by Jen Doyle
Opening her eyes, she wasn’t quite ready to speak. Of course they were on for dinner; it wasn’t something she had any intention of missing even if she’d been dreading it since he'd brought it up last week—parents weren’t her strong suit. And that was nothing compared to how petrified she was about spending time with his kids. The kids she was a hundred percent certain would not be welcoming her eagerly.
She nodded and followed him as he walked across the room.
Ian opened his door and gestured for her to go ahead. “Good. Mom’s outdoing herself—she said she wanted to make a good impression on you and Morgan.”
Lyndsey ignored the curious looks she got as they walked down the hall. “Your mom wants to impress us?”
Ian smiled. “She’s funny that way.” He paused when they came to the door to the conference room. “Ready?”
Absolutely, Lyndsey thought as they walked in. Although she’d been nervous about her performance in her first meeting for this job—only a week ago—this was the kind of room she was good in. These men and women might challenge her and make her prove she could hold her own, but she knew they’d have no issues once they saw what she could do. Plus it didn’t hurt that Ian had already given her a heads up as to who the leadership team was, even though they’d most likely make themselves known once the meeting started.
There were Ian and Matt, of course. And Bobby Sprague, who had been in the first meeting she’d been at with Monica and then again had been up in Ottawa with them the week before. Jarod Brooks, the team’s medic, was the buff guy with the closely cropped dark hair and silver beard sitting in the corner. The even more buff guy but with a much shaggier haircut and beard sitting opposite her was Wyatt Brady, the team’s lead communications officer. The rest of the men in the room blended together—mostly mid-twenties to early-thirties and despite their casual dress, all unmistakably military.
There were only two other women in the room—Wendy, of course, and Ana Rodrigues, Brady’s ‘second’ in communications and the only female member on the team that was going to Canada. At least with this team Lyndsey wouldn’t have to overcome the fact that she was a woman; the outsider part, however, might be a bit of a deal. And outsider she clearly was, based on the easygoing camaraderie in the room as the men took their seats. There was no question this group had worked together for a long time.
Lyndsey opened the bottle of water sitting in front of her place and poured it into the glass.
Well, okay then. It was time to get the party started.
2
Ian settled into his seat, his eyes on Lyndsey as she scanned the room. They were here today for two reasons: to introduce the team to Lyndsey and her crew from ZSJ, and to bring them all up to date on the mission ahead of them and the mystery that had been unraveling in the woods of Quetico Provincial Park in Northwestern Ontario. Over the course of two years, ten hikers had disappeared, their bodies turning up weeks or months later. What set it apart from the run-of-the-mill serial killer investigation—and the reason the Task Force had been called in—was that each of the dead hikers was a young, fit, athletic man, and that there was no discernible cause of death other than the fact that their hearts had stopped beating. They also had markings all over their bodies that resembled full body tattoos that hadn’t been there when they disappeared. With four more men missing—and no explanation in sight—the police were at their wits’ end. The police chief had reached out to Ian through back channels, but once it became official, politics were involved, bringing on a whole host of new problems. Since one of those new problems—ZSJ being brought in as a consultant—also meant Lyndsey was back in his life, he’d decided to just be grateful about it and go from there.
But her presence was nearly overwhelming. It wasn’t just her long blonde hair, or her wide, green eyes, or the way every inch of her skin made his mouth water, although that shouldn’t be discounted by any means. But, no. It was the sharpness in her gaze. The way the air electrified his skin the moment she was within sight. The way he had to fight not to fall to his knees and bring her to his mouth at the hint of her scent. And then add on the fact that through some twist of nature she shared the same bloodline that started with an Egyptian goddess and had worked its way through ages’ worth of women warriors from the Scythian women to the Amazons to Joan of Arc, and could therefore pretty much kill him with the flick of her wrist...
Thanks to the drugs they’d given him during the Study—the ones derived from Lyndsey’s own blood—he was stronger than your average human; faster, too. But it came much closer to elite athlete status than anything she was capable of. And, son of a bitch, that turned him on.
Forcing himself to turn his head so she wasn’t in his line of sight, he took his seat. “Do we have Tessa?”
Wendy nodded as she lowered the screen for video-conferencing Tessa in. “Ready when you are.”
Tessa Sridhar-McTeague was one of Lyndsey’s colleagues at ZSJ, the private security firm his team would be partnered with for the next several weeks. Tessa also happened to be Lyndsey’s best friend of almost twenty years. He’d asked Wendy to start them off via phone ostensibly to ease her into the meeting with the team, but that was probably more for his sake than hers. Despite her pixie-ish stature, she’d scared the shit out of Ian even all those years ago. She’d just been so damn smart. Between Lyndsey being able to take someone down with the swat of her hand, and Tessa with a single word, they’d been a formidable team. And that was before Tessa had become a world-class expert on magic, sorcery and witchcraft. According to Emily, his own team’s head of research, at least.
Hell. It was a good thing she hadn’t picked up those skills a decade and a half ago, because if she had, she probably would have boiled him alive in her cauldron. The woman’s loyalty to her best friend was without question, and this would be the first time he’d spoken to her since he’d left California in ruins sixteen years ago.
So, well, here goes. He nodded to Wendy and picked up the receiver of the phone in front of him. “Tessa? It’s Ian. Thanks for doing this today. Wendy said—”
“Oh, hell, no. We are not starting off with small talk,” Tessa replied, the smile and steel in her voice equally strong. “Turn that monitor on, Ian. I want to see you after all this time.”
So apparently there wouldn’t be a chance to get fully ready. All in, Fox. All in.
Overcoming his reluctance, Ian leaned forward. He bypassed the part that would bring up the surrounding speakers—he wasn’t quite ready for the conversation to be broadcast to everyone in the room. But he touched the keypad in front of him and brought Tessa’s image up on the screen.
Even though he’d tried to prepare for this, Ian’s heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t just seeing Tessa, although it was striking that so much about her was still familiar: wide, warm eyes; rich, brown skin; and long ebony hair with a streak of red running back from her temple. Seeing her brought back even more memories than he’d been prepared for. It wasn’t just Lyndsey he’d lost, it was all of them. Tessa’s boyfriend, Rob, had been the closest Ian had gotten to having a friend outside of the military since he’d left college. Morgan, the kid sister he’d never had. And, Tessa, well, he didn’t even know how to describe what she’d meant to him.
His smile broadened. “You’ve barely changed.”
Tessa’s response was a grin. She sat back in her chair and gave him an appraising look. “The years have been kind to you.”
“Some kinder than others.”
“What doesn’t kill you…” she answered, her sadness probably matching his own. From what Lyndsey had told him, Tessa and Rob had been engaged when Rob was killed. Ian didn’t need to know any more of the details but he could feel it in his bones.
It was freeing, actually. There was no need to put her at ease; no need to worry about handling her reaction to his own loss. Not that he didn’t appreciate the attempts people made to find the right words when they spoke about Abby, but the difference between sympathy and
empathy was a chasm he preferred not to cross.
“I’m sorry,” was all she had to say.
He nodded his acknowledgment. “To you as well.”
Tessa’s eyes filled as she looked away. She smiled, though. “I’ve really missed you, Ian Fox.”
Ian sat back in his seat. He’d missed her, too; to be honest, he hadn’t realized quite how much. She knew things about him that even Matt didn’t; understood things Lyndsey couldn’t. That had been the case almost since the day he’d first seen Lyndsey, when Tessa was the one he’d turned to for help in those awkward first few weeks. He’d fallen for Lyndsey harder than for anyone else he’d ever met—had known from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her that she was different. That she could break him. And yet he’d also known he’d regret not making the attempt so he’d enlisted Tessa. After vetting him fully—She is beyond special, Tessa had said back then, with a dangerously off-putting warm and welcoming smile, and I will seriously kill anyone who hurts her, even if I have to join the Army myself to learn how to stealthily annihilate you—she’d decided he was worthy. Whether she still felt that to be the case remained to be seen.
His eyes went down to the table in front of him as he was hit with a nearly overwhelming wave of emotion, one he’d been able to avoid giving in to so far. Struggling to keep it from his voice now, however, he knew he wasn’t entirely successful as he scratchily answered, “The feeling’s mutual.” Before either Tessa or Lyndsey could comment, however, he briskly added, “Tessa, I’m putting you on the speakers. Ready?”
As soon as Ian hit the button to turn on the speakers, Tessa’s eyes swept the room. She broke into a broad grin as they came to a rest on Matt. “Well, if it isn’t Matt Lee himself. Look at you, all grown up. Nice to see you again.”
“You, too,” Matt answered. “Lyndsey tells us you’ve become quite the expert in your field.”
“Right back at ’ya,” Tessa responded. “‘Hand-picked by the President’?” She laughed. “Lee and Fox? Who’d’ve thought?”
Hand-picked? Sure, the General had been known to have a meal at the White House on occasion, and Ian had no doubt they were one of his top teams. Considering his whole whistle-blowing history and, oh, the interspecies war that followed, well, he wasn’t surprised Tessa was laughing. “Certainly no one from back in the day,” he said.
Matt grinned as he looked up at Tessa. “I had no doubts whatsoever we’d be answering to the President someday. I just always figured that would be you.”
“My, oh my.” Tessa laughed. “You clearly still have that whole charming thing down pat.” Her eyes went to Lyndsey. “And here I thought we’d need to be reminding them of what we can do.”
Though still smiling, Matt’s voice took on a bit harder an edge. “Have no doubt. Lyndsey’s been making that clear since last week.” Well aware every person in the room was by now hanging on every word being exchanged, Matt turned his attention to the group. “Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Lyndsey Daniels and Tessa Sridhar-McTeague; you’ll be getting to know them well during the coming weeks as they’ll be working closely with us on this op.”
The ripple of tension that ran through the room was obvious enough for Lyndsey to straighten up in her chair, her eyes narrowing a bit as she surveyed the room. Working with outsiders wasn’t an entirely unusual experience, so everyone knew enough to put their game faces on pretty quickly; it certainly wasn’t anyone’s preferred way of operating, however, so that was what Matt addressed first.
“Your briefing books will tell you all about their firm, ZSJ Security Services, which is based out of San Francisco and has been hired by Monica Cain, the special assistant to Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, to work with us,” said Matt. “What it won’t tell you, however, is that Lyndsey and Tessa are friends of Ian’s and mine from way back and that ZSJ is accomplished, highly capable, and tested—the best in the business…”—he grinned—“…outside of us, of course.” He looked around the room, meeting people’s eyes, waiting for those who turned away to turn back. “And Zachary St. John, ZSJ’s founding partner,” Matt continued, “is someone I’ve personally worked with quite closely.”
Also Lyndsey’s ex and a vampire whom Ian could happily live without ever seeing again, points of information that were most definitely not in the briefing books. Nor was the part about Matt being the one to work with Lyndsey and Zachary sixteen years before since Ian had been deployed to various parts of the world, all of which had the key distinction of being as far away from the destruction he’d wrought in California as possible.
Ian picked up the thread. “We’ll also be working closely with their colleague, Tom Catalano, who we had the chance to meet earlier this week.” And who, incidentally, had some special capabilities of his own. But since the man was a demon with a specialty in mind-reading and mind-control—and those terms tended to raise a lot of red flags, some of which would no doubt be picked up by the mother ship in D.C.—Ian and Matt had decided not to go into them here.
“Since ZSJ will be out in the field with us, Matt and I wanted to make this point unquestionably clear…” He took the time to make eye contact with the guys he knew would be the holdouts, his gaze sweeping the room. “There are no territorial issues here, no politics going on between us and ZSJ. That stays outside of the park. Their goal here is the same as ours: to make this problem go away. We treat ZSJ staff the way we treat our own. If Lyndsey or Tom issues a command, you follow it. If Tessa or Zachary calls on you for something, you do it. Understood?”
A quick glance at Lyndsey showed she was well aware of what they’d just done. Considering that the last time she’d been on the same battlefield as men and women representing the government they’d been gunning for her, it obviously meant a lot.
Before anyone had a chance to voice any concerns, Matt added, “Some of you may feel uncomfortable working with civilians; might think they lack the sufficient training to hold up their end, particularly if those civilians happen to be tiny blondes.” A smile appeared on Matt’s face, most likely because the man had held those views himself at one point in time. “This particular tiny blonde is one of a very few known descendants of an ancient warrior named Sekhmet—we’ve provided some basic info in your briefing books but feel free to look her up—and I have no doubt you’ll be entirely on board by the end of the day.”
And now it was time for Ian to put his own game face on. He trusted his team—the men and women around this table were as close to him as his own family. But with the exception of Emily, there was a whole other faction in D.C. he wasn’t nearly as comfortable with. And since he suspected there were eyes and ears throughout the building, the less they said about Lyndsey the better. Still, he agreed with Matt that the team needed to know what Lyndsey brought to the table.
Knowing he had everyone’s attention, Matt leaned forward. “If you’ve done your homework, Lyndsey, Zachary, and Tessa’s names should at least sound familiar. The so-called ‘Monster Wars’? If it weren’t for the people behind ZSJ, none of us would be standing here today. And if the rumors you’ve heard about the Sausalito Study were true”—he cocked an eyebrow—“which, of course, as you all know, they officially aren’t, they would have been instrumental in bringing that to its eventual end as well.”
Matt turned to Lyndsey. “Anything you’d like to add?”
Lyndsey looked as surprised as Ian was that Matt had opened up the floor to her. “Um, okay. Thanks.” She stood up. Resting her hands on the table in front of her, she said, “We’ve, um, known Ian and Matt for a long time and are…” Blushing, her eyes went down to the floor and then very deliberately not towards Ian as she looked up again. She seemed to be trying not to smile. “…Really happy to be working with them—I mean, all of you—again. We’ve got some great people on our team who you’ll get to meet next week. Tessa…”—she waved her hand up towards the screen—“is one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet and nicer than anyone should be. As for me, well…�
� A huge grin came over her face. “I really like to kick ass.”
There was some laughter, a few cheers—and a whole lot of guys who were suddenly very interested in working extremely closely with the woman Ian was in love with.
No. Had been in love with. And was now in major let’s-see-where-this-takes-us mode with. Because, considering the epic failure their relationship had been the first time around, he needed to be sure not to get too ahead of himself. Which was proving harder than he’d expected it to be, damn it, and that didn’t bode well.
Ian stood up abruptly. “Are we done?”
Although his curtness wasn’t aimed at Lyndsey, she took it that way. “Absolutely not,” she snapped, glaring at him. Then she smiled at the rest of the room as she sat back down. “Thank you.” She turned to him. “Okay. Now you can go.”
That, of course, earned a new round of cheers.
And, yes, even Ian smiled. It would do him well to remember that Lyndsey was unlikely to follow the protocols he was used to.
Leaning forward, he punched a few keys on the wireless keyboard on the table in front of him. A map of Minnesota appeared on the wall to the right of the video conferencing screen. A red circle appeared around the northern part of Minnesota. “This is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area,” Ian said. “It connects up with Quetico Provincial Park on the border with Canada.” He hit a few keys so that the perspective shifted from the Minnesota part to Quetico. At almost exactly 12:00 on the screen, there was a dot indicating the Park headquarters; to the left of that, the town of Atikokan.
“The park administrator—Julianna Langdon—isn’t exactly a friendly,” Ian said, “so we’ve decided to set up Command in Atikokan proper instead. As you all know, we met Langdon and some of her staff at the meeting here in Boston last week, and then we were up in Ottawa earlier this week as well. We need to head back up there for another meeting first, but from there we’ll be heading to Atikokan and then into the Park itself.”