“I won’t plan on hearing from you for a few days at least,” he teased. “Send my love to your girl. Tell her we’re all proud of her for graduating early.”
Dave whirled around in his seat. “You know, I’d have thought she was a smart girl for graduating early, but she can’t be. I mean, how could she be if she’s in love with your miserable ass?”
“Hey,” Turner chimed in. “His ass was only visibly miserable at night and only because he misses the officer’s daughter. He’s in love, idiot.”
I was. I really was so unbelievably in love, and six months apart hadn’t done a thing to change it. I’d never been happier to be home. I couldn’t fucking wait to see her.
But I was also proud of what I’d achieved while I’d been away. Sure, the time without Sofia had been hell, but it had also been exactly what I’d needed.
My teammates continued to give me and each other a hard time while our plane taxied to a stop. Even hearing them banter like this made me proud. They’d gotten onto this plane six months ago as a bunch of strangers, and now they were brothers. I’d had a hand in that, which made me prouder than any of the successful missions had.
I, leader of the Misfits, had brought together and built a cohesive team. And what a hell of a team it was.
“Just so all of you know, I’m out that door the second it opens,” I said, unsnapping my seatbelt to stand up. I met each of my teammates’ eyes in turn. “It’s been a real honor serving with you boys. We’ll be seeing each other again soon, but in the meantime, take care of yourselves. Drink plenty of water or tequila, and get some well-deserved rest.”
Dave led the round of applause, pressing a hand to his massive chest once he stopped clapping. “Thanks, boss. Happy fucking to you. We hope we won’t be seeing you before you get it out of your system.”
I flipped him off but took his hand when he extended it toward me and nodded. “Thanks for everything, Linc. It’s been an honor serving with you, too.”
Eden and Turner gave semi-emotional speeches as well, but then the plane jolted to a stop, and I was out of there. When I reached the pick-up point, disappointment surged through me when Sofia wasn’t there to pick me up.
Charles waited for me in his truck, waving me over with a relaxed grin on his face. “Welcome back, Lincoln.”
“Thanks.” I tried not to show how much it bugged me that Sofia wasn’t there. “How’s your consulting firm doing?”
“Really well.” He waited as I slung my bag onto the back, then patted the passenger seat. “Mostly, it’s going as well as it is thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me?” I frowned as I shut the door, willing him to race me to his daughter as fast as he could get the old truck to go. “Why thanks to me?”
He glanced at me with that foreign smile still on his lips. “Word got out about you. One tour as the guy in charge and you’re already the stuff legends are made of but only in a good way.”
I sighed, dragging a hand through my hair. “Where are you going with this?”
“I’m proud of you, Lincoln,” he said, surprising the shit out of me. “Your unit did exceptionally well, and my firm is doing well because as word got out about you, it got out about me, too.”
“Well, you deserve it.” I reached out to clap him on the shoulder. “If you hadn’t given me so much shit, no way would I have been where I am today.”
“True.” He inclined his head. “But you deserve most of the praise coming your way. You manned up in the best way possible, and that put me on the map as a guy you want around your men.”
“I’m happy for you,” I said, meaning it. “I didn’t think retirement was going to suit you well.”
Charles brought a finger to his throat and moved it from one side to the other. “It felt like someone was slowly killing me. I swear it. Anyway, you and I should talk.”
“We are talking.” I turned in my seat to face him, feeling a spike of adrenaline that warned me something was coming. “Wait, why isn’t Sofia picking me up?”
“What, you don’t like it that it’s me giving you a lift?” he asked, humor lighting up his eyes as he attempted to hold back a laugh. “No, I know you were expecting her. I wanted to have a word with you before I hand you off to my daughter, though. You two have a lot to catch up on and a lot of time to make up for.”
There was a time I’d have suspected he was high for saying something like that, but once again, there was something softer about his expression. Nostalgic even.
“Okay, what did you want to talk about?” I asked. If he was going to insist on talking before I got to see my girl, he could bet everything he had that I was going to get through the conversation as fast as I could.
When we got to wherever he was taking me, I needed to see Sofia, and an unfinished conversation wasn’t going to stop me.
Charles nodded like he knew where my head was at. “We’ll need to figure out the details at a later stage, but I wanted to plant the seed. I know you’ve only just gotten a command, but I want to throw a wrench in the gears.”
“You do?” My mind ground to a halt. “What for?”
He caught my gaze in the rearview mirror when he stopped at a traffic light. “I want you to come work for me. I’ve been recruiting, and there’s no one I
