“I think this year it might be a little different. I’ll bet a hundred dollars on Teams One and Three. Of course I mean no disrespect,” Kyros said slyly.

Pappy felt chagrined. Things were changing right in front of his very eyes. First his dog, now his father. “You’re on.” He stalked from the stainless-steel kitchen. He would have huffed and puffed, but that would have made him look like a…he couldn’t come up with the right word, so he just grimaced, turned his baseball cap around, and headed off to his office.

He heard the laughter coming from the pool area. He sauntered over just in time to see Samantha Rainford lift off the diving board and hit the water. He sucked in his breath and moved on. He knew exactly what she would look like in a string bikini because she looked so much like Adrian, who had refused to wear the one-piece navy blue Speedo all the trainees wore. Not that she’d ever been a trainee here on the mountain but…he let the thought drift away. Adrian had been a law unto herself. The best of the best. In the field, in the office, in bed. And that will be enough of that, he told himself as he stomped his way to his office.

Sam held a whispered conversation with her team prior to going to dinner. “You might think I’m off the wall with what I’m going to tell you, but if nothing else, I have good gut instincts. Maybe it was mine, Slick’s, and Hawkins’ stint at the FBI, or maybe it is just woman’s intuition. Whatever it is, I want you to listen. The three of us think something is going to happen tonight. Maybe visitors are coming here to the mountain. If we’re right, the staff isn’t going to want us to see anything. I want you to think about that. Again, this is just our opinion, but we did learn a thing or two at the Academy. Instincts are something you learn to pay attention to. The three of us think the kitchen staff is going to put something either in our food or the coffee so that we sleep soundly tonight. Having said that, it’s up to each of you what you eat or drink.”

The other three Rainford wives looked at the three ex-FBI students curiously.

“Won’t they notice if we don’t eat or drink?” Zoe asked.