“No, I don’t think he would.”
“Precisely. Ah, here’s your suit,” Kat finished as Alex “Ghost” Bishop appeared in the open door, carrying a garment bag.
Ghost strode in and laid the bag over a chair. “I’ve got everything covered, General,” Ghost said. “If you’d like to get out of here.”
Mendez looked at his wife and his second-in-command. He was outgunned on this one and he knew it. Kat arched an eyebrow and grinned knowingly. Ghost had a poker face that didn’t give a hint to his mood.
Mendez swept the bag into his hand. “Fine. I’m getting dressed. Kat, sit down. Ghost, stop yanking my chain with that general business.”
Ghost’s grin was sudden. “Sorry, Viper. Can’t help it. I’m thrilled as shit you pinned it on. Everyone is.”
Mendez didn’t have to look down at his uniform to know there was a star on each shoulder. He’d felt the weight of those silver stars every moment since he’d first put them on. “I’m not unhappy about it either. Just not used to it yet. I thought I’d die a full-bird.”
Kat snorted delicately. “As I have informed you many times, you do not know everything.”
He laughed. “No, apparently I don’t.”
“I will tell you something else you don’t know,” she said. “I’m starving! So hurry up and change. The baby and I want to pig out at the White House tonight.”
“On my way.”
“And no sneaking out of the bathroom in that escape tunnel!” she called after him.
Mendez laughed as he shut the door and started to change. If he hadn’t bolted from HOT HQ that day back in the spring, using the false door and tunnel in the private bathroom he currently stood in, he wouldn’t have found Kat again. And he wouldn’t be the happiest man in the world today.
2
The White House was a beautiful building at any time, but especially so at Christmas. Kat and Johnny were admitted after undergoing a security check and then ushered to the second-floor central hall, which was part of the private quarters the president and his wife occupied. President Preston H. Campbell III was a handsome man with iron gray hair and a booming laugh. He came over to greet them personally. His wife Helena joined him, hugging Kat and asking when she was due.
“The thirty-first,” Kat said. “New Year’s Eve.”
“Oh my,” Helena Campbell exclaimed, taking her elbow gently. “I think we’d better get you to a chair.”
Kat laughed. “I feel fine. Really.”
And she did. It was no picnic having a baby at nearly forty-four years of age, but she had always been exceptionally fit. She’d exercised regularly during her pregnancy, jogging right up until the doctor had told her not to anymore. Now she walked, doing at least two miles a day on her treadmill.
“You look fabulous, I might add,” Helena said. “Still, please humor me. Come and talk to my daughter, Grace. She’s due in April—though I suppose you already know that since Garrett works for your husband.”
“Yes, ma’am, I do,” Kat said as she accompanied Helena over to where Grace sat with one of her sisters—Charity, Kat thought.
“Oh please, call me Helena tonight.”
“Yes, ma’am—Helena,” Kat finished, laughing.
“Mrs. Mendez,” Grace said with a smile as they approached. “I’m so glad you and the general could make it.”
Introductions were made—it was indeed Charity sitting with Grace—and then Kat took a seat with the women, accepting a virgin cranberry spritzer from a waiter.
“Your mother has made me call her Helena tonight,” she said. “I think you should call me Kat.”
Grace smiled. “Okay then. Kat.”
It wasn’t that the women didn’t know each other or like each other. It was just that Johnny was in charge of the Hostile Operations Team and she was his wife. In the military, the lines of formality were drawn rather strictly—and Garrett Spencer was enlisted, not an officer. It was protocol and tradition to separate the ranks, and Kat wasn’t about to insist it be otherwise. Yet tonight she could be Kat instead of Mrs. Mendez or the commander’s wife.
“Congratulations to you and your husband on his new rank,” Grace said.
Kat followed her gaze to where Johnny stood with the president and a couple of others, so tall and handsome in his suit. The gathering was casual, but nothing was ever truly casual when you were invited to the White House, so Johnny looked resplendent in a dark navy suit with a white shirt open at the throat. No tie for him. He’d refused to wear it. And she was glad because he looked absolutely stunning with that hint of skin showing. President Campbell wasn’t wearing a tie either, she’d noticed.
“Thank you,” Kat replied. “Nobody deserves it more in my extremely biased opinion.”
Grace laughed. “Well, I’m not as biased as you and I’d still agree. I don’t think there’s any man my husband admires more than yours.”
The talk turned to other things then. Due dates, genders, and potential names for their babies. It was the kind of talk that Kat wouldn’t have pictured herself being a part of just a few short months ago. She’d thought her window of opportunity had closed. She’d certainly never considered she would reunite with the man who was the love of her life and have his baby again.
Sadness wrapped around her heart at the thought of the son he’d never known. The son taken from them too soon. She put a hand over her belly almost without thought. She loved this little one who would soon make an appearance, but she missed her son. Roman had been a sweet boy. He’d reminded her of his father with his dark good looks, and he’d been wicked smart to boot. He’d be twenty-one now, with his whole life still in front of him. Anger threaded itself between the
