All of them except Eric, that is; his look was one of disgust rather than awe.
I heard the door to the back office click for the second time in the last thirty minutes and wondered if one of the other teams was going to be briefed on the Deepweb336 case.
It didn’t happen frequently, but it was neither unheard of for a second team to be brought in on a Red Team operation.
The conference door pushed open and in walked the hottest man…
no scratch that…Fuck. My. Life. I had no words for the man standing in the doorway.
Where in the hell was my handy dandy pocket thesaurus when I needed it?
I looked at him from top to toe and back up again.
Who in the ever-loving hell was this? I felt a blush creep up my cheeks and moisture pool between my thighs.
Oh, fuck no, not now. If one of the guys spotted my reaction to this fine ass man in the doorway, I would never live it down.
This would be “bust Jasmin’s balls” fodder for years to come.
I tried to school my features as I looked at the sexy man I dubbed Mr. Drop Dead Gorgeous.
BUSTED! Fuck my life again. He caught me as I was checking him out, which meant the eagle eye assholes on my team had, too.
I tried to sneak one more look, maybe I was wrong.
Nope, there was a super fucking hot smirk on Mr. DDG’s face.
FML! Yup, I was now speaking in acronyms in my head.