by Dale Mayer
It was funny because Kat never really thought about how Ice and Levi weren’t legally married. Because they seemed already married. It was obvious they were 100 percent devoted to each other, but they weren’t even engaged. It wasn’t Levi’s style to make a big deal out of marriage, although he might do it for Ice’s sake.
Kat turned to stare at her desk when Jim popped his head around the corner. “So, what was that?” he asked in excitement. “I thought I heard something about the wedding.”
She smiled. “Well, this is what Ice just suggested.” And she quickly explained it.
His face lit up, and he almost danced in place. “That would be perfect. I mean, why not make a big party out of it?”
“But why not have the party at Levi’s home? There’s got to be thirty of his team members living at the compound in Houston, plus their significant others.”
“Because maybe that’s where the wedding will be. If he can do an engagement party with you guys, then he can have the wedding at home.”
Kat said with a knowing smile, “It’s because it is entirely fake that he can do this at all.” Now that she understood how to make that work, she started to think this could actually be pulled off. “You know this just might work.”
Jim grinned. “In that case, we have a ton of shit to take care of.”
She shook her head. “No, we’re not going anywhere with this yet. Just because I might do this to Badger, that doesn’t mean the other ladies want to.”
“I highly suggest we find out, and we find out fast. It’s the middle of July. You’ve got about six weeks to Labor Day weekend.”
“Six weeks.” She shook her head. “That’s not very long.”
“No, it’s not, but it’s long enough,” he said. “The thing is, the Labor Day weekend is an incredibly popular weekend to get married, so you guys would also have to figure out who would marry you, and we’d have to book him fast.”
She winced. She didn’t even know what denomination everybody was. It would only take one who needed a strictly religious wedding to make this all not work out.
Her assistant said, “Honestly, the easiest would be a justice of the peace. Somebody who can come to the location, and we can have the wedding outside your house. Because that is one hell of a beautiful house and a gorgeous backyard.”
“Sure,” she said slowly. “But the justice of the peace would have to know he was coming to do seven weddings.”
“It’s actually one wedding ceremony. He just has to repeat a couple lines seven times.” Jim was so thrilled he gripped his hands in prayer mode, staring at her, an eager beaver ready to jump on this job.
She held up a hand. “We still have to wait.”
He nodded, sadness falling on his face. “You have to tell me soon though,” he said, “because we must get on this and get on this fast.”
“Let me talk to Honey.” She sat back down at her desk, alone once again, and looked at her phone, then realized Honey was with patients all afternoon. So Kat sent her a text. Contact me before you go home. I talked to Ice.
And then she dialed the phone and contacted Minx.
“What’s up, Kat?”
“You talked to Honey?”
Minx chuckled. “I did. And, since then, I haven’t been able to think of anything else.”
“Right? Me too. Not sure this is a good idea though.”
“I think it’ll be a blast. I think it’s … perfect.”
Kat sat back. “Why and how?”
“I’ve always made decisions fairly quickly. And I’m more than ready to jump forward in this new world and leave all that shit from my old world behind me. I’ve made a lot of changes in the last few months. But more needs to happen. And that suits me. I really like the idea,” she said with a chuckle in her voice. “But I think we have to check with the other women too.”
“I know. But it feels like we’ve got a conspiracy going on. Badger’s already suspicious.”
At that, Minx laughed out loud. “It’ll be hard to keep it quiet with our seven intel-gathering ex-navy SEALs,” she admitted. “So, the sooner, the better.”
“Labor Day weekend?”
“What?” Minx said in excitement. “Is this really going to happen?”
“I heard from Ice today, and she had an interesting proposition.” She quickly shared the news.
Before long, Minx was laughing her head off. “Oh, my God, that’s perfect. That is so perfect.”
“Do you think it’s believable? Do you think the guys would follow through and believe this?”
“Well, if it came from Levi himself, they all would. Levi is a straight shooter.”
“So true.”
“I’ll talk to Faith,” Minx said. “She’s flying back today. I’m supposed to meet her tomorrow for coffee as it is.”
“Right. I miss that. I work Monday to Friday, and it’s hard to get away during the week.”
“That’ll change. You’ll have to clear your schedule somewhat now. We can’t meet to plan this with the girls on the weekends, and we can’t discuss it on our Sunday afternoon barbecues. Not if we want to keep this a surprise from our guys. So we’ll have to meet for lunch and or take coffee breaks together in order to keep this all on track.”
Minx hung up soon afterward and left Kat sitting here, staring at the phone. If Minx talked to Faith, then four of them would be involved. There were still three more.
Just then Jim popped in and said, “Your patient finally arrived.”
Kat gave him a big smile. “Good. It’ll give me something else to think about.” And she set about working the rest of her afternoon.
Badger stared at the house plans, while the other guys looked on over his shoulders.
“This is a great idea,” Geir said. “Though I’m not sure Morning had a chance to look at it yet.”
“She definitely needs to see these. Being a cook and an artist, she’ll want a special kitchen and her big well-vented studio. Not sure how she’ll feel about the rest of the house,” Badger said with a laugh. “But there’s time. None of us needs to rush into anything.”
Geir grinned, then said abruptly, “Levi called me earlier today.”
Badger and the other guys looked at Geir. “What’s up?” Badger asked.
“He wanted to know if I could play bodyguard to somebody in Santa Fe at the capitol building. They’re expecting trouble with a difficult decision coming down to a vote on the floor.”
“So you’ll show up as extra muscle?” Badger frowned at him. “Are you going to the Roundhouse alone?”
“He tried to contact you,” Geir said. “But you didn’t get back to him.”
Badger pulled up his phone and swore when he saw the text. “I missed it. I feel like I’m off my game.”
“Anything bothering you?” Geir asked.
“Kat. Something’s going on with her, and I can’t figure it out.”
The men just looked at him.
He shrugged. “I don’t think it’s major, but something is niggling away at me.” He knew the others would understand that. When something nagged him like that, it was damn-near impossible for him to let it go. It was usually something he needed to pay attention to.
“It could be a minor thing,” Erick said.
“I know. It will be minor.” And he felt much better having expressed that much of what disturbed him.
“Any idea what it’s about?” Talon now sprawled on the living room couch in front of him.
Badger pointed at the backyard. “A woman was in the backyard with a tape measure.”
Instantly the men perked up. “What?”
“Right?” Badger shrugged. “There was a knock on the door.” He laughed. “Honestly I just came out of the pool, and I didn’t have a whole lot of clothing on. I raced to the door, soaking wet, with my crutches. But no one was there. But by the time I returned to the backyard, a woman ran around the house. I stopped her, and she smiled and apologized, saying Kat had sent her to take some m
easurements, and then she skedaddled on me.”
“What did Kat say?”
Badger shot them a look. “I didn’t say anything to her.”
The others stared at him for a long moment.
“Why not?” Talon asked.
Badger sighed. “Because I feel like she thinks this is my house, not our house. I want her to feel like it’s her house too. I did ask her if she wanted to change anything about the house, and she sounded genuinely shocked and said she loved the place.”
The men nodded as they stared around the living room.
“It’s a great house.” Erick was sincere.
Badger nodded. “So then what’s the deal with the woman in the backyard with a tape measure?”
The men stared at each other and shrugged.
“No clue,” Talon answered.
“When is your birthday? Maybe she’s got a party planned for you? Maybe she’s putting in an outdoor kitchen or something?”
The men warmed to the idea, each one coming up with more plans, better, over and above the other ideas.
Badger sat back with a smile on his face. That was the thing about good friends. They weren’t immediately jumping to the wrong idea; they jumped to good and great ideas. “An outdoor kitchen would be a hell of a deal,” he admitted.
“Would she do it without you being in on it?” Geir asked.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think she would get it done without me because she’d want my input. But she might be getting measurements to see what would work.” Instantly he felt better because that was so like Kat. She was such a giving person, and he knew he could trust her. She would never put him on the spot over something. And that was one of the reasons he really loved her. Kat’s acceptance was worth so much. He chuckled. “That makes a lot of sense. My birthday is in September. But, hey, it’ll probably take a while to plan and build something like that.”
“Yeah, a long time. Besides, maybe she wants a garden. Better than what you’ve got. Maybe she wants to put in more roses.”
Badger glanced at the backyard where the woman had been. “That is a rose bed.”
The men chuckled.
“Maybe she wants a wooden swing for two or a hammock? You never know.”
After that, the men returned to the discussion about building houses. “I think we can keep renting for a while,” Geir said. “Morning did mention that maybe she could rent a studio.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Geir shook his head. “I’d like to keep her home honestly. At least that way I can keep an eye on her.”
“Do you think she’s still in danger here?”
“No, not at all,” Geir said. He gave a sheepish grin. “I just like looking after her.”
And, for the first time, Badger thought about that as he settled deeper into the couch, wondering if Kat wasn’t right. All of them were men with protective instincts, coming from a lifestyle where their defensive skills were needed. And now they had nothing to defend. If they were bored, then they would end up doing things just like what Geir talked about. Watching over somebody who didn’t want or need watching over. Over time that could become a problem.
He brought that thought up. “You know? Shepherds need jobs. Malamutes need jobs. Everybody needs something to do, a purpose. I’m wondering, if we have nothing to focus our energies on, will we start crowding, being overprotective, of the women in our lives.”
Geir frowned at him. “Did you just call me a dog?”
“I think he called all of us dogs,” Erick said with a laugh. “As long as he’s the junkyard dog.”
But Cade looked at Badger with respect. “I was wondering that myself. We had focus before. We had missions we went on. When we lost all that, we had ourselves to look after, our healing journey to take. We had rehab to do. And then it was hunting down Mouse’s life. And here we are, after all that, and we’re looking for the next step on our journey.”
Badger nodded. “We could set up a security company. Like Levi did.”
“We don’t have anywhere near the tech experience or equipment or the business location that Levi has though,” Cade said.
“No, but it doesn’t have to be that kind either,” Badger said. “We could do special missions. Contracts from Levi. Even Bullard. I don’t know about you guys, but I still have a lot of contacts in the military. We could get involved in a lot of black ops, secret missions.”
“Is that what we want to do though?” Talon asked. “We have our women now. Do we want to bring that into their lives?”
And this was where the conversation always ended up. It came right around full circle. They’d already thought about all this, but none of them wanted to leave their women or to expose them to further risk.
“We could do investigative work online. Strictly computer work. We know a lot of people who could use our skills for that.”
“Yeah, maybe on a part-time basis. But we’ve all got that itch to be in the field.”
The guys all nodded at that.
“And what about the idea of bringing in other men like us to work with us?” Jager asked.
“We’d have to train them first. That’s like creating jobs for other people instead of really for us,” Talon joked. “But then we could contract them out to others, like Levi.”
“Right, the trouble is, all we do is discuss this. We never get anything mutually finalized.”
“There’s private law enforcement, bounty hunters,” Erick proposed. “You know we’d have no trouble running down the bad guys.”
There was silence in the room for a few moments.
“It does sound a little low-level though, doesn’t it?” Erick asked, noting the flaw in his idea.
“But it doesn’t have to be,” Cade said. “It’s all about positioning. Brand positioning. Levi handles a lot of secret stuff. We could do the same. We don’t have to have the same equipment he does. We could do it on a much smaller scale, more elite. We could hire our services to him and Bullard and to anyone else, like we were talking about, but just keep it small. We don’t have to do trips all over the world. Hell, forget working out-of-town altogether. We could work out of our own backyard. I mean, look at Dennis’s Santa Fe Police Department. What happens when a case runs past department capabilities?”
“Well,” Jager stated, “from what Allison tells me, the paperwork gets filed and distributed, until something new comes along, but they only really get forty-eight hours to work a case. Plus they have restrictive budgets.”
“Sure, but we need money too,” Talon said. “We can’t do the work for free.”
“No, we can’t,” Badger said. “Yet we keep going back to that. Because that’s where our skills are. So, what we need to do is find a way to make something happen so we get paid for what we’re doing but can help the community too.”
“And that’s where we leave it,” Erick said. “Everybody needs to think about this. We have the potential for so much. We have unbelievable skills between us.” His gaze touched on each and every one of them. “This isn’t a case of just do whatever. This is a case of finding what each of us wants to do, what our specialties are, and then finding work that we can utilize our skills on.” He glanced at Geir. “In the meantime, does Levi need more than one man?”
Badger spoke up. “I hope so because, honestly, I’d rather spend a day standing guard for a lying politician than sitting at home trying to figure out what to do with my life.” He said it in a half-joking manner, but he knew the others understood.
Geir nodded at Badger’s phone. “Contact Levi and ask him. For all I know, they need all of us.”
Badger looked at the phone in his hand. If he contacted Levi, chances were he was taking a step that would direct all the rest of his steps. And those of his buddies’ too. It could change everything. Was this what he wanted?
“Better to be brave and make a wrong step,” Erick said beside him, “than to be a coward and never take any step.”
He groaned. “Fine. Let me talk to Levi and see what he’s looking for.” He dialed Levi’s number. When his friend answered, he said, “I missed your text earlier. Sorry. What’s up?”
“I need a security detail for a government rally.”
“They don’t have enough manpower in the city?”
“The wife of one of the politicians contacted us. She doesn’t trust the city. She thinks something bad is going on.”
“What exactly would we be doing?”
“Extra firepower, extra eyes.”
“How many are you looking for?”
Levi’s voice sounded surprised when he said, “Seven of you, if I can get you all.”
“Are you paying?” Badger asked, humor in his voice. “We all owe you as it is, so we’d do the job for free.”
“No need,” Levi said smoothly. “The wife’s paying decently. Besides it’s just one day. If you want to take on more work, believe me. I got lots more for you.” And he hung up.
The guys looked at each other.
“We didn’t get any details yet,” Erick noted.
“That’s typical of Levi, giving us a moment to think and make a mutual decision.” Badger looked at the others. “But this changes things. Just so you all know that. If we take this step, there will be more like this in front of us. Everybody raise a hand to vote.”
As he looked around the room, satisfaction swept through him. They’d all raised their hands. Including him. Badger nodded. “Done. I’ll call Levi back.”
Chapter 5
Kat raced into the restaurant.
The waitress waved at her and called out, “The others are already seated.”
She nodded and headed to the back room. “May I get a coffee?” she asked.
The waitress, who they all knew as Hindy, nodded and smiled.
Kat walked into the small room to see that, indeed, the other six women were here. She plunked her butt down in the closest empty chair and said, “Woo! Didn’t think I would make it.”