Page 75 of Long Arm of the Cowboy

Clay shook his head at the man who couldn’t even see him. “No. You’re working with Sentry right now.”

“Sorry, man, but we go where we’re needed most. And that’s WEST Protection.”

Annoyance flared inside him. He filled his lungs with air but couldn’t ease the anger that was beginning to boil to the surface. The Abel brothers were free agents. Basically mercenaries, working for whoever paid them most at the time. Right this minute, that was WEST Protection.

Clay only had himself to be mad at. If he’d secured the brothers on the Sentry team sooner, they’d be on their way to the house right now. Then he could wrap up this op and get Lark to safety.

But that meant walking away from her too, and Clay wasn’t sure how she was going to deal with it.

Hell, he didn’t know howhewould.

Lark was staring at her phone too, a crinkle between her pale brows.

Clay brought his focus back to Julius. “After you’re finished with whatever Ross has you doing with the WEST team, I’d like to set up a time to talk to you and Jennings.”

“Sure, man. We’ll be in touch.”

He ended the call and took a moment to stare in space. So…he was still a team of one. That bomb was more dangerous than any of them knew—even the FBI bomb expert—and Lark could have been killed at any time.

Clay disliked that thought so much that he clamped his hand harder around his phone until his fingers began to go numb.

For the time being, he had Quaide. The man might be distracted by some personal crap, but at least he was reliable.

There was also Lark. And she had the intel on people in that meeting they needed to move forward and stop blackwillow73 and his cohorts from creating a national tragedy.

He looked to Lark. Her brows were smooth now, but he still saw a level of irritation in her eyes.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“The next meeting time’s been changed because a funeral is taking place in the church hall.”

“Probably not so unusual.”

“It’s just frustrating. I wanted to jump back in there tomorrow and get to know those people.”

Personally, he was really glad for the delay, but telling her that would only set her off. He got the feeling that an angry Lark could getreallyspicy.

The thought didn’t totally repel him if he were honest. In fact, he could think of plenty of ways to coax her out ofanybad mood.

Quaide yanked out the chair that he’d refused to take before and plopped into it. “Was that the Abels on the phone?”

He gave a solemn nod. “They’re not coming. They defused the bomb and are on their way to the WEST team as backup on some op.”

Quaide didn’t appear to be as upset by this as Clay felt. “Okay, so it’s the three of us.”

“Two,” he corrected, leveling a look at Lark.

She rolled her eyes. “Quaide said it. I’m in. So that means—”

“Quaide’s not in charge of manning this team. I am. And I say that you’re not part of it.”

“You’re acting like a father figure again.”

He closed his eyes and counted to ten for patience that wasn’t about to come on this matter. When he opened them, Lark offered him a sweet smile.

Hell, how did she do that? Disarm him with one quirk of her plump lips?

“For the last time…I’m not that old. Definitely not old enough for you to worry about.”

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