Mustang put his plate down on the table and turned to Elodie. He took her plate out of her hand as well, then tilted her face up to his. “Listen to me, babe, you want to know what your future holds?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer, but went on. “Me. This, relaxing with friends on the weekend, not looking over your shoulder, and definitely planning for what we’re going to do a week from now, a month, a year.”
She gripped his wrists and looked at him with eyes so filled with pain, worry, and hope, it nearly killed him. “You can’t know that.”
“I can and do,” he argued.
“Elodie, this Paul guy isn’t going to win,” Pid added quietly.
Mustang had almost forgotten where they were, and that his team could hear every word of their conversation. Almost. He’d known they would back him up…he needed Elodie to believe that they were doing everything in their power to make sure she would be safe to live her life.
“No fucking way,” Jag agreed.
“He might be head of that family for now, but he’s a fucking idiot, and his second in command is gonna take over soon. Mark my words,” Slate added.
“You ever talk to Jerry Columbus?” Midas asked.
Mustang took a breath and released Elodie’s face, but grabbed her hands and squeezed them as she turned her head to look at his team.
“Paul’s son? No. I mean, I knew he was around, but he never came into the kitchen and wasn’t involved in hiring me,” Elodie said.
“Right. Well, he seems a lot more savvy than his dad. Less hotheaded. But of all the members of the Columbus family, he’s the most dangerous,” Midas told her.
“And this is supposed to make me feel better?” Elodie asked under her breath.
“Yeah, it is,” Aleck joined in. “Because from what it looks like, he doesn’t know anything about you. Doesn’t care. He’s more concerned about Paul and his fuckups. He’s been pretty vocal about his dad’s…outbursts. We get the feeling it’s not exactly a secret in the family that dear ol’ Dad is a bit unstable. The team and I have talked about this, and we have a feeling Jerry is gonna make a move to take over the family sooner rather than later, and when that happens, it’s likely you’ll be in the clear.”
She sighed. “It’s all just so stupid,” she said. “I mean, I left. I’m obviously not going to go to the cops or I would have by now, and even if I did, I don’t have any proof of what I was asked to do.”
“Men like Paul Columbus don’t care about any of that. They just want to win,” Slate said quietly. “Especially if he’s not in his right mind.”
“Well, he’s not going to win,” Mustang said firmly. “We’re on this, El. Pid’s keeping track of his capos, basically his military captains who are in command of the soldiers in the mob. The guys who do the actual work. As far as we can tell, they’re all in New York doing their dirty deeds. They aren’t out looking for you.”
Mustang felt her let out a relieved sigh.
“If you think we’re gonna let some asshole get his hands on you, you’re crazy,” Aleck told her. “Mustang has been a hell of a lot nicer and easygoing this last month. The last thing we want is him going back to being the hard-ass, ball-busting team leader he was in the months between when he met you on the Asaka Express and when he ran into you again.”
“Fuck off,” Mustang told his friend. “Just for that, I think we’ll do our run with our packs on for PT on Monday.”
Everyone groaned.
Elodie giggled. It was the most beautiful sound Mustang had ever heard. Aleck wasn’t exactly wrong with his assessment of his temperament. Being around Elodie had softened him in a lot of ways. Regular sex probably had something to do with that as well, but he’d never admit to something so crass…especially not in front of Elodie.
“If we’re gonna get our asses kicked on Monday, I want to stuff my face now to prepare. Are there any more burgers?” Pid asked.
“You guys want more?” Elodie asked in surprise. “We already made like a dozen of them.”
“They’re always hungry,” Mustang informed her as he squeezed her hands once more then reached for the plate he’d abandoned.
“I could eat another, but I’m more interested in watching how Elodie cooks these things,” Jag said.
“Same,” Midas agreed.
“All right, I’ll show you on one condition,” Elodie said with a completely straight face.
“Anything.”
“Of course.”
“Depends on what it is,” Slate said suspiciously.
She smiled at him. “Ah, there’s one smart guy in the bunch,” she quipped. “Wanting to know what he’s agreeing to before he says yes. All I was gonna ask is that you promise to come back safe and sound from your mission next week.”
Everyone went silent at her request.
After a pregnant pause, Mustang knew he had to step in and explain why they hadn’t all immediately agreed.
“Babe…here’s the thing. As good as we are, as much as we plan and prepare, shit can always go sideways. We’re trained to deal with that…but from the first day we started working together, we made a pledge that when we had girlfriends or got married, we’d never promise to stay alive. We do everything in our power to make sure that happens, but we can’t promise.”
He saw Elodie swallow hard, then nod. “I understand, and I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s just…you guys are my only friends. And now that I know all of you, really know you, not just what Scott has told me about you, I can’t imagine any of you not being here. You’re a unit, a team, and it’s obvious how close you are.”
Surprisingly, it was Slate who approached. He tugged Elodie into his arms and gave her a long and heartfelt hug. “We can’t promise not to die, but we can promise to not do anything stupid or to put ourselves in situations that would be less than ideal.”
Elodie chuckled against Slate’s chest. “Less than ideal, yeah, that’s totally SEAL speak for ‘fucked up beyond all recognition’ for sure.”
Slate loosened his hold and glanced down at her. “How’d you know what FUBAR stands for?”
“Because I’m not an idiot?” she quipped. “I know how to use the Internet. And I may or may not have used Scott’s phone to research military acronyms. Since I’m dating a military guy now, I need to know that stuff so I can understand Scott when he talks. And along with the normal things, like the ranks and ridiculous stuff like COMNAVSEASYSCOM—who actually uses that one?—I looked up some of the more fun ones. Like FUBAR, FARP, BLT, BOHICA, DILLIGAFF, and SWAG.”
Mustang couldn’t help but laugh along with the rest of his friends. Then Slate passed Elodie to Pid, who gave her a long hug of his own, then Aleck, Midas, and lastly, Jag. Mustang had no problem whatsoever with his friends comforting Elodie. He trusted them with his life, and Elodie’s, and if they could make her feel better with a hug, he was thrilled.
His heart kind of hurt thinking about her saying they were her only friends. He wanted to fix that, but wasn’t sure how without putting her in danger.