“Drinks, ladies?” He asks, wrapping a protective hand around my waist.
“Come with me, Leti. Victor wants to make an announcement.” A soft-spoken man with brown hair, the least lethal looking of the group, nods in my direction politely and then pulls her away, their fingers interlaced.
Kerr kisses my neck. “Lots of testosterone in here, eh?”
“So much.”
“Lots of brain damage in this room too.” He chuckles at his joke, but I have to wonder if he’s truly joking. They have not given me specifics, but I know they are highly trained to do the nasty things other units don’t do. I know if I had wanted Bobby Lash dismembered, it would have happened, no questions asked. Not because they have bloodlust, but because they are so good at it, it wouldn’t even phase them to do it. So, if my three men are capable of brutality, then the rest of them certainly are.
“Lots of brain damage, or highly trained and honed power?” I ask.
“Both, Kitten. Both.”
The older man they introduced me to as Victor taps his glass to garner attention. “I want to thank everyone for coming. It’s been a couple of messy months for our Chicago team, and I know you haven’t been getting the kind of action you prefer. It seems like we spend more of our time babysitting than rectifying problems the way only we can.”
“Seems to be working out for us so far, boss.” A big guy pulls Epi into his arms.
“Yeah.” Victor frowns. “You guys keep falling in love with our clients, and we’re going to get a reputation.”
I raise my brow, wanting the backstory on that comment.
Dem walks over and offers me a sparkling water. “Technically, you weren’t our client, so he’s not talking about us.”
“Anyhow…” Victor slaps his hand on the back of another guy—I’m pretty sure he’d be referred to as a silver fox. They both would. “Jacob and I are expanding the business with a slightly different business model in mind. He currently has three teams running out of the Rocky Mountains into the west coast with plans to expand, and we’re adding another two teams here to cover east pushing into New York.”
O’Dell maneuvers over to us with his brow raised. He whispers, “Head to head with Darian, Xander, and Garrett’s business?”
Who the fuck are Darian, Xander, and Garrett?
“No.” Victor snaps. “Not head to head. We’ll be working with them, co-signing on some jobs when necessary.”
“Fucking supersonic hearing.” O’Dell grumbles while Dem and Kerr laugh.
“Smart ass.” Victor shakes his head. “I think everyone’s career has overlapped by a year or two, so you should all know each other, if by nothing else than reputation. I’m going to introduce the leads, the rest of you can introduce your teams.”
“Lee, Reese, O’Dell, Mateo, Levi—sound off.”
O’Dell stands behind me, pulling me into his arms, his chest pressed against my back. Lee introduces Case, Porter, and their fiancée Epi. Reese introduces Caiden, Soren, and their fiancée Leti. Then it’s O’Dell’s turn, and he makes a show of introducing me as his family.
Not girlfriend.
Not fiancée.
Not fuck toy.
Just family.
And no other explanation is required because every man in that room nods their respect.
The final six men, the two new teams moving to the area, are introduced. I don’t know what their stories are, but I can attest at least two women of Chicago are about to be really happy.
As Victor wraps up his comments, which includes opportunities to move around the country because he intends to set up teams near every major city to work alongside government agencies, the true socializing begins. Quickly, I’m introduced to Epi and Leti’s men, and carefully, I’m introduce to the new guys. It’s at this moment, I see how possessive my men are, but not just my men, all the men. It’s fucking weird. Here are a group of men with true respect for each other, would trust their lives to each other, and yet won’t let their gazes linger on a woman that is not theirs.
It’s almost insulting.
I want to jump up and say,“Hey, I’m more than great tits and a cute ass. You can talk to me!”
Something tells me that if I did, it would throughly piss O’Dell and Dem off—especially in front of these men.