Page 46 of A Rebel's Shot

Tiikâan shook his head and glanced at his watch for the tenth time. Rolling his shoulders, he tried to let the festivities of his sister’s reception settle over him.

The upbeat oldies music his sister Sunny loved and the laughter as family and friends made fools of themselves on the makeshift dance floor should have been more than enough to distract Tiikâan from the nagging worry he’d made a mistake in leaving Merritt by herself.

He didn’t know why the trepidation had buried beneath his skin and settled in a rolling mass in his gut. It wasn’t like he was one of these special ops friends of Sunny’s groom from Stryker Security.

Rafe, the tech guru of Stryker, broke out into a sprinkler dance move, then shouted, “Everyone, line up!”

He grabbed Eva, the head of Stryker’s daughter’s hand, and pulled her into the Electric Slide, even though the half-century-old music didn’t suit. She fell into step with Rafe, her seven-year-old knobby elbows and knees cuter than a newborn moose calf.

“Come on, guys.” Rafe beckoned to the onlookers with his hands, then pointed to the groom. “Davis, let Sunny go before you suffocate her and come slide with your brother-in-law.”

“Nope.” Davis didn’t even tear his gaze from Sunny’s as he slow danced with her.

“Coop?” Rafe stood on his tiptoes and scanned the yard.

“No way, dude,” the giant named Cooper called from the buffet table.

“Eres loco.” Sosimo pulled his very pregnant wifeJune into a slow dance, his hand affectionately cupping the side of her belly.

Tiikâan’s eyebrows furrowed as he climbed from the table before he got dragged onto the dance floor.

What would it have been like to have the type of unbreakable connection like the Stryker team had? Those guys—shoot, even his brothers—could probably sniff out trouble with just one faint hint.

Blindfolded.

Unlike him.

Tiikâan was good at two things, flying and sitting around waiting for hours on end.

Okay, fine.

He was decent at knowing where animals might be, but that only led him to more sitting.

Bailing from the Air Force just proved he’d been left out when the hero gene had been passed down. There was a reason it was nicknamed the Chair Force. Yet even it had put too much pressure on him.

Nope. Having his head in the clouds and his butt in the dirt had always been his preferred mode of operation.

Less chance of falling short.

Yet he’d somehow managed to do just that, if his bank account balance had a say. Even there, he’d taken the easy way out, playing air taxi for a ridiculous fee that had him putting hissit around and waitskills to the test.

“How’s it going up in Barrow?” Astryde asked from behind him, causing him to jerk and spill the punch he held all over his hand.

“Jeez, could you not sneak up on people?” He shookpunch off his fingers. “This is a wedding, not a drug raid.”

“On edge, little brother?” Her laugh and teasing smile pulled the corner of his mouth up.

She’d always called him and Magnus little brother, even though both of them had shot past her five-four frame by the age of thirteen. She’d been bossy, too. Kind of decided she was their second mother, even when Mom had been around.

“Besides, my raiding days are over.” She averted her gaze and took a drink from her glass.

Tiikâan tilted his head to the side. Her pained expression made him wonder if she regretted leaving her investigator job with the troopers when she had.

If Astryde missed her work with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, he hoped she didn’t go back. He’d hated how her work in the Child Abuse Investigation Unit had dragged her down until she was a cynical shell of herself.

Which just reinforced his lack of hero genes.

He forced a smile. “How’s the fishing?”

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