repeated invitations. Only gone for a handful of happy hours, usually when it was someone’s birthday. Maybe it was time. To start making friends again. To loosen some of the mortar in the brick wall he surrounded himself with. “Mysterious?”
Kenny and Latte flicked a look at each other, visibly surprised he’d taken the bait. They were always casting out a line and reeling it back in empty. “Yeah, man,” Latte said, patting a hand over the tight twists of black hair on his head. “Been on the team with you for years and I still don’t know your Starbucks order.”
“Jesus,” Kenny muttered, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. “That’s the first thing you want to know about him? What is it with you and the fancy coffee?”
“Sprinkled cinnamon makes it taste good.” Latte kept a glare trained on his friend for several beats and this time, even the dealer laughed. He took a moment to place a bet and survey what everyone else was doing. “Fine, Silent E. I retract my earlier query. How come you never tell us about the dates our wives set you up on?”
Kenny threw up his hands. “Hallelujah. That’s what I wanted to know.”
Elias hedged. They couldn’t ask him his favorite movie or something?
A couple of times over the last few years, he’d gotten cornered by the S.W.A.T. wives, who frankly were a tactical unit of their own, and coerced into some blind dates. Nothing had ever come of them, to put it mildly. He’d found it impossible to be present or have a decent conversation with any of the women, whose names and faces he now couldn’t recall.
But he wouldn’t be telling Kenny and Latte that. First of all, those women were perfectly nice. The issue was his and his alone. And he definitely wouldn’t be telling his teammates that the older he got…the more going on dates made him feel as if he were doing something wrong.
Like he should be home. Waiting.
Waiting for what?
Elias cleared his throat. “I’m sure they gave the play-by-play to your wives.”
“It’s not the same,” Kenny groaned.
“Yeah,” Latte agreed, calling with a toss of chips into the center of the felt. “We should be compensated, man. We took the blame over you never calling their friends back.”
“If you’re trying to guilt me into letting you win a hand, it’s not working,” Elias drawled, pushing a short stack toward the dealer. “Raise.”
Kenny shot forward in his seat. “You see that, everyone? Lethal.”
Latte did his best to look betrayed, but his cheek jerked with a smile. “How are you going to play me like that, Silent E?” He sniffed into his wrist. “Here I thought we were finally becoming confidants.”
Thing is, he had been trying to “open up,” so to speak. Then he’d gotten a good hand.
His teammates were a lot more curious about him than he’d realized, though, and he kind of got the sense they were hurt that he’d withheld so much. He didn’t like that. These men were constantly at his back in harrowing situations. They guarded each other’s lives. Despite Elias’s standoffishness, they tried to include him in everything and he needed to reciprocate.
“Beers on me later,” Elias muttered, keeping his attention on the cards. “You can ask me whatever you want…”
He trailed off, that scrape between his shoulder blades growing more pronounced, until he couldn’t concentrate enough to decipher the suits of his cards. What the hell was going on? Throat dry, he laid down his hand and turned in his chair—
Silence fell around him when he saw her.
She was golden. Radiant.
Miserable.
The long-legged blonde limped through the casino with a beautiful pout on her face, a pair of high heels shoved under one arm. There was a fine sheen of dew on her incredible face, telling Elias she’d just escaped the stifling Vegas heat. Simply by existing, she commanded fealty and the casino seemed to part around her like the Red Sea, creating a path for her to complete a wobbly strut toward Elias’s poker table—and the closer she came, the more his lungs compressed, as if he was running out of fucking oxygen.
Who is she?
No idea. But the discomfort between his shoulder blades was gone.
Like a balm had been applied.
The girl was beyond gorgeous. He’d never noticed cheekbones on anyone in his life, but he noticed her high ones. The indigo blue of her eyes. And Jesus, he definitely noticed the way her soft mutterings made his heart flop over. Who are you?