And put off seeing them, she thought. Though he appeared as cool and collected as ever, she knew how tense he had to be.
His amber gaze met hers, and she knew that he had guessed her thought. “Then come meet my team.”
He led her down a flight of stairs and into a sleek lobby. Journey set her backpack on the floor and went to get a better look at the framed photos on the walls. They were all of wild animals— a grizzly bear, a snow leopard, a wolf, a tiger, a panther, a pride of lions, and...
“It’s you!” She pointed to a photo of the palace at Brandusa, the white marble bathed in a sunlit glow, with a golden dragon circling overhead.
Lucas was eyeing it as if he’d never seen it before. “Hal never took it down. I told him I wouldn’t come back. I never called to say otherwise. But I’m still here with the rest of the team.”
A deep voice rumbled behind them, “That’s because you are part of the team.”
“You idiot,” a woman’s voice added.
Journey turned to see a tall, burly man with hazel eyes and a short, curvy black woman standing in the doorway. She recognized them from Lucas’s descriptions as Hal Brennan, the leader of Protection, Inc., and Destiny Ford. More people crowded in behind them.
“What’ve you been doing all this time?” demanded a young man with tattooed arms and intense green eyes. He had to be Nick Mackenzie, the guy whose nose Lucas had broken. When she looked closely, she could see a tiny bump on its bridge.
“I’ve been teaching a horse to fly,” Lucas replied.
Nick stared at him. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Journey almost jumped out of her skin when a tall man with black hair and ice-blue eyes appeared beside Lucas. She’d somehow failed to notice him in the crowd. He handed Lucas a gold-plated gun. “Best pistol I’ve ever fired. Thanks for the loan.”
An elegant blonde woman snatched the gun from Lucas’s hands. “I don’t think so, Shane. Lucas left without saying good-bye. He doesn’t deserve nice things like Desert Eagles.”
“I let Fiona borrow it,” Shane informed Lucas. “She liked it too. Now you’ll never get it back.”
Destiny put her hands on her hips. “I’m definitely not giving back the Porsche Carrera. That’s your punishment for disappearing on us!”
A handsome Latino man remarked, “I don’t mind returning your apartment, but I don’t know if you’ll want it back. I’ve completely redecorated. I put a mirror on the ceiling over the bed... Installed a hot tub... Hung some red velvet drapes for atmosphere... Oh, and the bed vibrates now. But you might like that.”
Lucas looked briefly horrified, then laughed. “I’ll have it all delivered to your apartment, Rafa. Shall I throw in a box of extra-small condoms?”
Rafa put on an exaggeratedly wounded look. Destiny licked her finger, then snatched it back. “Burn!”
Hal strode forward and clapped Lucas on the back. “Welcome home.”
Lucas’s eyes shone, but with a clear light rather than a hot one. Journey had never seen him cry, but she suspected that he was holding back tears. When he spoke, his voice was suspiciously choked-up. “Thank you, Hal. Everyone... I am sorry about how I left. And I am glad to be back.”
Everyone immediately began talking amongst themselves. Journey could see they were giving Lucas space to recover his composure. She appreciated that right up to the point where they started talking to her.
“Hey, Red. Are you that fucking foreign princess he had to marry?” Nick demanded.
“Nope,” Journey said. “I’m a backpacker from Lummox.”
“Where the fuck is Lummox?”
“It’s in the middle of fucking nowhere, North Dakota,” Journey replied. “And by the way, Lummox doesn’t have much but it does have the fucking f-word. You’re going to have to try harder if you want to shock me.”
The exchange had gone by so quickly that Lucas hadn’t had a chance to say anything. But in the pause that followed, he stepped forward, his eyes burning hot. “Nick, you will not speak like that to my mate!”
Nick gave Lucas and Journey an unrepentant grin. “We’re cool. Just wanted to make sure.”
“Make sure of what?” Lucas inquired icily.
Make sure I’m good enough for you, Journey thought. She grinned back at Nick, suddenly liking him.
Nick rolled his eyes at Lucas. “Make sure she’s not the fucking foreign princess they were trying to stick you with. Duh.”