Page 18 of Snow

Snow sighed. “My mother.”

“Yikes,” Aussie muttered. “What did she want?”

“Nothing specific. She said she wanted to see how I was doing, though she made sure to tell me that she is divorced now. Then kept me on the damn phone forever, talking about everything and nothing.”

“You didn’t hang up?” Joker asked.

“I could’ve,” Snow admitted. “I thought about it more than once. But I didn’t want to be a dick. My sister, Julie, and Yvette still talk now and then. They aren’t the best of friends, but there’s history. I didn’t want to cause friction between them.”

Bear leaned forward, arms braced on the table. “So, you let her run her mouth for how long?”

“An hour and a half,” Snow said dryly. “She hit every topic but the one that I knew she wanted to talk about.”

“Which was?” Bear asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Her and I. She kept hinting at it, like she was trying to feel me out.”

“Maybe she was,” Joker said. “Maybe she wants to patch things up between the two of you.”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” Snow muttered, then exhaled hard.

“Saint Snow,” Aussie said with a smirk. “Taking the high road like a damn gentleman.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Snow replied. “More like taking the road that leads to the least bullshit.”

Joker shook his head. “Man, I’d have faked a dropped call the second I heard her voice.”

Bear snorted. “Or blamed a mission. ‘Sorry, gotta go save the world.’ Click.”

Snow gave a dry smile. “Trust me, I tried ending it politely several times. Eventually I had to tell her the truth that what we had was in the past and ended a long time ago. I told her that I’ve moved on, and that she should do the same.”

“Still,” Bear said, his tone leveling out again, “you good?”

“Yeah. It just brought up a time that I had buried years ago.”

“Well, if you need anything, we’ve got your back,” Joker said.

Aussie smirked. “Or we sic Amira on her ass.”

The four of them laughed. Snow could only imagine the damage that little firecracker could do to someone like Yvette. Hell, if he unleashed Amira on her, she would probably run for the hills, crying.

“Appreciate your support. But hopefully, last night she got the hint that I wasn’t interested,” Snow said.

Bear offered him a small smile and clapped him on the shoulder as if showing his support.

The teasing quieted again, replaced with that solid, unspoken bond that ran deeper than missions and jokes. These men had been through hell together. And even if they gave each other shit, especially when emotions were involved, they never let one of their own carry the weight alone.

Snow leaned back in his chair, and the tension in his shoulders loosened just a bit.

A few minutes later, the door opened again, and in walked Duke, then Nails right behind him with coffee in hand. Playboy followed a second later, tossing a nod at everyone as he flopped into a chair. Jay Bird was the last of the team to trickle in. True to form, he didn’t say a word as he took a seat.

They waited about five minutes, then the door opened one last time. Derek entered, dressed in his working uniform, closing the door firmly behind him. His expression was unreadable, but the room shifted the moment he walked in.

“Attention on deck,” Bear called out as everyone stood.

“At ease, gentlemen,” Derek stated, not wasting time as he walked straight to the front of the room, pulled out the remote, and pointed it at the TV mounted on the wall. The screen flickered to life, and a map of the Gulf appeared.

“Alright, listen up,” Derek began. “For the last eight months, multiple federal agencies have been investigating a cluster of concerning events happening in the Gulf, approximately a hundred miles offshore, south of Louisiana. These agencies include DHS, FBI, EPA, and NOAA. What ties all of their interests together is this.” He clicked the remote, and an oil rig appeared on the screen. It was massive, consisting of three separate structures connected by catwalks, surrounded by the endless deep blue of the Gulf.