Page 6 of Her Devoted HERO

I have a job that gives me some flexibility in time, but then there are days when I have to be away at a moment’s notice. Not real conducive to a relationship, but some of my friends have made it work in a big way.

In an effort to reassure you, since you’re all about your kid and responsibility, I’m not looking for a hook-up. But let me guess, that’s going to have you running for the hills, right? But be honest, if I said I was looking for a one night stand you would have run, if I said I was looking for something deeper, you were going to run. No matter what, you were going to run because after all, you told me not to respond.

But I read between the lines. You’ve got guts. Hell, you’ve got balls! So, I’m throwing down.

Respond.

You were bold once, do it again.

I dare you.

- Dex

He logged onto his personal e-mail and pressed send.

“Dammit, this is boring, with a capital ‘B!’ I want to see some action,” Wyatt damn near shouted. That took Dex out of his trance, and he looked up and laughed, he was no longer in Poppyland, he was back with his team in Egypt. Well almost. He surely hoped his dare would work.

“You always want action.” Griffin Porter grinned at Wyatt.

“Griff, it’s not cool making fun of the guy who hasn’t had a date in two months. You have Miranda, something tells me you get plenty of action.”

Griffin didn’t say anything, but the smile that spread across his face said it all.

Wyatt groaned. “I guess I need to start taking the train.”

Gray walked in. “If we’re talking about the train, we must be talking about Miranda. How is she doing, Griff?”

“She’s fine. Kicking ass and taking names. Said she had lunch with Aiden’s woman.”

Aiden’s head shot up from where he was cleaning his weapon. He grinned. “Evie and Miranda had lunch? That’s good.” Dex watched as both men’s faces relaxed into satisfied smiles.

“Stop talking about your women!” Wyatt demanded. “Dex or Gray, tell me something is going to start happening here. It’s been over a week.”

Dex looked at Wyatt, who was the youngest of the group and still hadn’t learned patience.

“Adams is due to arrive any minute,” Gray announced. “He’s bringing two of his men.”

“Well hot damn.” Wyatt sat forward on his bunk. “Ever since the news people got involved, I thought this mission was going to be a bust.”

The ambassador had made his family’s disappearance into a media circus, despite the warnings he’d received from the US government and the military police. However, no mention of missing artifacts or El Mahdy had been made.

Gray’s phone rang just as Captain Adams walked into the barracks along with two MPs who towered over him. Gray gave a chin tilt to Aiden to take over talking to the military police while he took his phone call.

“Captain, we’ve set up a conference area over here.” Aiden indicated three tables they’d shoved together near the back of the large room. Everybody sat down and introduced themselves.

“It sounds like your team has been busy,” Aiden said to the captain.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Lieutenant Tyler?” the captain asked.

“He’ll catch up,” Aiden assured him. “What information do you have for us?”

“The latest artifacts didn’t come from Egypt, so it took a little longer to track down,” Adams said. “It was almost an entire room of the Syrian state museum. We’re talking Greco-Roman busts, weapons, and jewelry.”

“What kind of bids are they getting?” Hunter asked.

“In total, this will be well over two hundred million.”

Dalton whistled.