Her Wild Hero

Angelo made no comment. Any organization that needed to have a separate set of offices just so politicians would have a place to play wasn’t an organization he wanted to work for. He looked around the lobby and grimaced at the white walls, generic DC tourist pics, and marble accents. How the hell did Landon put up with this crap?

The click-clack of high heels coming down the hall interrupted his musings. Angelo dragged his attention away from the framed photo of the White House and did a double take. For a second, he thought it was Ivy—though he had no idea how she could have gotten here before them when she was with Derek and Danica getting their personal gear together—but then he realized it was her equally beautiful sister, Layla. If she wasn’t ten years younger than he was and already hung up on his former lieutenant, Jayson Harmon, he definitely would have done some serious flirting when he’d met her at Landon and Ivy’s wedding.

Her dark eyes widened when she saw them. “Landon.” She did a quick scan of the lobby. “Is Ivy with you?”

“No. She’s at home.” Landon frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Layla’s fingers toyed with the strap on her shoulder bag. “I had a job interview.”

Landon’s frown deepened. “A job interview?”

“Uh-huh. I got it, too. John wants me to start on Monday.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, looking at each of them in turn. “Please don’t say anything to Ivy, okay? I want to be the one to tell her.”

“Yeah,” Landon said. “Sure.”

“Awesome. Thank you.” She grinned. “Okay, I’m outta here. Jayson and I are going to celebrate. Nice seeing you again, Angelo. Clayne.”

Angelo barely had time to return the greeting before she hurried out the door, her high heels echoing behind her.

“I’m guessing Ivy isn’t going to be happy about her sister working here?” Angelo asked.

Clayne snorted. “Understatement.”

Considering how the DCO treated shifters, Angelo wasn’t surprised Ivy didn’t want her sister involved with them. Angelo had two sisters he was extremely protective of, so he knew where Ivy was coming from. He didn’t say anything as he followed Landon and Clayne down the hall, though.

Halfway down, Landon stopped at one of the offices and knocked on the already open door, then walked in.

The director of the DCO wasn’t at all how Angelo’d pictured him. He expected a slick, politician type, but instead the man fit the bill of a battalion or group commander. He might dress like the head of a Fortune 500 company, but he looked like he could definitely handle himself in a fight if he had to.

The man’s gaze lingered curiously on Angelo briefly before settling on Landon. “What’s the problem? Ivy said there was something important you wanted to see me about that couldn’t wait until Monday.”

“It can’t,” Landon agreed, then glanced at Angelo. “John, this is a good friend of mine, Sergeant First Class Angelo Rios from my old A-Team. Angelo, my boss, John Loughlin.”

John held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Sergeant. Would it be too presumptuous to hope you’re here because Landon recruited you to join our ranks?”

Angelo smiled. “I’m happy where I am, sir, but thank you.”

“I thought you might say that.”

John regarded Landon with a calculating look in his eyes, and Angelo suddenly had the feeling that the director wasn’t a man you screwed with. He had enough clout to grab Landon out of Special Forces in the middle of a deployment. He hoped Landon knew what the hell he was doing.

John gestured to the small conference table. “Have a seat.”

If the director of the DCO was behind the ambush in Costa Rica, he was a damn good actor because he looked genuinely stunned—not to mention concerned—when Landon outlined the situation.

“Why am I hearing this from you and not from Tate?” John asked when Landon finished.

“Because Tate thinks you sold them out and walked them right into that hybrid ambush,” Clayne said.

Shit. Subtle wasn’t in Clayne’s vocabulary. Now John would get pissed off, then Clayne would go into beast mode, and they’d never get anywhere. But instead John regarded them calmly.

“And what do you think?” John asked, looking at Landon.

“I don’t think anything. I just know the facts,” Landon said. “You sent a DCO team on an exercise. They were ambushed. Tate, Brent, and Gavin barely escaped with their lives, and Kendra and Declan are missing, maybe even dead. And a pack of hybrids are at the center of it.”

A muscle in John’s jaw flexed. “This exercise has been on the schedule every year for the past decade. Other than choosing the team the DCO sends, I don’t have any involvement.”

Clayne’s eyes flashed gold. “You expect us to believe that Tate’s team just stumbled into those hybrids by chance?”

Angelo frowned. Okay, what hadn’t Landon told him? Because there was way more going on here than his friend had let on. Landon and Clayne wouldn’t be leaning on their boss this hard if they didn’t already have a reason to distrust him.