Page 54 of Jacob

After a moment, the questions started up again.

“Who made the first move?”

“Do you guys go back a long way? How far back?”

“Is he as hard-headed as our guys? We have a theory that SEAL training makes them impervious to reason.”

“Ladies, ladies!” Alex held up her hands in a time out gesture. “If I tell you the whole story, can we then get down to business?”

Three heads nodded assent. Hope: “But don’t leave out details.”

There were a lot of details that Alex wasn’t willing to share, but she could give them the barebones story, and she did.

Silence, as they digested things.

Hope frowned. “He actually said those words? ‘I was afraid.’ Those very words?”

Riley’s eyes were wide. “That doesn’t sound like Jacob Black. That doesn’t sound like anything our guys would say.”

Emma nodded. “If he actually said he was afraid, this is serious stuff. You are really under his skin. So—that’s how you guys are together?”

“And that’s how we’re together,” Alex said. “Sort of. But I don’t know how long it will last or even if it will last beyond this mission.”

The three women looked at each other. “Oh, it’ll last,” Riley said. “I don’t think he’s ever been paired up with anyone. He’s made it clear he’s with you. This is Jacob Black we’re talking about. He invented serious. Last night I asked Pierce and Raul, who know him fairly well, if he had a reputation as a ladies’ man, and they looked at me as if I’d grown another head. So if he’s never been seen with a woman on his arm and all of a sudden, there you are—” she lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “This thing has legs.”

“I want to be invited to the wedding,” Hope said seriously, and Alex broke out in a laugh. After a moment, the three women joined in.

“I want to be invited, too,” Emma said. “Riley and Felicity, as well.”

“Yeah.” Riley nodded sharply. “You have to promise. Pleeeeze?”

Alex was amused and exasperated at the same time. She threw up her hands. “All right! If we ever get married, you three—and Felicity—will be the first to know. But it’s not going to happen.”

“We don’t just want to know,” Emma specified. “We want to be invited to the wedding. I bet it’ll be a blow out. Jacob doesn’t do anything halfway.”

Alex blew out a breath of exasperation. This had taken on a life of its own. She was like a branch caught in a flooded river, barreling down to the sea. “Okay, okay!”

“Promise?” Riley cocked her head, waiting for a reply. “Nail it down. Be specific.”

“Okay.” Alex bit her back teeth, but there was only one way out of this. “I promise you all will be invited to the wedding,” she gritted. “Which is imaginary.”

“No, it’s not. And you need to promise to invite our plus-ones.” Emma pursed her lips, frowning in concentration as if it were a big business negotiation.

“Done,” Alex promised on a sigh.

“We didn’t record this,” Hope said, “But we have really good memories, all of us. So we’re going to hold you to your promise. If there’s a meat or fish option, I opt for the fish. Riley’s vegetarian. Emma is sometimes lactose-intolerant and Felicity isn’t picky. Our guys will eat anything not nailed down. Don’t forget.”

Alex gave up all resistance. “I won’t forget. I have a really good memory, too. Emma, no cheese. Felicity has no preferences, Riley’s vegetarian, you want the fish. The men will eat anything.”

“Excellent. Now, do you want to hear what we’ve found out about this company?”

Finally, back to business. She blew out a breath of relief. “I really do, yes.”

“Emma’s our finance genius. She used to work for a big bad bank making money for people who don’t need any more, and sure as hell didn’t deserve anymore, so I’ll have her report.”

“It’s true.” Emma didn’t blink at that description. “Currently I work on the side of the angels, but I did spend a couple of years working for Satan. Now, Teknolab. It was founded by a biochemist, Dr. Georg Lazlo, in 2005. In Vostokova. Lazlo was born in 1956 so he spent most of his early career working during the Cold War. Lazlo worked for a state research lab under the Soviets. I was quite literally unable to find what his specialty was. I couldn’t find any papers he’d written or co-written. All I could find was that he had worked at a research institute in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and believe me when I say I had to dig very deep to find that.”

“That’s not reassuring news.” That was putting it mildly. Alex felt a slight shiver run through her body. “Soviet scientists didn’t really have careers the way we think of them. They worked for the state, whatever research they produced belonged to the state, and if they were working on anything that ran counter to the various treaties we had with the Soviets concerning bioweapons, then they just disappeared underground. So him not being well known is not good news at all.”

---