Page 4 of How Much For a Life of Lies?

Interesting.

Hell of a lot of sexy intrigue in that small package.

“Heads up,” McKenzie warned under his breath as we drew close enough to find out what was going on.

Henderson, still getting his ass handed to him, was shouting at his superior. “Lieutenant, please?—”

“That’s enough,” the LT ordered, and glanced at our boss with a roll of his eyes. Yep, this was proper alpha shit. What the LT didn’t know was that our Lieutenant Commander had more alpha in his little finger than this LT had in his entire body.

But no, Henderson wasn’t being cut off. “With respect, sir,” he began with no respect at all. “Your flight plan will compromise getting the extraction team on target.” Oh, wait, this shit going down was about us and this mission? “Lower altitudes enable us to react to?—”

“You’ve said your piece,” the LT snapped, “and you have your orders.”

There was silence, but I knew it wouldn’t last—Henderson was fighting for his crew, as he’d done when he’d faced down a group of insurgents with limited ammo.

Was it wrong I was turned-on?

THREE

Kai

Lieutenant Asshole’s voice echoed through the hangar as he postured like a peacock for the SEAL team on the other side. The guy was new to the lieutenant rank in the 427, and how he made it to that level, I didn’t know. He was a real piece of work, already on my hit list today for reaming one of my crew for lazy posture—the fuck—and now refusing to listen to reason over my mission-critical input. As soon as the SEAL team entered the space, he was more interested in inflating his ego than ensuring the mission’s success and his people’s safety. If he had anywhere near the hours at the cyclic as I did, then his opinion might matter, but he hadn’t seen the combat I’d been part of. Hell, he’d been fast tracked to LT, and the rumors were that it was to move him off other people’s plates, which is why I had to deal with him shouting at me. This wasn’t our first run-in, and I was this close to losing my shit.

I didn’t respect many people in life, not until they had earned it, but Lieutenant Tramell had never come close to proving he was capable of command, and yeah, I might not handle him as well as I should, but fuck that noise. The guy epitomized everything I despised in a leader—arrogant, stubborn, and devoid of common sense.

What was worse than him making himself look big by belittling me and my crew in front of the SEALs was that this was the same team who’d pulled us out of the desert. They’d already seen me go off-book to protect my crew and the hostages, messing it up for them, and now they’d think I was incompetent on top of that.

Not that the team leader seemed worried as he strolled over to the LT.

As McKenzie and the LT squared off, I couldn’t help but size up the SEAL team. Among them, I recognized the tall, muscled redhead who’d dragged me out of a hostage situation and held my hand during the helo exfil. There was something about his piercing green eyes that had kept me focused even as the bleeding got out of control and I’d been dipping in and out of consciousness—an attraction, or a connection I couldn’t ignore.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about those green eyes occasionally.

Or that the hazy memory of coming on to him made me hot inside.

“Lieutenant Commander McKenzie,” the SEAL team leader introduced himself. “How about someone explains what’s going on here when we’re only fifteen minutes from step-off?”

“I’ve dealt with it,” Lieutenant Asshole said, and as one, the entire SEAL team inhaled. Their LC outranked our LT and McKenzie made a show of peering at the LT’s name sewn into the uniform.

“Lieutenant Tramell,” he said and waited.

I glanced at the redhead when I felt the weight of his gaze on me. We exchanged subtle nods, and I tried not to stare at his emerald eyes or count the freckles on his cheekbones. He was tall, broad and sex on legs. Dressed in black, he was every wet dream I’d ever had.

“Sir,” Tramell offered after a pause, and just like that, he was in his place.

“Lieutenant,” McKenzie drawled, as if he wanted to underscore what happened. “The safety and security of my team, along with your team, and the retrieval of the hostages are my responsibility. All operational decisions fall to me as the senior operator.” Unspoken was the do we understand each other?

McKenzie took a step closer to the LT, and Tramell snapped his mouth shut, twin flags of anger staining his cheeks, then McKenzie paused, because of course he did—he was a master of this shit.

“Lieutenant?” he prompted after Tramell said nothing.

“Yes, sir,” Tramell finally acknowledged. I bet that hurt, and I had to stop myself from smirking.

“Explain what is happening here?” McKenzie asked.

The LT blinked at him, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I waited long enough for him to answer before I jumped in. “This mission is over before it starts,” I said. “Sir,” I added as an afterthought.

---