For a couple of seconds, Chay kept on staring. Then he grinned.
“Fuck,” he said, and the men grabbed each other in the kind of embrace that would have pleased a pair of male grizzlies. “Dude,” he said, when they finally stepped apart, “what are you doin’ here? Why aren’t you back home in South Dakota, chasing cows or horses or whatever it is you do on that ranch of yours?”
“You know damn well what I do, Olivieri, because you did enough of it when we were growing up. Here’s a better question. What are you doing here?”
Chay took an exaggerated look around him.
“Let me think a minute,” he said. “Uh, having a beer? I don’t know, man. I mean, why else would I be in the LZ?”
Tanner laughed. “You were supposed to be away. Deployed until late next week. Meaning, we weren’t going to get to see each other.”
“Yeah. Well, we got picked up early.”
“Mission went faster than expected?” Tanner’s smile tilted. “Or mission aborted?”
“It went,” Chay said, with a flatness to his voice that said he didn’t want to discuss what had gone down. “Here’s my better question. What are you doing in California?”
“ Dude, didn’t you get any of my emails?”
“Bad wireless where I was,” Chay said with a wry smile. “What emails?”
“The ones I sent, telling you I was going to be here for a few days.”
“Never got one.”
The men sat down across from each other. “Do I want to know where you spent the past few weeks?” Tanner asked.
Chay shrugged. “The same garden spot where we put in three wonderful months when you were still with the unit.”
Tanner’s hand automatically went to his thigh and the wound that had almost killed him.
“Lucky you. I bet it was even more fun this time around.”
The image of the kid flashed through Chay’s mind. He reached for the bottle of ale, wrapped both hands around it, felt the coolness of the glass burn into his soul.
“It was okay.”
Tanner eyed his friend. He knew that those words were a long way from the truth.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked softly.
Chay shook his head. “No.”
“Yeah. That’s cool.” Tanner cleared his throat. “So what’s the deal? Am I supposed to sit here and watch you massage that bottle to death?”
Chay laughed. A real laugh, and that struck him as a very good thing. He lifted his hand, waggled it. The waitress appeared almost immediately, which was another great thing about the LZ. The waitstaff knew how to keep the clientele happy.
“What can I get you?”
“An ale for my friend. And maybe some peanuts. That okay with you, Akecheta?”
“Sure.”
The waitress headed for the bar. Chay leaned across the table.
“So what are you doing here? I hope you’re gonna say you decided to come on board as an instructor.”
“No. Well, yes and no. I’ve agreed to do a couple of days to help destroy the egos of the new class.”
Both men laughed.
“Yeah,” said Chay. “I remember how that goes. But seriously, only a couple of days?”
“ I have to get back to the Flying Eagle.”
“Your ranch.”
“Right.”
“You’re happy there?”
“I thought I’d miss everything. The missions. The unit. The whole thing.” They sat back as the waitress put the ale and a bowl of nuts on the table. “And, hell, I’m not gonna lie,” Tanner said, after she’d left. “I do miss it, sometimes. The unit especially.”
Chay nodded. “Figures you would.”
“But then I look around me. The land, the hills…”
Chay’s eyebrows rose. “If you launch into a tune from The Sound of Music, you’ll be in real trouble.”
Tanner laughed.
“Okay. Maybe I’m going overboard, but—”
“No,” Chay said quietly. “I’m just giving you a hard time. It’s beautiful country. I’ve never denied that.”
“Yeah.” Tanner cleared his throat. “And we’re fixing things up. The house. The outbuildings. Come for a visit. Wait’ll you see what we’ve done with the place.”
“We.” Chay smiled. “Married life turns out to be good, huh?”
“It’s not married life. It’s Alessandra.”
“Anybody ever tell you you get a goofy look on your face when you say her name?”
“No.” Tanner grinned. “And if anybody ever did, I’d probably slug him.” His smile tilted. “The thing is, I had no idea. I mean, you know, the one-man, one-woman thing…”
“I’m glad it’s working for you,” Chay said, taking a swig of ale.
“But not for you.”
“Me? Hell, no. You know me, dude. I like my life exactly as it is.”
“Especially since you’re so smooth with the ladies.”
Chay shot Tanner a look. Tanner was trying not to laugh.
“Dammit,” Chay said. “You saw what happened a couple of minutes ago.”
“Some of it. What was that all about? You swearing off women?”
With anyone else, Chay would probably have tossed off a glib answer, but this was Tanner. They’d shared too much in their lives for glib answers.
““I’m just… I don’t know. I’m just feeling out of it tonight.”
“Dude, you change your mind, you want to talk…”
“No. I’m cool.” Chay forced a smile. “This is great. Seeing you, I mean. But where’s Alessandra? Don’t tell me you left her on the ranch.”
“No way. She’s here. She just made a pit stop in the ladies’ room. You know how women are. They can’t pass up the chance to check out each and every—”
“Each and every what?” Alessandra Bellini Wilde Akecheta said as she appeared beside the booth. Both men shot to their feet, and she smiled at Chay. “Hello, handsome.”
“Hey,” Tanner said lightly, “watch that stuff.”
“Alessandra,” Chay said, returning the smile. “It’s great to see you again.”
Alessandra rose on her toes and planted a kiss on his jaw.
“It’s great to see you, too.” She leaned back and her husband wrapped his arm around her waist as he drew her close against him. “I keep asking Tanner when you’re going to come and visit us.”
‘I will. Soon. I promise.”
“I’d love that. I can’t count how many times we go somewhere and Tanner talks about being there with you when you two were boys.”
“I hope he hasn’t told you anything that would ruin my pristine reputation.”
“Of course not,” Alessandra said, and they all laughed.
Tanner eased his wife into the booth. Chay took the seat across from them.
“So,” he said, “how was your trip down?”
“It was great,” Alessandra said. “We took a quick detour to El Sueño. You know. The Wilde ranch in Texas.” She leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder. “Turns out we might be doing some business with Jake.”
“Your stepbrother.”
“Half-brother. Yeah. He’s thinking about getting into breeding Appaloosas. The way we do.”
We, Chay thought. Amazing. So was the way Tanner was looking at his wife. They really were happy. Maybe Tanner had found the one woman in a million a guy could live with—assuming a guy wanted to live with a woman at all. Not that that would change his viewpoint, but if that was what Tanner wanted, good for him.
“So,” he said, “are you guys hungry?”
Alessandra nodded.
“We’re starved. According to my husband, the burgers here are the best in Northern California.”
“The passage of ti
me will screw up a man’s memory,” Chay said, laughing. “No, seriously, they’re good. Or, if you want something else, we can go to that Thai place just up the road. Or that little Italian place up the coast a few miles.”
“Honey?” Tanner said, looking at his wife. “Your choice.”
“I’m fine with whatever you guys want, but why don’t we wait and ask… Oh. Here she is now. Bianca? We’re talking about where to have dinner…Whoops. Sorry. You remember Chay, don’t you?”
Bianca Bellini Wilde, aka Bianca the Tigress, looked down at the man she absolutely, positively loathed, the man any woman with half a brain instantly recognized as a card-carrying male chauvinist, the man she had been assured she would not have to set eyes on because he was out of the country—deployed, in the language of her new brother-in-law—and asked herself what, exactly, she had done to deserve the punishment of having him turn up here.
And how had this trip—this much anticipated vacation—gone so wrong? First the calls to her cellphone in Texas. Ugly calls. Frightening, too, though she’d never admitted just how frightening to Alessandra or Tanner.
Now this. Lieutenant Chayton Olivieri, in the flesh. The man who had embarrassed her. Humiliated her.
Bianca set her jaw.
She’d been helpless in the face of those phone calls.
This was different.
The lieutenant wasn’t into scaring women. He was into dominating them. Too strong a word, maybe, but what else would you call a man who lived and breathed machismo, who couldn’t get through his head the simple fact that not all women were interested in the Neanderthal approach?
Her one satisfaction was that he was staring at her with the same look of shock she suspected was on her own face.
Good, Bianca thought with grim satisfaction.
She hadn’t seen him for months, but she hadn’t forgotten that he’d made her miserable every minute of every hour they’d been forced to spend in each other’s company.
Now it was her turn to return the favor.
CHAPTER TWO
“Of course. Clay. Clay Oliver.”
Smiling, even though she felt as if her lips were glued together, Bianca stuck out her hand as Olivieri rose to his feet. All six feet something of him. She’d forgotten how tall he was. Well, not forgotten, maybe just underestimated. Not that it mattered. What mattered was the flash of irritation in those dark green eyes.
Lovely to see.
Especially because she certainly hadn’t forgotten his name.
She’d simply mangled it deliberately.
“It’s Chay. Chayton Olivieri, Ms. Wilde. Lieutenant Chayton Olivieri.”
His hand closed around hers. His grip was firm, so firm that she knew the only way she’d get her hand back would be by making a fool of herself in a tug of war she’d never win.
She’d just have to wait until he decided to let go.
Okay. One point to the big guy. He was, yes, big and muscled and tough, but perhaps he wasn’t entirely stupid.
“Oh,” she said sweetly, “sorry. I’m bad at remembering names.”
She saw her sister blink. Well, why wouldn’t she? Bianca wasn’t bad at remembering anything, and Alessandra knew it. Names. Dates. The titles of books she’d read a decade ago. In fact, she had close to a photographic memory. It was one of the reasons she’d graduated from New York University with a perfect four-point-oh GPA, why she was heading for her doctorate at a speed her adviser called amazing.
“Unless the names are important, of course,” she added, with a quick and, she hoped, blinding smile.
Olivieri’s green eyes narrowed to slits that all but glowed with intensity. Her sister made the kind of sound a carp might make if it found itself gasping for air on dry land.
Her brother-in-law threw out a lifeline.
“Bianca,” he said brightly. “Excellent timing. We’re just deciding where to have dinner. Thai? Or Italian? You have a preference?”
Chay Olivieri’s eyes were still locked on hers. She wanted to say that what she wanted for dinner was nothing, but why let him think he’d won the round? She shrugged her shoulders.
“Whatever you decide is fine.”
Tanner and Alessandra exchanged looks. “Uh,” Tanner said, “how about the two of you sitting down?”
He made it sound like they were on a date. She started to say she was fine standing up, but the lieutenant chose that moment to let go of her hand, step aside politely—as if he weren’t a hulking brute—and motion her into the booth.
A booth where she’d be trapped between him and the wall.
“That’s all right,” she said quickly. “I mean, if we’re leaving to go somewhere else…”
“We’re going to have a beer first,” Olivieri said. His eyes met hers again. The burning intensity had given way to cool mockery. “If that meets with your approval, of course, Ms. Wilde. Or should that be Bellini-Wilde?” His smile was tight. “I wouldn’t want to get that wrong.”
“Chay,” Tanner said, “listen, bro—”
“Can I get you ladies something?”
Alessandra looked up at the waitress. “Ale for me, please,” she said. “The same as they’re having.”
The waitress nodded and looked at Bianca. “What about you, miss? What would you like?”
Hemlock, Bianca thought. An enormous glass of it for the man whose body was pinning her to the wall. Or would have pinned her to the wall if she hadn’t taken off her shoulder bag and set it between them.
“Miss?”
“Uh, I’d like some water, please.”
“Sure. Ice?”
“Just a little ice. And lemon. Oh, and make that sparkling water.”
The waitress cocked her head. “Club soda?”
“Sparkling. San Pellegrino, but if you don’t have that brand—”
“We might have seltzer.”
“No,” Bianca said politely. “That’s not the same as—”
“She’ll have club soda,” Chay said curtly, “with ice and lemon.”
Bianca glared at him. “That isn’t what I want.”
“It’s what you’re getting.”
“Hey,” Tanner said softly, “dude…”
“Bianca,” Alessandra said quickly, her voice cutting across her husband’s, “how about something else? Ale, maybe? Or a soft drink?”
Bianca hesitated. Was she going to ruin her sister’s evening? More to the point, was she going to let the barbarian seated next to her ruin it? No. She would not. She would, as the Americans said, go with the flow.
“I’ll have some wine.”
Everybody seemed to relax. The waitress nodded, pencil poised.
“Sure. What kind?”
Bianca folded her hands on the tabletop. “What kind do you have?”
“House red. House white. I think Charlie might have some rosė.”
“No. I meant, what types of wine do you have? Say, in the reds. Merlot? Malbec? Maybe a pinot noir? Or perhaps a cabernet. What cabernets do you—”
Chay’s voice cut across hers. “The house red is fine.”
The waitress nodded. “Great choice. One house red, coming up.”
Silence descended over the table, or something that was as close to it as you could get with the Stones blaring from the jukebox.
“I can’t get no satisfaction,” Mick sang.
Neither can I, Bianca thought grimly.
She’d caught the look Alessandra had sent her about the water-and-wine thing. Must you be so finicky? the look said. The accusation was an old one. And definitely unfounded. There was nothing wrong with keeping things organized. With knowing what you wanted.
Let things slip and life turned into chaos.
Amazing that Alessandra had not absorbed that simple lesson from their childhood.
&
nbsp; As for the lieutenant… He deserved whatever she dished out.
“Well,” Tanner said briskly, “here we are. All of us in one place for the first time since Alessandra and I tied the knot.”
“Oh. That’s right,” Bianca said. “That’s where we last saw each other. The ensign and I.”
“It’s lieutenant,” Chay said coldly.
“Of course. Lieutenant. I forgot. I met you at my sister’s wedding.”
“You met me at Camp Condor.”
Bianca batted her lashes. “Really? Were you the one who went out and got us sandwiches?”
Alessandra made a hissing sound.
Chay’s jaw tightened. “I was the one whose job you kept trying to do.”
“Oh. Right. You were the radio operator.”
“I was the COM Op,” Chay said through his teeth.
“And then,” Alessandra said brightly, “you saw each other again at the wedding. In fact, you guys must have spent a lot of time together that weekend.”
“One red,” the waitress said as she put a glass in front of Bianca.
Bianca raised the glass to her nose, sniffed it, then put it down.
“Did we? Spend time together?” she shrugged. “I can’t recall. There were so many people there, so many men from your unit, Tanner. I know it’s awful to admit, but it was hard to keep track of who was who.”
“How about a reminder?” Chay growled before he could stop himself.
Tanner and Alessandra looked at him as if he’d gone nuts. Bianca turned pink. Chay said something short and succinct under his breath, shot to his feet and mumbled about needing to go to the men’s room.
He stalked away.
The one-toilet men’s bathroom was empty.
Chay locked the door, went to the sink, turned on the cold water and ducked his head under the faucet.
The woman was trying to get under his skin. Under his skin? Shit. She was trying to attach electrodes to his balls.
He straightened up, turned off the water, snagged a handful of paper towels and dried his hair, face and hands.
That performance just now.
San Pellegrino. And a wine list. The LZ was exactly what it was. No pretensions here. That was one of the reasons the place meant so much to the men in the units. What was she trying to prove?
Privilege: Special Tactical Units Division: Book Two Page 2