Page 79 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 10

Five Weeks Later

Damn it felt strange to return to the polluted surface after spending six weeks in a beautiful fantasy land. Matteo stepped off the elevator and approached Cartwright’s office on the seventh floor of MIRAGE’s headquarters.

The man’s personal assistant greeted him from her desk on the right. She’d been a fixture there for the past fifteen years, a sweet and matronly figure with the same glossy silver bun and horn-rimmed librarian glasses perched on her nose. At the sight of him, her face broke into a genuine smile.“Good afternoon, Colonel Rossi. You’re early!”

He flashed her a friendly smile.“Hello, Miss Suzie. Having a good day?”

“Every day that I open my eyes is a good day, dear. General Cartwright is on the phone right now with the president. If you’ll just have a seat, I’ll send you in the moment he’s done.”

“Sure, sure.”

He settled on a plush chair and waited, still unaccustomed to wearing suit and jacket. He’d somehow tamed his unruly curls with a brush, reluctant to buzz them down to the usual close-shorn length.El liked his curls, and if he closed his eyes, if he concentrated just a little, he could still imagine her fingers running over his scalp.

Not that it mattered whether she’d liked them or not, considering she was thousands of miles away in Atlantis.Fuck. That woman had wrecked him. Really fucking wrecked him.

Irritated, he glowered out a window until he glanced up to see the perpetually smiling Miss Suzie offering him a cup of coffee.“You look like you could use this.”

After plastering what he hoped was a sincere smile to his face, he took the mug. “Thanks.”

Matteo sipped and ruminated over the previous day—awakening on the Salamander for the first night in six weeks—and the indifferent farewell between him and Elpis after a night he’d apparently misinterpreted. He scowled at the cup until the secretarysent him into the office, relocating him from one chair to another opposite the big man himself. Cartwright’s personality was as big as his barrel chest, the guy still enormous and brawny well into his old age because the gym had always been his greatest love, next to the now-deceased Mrs. Cartwright.

Who was Matteo to judge if pumping iron and still benching over two-fifty made the guy feel forever young?

“How’s it feel to be back on dry land, son?”

“Feels like being home,” he lied, missing the serene view of an ocean rife with activity and beautiful life.

“Good. Good. So. Bravo squad is en route to meet with the Anemone to begin their six-week training rotation. Tell me, what did you think of it? You feel confident about piloting those machines?”

“More than confident, sir. Pretty sure I could maneuver one with my eyes closed.”

“Excellent. The president wanted some reassurance that the money we’re spending on this little project is worth its investment. He doesn’t trust these fishpeople, and to be honest, neither do I. But I do trust you. You have a good sense for people and their intentions. Always have.”

“Thanks. That means a lot to me, sir.”

“Now, given any thought to what you’ll do with this…training bonus?”

Matteo leaned back in his seat, smirking. He made more money as part of MIRAGE’s special task force than he ever had stationed at a base or aboard a ship.“I’m not complaining about the money, but I’m too exhausted to go out and spend it, Cartwright. Those mers know how to work a man.”

“Good. Throw all of it into a savings account. Better yet, invest it. You’re old enough to begin thinking about your future, son. You won’t be in fighting shape your entire life.” The old man grinned. “Ask me how I know.”

Matteo rolled his eyes. “I’m forty-two. I have enough years left in this career to enjoy a little gratuitous spending without fretting over my 401k plan. Besides, when I’m done doing this, I’m coming for your job.”

“Good luck. I plan to live to one hundred, and after that, maybe I’ll have them plug my brain into one of their super computers, so the good work can continue. You’ll never be rid of me.” He tapped the ash off his cigar and leaned forward. “Now, enough small talk. What did you learn about this underwater city. I need the goods.”

“Not as much as you hoped. I doubt I’ve learned more about them than what you probably already know,” he lied unashamedly.

Maybe it made him a traitor to his own species, but he’d tear the pins from his own uniform before he shared Atlantis’s secrets beyond their kingdom. Whether it was a misguided sense of loyalty or something deeper, it didn’t feel right.

His only regret was that Elpis hadn’t given him the chance to say goodbye in private. During GHOST team’s departure, the commander had been one hundred percent professional, as if the previous night between them—an evening seared into his memory by lust and affection—had never happened at all.

After spending ten weeks straight on duty, nothing appealed more to Matteo than loafing on the sofa in his underwear while drinking beer. The solitude lasted two days.Then the phone calls began.

His mother wanted to know when he’d visit her in Brooklyn. Didn’t he understand she was only a short drive away?He could be there in three hours. His sister-in-law wanted him to know his nieces and nephews missed him; a good uncle would have come down the hall to see them at once upon returning.An ex loaded his phone with three weeks of messages, the long string of attempted booty call texts including shots of her tits and a promise to “treat him right” when he returned from his recent deployment. Unluckily for her, he’d vowed after their last hookup to give up self-destructive habits like playing with snakes.

On the eighth day of his blissful vacation, his brother hammered on the apartment door. He considered pretending to be gone, until his phone rang off the hook. He reluctantly answered the third call from Antonio.

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