Honor Reclaimed (HORNET #2)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

ONE MONTH LATER

A buzzing sound startled Phoebe awake. She hadn’t remembered drifting off, but she must have because Seth lay next to her, sound asleep, his arm a warm, heavy weight over her breasts, his leg wrapped intimately around both of hers.

God, she didn’t want to move. Ever. Between their jobs and the long-distance relationship, it had been too long since they had been able to lay together like this.

Buzz buzz buzz.

Oh. Right. A phone was ringing in vibrate mode. She craned her neck to look at the nightstand, saw it was Seth’s, and nudged him in the ribs until he finally stirred.

“What?” he mumbled, sleep roughening his voice more than usual. “I was having a good dream.”

She smiled and kissed his cheek, knowing how rare good dreams were for him. “I’m sorry, but your phone’s ringing.”

He lifted his head and squinted at the clock on the nightstand. “Is it after midnight?”

“No, not yet. Why?”

He shoved himself to his hands and knees, lingering a moment to trail kisses down her nose and chin before he reached across her for the cell. “Just something my dad always said. Nothing good comes from a phone call after midnight.” He checked the screen. “It’s Gabe.”

With a sigh, he settled against the headboard and wrapped an arm around her when she snuggled in beside him. He scowled at the screen for a few more rings.

“Better answer.”

“Yeah.” He hit the phone icon and lifted it to his ear. “Hey, Gabe, what’s up?”

Phoebe couldn’t hear Gabe’s end of the conversation, but whatever he was saying tightened Seth’s jaw. His muscles went rigid under her hand.

“Yeah. I’ll be there.” He hung up and cursed, disengaging himself from her arm and swinging his legs out of bed.

“What’s going on?”

“Gabe says the team has another mission.”

Phoebe smothered a spike of annoyance. So much for having a whole week off to spend together. She’d been looking forward to sharing New Year’s with him, even if it was in a hotel room in Washington, D.C.

But she had to be understanding. He hadn’t made a fuss when she went to Papua New Guinea last week to research the rampant women’s rights abuses there. It was just… she was really starting to miss him. “Where are you going this time?”

“He didn’t say.” Finding his pants on the floor, he yanked them on but left them unzipped. He leaned over to kiss her. “We’re meeting at Wilde Security’s office for the briefing.”

Her immediate response was to insist he take her along, but that was the journalist in her afraid to miss a big story. The woman, the lover, feared for him, and she caught his face in her hands before he backed away. “Be careful, and please call me when you can.”

His brow wrinkled. “Gabe said he wants you there, too.”

“Me?” Instantly alarmed, she threw off the covers and hunted for her clothes. “Why? Is Zina okay? Tehani? Zak?”

“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think to ask.” Frowning, Seth grabbed his gun and jacket, but hesitated before putting them on and set them back on the bed. He pulled her into his arms and stroked a hand down her back. “I’m sure everything’s okay. Gabe didn’t sound alarmed.”

“Oh God, I hope so.”

The Wilde Security office was located in a strip mall that had been closed for years. It wasn’t exactly a pretty place, especially now that the far end of the building showed some fire damage from an incident that happened while they were in Afghanistan. Due to that same incident, the parking lot now had enough new lamps to light up a construction site—but where were the rest of the team’s vehicles? Seth doubted he was the first to arrive. Everyone had been in D.C. to welcome Zak home, so nobody had to fly in from the far-flung reaches of the country.

Seth slid from his rental car and glanced around, unease creeping over his skin. His paranoia was clanging up a storm, telling him he was about to be attacked, which made no fucking sense.

Still, he nudged Phoebe behind him as he tried Wilde Security’s front door. Unlocked.

He took a cautious step forward…

And realized what was happening a second before gallons of cold water splashed over his and Phoebe’s heads. Phoebe squawked. Laughter sounded from the darkness, and he swore, groping for the light switch.

The entire team—Gabe, Quinn, Jesse, Marcus, Ian, Jean-Luc, and Harvard, who was well on his way to making a full recovery from his wounds—stood around the room, laughing and congratulating each other on a prank well pulled. And they weren’t the only ones enjoying themselves. Audrey Bristow was here. Jude Wilde had also joined in the fun—hell, knowing Jude, he’d probably given the guys this idea in the first place. Greer Wilde stood in the back of the room next to Zak Hendricks, who was wheelchair-bound after losing his leg. Zak still looked pretty rough around the edges, and he had a long road of recovery ahead of him, but he’d shaved and had gotten a haircut, and he was smiling right along with the rest of the asshats.

Seth glared at them all. “Did you really just call me out of bed in the middle of the night to dump cold water on me?”

“It’s New Year’s,” Jean-Luc declared and blew into one of those annoying horns before taking a drink from his champagne glass. “Who sleeps on New Year’s?”

“Who says we were sleeping?” Which, yes, technically, they had been, but only because they were gearing up for a round three.

“Well, mon ami , I am sorry for that. But, c’mon, we had to initiate you, and this was better than some of the other suggestions.”

“Still say we shoulda made him wear a toga and dance to Sexy and I Know It ,” Marcus said, slurring his words a little. He did a hip thrust dance move that caused another uproar of laughter.

Phoebe smothered a giggle behind her hand. “Oh my God. They’re all wasted.”

Gabe stepped forward. “No, I’m not drunk.” At Audrey Bristow’s disbelieving snort, he added, “Well, getting there now, but when we came up with this plan, I was sober.”

Seth scowled at him. “I thought you said no hazing.”

“It wasn’t appropriate at the time. Now it is.” He stuck out a hand. “You’re officially off probation. Welcome to the team, Ace.”

Holy. Shit.

As Seth accepted the handshake, Jesse let out a whoop fit for a rodeo-riding cowboy. Harvard gave him two thumbs up. Marcus and Jean-Luc slapped a high five. Ian, leaning against the wall with Tank faithfully at his side, smirked and gave a sarcastic golf clap. Jesus. The fucker couldn’t do anything light on the sarcasm. Once you got past the sneer, he had a sense of humor like a knife. Seth laughed and flipped him off, which made Ian grin.

“All right, ‘nuff with all that mushy stuff,” Jean-Luc said. “He’s official, we love him, and yadda yadda. Now, let’s get the man and his belle some dry clothes and ring in this New Year right. Got me a feelin’ it’s gonna be a damn good one, cher.”

An hour later, someone turned on the TV to watch the ball drop, and everyone gravitated in that direction. Seth hung back, watching with a smile until Phoebe sneaked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I’ve never seen you laugh so much. Does this make you happy?”

He looked around the room at the guys, all of them grinning, some of them so drunk they couldn’t stand straight. They put the fun in dysfunctional—and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Yeah, it does. But…” He turned in the circle of her arms and pulled her flush against his body. Her fingers slipped under his borrowed shirt and played over the small of his back, sending a delicious shiver up his spine.

Up until meeting her, the only reason for his continued existence was to make damn sure his captors didn’t win. It had been his way of flipping them a big fat fuck you very much. But now he wanted more than existence. He wanted laughter. Friendship. Love. Home.

Finally, he wanted life.

More than that, he wanted a life with Phoebe.

“But what?” she asked, smiling up at him.

He lowered his lips to hers, stopping just short of a kiss. “I love you, Phoebe. I want to make this work between us, whatever it takes. If that means I have to leave HORNET?—”

“No.” She slapped her hands to his chest and pushed. “Don’t you dare. You need them, and they need you. I would never ask you to give up another team.”

“But where does that leave us? This long-distance thing we’ve been doing… it doesn’t work for me. It’s not what I want with you.”

Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “So what do you want?”

“More than a week here, a week there. I sleep better at night when you’re next to me. I eat better?—”

“Only because I nag you.”

“Yes, and I love it. I want you to nag me for the next fifty years at least.”

She poked a finger teasingly at his stomach. “You know you’re probably going to regret saying that sooner rather than later.”

“No. Never.” He caught her hand and lifted her palm to his lips. “Phoebe, you make me a better person. You make me whole.”

She lifted a shoulder, trying for casual, but the telltale glimmer of happy tears gave her away. “Well, I guess I’m not tied to Boston. That’s the beauty of my job—I can write and take photos anywhere in the world.”

He grinned. “Key West is a beautiful place to write. Even Ernest Hemingway thought so. He used to live there, you know.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that.” She grinned back. “I’ll still have to travel some.”

“So will I.”

“But we’ll make it work,” she said without a shred of doubt. “As long as you always come home to me.”

Seth caught her chin between his fingers and turned her face up toward his. for a kiss. “I’d be crazy not to.” Her lips tasted of cool, crisp champagne, and he took the kiss deeper, hugged her closer, and let himself relax into her embrace.

Home.

After four long years, he was finally home.

If you’re curious about what happened to Zak Hendricks after HORNET rescued him, you’re in luck! He’s the hero of Searching for Rescue , the first book in my Redwood Coast Rescue series, which is available now!