Special Forces Rendezvous
entire body grew hot and tingly.
    Earlier in the bedroom, she’d truly thought he was going to kiss her. The heat in his eyes had been unmistakable, the brush of his fingers on her cheek utterly seductive. When he’d walked away, she hadn’t been able to fight the disappointment that erupted inside her. And how insane was that? She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about silly things like kissing—not after everything she’d lost.
    “Hey, sweetheart, get out here,” Tate called from the patio. “We need you.”
    Rolling her eyes, Eva dropped a stack of dirty plates in the sink. “Damn man never says please,” she told Julia. “And then he gets pissy when Rafe doesn’t mind his p’s and q’s, and refuses to admit that he’s the one setting the bad example.”
    Julia grinned. She actually really liked Eva, though it had taken a while to get past those stunning looks. The woman belonged on the cover of a magazine, making Julia feel frumpy and hideous in comparison. But Eva had turned out to be as smart as she was beautiful, and a little sassy, just like Sebastian had said.
    “Sorry, sweetheart, ” the raven-haired woman called to her fiancé. “I didn’t quite hear you.”
    Tate raised his voice. “I said get out here.”
    “What was that?”
    “Get out here.” A beat. “Please.”
    Eva broke out in a grin. “Be right there!”
    As Julia was about to turn on the faucet and tackle the dishes in the sink, the other woman swatted at her hand. “Leave them, Doc. We have more pressing concerns.”
    With a lack of enthusiasm, Julia followed the other woman back outside. During dinner, they hadn’t spoken about what had happened in Esperanza and Valero, and she wasn’t quite ready to talk about it yet. She knew decisions needed to be made, knew a plan had to be formulated, but she simply didn’t have the stomach for any of it at the moment.
    Nevertheless, she sank into the chair next to Sebastian, grateful that at least they were choosing to include her in the discussion. She knew Tate still didn’t trust her, but frankly, she didn’t care. She had nothing to prove to the man.
    “We need to find a reputable lab that can test the water sample Stone brought,” Tate told his fiancée after she sat down. “Preferably one that employs a lab tech who’s looking to score some extra cash. There can’t be a record of this.”
    Eva nodded in agreement. “I’ll see what I can find.”
    “Or you can let me take the sample back to Boston,” Julia spoke up, her jaw tight. “I tried to tell you this earlier, but I know someone who can help, and he’ll do it without asking any questions.”
    Tate’s lips curled in distrust. “Forgive me if I don’t take that at face value, Dr. Davenport.”
    It amazed her that he was still able to look so damn menacing even with a sleeping toddler draped across his chest.
    “Who’s this friend?” Sebastian asked, his tone far more encouraging than his commanding officer’s.
    She shot Tate a quick scowl before turning away from him. “Frank Matheson. He’s a microbiologist and a professor at Harvard. He works out of a lab on campus, mostly does research, development, taking on the occasional government contract.” When all three men stiffened at the word government, she quickly reassured them. “He’s discreet, and he would never, ever betray me. He thinks of me as a daughter.”
    “We’ll find a lab here,” Tate said firmly.
    Julia rolled her eyes. “Right, you’re going to bribe a lab technician to test the sample and trust that the person you paid off keeps the results to himself. Sounds like a much better plan.”
    “She has a point,” Nick said cautiously, reaching for the beer bottle on the table.
    “Frank can be trusted,” she insisted. “And he’d be helping out of a sense of loyalty, not greed. Your lab tech will sell you out the second someone offers him more money.”
    As a short silence hung over the table, Julia stared at the dark ocean twenty

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