Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
When the doorbell rang and he had to pull his lips away from Chelsea’s, Josiah started rethinking this whole Cyber Team celebration thing.
It had actually been his idea. Shocking though that was. Chelsea had been talking about making time to visit Ava and Teresa, Isabella too, and since she was still in a whole lot more pain than he knew she was trying not to let on, he told her they should come here.
The way her face lit up at the suggestion had him blurting out his next one.
Everyone should come. Ava and Nathaniel, Isabella and Tobias, Teresa and Micah. It was only a few extra people, and while he didn't know Nathaniel and Micah well, the two were in the same SEAL team, and he’d been a SEAL, so surely they had enough in common to make small talk about.
He hoped.
Because small talk had never really been his thing, and in the last six years he hadn't done it at all. Merely glared at anyone who tried to instigate a conversation with him that wasn't directly related to something they were working on for Prey.
Unless that someone was Chelsea.
While he might have sent her the same glares and angry vibes as he gave off to everybody else, it had never been the same. Not on his end anyway. There had always been something about her that drew him in, and he was so glad he was no longer fighting against those feelings.
Not fighting against them and dealing with six people were still different things in his mind, and he felt his palms grow clammy. How the hell was he supposed to deal with six people all at the same time? The very thought of it terrified him.
“If you don’t want to do this, we can ask them to leave,” Chelsea offered him, and when he glanced down at her and saw the sincerity in her expression, he knew he absolutely was not going to do that.
“This is important to you.”
“But not more important than you.”
Nodding his acknowledgement of the truth of those words, he still knew they were doing this no matter how anxious it made him. “I want to do this, Chels, it’s just … so many people all at once.”
Josiah didn't have to hope that Chelsea would understand it wasn't just the number of people but the context, he knew she did.
This same number of people in a briefing wouldn't have fazed him at all, but this wasn't a briefing, it wasn't work, it was just casual, friends hanging out, and that’s what had him breaking out in a cold sweat.
“You can change your mind at any time. If you want them gone, just let me know,” Chelsea told him.
“Stay put,” he told her when she went to move off the couch to let their guests in.
His wound hurt, but it wasn't on the same level as broken ribs. He knew because he’d broken his ribs twice before.
The pain was like nothing else because there was literally no way to avoid it. Breathing wasn't optional.
With Chelsea’s warm smile in his mind, he hurried over to the front door.
The second he did, he was met by six more warm smiles. They didn't hit the same way that Chelsea’s did, but nonetheless, these were people who could become friends if he could take a step out of his own way and let them in.
For now, the future of Cyber Team felt uncertain.
Or at least the future of the way the team looked right now.
Both Ava and Teresa were dating men who were active-duty SEALs and still had a couple of years left before they could retire.
They had major choices about what their lives were going to look like, and he knew Chelsea believed they were both going to move to the West Coast to be closer to their guys, maybe even take jobs with the West Coast Cyber Team Olivia Oswald had been prepping for.
“We brought enough pizza to feed an army,” Ava told him, indicating the stacks that the guys were carrying.
“And some of basically every snack known to man,” Teresa added with an amused smile and glance Isabella’s way.
The tiny blonde noticed immediately and rolled her eyes. “Are you implying that’s my fault?”
“It is your fault, firecracker,” Tobias told her.
“Well, excuse me for being pregnant and craving something only not knowing what that something is,” Isabella shot back, but she didn't really look annoyed.
In fact, she looked hungry, and she was already eyeing up the bags she, Ava, and Teresa were carrying, which he had to assume contained the snacks.
Clearing his throat, he took a step back. “Come on in,” he invited.
“Wow, this is stunning,” Ava gushed as everyone walked inside the apartment.
“So glad I got a greeting before the view stole your attention,” Chelsea teased from the couch, and Ava shot her friend a guilty smile.
“Sorry.” Ava dumped her armload of bags on the coffee table and moved to the couch to give her friend a very gentle-looking hug. “How are you feeling?”
“Like a bullet tried to hit my heart and got stopped by Kevlar,” Chelsea replied, making Josiah feel like all the blood had drained from his face.
“I think you should stop explaining it like that, Chelsea,” Teresa said with a laugh. “Josiah is going to stroke out otherwise.”
“Oops, sorry.” Chelsea shot him an apologetic smile, and he forced one of his own as he shoved away the thoughts of what could have happened to her if he hadn't taken off his vest and given it to her. She wouldn't be sitting here making jokes, that was for sure.
Once he’d closed and locked the door, he moved straight to the couch to join Chelsea.
If he was going to survive this, he needed her close.
The fact that she carefully leaned into him the moment he was at her side helped soothe away the roughest edges of his anxiety, and for the next couple of minutes, while everyone got themselves settled, and helped themselves to slices of pizza, he was able to relax a little more.
Small talk mostly consisted of the girls asking one another how they were doing.
It wasn't so long ago that Ava had been abducted, had her kidney stolen.
Isabella was still recovering from her seven-month-long ordeal at the hands of the organ trafficking ring, and she had the surprise pregnancy to deal with on top of it.
And it had only been a matter of weeks since Teresa was abducted and some of her liver taken.
When Ava cleared her throat and reached for Nathaniel’s hand, Josiah felt Chelsea stiffen beside him.
This was what he knew she’d been afraid of, an announcement that her two best friends were going to leave for the other side of the country, which he was sure to Chels felt like the other side of the world.
Romantic that she was, he knew she saw the beauty in Ava and Nathaniel, and Teresa and Micah’s stories, but she was also scared of losing her two best friends at a time when she really needed the support.
“So, Nathaniel and I have news. Teresa and Micah, too,” Ava announced, glancing over at Teresa, who had also straightened in her chair.
“You guys are moving?” Chelsea asked, and Josiah was so proud of his girl for not letting any of the pain he knew she was feeling seep into her words.
“Actually,” Ava said slowly, a grin spreading across her face. “No.”
“No?” Chelsea repeated.
“Well, we talked about it, of course, with Nathaniel’s job and all. But in the end, after everything we’ve all been through these last few months, I can't leave. I don’t want to.”
“Can't break up the team,” Teresa added.
“Not when we’re already so awesome,” Tobias added with a smile, a soft look in his dark eyes as he glanced at Isabella, his gaze then dropping to her still flat stomach where their baby was growing.
“You're really staying? All of you?” Chelsea asked hopefully.
“It’s only a few more years until Micah and I are out,” Nathaniel said.
“And we’re away a lot anyway,” Micah added. “So even if Teresa and Ava moved, we still wouldn't be with them all the time. So flying out here whenever we can is easy enough.”
“Ava and I can support each other while the guys are away,” Teresa said.
“We’ll all support you with that,” Chelsea said quickly, and Tobias and Isabella immediately nodded their agreement.
“We all know this is going to be rough,” Ava said, “but we also know we can do it. And like Nathaniel said, it’s only for a few years, then the guys are going to maybe look into getting jobs with Prey.”
“So we’re not breaking up the team?” Chelsea asked, her grip on his hand tightening, and he absently began to draw small circles on the back of her hand with his thumb.
“No way we can break up this team,” Teresa assured her.
“Not after such an amazing win, taking down one of the biggest organ trafficking rings in the world,” Ava added.
“We’re a family,” Tobias said, reaching for Isabella and tugging her into his lap.
“A family,” Chelsea echoed, grinning at everyone, then leaning up to kiss his jaw.
“A family,” he agreed, capturing her chin and tilting her face so he could kiss her properly. For six years, he’d shoved his own family away and refused to allow himself to build a new one. Now it was time to embrace the life he’d been spared and start living again.
Having a savior complex makes working undercover to bring down a sex trafficking ring difficult for Nathan Solace in the first book in the action packed and emotionally charged Prey Security: Undercover Team series!
Defending Nathan (Prey Security: Undercover Team #1)