Footsteps and voices from the hallway. We unwound just as Cal walked in, ducking his head to miss the door frame. The sniper’s nickname in the Marines was Bigfoot and it fitted: he was huge, quiet, and more at home in nature than around people.

Cal was debating fishing lures with Colton, our other country guy. Colton didn’t have Cal’s height but he made up for it in lean muscle. He bounty hunted between Stormfinch jobs and he was quickly getting his own little fan club around the town. I’d be flirting with some woman in the bar and then Colton would stroll in, hungry for a beer after bringing down some criminal, and he’d dump all his chains and cuffs on the bar. The woman would whisper who’s that? I’d tell her about how he tussles the bad guys to the ground, ties them, tosses them over his shoulder, and carries them off. Some of the women recoiled in fear but some of them went big-eyed and breathy, and asked me to slip him their phone number.

As Cal and Colton started pouring coffees, Irish voices filled the hallway. Kian O’Harra, the former Secret Service guy who’d put the team together and Bradan, his brother. “You can’t keep putting it off,” Bradan said as they walked in.

“Keep putting what off?” I asked.

Kian gave Bradan a long-suffering look: now look what you’ve started. But his younger brother just nodded for him to answer and Kian sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Asking Emily’s dad if I can marry her. I’m not putting it off. I just haven’t found the right moment.”

Everyone looked at him skeptically.

“I was all ready to ask him when he was former President Matthews. Then he got into the re-election campaign and it was impossible to get a minute alone with him. Then he won and now he’s the bloody president again, and you don’t just walk up to the president and ask—” He sighed. “Look, can we get onto the mission?”

People grabbed coffee and we all trooped through to the briefing room. It had a long table, comfy chairs and a huge, fancy screen at one end that none of us could figure out how to hook up. Gabriel, the smooth-talking former thief, was kicked back in a chair, feet up on the table. JD gave him a look and he sighed good-naturedly and put them down.

We all sat down and I leaned forward in anticipation. Going on a mission was just what I needed. I’d be away from Erin, away from temptation.

“So where are we going?” asked JD.