Page 82 of Special Ops Seduction

“Everyone’s feelings on the Garden State are noted,” Isaac said when that had gone on for a while. “We’re going to break this up into two teams, because I think we have to get a move on this, and also, I’m pissed. I don’t like that Dominic Carter, Judson Kerrigone, or whoever he is, tracked us. I don’t like him at that wedding, I’m not happy about biological weapons that close to a major metropolitan area, and mostly, I want to personally express my feelings about an individual who almost killed two people standing in this room.”

“Hear, hear,” Templeton drawled.

And the rest of the group echoed him, while Bethan found herself lost once more in Jonas’s dark, deep gaze. She wished it didn’t feel as much like finding herself at the same time, because she should know better.

Isaac issued assignments, ignoring the heated argument that sprang up over who got to go. Because everybody wanted in on this one. Bethan was back on the originalteam that had gone into the South American high desert, plus Blue, which suited her fine. They all nodded at one another, then focused on the rest of the briefing.

“I’m downloading schematics and mission parameters to your tablets,” Oz told them. “Go take care of your personal business, and then let’s be back here after lunch to really dig into it.”

“We’ll fly out tonight,” Isaac added. He nodded at Jonas, and thereby the rest of the California team. “Let’s do the wedding debrief in thirty.”

Then there was the usual flurry of activity that followed mission guidelines as everybody went to sort themselves out. Some people had to talk to significant others. Others simply had to pack their go bag and make sure anything that needed switching off in their cabin was taken care of. Others had to make phone calls.

Bethan went back to her cabin, packed and closed up in an easy ten minutes, then headed back down to the lodge, where she planned to find a quiet corner and study what Oz had sent to her tablet before the debriefing.

When she got to the lodge’s front doors, Kate and Caradine were standing there, while Horatio sat at Caradine’s feet. They were talking while leaning against the rail that looked over the cove, the water still draped in ribbons of fog.

“I would’ve thought you’d be back in Grizzly Harbor,” Bethan said as she joined them. “Aren’t you usually open for lunch?”

“Otis Taggert pissed me off,” Caradine said with her trademark smirk. “So I closed for the day. If people are mad about it, they can take it up with him or snack on whatever treats he offers in the Bait & Tackle.”

“He’s the one who has that grudge against Isaac, right?” Kate asked.

Both Bethan and Caradine were well aware by now that Trooper Kate Holiday very rarely asked questions she didn’t already know the answers to.

But Caradine didn’t seem to mind. “Apparently he has an epic generational grudge against all members of the Gentry family. Whatever. He can explain to all the fishermen why they couldn’t get their coffee this morning.”

“To be clear,” Kate said, not quite grinning as she met Bethan’s gaze, “she didn’t just close the café. She put up a sign in the window stating exactly why.”

“Of course she did,” Bethan said, and couldn’t keep her own laugh back.

“He said some things about Isaac I didn’t care for, three seats away from me in the Fairweather.” Caradine smiled a lot more now than she used to, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t an edgy affair. “One of the benefits of small-town life is being able to respond in kind.”

As the other two started talking about the particular Alaskan flavor of small-town life here, Bethan couldn’t keep herself from thinking about last night. It had been a dream come true and a nightmare in the making all at once, because Bethan didn’t know how on earth she was going to live here, in the one place she’d ever felt like she belonged, when Jonas was here, too.

Because unless she was missing something, while he might have enjoyed having sex with her, he not only had no plans to take it further than that but probably wouldn’t even know what that looked like.

Sometimes she thought about the things that man had faced, long before he’d joined the service and become his own personal war machine, and she wanted to cry. Sob out loud. And then break things.

A sentiment she doubted very much he would appreciate.

“You have a very strange look on your face,” Caradine said, snapping Bethan back to the here and now.

“It’s just my face,” Bethan said, but she wiped her expression blank.

Caradine looked unconvinced.

Kate, on the other hand, looked far more speculative. “How was it? Playing wedding dates with Jonas?”

“How do you think it was?” Bethan adjusted the duffel bag she was carrying on her shoulder, though it didn’t need adjusting. “Always the life of the party, that one.”

“If I was the kind of person to ask questions like this,” Caradine said, as if to herself, “I would want to know why you have a little mark. Right here.” She pointed to her clavicle, making Bethan freeze.

Somehow she managed to avoid slapping her own hand to her collarbone. “I don’t have a mark there,” she said flatly.

Kate laughed. “You don’t. But now you’re blushing.”

“I don’t blush,” Bethan gritted out.

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