HOT Shadows(3)
Author: Lynn Raye Harris

 

Gem glanced around, wondering what he was about to find in his locker. He shouldn’t have been the last one in today. Not that it could have been helped. He’d had an appointment with the team doctor over at Riverstone for a follow-up about a knife wound to the leg he’d gotten almost two months ago. It hadn’t been a deep wound, but HOT was nothing if not thorough with their people.

 

“How’s the injury?” Zany asked, looking concerned.

 

Gem stood as far as possible from his locker door and tugged it open. Nothing jumped out at him.

 

“All better. Just gonna leave a scar is all.”

 

Easy’s phone dinged. He took it out and snorted. “So cute.” He turned the phone so they could see his niece, soon-to-be daughter, sleeping on the floor with the two cats he and his wife Jenna had adopted. The cats were curled around Alice, all three sound asleep.

 

“When’s the adoption hearing?” Saint asked.

 

“Next week,” Easy said. “Jenna’s nervous, but I keep telling her it’ll be fine. We’re already Alice’s guardians.”

 

“Just a formality.”

 

“That’s what I told her.”

 

Gem got his range bag out. There were no rubber snakes, no gooey substances, no pickle juice lurking inside. What the fuck were these guys up to anyway?

 

He looked up to catch Mal’s gaze. If anyone was planning a prank, it was fucking Mal. Especially since Gem may have been the one to suggest pickle juice to the others. But Mal smiled wanly and glanced away again.

 

Gem spread his feet apart, folded his arms, and locked his stance. “All right. What’s going on with you guys?”

 

“Going on?” Muffin said. He opened his locker. A thin sheet of newspaper fell out and he picked it up and crumpled it. “Nothing.”

 

Gem frowned. “I don’t believe you.”

 

Hacker groaned. “Just tell him. He’s going to find out anyway. Hell, he might already know.”

 

Gem’s skin prickled with dread. “Know what? Did I get orders? Am I being sent to another unit? What the fuck is going on?”

 

Wolf snatched the newspaper from Muffin’s fingers. “Everly Fairhope is engaged. It was in the paper this morning.”

 

Ice washed over Gem’s body. He took the piece of paper calmly and smoothed it out to glance at it. “I didn’t know you read the wedding announcements, Muffin. Secret hobby?”

 

“No way, man. It was in the politics section. Not quite a formal announcement.”

 

“Who reads an actual newspaper anymore?” Mal asked.

 

Muffin gave him a look. “I grew up with two reporters for parents and I still read newsprint. Sue me.”

 

Gem stopped listening and took in the headline.

 

Congresswoman Ellen Fairhope’s Daughter Rumored to Be Engaged to J. Stuart Morrison of Morrison, Morrison, and Fredricks

 

His blood was icy enough to make him numb. Good thing, because he suspected rage was simmering below the surface, just waiting for an opportunity to erupt. Not that it was any of his business what Everly did. She’d made that clear two months ago when she’d broken up with him.

 

Everly Fairhope. He’d called her about a month after they’d returned from Qu’rim. They’d dated for three months, and he’d really liked her. Liked her so much he’d taken it slow. Hell, they’d just worked their way up to some heavy petting when she broke up with him.

 

He’d been pissed, not because they hadn’t had sex, but because he’d started to care. He’d thought she cared too. He’d taken her to his teammates’ homes for parties and get-togethers, and she’d fit right in. Everyone liked her. Everly wasn’t stiff or formal with them, not like she’d been in Qu’rim. She’d seemed more herself, even if she didn’t ever let the prim and proper side of herself go completely. She was Congresswoman Fairhope’s daughter and she never let it all hang out. Too risky, she’d said. He hadn’t argued with her, but he’d thought she was the most buttoned-up woman he’d ever known. He’d also thought she’d drop those barriers with him eventually, and it would’ve been so worth it.

 

He hadn’t even minded that she didn’t formally introduce him to her mother. He’d figured there was time for that. He’d been wrong.

 

“Okay, so she’s getting married,” Gem said, hoping he didn’t sound as angry as he felt. “I wish her the best.”

 

“Really?” Mal asked. “I thought you’d be pissed.”

 

Gem shrugged and handed the clipping back to Muffin. “Why would I? We dated for three months. It didn’t work out. Happens.”

 

“Yeah, guess so. Just thought it might bother you.”

 

“Nah, it’s fine. Everly’s a grown woman. If she wants to marry some guy she’s only been dating a month or two, who am I to tell her she can’t?”

 

Not that he knew she’d only been dating this J. Stuart Morrison guy for a month or two. For all he knew, she’d been with Stu—he totally didn’t know if that was the guy’s nickname, but that’s what he was going with because it sounded stodgy as fuck—before she’d met him. Maybe Everly and Stu had been on a break. She’d said she hadn’t been dating anyone for over a year, but that didn’t make it true. Maybe they’d reconnected and there were fireworks.

 

Gem didn’t like the knot in his gut. He’d thought there were fireworks between him and Everly, and he’d been willing to wait for the right time to make them explode, but it’d never happened. Fact was he was a shitty judge of female character. He had an ex-wife to prove it, and an ex-girlfriend now engaged to someone else. If that didn’t make him clueless in the love department, he didn’t know what did.

 

“Sorry anyway, brother,” Zany said, clamping a hand on his shoulder. “I liked Everly. I hope she’ll be happy.”

 

“Me, too,” Gem said, turning back to his locker for his gym clothes. First they had PT, then it was the range. Plenty of stuff to keep him occupied.

 

It wasn’t until Gem was done with his fifteen miles and getting into the shower that it happened.

 

Grape jelly squirted out of his shampoo bottle, which he didn’t realize until he’d already smeared it in his hair. Should have kept his eyes open when he got the shampoo. He might have seen it then.

 

“Mal, you fuckwit!” he yelled.