Page 48 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
10
“Yay me,I get to look at airport video footage,” Ryker groused.
“You lost rock, paper scissors.” Linc shrugged. “Maybe you should stop choosingrockall the time. With paper, you get to go to Seattle and check out a waterfront condo.”
“Meanwhile I have to go to D.C. where all of the politicians live.” Nolan O’Rourke looked like he was sucking on a lemon. Every other man grinned. Nolan wasn’t really known for his ability to schmooze.
“I got you a nice place to stay,” Gideon coaxed.
“I’ll trade you, straight up. I’ll throw in eight hours of working on your car,” Ryker promised. Nolan gave him a confused look.
“Amy,” Linc said. “If Gideon is twisted up about Jada, then we can say that Ryker is tied in a constrictor knot over Amy.”
Everybody busted out laughing. “I don’t know who the hell Amy is,” Nolan said as he continued to chuckle, “but she obviously has him by the short hairs.”
“She’s Lark’s best friend. She’s given our boy Ryker the brush-off, and his little ego can’t handle it,” Linc laughed.
“Hold up,” Ryker said in a serious tone. “You haven’t met her. None of you have. Yeah, I might be tied up in knots, I’ll cop to that. But she has herself put together, she is a great friend to Lark, she’s making her way in life, she’s nice, has a great sense of humor, and is someone I want to get to know better. If there’s an opportunity to be in her city and spend some time with her, fuck yeah, I’m going to take it.”
Gideon’s eyebrows went up so high, he thought they might crawl off the top of his head. This was for real; Ryker was dead set serious on this woman and he’d been giving him shit.
“Man, I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize just how deep this went. Apologies.” Gideon said.
“Yeah, same,” Linc said.
“I want to meet her,” Nolan said with a slow grin. “She sounds amazing.”
“She is,” Ryker concurred, “but I saw her first.”
“Well, in that case, hell yes we can trade,” Nolan smiled.
“Since you know why, do I still have to work on your car?” Ryker asked.
“Hell yeah, you do,” Nolan smiled wider.
Everyone but Ryker busted up laughing again.
* * *
“Where is everybody?Without the Chippendales, my blood pressure might not be high enough to even register,” Jada complained.
Gideon walked further into Jada’s hospital room. “You’ll just have to cope with me.”
She crossed her arms andhumphed.
Gideon laughed, but even though she gave him this much lip, he knew they had an elephant in the room, and he didn’t know how to broach it, how to mention the way he had left things the morning after baby Neil’s christening.
“What?” she asked belligerently. “You look pensive. What’s going on?”
“We need to talk about everything you know about Risk Guard.”
Way to avoid the topic. God, I’m a chickenshit.
“Fine, let’s talk. What do you want to know?”
Gideon pulled up the chair beside the bed even closer so that he could see her pretty eyes and not miss one word that she said.
“Tell me what you were working on that had you coming to Oregon.”
