Another love match. Another relationship that seemed to work, despite the drudge of day-to-day living. Jules's own parents had their own happily-ever-after, even dying together in a plane crash just days after he'd joined the Circ program.
Fallon loved Olivia more than his next breath, and the woman would do anything for her mate. Hayashi and Morgan fairly lived in each other's pockets, joined at the hip. Tersch, for all his denial, fit well with Fallon and Olivia, who'd seemed to take the big Circ under their wing.
Everyone but Jules had someone special, and his solitude, even among the men and women he considered family, tore at him.
For all of two seconds.
The moment of self-pity infuriated him, and he suppressed his pathetic needs.
When his beast moaned, wanting a mate, Jules shut him up, fast. Suck it up, princess. You’re alive, and you have a job to do. Quit whining. You sound as bad as Tersch.
Jules reached for a towel. He dried off and, after dressing in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, headed downstairs into the family room the team used as a common center.
The large kitchen overlooked the area, which not only had a nice plasma television, pool table, and poker table, but also easy access to the outside via a set of French doors. A fireplace used to heat the downstairs during the colder winter months sat at the opposite end of the room. At present, Hayashi and Morgan played cribbage at the poker table.
He snorted. Trust Hayashi to play a game requiring math. Their sophisticated Circ, as Jules liked to think of him. Hayashi listened to classical music, read books, and wrote poetry—for fun—and had a mate who could speak several languages as well as kick ass in the gym—in spite of the fact that Morgan wasn't Circ.
Wasn't Circ yet could borrow Hayashi's energy to turn himself into a Circ-human hybrid. Shit, by harnessing Hayashi's energy, Morgan could grow bigger and stronger, but without the fangs, claws, and skinlike body armor. But Jules still didn't buy the story that Morgan wasn't Circ. He didn't know how Morgan pulled it off, but his beast knew Morgan was Circ. The same way Jules knew Mrs. Sharpe and Ava Belle had a lot more going on under the surface than either woman would admit.
“Hey, team leader. What's up, hoss?” Morgan grinned and fucking winked at him.
Calling me hoss because he knows it irritates me. Ignore him. Jules drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Hayashi, Morgan. You two seem to have developed a card fetish.”
Hayashi snorted. “I'm just trying to let him recoup his losses. Morgan is down four sets of laundry and dish duty on Thursdays.” Morgan scowled. “That's because you keep releasing that scent anytime it looks like I'm winning. That's cheating.”
Hayashi raised a brow but didn't reply, and Jules chuckled. He sat on the comfortable leather couch and tried to lose himself in some mindless television while the pair sniped and tried to outdo each other. Friendly competition, a rivalry based on love, mutual respect, and need.
It had taken Hayashi long enough to admit he was gay, not that Jules hadn't known it for years. But for some reason, Hayashi had thought the team would kick him out if they knew his natural proclivities leaned toward loving men. Jules shook his head. The whole team had fucked one another more times than he could count, and Hayashi worried about them rejecting him for taking a man as mate?
At least Hayashi and Morgan didn't seem to have any major issues, nor did Fallon and Olivia, fortunately.
“Oh, here you are.” Ava entered the room, looking pissed as hell.
He groaned. So much for relaxing for once.
“Ava, baby. What's Kisho holding?” Morgan asked, distracting her.
Hayashi frowned at his mate. “That's cheating.”
“All's fair in love and cards, kitsu.” Little fox. The endearment Morgan called him brought a blush to Hayashi's cheeks.
Ava grinned at them. “Two jacks and two fives. You're screwed.”
“Ava.” Hayashi muttered something under his breath in Japanese.
She turned her attention to Jules. “We have a problem.”
“Look, I talked to Tersch. He's better now. Okay?” Jules squinted at the screen as some actor shot an alien with three heads, hoping she'd leave him alone.
“Our problem is sitting in her study right now, refusing to okay our medical transfer until she talks to you.”
Hayashi and Morgan froze.
“What transfer?” Morgan asked.
“Medical? Are we finally getting a Circ doctor? Man, it's about time,” Hayashi added.
Jules ground his teeth and reminded himself not to take out his annoyance on Ava. “Dammit, I told her we didn't need any new staff. Not with Montaña's men still out there. We can't trust anyone until we nail the leak we seem to have. Montaña is like a ghost. Any time we get close, he disappears. I was taken three miles from a damned US Marine Corps base by men wanted by the CIA. Now how the hell do you think they got so close to me without help from someone in our organization?”
“I'm not disputing that. I'm just telling you, you need to talk to Mrs. S. about this.”
“I don't want anyone else in the one place we should be able to think of as safe.
And I don't want to talk to Mrs. Sharpe about it again. Hell, I'm all talked out.
That's all she's been arguing about for a week.” Ava huffed. “So tell her, not me.”
“No. I want to relax for once,” he muttered, taking the coward's way out. “Hell, Ava. Just tell her I'll talk to her about it tomorrow, okay? I'm tired, I have a headache, and I—”
He broke off when he noticed the concerned glances from the others.
“Fuck it.” He quickly rose and stormed from the room, tired of being constantly watched like he might break. Hell, he felt like Tersch.
Tersch, though, had given them signs he was unstable. Jules hadn't. Since his return to the group, he'd been the same leader, the same take-charge SEAL trying to find and take down their enemy. Not his fault they couldn't seem to nail Montaña's location. During his time back, however, the Dawn Endeavor team had found and stopped two hits on members of the admiral's staff and ruined a failed kidnapping attempt on the admiral himself.
So why did the others continue to treat Jules like a wounded animal? Probably because Fallon can’t keep his mouth shut. I knew that bastard was combing through my mind a few days ago. And just when Jules had flashed back to Montaña's wicked knife. Trust Fallon to share with the others.
He scowled and increased his pace toward Mrs. Sharpe's study. The woman practically lived in there. Day or night, he could always track her down at her desk.
He reached the door right when she opened it.
Chapter Five
“Jules, I trust Ava told you I was looking for you?” Mrs. Sharpe smiled warmly, but he wasn't fooled. The woman was a shark in heels, even if she did come to just under his breastbone.
“Yeah.” He might as well admit defeat. Mrs. Sharpe might look like a graceful aristocrat, but she had the tenacity of a pit bull. He wouldn't find any peace tonight until he dealt with the business of medical personnel.
“Come in, please.”
She stepped back, and he followed her inside.
“Close the door.”
He gritted his teeth but closed the door behind him. He turned and walked into Mrs. Sharpe's fastidious study. Everything had its place. A computer, fax, printer, and copier rested against the back wall in a floor-to-ceiling wooden hutch.
File cabinets and a matching desk, which sat opposite the hutch, had been crafted of rich mahogany. He could see his reflection in the wood, polished to a fine sheen. The ornate pair of chairs that faced her desk had a floral, feminine design with enough strength to accommodate his frame. New chairs to replace the ones Fallon and Tersch had broken in their last big battle. When they'd fought over who would rescue him.