Chapter Thirty-Five
The last week had been unbearably slow. Outside of PT and one mandatory safety briefing entitled How to change a light bulb like you’re not buffoons intentionally trying my patience, led by Mr. Personality, Jared Westin, king of all and everything, as he called himself during the training, Chance realized he needed an assignment like he needed air to breathe.
Maybe today would be the day. He checked his wristwatch then took the stairs to the first-floor lobby.
Chance nodded to a few familiar faces of the construction crew and walked behind the reception desk.
He wound down the office hall and stopped outside the war room.
A bright yellow, half-crumpled piece of paper lay on the floor. Chance picked it up and grinned.
WARNING
Behind These Doors Are Men
Highly Trained in Weapons That Go…
Ping, Ping
Pew, Pew
Kaboom
Unable to hide his laugh, he smoothed the warning sign against the wall and made sure the tape stuck before he opened the door. Everyone on the team already sat around the conference table. They’d stopped talking and looked at him as though he was late.
“Hey,” he muttered, sneaking a glance at his watch. Right on time. “Did I miss something?”
Jared pushed from the head of the table and cracked his knuckles. “You make that sign?”
Chance tried his best not to laugh. Who the hell was the sign grandmaster? “Roger that. It was me.”
He growled. “Take a seat.”
Chance pulled back an open chair. “I didn’t realize we were starting early.”
“We did,” Jared grumbled. “You didn’t.”
Puzzled, he wanted to question why, but at the same time, he noticed Liam. “Hey, man.” They shook over the table. “When did you get in?”
“Last night.”
Westin cleared his throat. “If you two are finished gabbing.”
Chance lifted his hands apologetically. He didn’t want to aggravate Boss Man before his first gallon of coffee.
“We were talking about the Thanes,” Jared continued.
Chance’s stomach sank like a rock. “My favorite people. What about them?” He glanced around the room and couldn’t get a read on anyone’s expressions. “That good, huh?”
Jared grumbled.
“What?” Chance shifted uncomfortably. “Dax is suing us? The photographer didn’t capture his best side when we hauled his screaming ass into the helo?”
No one laughed. His stomach bottomed out again. “Did someone—” Jane “—get hurt?”
“No, nothing like that.” Jared pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head with a sigh that sounded like he already had a headache. “They want to hire additional security to their personal team.”
Chance didn’t see why that would cause a headache. Ace’s parent company, Titan Group, was based in Virginia and handled jobs like that. Still, no one made a peep. He was missing something. “All right. So, what am I missing?”
“They want you on a temporary security detail.”
Chance sat back in his seat. His forehead furrowed.
It’d be an opportunity to see Jane—should that make him say yes or run like hell?
He couldn’t stand the Thanes. That would be an immediate problem.
Not to mention, Chance didn’t like the monotonous wait-and-see of a security position.
He’d tried his hand alongside Liam before they’d joined Aces.
While he would gladly do it again for a buddy, Chance wouldn’t consider it for the Thanes. Except… that he’d see Jane.
“The thing is,” Jared interrupted his thoughts. “Gigi Thane specifically requested you.”
“Me?” Chance rubbed the back of his neck. “Why?”
“She wouldn’t say.” The room stayed quiet while Jared paused. “If they hadn’t received new threats, then I’d be a hell of a lot more likely to ignore her request and pass the job along.”
“There are new threats?” he asked.
“Apparently. Something about privacy invasions and reporters treading too close to the family.” Jared’s lips thinned. “I’d call them concerns. Either way, she asked for you.”
With everyone watching him, Chance couldn’t stop thinking about the opportunity to see Jane again.
And, the more he thought about her, the more he realized he couldn’t—or at least, shouldn’t—see her again.
Were his teammates thinking the same thing?
Chance glanced around the room. “That’s why you met without me? ”
“I wanted to know their opinions,” Jared said.
Chance swallowed hard. “About?”
“Whether or not this job would fuck you up.”
“I’m not going to fuck up—”
“I asked if the job would fuck you up or not,” Jared clarified.
His eyebrows arched, and while he trusted his teammates with his life, he didn’t know what they’d say to that question. Hell, he didn’t know what they saw or thought they knew. Chance rolled his lips together. “I’m not going to let a gig mess me up.”
Jared’s eyes narrowed. “What about a woman?”
A long, heavy silence hung over the room. Chance swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t let a woman mess me up.”
Forever ticked by. Finally, Jared nodded. “They agree.”
Thank fuck for that. Relief rolled down his back, but still, Chance couldn’t relax. “Then, you’re sending me to the Thanes?”
An uncontrollable excitement pulsed through his veins. Jane was the reason, and he didn’t like it. Time and time, he’d seen men ruin their lives when their dicks made their choices. Was that happening now?
“Are you agreeing to go?” Jared asked.
The correct answer was hell no. But, of course he was. Chance couldn’t walk away from an opportunity to see Jane. “Guess so.”
Chance didn’t say another word during the rest of the meeting. Finally, it ended, and he pushed out of his seat, stalked to the door, and almost jogged down the hallway in search of fresh air.
The main lobby was a whirl of activity. A forklift beeped as it lifted material to the scaffolding. The quiet hum of repairs multiplied in the cavernous space. Chance stopped and watched a group unload the forklift, wondering what the walls might look like when they were finished.
Liam and Hagan joined him, each flanking his side.
“What do you think it’s going to look like?” Hagan asked. “The only thing I can come up with is expensive.”
“Is that a color?” Liam asked.
Hagan chuckled. “And a texture.”
“Yeah, this place is going to look pricey,” Liam finally said, then turned to Chance. “So, the Thanes?”
Hagan turned into the conversation. “You agreed easier than I would’ve guessed.”
Chance didn’t like what this was leading up to. “Is that right?”
“Hagan and I were talking,” Liam said.
“Of course you were.”
“And we have questions,” Hagan finished.
The two of them exchanged smirks like schoolboys in the back of the classroom. Chance acted as though he couldn’t tell and didn’t care. “About?”
“What the hell happened between you and Jane?” Liam asked, raising his eyebrows in unison with Hagan like they’d rehearsed it all morning.
He feigned cluelessness. “Nothing.”
“Give me a break,” Hagan laughed. “I talked with her on the plane—”
Chance lifted his hand. “Don’t tell me.”
Liam shrugged. “Chelsea thought—”
“Chelsea? Why does your wife have anything to say?” His skin felt too tight. Not only had his teammates made assumptions about his time with Jane, they were discussing outside the team.
Liam punched Chance’s arm and chuckled. “Aw, shucks, Midas. If I didn’t know better, bro, I’d say you had a little crush on your hands.”
Chance wasn’t willing to touch the accusation. “Screw off, guys. Liam, if you want the assignment, it’s yours. No skin off my nose.”
Liam grinned. “Hell no. Chelsea would skin my ass if you didn’t spend time with your girl.”
“She’s not my—”
Hagan sighed. “Chance and Jane would have cute kids.”
“Very,” Liam concurred, with equal wry. “Will they invite the Thanes to the nuptials?”
“Good question.” Hagan barely kept a straight face.
Chance growled.
Hagan folded over with laughter and slapped his leg. “What an image.”
“Another happy couple.” Liam contained his laughter. “I was getting sick of being the only family man around here.” But then he broke and cracked up.
Chance shoved his hands into his pockets. “Hardy, har, har, dicks.”
Hagan and Liam only howled louder. Chance searched for a reasonable excuse to hightail away from the conversation without looking like he couldn’t handle their ribbing. In truth, he couldn’t. Didn’t that just grate his nuts.
“All right, all right.” Hagan, perhaps sensing Chance’s growing agitation, settled down and then slapped him on the back. “We’re just giving you hell.”
Maybe Chance deserved a little razzing from Liam.
Chance had outed his friend’s quiet relationship in the name of security.
Chelsea’s life had been in danger, but Liam went on to marry her.
It worked out in the end. But Hagan didn’t have a reason to bust Chance in the balls.
He pointed at Hagan. “When your time comes…”
“Wait.” Liam arched his eyebrows with renewed interest. “Are you saying your time has come?”
“Hell.” Chance glowered and waved them away without success. It didn’t work, so he turned for the stairwell.
“Midas,” Hagan called.
Chance turned but kept walking backward. “What?”
Hagan lifted his chin, still jovial but far more subdued. “She’s a good girl.”
He stopped. “Yeah, I know that.”
“Whatever happens when you see Jane…” Hagan tilted his head with a humorless grin. “Don’t overthink it.”
“I never overthink.”
“And,” Liam said. “Never underestimate a woman who walked out of hell and smiled the next day.”
Chance could picture Jane’s smile while she had been in hell. But, he’d keep that to himself. “Who knew you two were such oracles of wisdom?”