Page 84 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Hell, I know you.” Ryker’s eyes widened. “You’re the reporter who out-stubborned the Night Storm team and forced them to get Ebrahem Nuri’s family out of Afghanistan.” His voice changed, becoming sincere and serious. “We really owe you, Lark. Thank you.”
Lark dipped her head, obviously embarrassed. “You’re welcome,” she mumbled.
“Ebrahem was a hero. He really was. It hurt like hell when he was killed.” Ryker looked over at Kostya, his eyes dark with pain. He was right; all of their team mourned Ebrahem’s passing. He had been essential to Omega Sky when they had done missions in Afghanistan, he had risked his life time and time again. Kostya could think of one time in particular when he would have lost some of his men if it hadn’t been for the information that Ebrahem had provided.
“So how long have you been on the Omega Sky team?” Lark asked Ryker when the silence got to be too much.
“I’ve been with Omega since it formed. Now if you want to talk about wet behind the ears, that was Kostya. How long had you been a lieutenant?” Ryker asked, looking over at him.
“Long enough to demote your ass,” Kostya said without heat.
Lark laughed. She reached under the table and stroked her hand along his thigh.
This woman.
The waitress came over and deposited their drinks. This time all of her focus was on Ryker. “What can I getyouto drink?” Her voice was a low purr.
“What do you have on tap?” he asked. Her eyes lit up. The way she answered, it was obvious that the first thing she wanted to offer was herself. Kostya and Lark gave each other a knowing look.
“I’ll tell you what, Andrea, why don’t you decide for me. I trust your opinion.”
As soon as she left the table, Lark groaned. “Really?” she asked.
“What? What’d I do?” Ryker asked.
“My God, does that actually work?”
“I’ll answer that,” Kostya said. “It works far too fucking often.”
Ryker smirked. “Now tell me about your friend Amy. What does she look like?”
“She looks like out-of-bounds, that’s what she looks like,” Lark answered. “For you she is look-but-don’t-touch. Got it?”
Ryker threw up his hands. “Whoa, what are you saying? I’m hurt.”
Lark shook her head. “You’re incorrigible, aren’t you?”
“Me? Nah. Actually, I’m all hat and no cattle. The one you need to worry about on our team is Landon. Now he’s all cattle and no hat. That poor boy is constantly falling in love. For real, women follow him around in droves, and the next thing you know he’s giving one of them the shirt off his back and thinks she’s the one.”
Kostya snorted. “You’re reading him wrong.”
Ryker looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Sometimes you’re right, I’ll grant you. But sometimes he can be pretty damned callous. That boy is young and has his head up his ass.” Kostya took a drink. He thought about his ex-wife and grimaced. Who the hell was he to talk? He’d gotten married at twenty-seven, three years older than Landon, and look what a mess he’d made of that.
Lark bumped her shoulder into his. He looked down at her, but she wasn’t looking at him, just sipping her drink and listening to something Ryker was saying. But it was obvious she’d picked up on his less than pleasant thoughts and was trying to snap him out of it. How in the hell could she be this in tune with him? They’d only been on two goddamned dates!
He sipped his scotch and took another look at her in her silver dress and realized that he’d known her for three years. And for those three years, he’d respected the hell out of her.
He focused in on what Ryker was saying.
“Why do you think Candy is in trouble?” he was asking Lark.
“You mean besides the fact she hasn’t shown up to work, and her cell phone is disconnected, and every time I go to her apartment nobody answers?”
“Yeah, besides that,” Ryker nodded.
“Well, gee, I don’t know,” she said sarcastically. “What would it take for you, almighty SEAL, to decide she was in trouble?”
