Page 5 of Strike Fast

“Maka, you giant pig,” he muttered under his breath, turning back toward the table. “Sorry, there are only a couple left. You want milk with them?” he asked Autumn.

“Can I have some tea?”

He blinked at her. “You drink tea now?”

She shrugged, already in the process of opening her backpack and unloading her things onto the table next to Tess’s seat. “Mom took me out for a tea party a month ago. It was super fun.”

Right. Tea. “Okay, I guess so.” He’d never made tea in his life. He searched the cupboard until he found a teabag, then took down a mug and filled it with water. Plopping the teabag in it, he put it in the microwave to nuke it.

“Eww, Dad, that’s not how you do it.”

Reid cranked his head around. “Why not?”

Autumn rolled her eyes as though he was an uncultured hick. “You’re supposed to boil the water in a kettle first, then pour it over the teabag and let it steep.”

Steep?

Agent Dubrovski walked over and gestured to the microwave door, amusement gleaming in her pretty eyes. “May I?”

He held up a hand and backed away. “Be my guest.”

She gave him a sideways glance as she took the mug out. Damn, she was pretty, in a low-maintenance, fresh-faced way. “Isn’t your meeting starting soon?”

“Yeah, in a minute.”

“I can stay with her if you want. One of the analysts is my ride, so I have to wait here until after the briefing anyway.”

He hesitated. He didn’t even know her. Didn’t seem fair to expect her to hang with Autumn, and he wasn’t sure if his daughter would be comfortable with it. He never even introduced Autumn to the women he dated. Though to be honest, he didn’t date them so much as he hooked up with them over the past two years. Easier that way, and less bullshit to put up with. “You sure?”

“Absolutely. I’ve got three nieces back home.” She shot Autumn a grin that was so genuine, warmth spread through Reid’s chest. “Been a while since I had some genuine girl time.”

Autumn’s eyes lit up. “You like to do crafts?”

“Lovedoing crafts.”

Reid rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little out of his depth. Truth be told, even though he was looking forward to spending time with his daughter, he hadn’t been super pumped about the crafting portion of the evening she’d planned for later on. And Autumn sure seemed to like her, so… “Okay with you, Autumn?”

“Yes, for sure. You go on,” she said without looking up from emptying bundles of what looked like yarn and other supplies onto the table. “As you can see, I came prepared.”

Reid didn’t miss the jab. He’d picked her up without bringing anything to amuse her with because he’d planned to let her watch TV here while he was in the meeting. “All right.”

He shifted his attention back to Agent Dubrovski, struck again by her understated beauty. And combined with that body… Yeah, he must have been fucking blind not to notice her before. “Thanks a lot. Shouldn’t be too long, hopefully.”

She shrugged, the ends of her golden hair brushing her shoulders. A lock clung to the top of her breast, dragging his gaze there like a magnet before he forced his eyes back to her face. “No problem. See you soon.”

Reid made it to the briefing room just as the meeting got underway. All eight of his teammates were already in their chairs facing the front of the room. He took a seat between Khan and Hamilton, the team leader, and listened while their commander gave them a rundown of the latest intel.

“First off, thanks for coming in on your day off,” Taggart began. His dark blond hair was spiked at the top and front and he wore dress slacks and a button-down, all spiffy-looking. Must be taking the wifey out on a hot date after this. “I’m gonna keep this brief, and update you on the latest on theVenenocartel.”

The current bane of their existence. FAST Bravo’s recent deployment to Afghanistan had been…eventful, but positive. They’d managed to bag a famous smuggling lord known as The Jackal, who worked with theVenenosand turned out to be the head of the Afghan forces that FAST Bravo worked with on ops.

“Our recent deployment to A-stan helped curb the majority of the flow of opium out of there to Mexico, but now the drug runners are just smuggling their shit north over the border into Tajikistan, and from there to China before shipping it into the U.S.”

This came as no surprise to anyone in the room. Seal off one avenue, and the smugglers simply used another. The war on drugs was never ending, and frustrating as hell. Sometimes Reid wondered whether they had any affect at all on diminishing the flow of illicit drugs around the globe.

“As you know, the entire purpose of General Nasar acting as The Jackal was to earn enough cash to pay for a heart transplant for his young son. Even though he didn’t raise the funds and got locked up, someone in theVenenoorganization stepped up and made the operation happen. Found a donor on the black market and paid for the procedure personally. All our sources to date have indicated it wasEl Escorpion.”

The fabled and mysterious head of theVenenocartel. As far as the DEA knew, no one within the cartel even knew exactly who he was, except for perhaps the top two or three people. Even the top lieutenants had never met the man in person.

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