Page 13 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
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“So, tell me about Jada,”Ryker asked quietly.
Gideon turned his head and glanced at his teammate who was stuck in the crowded middle seat. It was the only small bit of happiness Gideon had been able to find in this hellish situation. He was still kind of pissed that Kostya had set Ryker on him, but after what Gideon had pulled a few months ago on Kostya he guessed he deserved it.
“Jada is all kinds of trouble,” Gideon answered Ryker. “She’s brilliant. The woman is on Kane McNamara’s level of brilliance when it comes to tech. If she had his discipline she could rule the world.”
Ryker nodded solemnly. “So she’s as brilliant as you. Got it.”
“What part of McNamara, did you not understand?” Gideon asked irritably.
“I thought you tech wizards were supposed to be all egotistical. I heard from Jase, who heard from Nolan, who heard from Sebastian that you were one of those uber-young-genius-freaks in Silicon Valley, so don’t bullshit a bullshitter. If Jada’s brilliant, that means she might possibly be in your stratosphere.”
“Did you just say Jase to Nolan to Sebastian, like some kind of little girl game of telephone?”
Ryker grinned. “I so did. You being second-in-command with all your tech gear means you’re outta the loop. We survive on gossip.”
Gideon looked around and made sure nobody was listening, but he still whispered almost silently. “You’re in special ops, all of you; nobody should be gossiping.”
“And we don’t, not about work. But about people’s personal lives, hell yeah. Of course, you don’t have much of a personal life. After all, babysitting your brother’s kids isn’t really exciting, so that’s why we were forced to dig around in your past. Of course, this Jada connection, this is sounding juicy.” Ryker waggled his eyebrows.
“God save me from children in men’s bodies,” Gideon groaned.
“Tell me more about Jada, is she a brilliant crazy chick? You know, stripper crazy? According to Sebastian, you two hooked up; isn’t that more Landon’s cup of tea? I didn’t see you as into crazy chicks.”
Gideon jerked upright. “Shut the fuck up. She is not crazy. She’s impetuous. She’s nothing like the ‘throwing all your shit out a plate glass window crazy’ that Landon hooks up with. Jada is the type who’ll think she can go and save the world with a laptop, pair of high heels, and a can of mace. She scares the shit out of me.”
Ryker laughed…loudly.
“Will you keep it down?” the guy in the window seat grumbled.
Ryker rolled his eyes.
“She sounds like a hoot.”
Gideon sobered. “She’s more than that. Much more.” His voice trailed off.
“So why didn’t you two last? According to the rumor mill, you’re the one who broke things off. If you thought she was all that, why did you?”
Gideon felt his shoulders tensing again. “She’s twenty-five, man.”
“So?”
“I’m thirty-eight. I’m thirteen years older than her.”
Ryker snorted. “Yeah, I did that math. So what? Landon’s dating a woman eighteen years older than him.”
Gideon gave his friend the side-eye.
Ryker shouted with laughter.
“I told you to keep it down.” This time the guy was louder. Gideon leaned over to see a small man in a business suit glaring at Ryker who had eighty pounds of muscle on him. He had to give him props for not being intimidated. Ryker turned to look at the man. “I’m sorry, Sir. It won’t happen again.”
Ryker looked over at Gideon and grimaced. Neither of them ever wanted to be disrespectful, it just wasn’t in their nature, nor was it how they were trained.
“Quit being funny,” Ryker whispered.
“I wasn’t. You were the one who gave credence to Landon’s latest love interest. Come on, that’s going to crash and burn big time. Hopefully, since he’s home taking care of his grandmother she’ll knock some sense into him.”
