Page 2 of Final Sins
“The twins aren’t even here yet, dude. You should be getting some sleep.”
Bridger laughed as he navigated the baking highway. “Tell that to your nieces. Between their wrestling matches and the heartburn, they’re keeping Jane up at all hours.”
“Which means you’re up, too,” Jason realized.
“Copy that,” Bridger agreed, his knuckles whitening on the steering wheel. “Seriously. Those girls are training for the Olympics in there.”
The Jeep fell silent for a moment, broken only by the whine of the engine.
Bridger slid him a glance. “It’s good to have you home.”
“Roger that. Good to be back.” Jason slid down in his seat.
It was good to be home. Back with his team. His family. It would be better if they’d finished destroying whatever the Consortium had morphed into. Then he could really relax. They all could.
After he and his friends were “retired” against their will from the deeply-secret special ops team the military trained them for, Jason had gone out on his own, hoping to destroy the cabal of billionaires and high government officials who’d been ordering his team’s missions, basically using Jason and his team as their own private special ops force. It turned out, instead of carrying out missions for the good of their country, he and his team had been doing the dirty work for a group of international criminals.
Once the Consortium realized the squad had an inkling of their true bosses, he and the team were shoved straight into retirement. He and Jason and the others would have to find a way to live with the guilt.
They’d been on their own mission to destroy the cabal ever since. Once he and his friends busted up the Consortium’s lastbig mission, blowing it up before it could start, the international group had fractured, leaving a smaller, leaner, meaner group in charge. Seven-Five.
Stupid name for an evil organization. But no one asked him.
Whatever they called themselves, it was the same old snake oil in a new bottle. And just as dangerous. Maybe even more so. Once the billionaire heads got their acts together and secured their power, they’d be coming after Jason and the team again.
He planned to take them down first.
“I don’t like it,” Bridger muttered.
“Me, either.” A sniper and demolitions expert by both training and temperament, he needed a purpose. Action. A target.
Bridger’s gaze softened. “I remember how it felt when we got our discharge papers. Tai and I were climbing the walls, itching for new missions. Anywhere. Any time.”
Jason snorted. “Look how that turned out. You ended up married to my sister.”
“Best mission of my life.” Bridger grinned, then sobered. “We’ll get a break. And when we do, we’ll hit Seven-Five with everything we’ve got.”
Jason nodded, but inside, his resolve hardened. No way he’d let Bridger—his sister’s husband, Kellen’s dad, and the soon-to-be father of his nieces—anywhere near the front lines.
Whether Bridger liked it or not.
Bridger pulled the Jeep into the driveway now full of high-end 4X4s belonging to their teammates.
Jason cracked the door. Just imagining the thick, cheesy scent of Jane’s lasagna, making his stomach growl.
“Hungry much?” Bridger quipped.
Jason grinned. “All those nights stuck in those caves outside Kandahar? I used to dream about Jane’s lasagna, bro.”
“Copy that. I woulda dreamt about it, too, if I’d known about it back then.”
Jason picked up the pace. Judging from the vehicles choking the driveway, the rest of the team was already inside. They better not have started on that lasagna …
He hadn’t yet made it to the front steps when his phone vibrated against his thigh. He fished the device from his pocket, eyebrows shooting up in surprise at the text.
“Who is it?” Bridger asked, curiosity piqued.
Jason squinted at the screen. “Robbie ‘Gravy’ Munsinger.” A definite blast from the past.