Chapter Ninety-Six

Angel could see she had shocked him with her question. That much was obvious. To be honest, it had surprised her, as well. Not just that she’d blurted it out, but that she hadn’t thought of it a year ago.

Colton would make a great addition to their team. Like the others on the team who were officially “dead,” he wouldn’t be able to take on any high-profile cases. But he would be great at extraction and long-range protection. Those jobs were somewhat less dangerous, too, which suited her just fine.

Maybe that’s why she’d never mentioned it before. She’d selfishly wanted him hidden away where he was safe.

And where she could keep him at a distance. So she wouldn’t be forced into anything…serious.

She opened her mouth to apologize for her subconscious, but he spoke first.

“I think I might like to join your team,” he said. “It would be great to be in the action again. And it would mean working with you, right?” He glanced over at her. “Would that be a problem for you?”

She frowned down at her hands, and he turned back toward the windshield again.

Would she be okay if they worked together? That was not the question he was really asking. There was another question hidden in the layers. What he was really asking was if she was willing to have a future with him.

Rather than promise anything, she took the cowardly way out. “We need to survive this mission first. Why don’t we wait and discuss it when this mess is all straightened out?”

“Sure,” he said with a nod.

They didn’t speak again for probably an hour. It was an easy silence. She could tell he was considering all the details of her suggestion. She was doing the same thing.

He deserved to have the life he wanted. She wanted to make sure he was safe. They wanted to be together. This one idea seemed to solve everything.

So why was she still reluctant to commit?

Every time she pictured them together, it was in a more domestic setting. Like his home, sitting with Pudge on the sofa watching movies. Leaning on the counter while he made their frittatas. She couldn’t picture them spending the night in a van during a stakeout, or stretched out on a roof ready to shoot anyone who made a move on their asset.

Maybe after this mission, she could see them together like that.

Maybe.

They pulled into a hotel parking lot at ten that night. She’d been driving the last four hours and her shoulders were stiff. The hotel had been chosen beforehand. They even had a blueprint of the property in their bag.

If something happened, she had multiple ways to get out of the room. None of which would result in a sprained ankle, or a three-day excursion through the wilds of Oregon.

She sat by the hotel room window watching the parking lot, while Colton went to pick up dinner. She longed for the chance to go to dinner with him in public. To be able to sit across from him at a restaurant table, order a glass of wine, and be normal.

Instead she was stuck here, tense and restless. She wished they’d been able to bring Pudge. She missed her dog. But he was safer with Deb.

Her apartment in DC didn’t allow dogs. And she didn’t even know her neighbor’s name. If she and Colton decided to go with the Task Force Phoenix plan, they would need to find a new place. Their things would be mingled together. Would he like her coffee pot better than his? Hers was clearly superior, but maybe he liked the old style of his.

They would be making a home together.

The thought both excited and terrified her.

Even more than what they faced next.