Page 24 of Playing With Danger

“Thank you, Valentine. I needed to hear that—all of it. And thank you for not blowing sunshine and saying it straight.”

“Like I’d ever try to pull shit over on you,” I teased.

“You know what I’m saying,” she said softly.

I did know.

Sunny worked hard at being genderless. She didn’t want to be treated like ‘the girl on the team.’ She just wanted to be respected as a member of the team. Something that honestly was hard for the rest of us to get used to. Not because she wasn’t skilled and could hold her own. She was the best on the range—that went for both our team and Bravo. She more than carried her weight on every callout. She earned respect as a cop then as a SWAT officer. The difficulty was fueled by instinct. Every man on our team shared a common belief—women and children were to be protected at all costs. We could pretend Shiloh wasn’t a woman and just a valued teammate but the bottom-line truth was, any one of us would move to protect her if it came down to her or a man on the team. I would never forgive a teammate for saving me over her. And none of them would forgive me if I made the call to save them and let her swing. In no other way did any of us treat her differently. And she’d be pissed as shit if she knew we had an unspoken pact—Shiloh Kent, now Marcou, above all others.

“I know what you’re saying,” I confirmed. “Now, are you just gonna stand there the rest of the day holding that stick you pissed on, or are you gonna toss it and get home to your husband?”

“It is pretty gross, isn’t it?” She laughed.

“Disgusting,” I corrected.

“Luke’s at work and if I go home I’ll be tempted to call Echo and ream his ass, something I can’t do because I know he’s neck-deep in a case. Which means my next choice would be River to complain about what a loud-mouthed asshole his brother is. But I can’t do that because he’ll turn the tables and ream my ass for not telling him my period was late?—”

I held up my hand to stop her.

“Can you do me a favor and never again discuss your period with me?”

“Please tell me you’re not one of those men who are afraid of tampons.”

“Nope. I have a box in my locker. They make excellent barrel cleaners.”

Speaking of lockers. I made my way to mine and started in on the combo while I added, “Now, those diapers with wings? Yeah, no.”

“So you’re saying if your wife needed you to go to the store to pick her up pads you wouldn’t do it?”

There would never be a wife.

I yanked open my locker, grabbed my wallet, and slammed it shut.

“I just added a new line item on the dealbreaker list.”

“I don’t know if I should tell you you’re dumb or you’re an asshole.”

“How about you say nothing and instead throw the pee stick away, wash your hands, and follow me to TC? You can see your man, I’ll talk to Dylan, then we’ll throw a few down range and blow off some steam.”

That was when Shiloh Marcou blew my mind.

She slowly made her way to me—with the piss stick still in her hand—and stopped in front of me. With a look I’d never in my life seen on her face—which was to say I now understood why Luke fell so fast and hard—she rolled up onto the toes of her boots and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“Thank you for knowing exactly the right thing to say and exactly the right thing I needed.”

When she rolled back down she thankfully headed to the trash can. Then she disappeared back into the bathrooms, leaving me wishing all women were as simple as Sunny.

My mind went to Sophie and I wondered if she’d be down with straight talk followed by shooting high-powered weapons at mannequins.

8

I was sweating.

I blamed Valentine for that.

With more force than necessary, I lifted the corner of my mattress near the wall to tuck the bedsheet’s elastic edge under it. You know the one corner that’s a huge pain in the ass because the wall and the nightstand is in the way and you have to pull the fitted sheet with all your might since the other three corners are already done? Yeah, that last pain-in-the-ass corner. That wasn’t why I was sweating—okay, it was part of the reason. But the bigger part was I’d had a minor incident in the bathroom and had to open up all the windows and prop the front door open to air out the apartment. And since I loved planet Earth I turned off the AC since all the windows were open. Not to mention, electricity was expensive. Though it was more about the planet than the bill.

I dropped the mattress back in place and banged my wrist on the nightstand.

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