Page 19 of Protected By The Green Berets

“It’s all here and accounted for,” I told him.

“Perfect. We have one last meeting before we need to get on our plane.”

He sounded pissed and I didn’t blame him. The Colonel and General had been going a little crazy with the meetings this week. It was just that this was an important mission. Both because of Roj and the prospect of finding one of our people.

Somehow I managed to stay awake throughout the meeting and make it out to the tarmac where our ride was waiting. We were all silent as we loaded up onto the plane.

Z sat between Torque and I, while Keller and Alden sat across the way. I didn’t envy their empty space between them, not when ours was filled with our sexy teammate. She chattered at us, nerves apparent in her words while we settled in and the flight took off.

As soon as we leveled out Z fell silent and pulled out a laptop. She tapped away on that for about half an hour. I watched a movie on my IPad and looked over when something landed on my shoulder.

Z’s head rested there, her eyes closed as she slept. I looked over at Torque and grinned. He flipped me off. He was jealous that she was sleeping on me instead of him.

Glancing past him, I saw the other two men watching us with longing written on their faces. It hadn’t escaped any of our notice that each of us was interested in her. I wasn’t sure what that was going to mean for us, long-term, but for now I was going to enjoy the scent of lemon enveloping me. She always smelled so fresh and delicious.

I made it through two movies before my eyes started dropping closed. Gently moving Z, I pushed the armrest up, then shuffled her and myself until my back was half against the seat and half against the side of the plane and she was between my thighs, resting against my chest. Having her curled on my lap made the uncomfortable position worth it. She snuggled into my body and I let my eyes close.

Turbulence woke me from my nap and I realized my back was screaming at me. Z sat up, blinking sleepily at me. My smile stretched over my face. She looked like the tired little kitten Torque had nicknamed her.

“Hey.” I stretched, muscles screaming at me for sleeping in such a weird position for so long.

“Hi,” she replied in a bashful tone. She was settling back into her seat. I glanced at my watch and realized we were only about halfway through our flight.

Z went back to her laptop—which Torque had rescued when she’d fallen asleep and kept safe for her—silently working during the rest of the flight.

By the time we landed I was ready to get the hell off this plane. Boredom had firmly rooted hours ago and I was dying to move around.

“We’re staying the night at our informant's house,” Keller told us as we walked across the tarmac toward the car that was waiting for us.

Brandon had set up our transportation for us since he and his team weren’t able to meet our flight. He’d arranged everything and by the time we got back to his place they should be arriving.

Everyone was tired. How a full day of sitting around could wipe you out was a mystery to me, but my eyes were gritty and I kept yawning.

“Right here. This is it,” Alden told Keller.

Keller parked the car and we trudged into the house. As soon as the door shut behind us a booming voice called out.

“Keller King, you son of a bitch!” Brandon bounded down the stairs and he and the others were all talking fast and loud.

As soon as Brandon’s eyes fell on me, I grinned. “Hey asshole,” I greeted him.

He chuckled, but then stopped and the smile fled from his face. His eyes bugged out as he saw who was standing next to me.

“Zinnia?”

She’d been grinning from ear to ear from the moment she’d heard his voice. Now her smile made sense. She rushed at him and jumped into his arms. He hitched her up until her long legs wrapped around his waist. For half a second I wanted to rip her out of his arms and beat him bloody for touching her. My brain took control and allowed the scene to play out. I wasn’t typically the jealous kind of guy, but everything was different with her.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Z?”

Neither of them realized—in their excitement to see one another—that the four of us had gone completely still. A growling sound pierced the air and I looked over at Alden. He’d made the noise.

He stepped over and grabbed Zinnia by the arm, ripping her out of Brandon’s grasp, the way I had longed to. It almost took the two of them down to the ground, but somehow Brandon kept his feet.

Brandon looked slowly from Zinnia to Alden. “Easy, Bro. We know each other from the academy. Haven’t seen you in years, Z,” he said, trying to ease the tension that was boiling over inside the room. He took a deliberate step back.

Zinnia was staring up at Alden like he’d grown horns. “What the hell, Alden?” She tried to jerk her arm out of his grip.

Bad move.She was still trying to learn our idiosyncrasies. One thing we all knew was, when Alden was pissed, you didn’t rock the boat. You followed his orders to the ‘T’ otherwise…

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