Cassius, Stevens, Madison [moboreader txt] 📗

and let her head fall back. “It’s hard getting out there and dating, you know? Even if I loosen my standards a little, it’s not always helpful. I don’t mind guys liking me for what they see, but I get a little intense during training, and it scares them off, even the athletic ones a lot of the time. And a lot of guys are too intimidated to even talk to me, and I become a doofus a lot of time when I find a guy I do like.”

“If I spontaneously turn straight, I’ll date you.” Graham winked.

“Gee, thanks. That does me a lot of good.”

“Until then, as your friend, and as the man who otherwise keeps your professional life going, I think you should just try and get out there.” Graham had a merry look of mischief in his eyes. “You can’t win a race you don’t start.”

“I know! I know.” Kendra scrubbed a hand down her face. “But I don’t just want to scratch an itch. It’d be easy to have a one-night stand. I want something more meaningful.”

“Meaningful starts out with drinks and a date for most people,” Graham replied. “That’s how it was for me and Kevin. It wasn’t like I was running around looking for my destined soulmate.”

“Is it so weird?” Kendra chuckled. “Maybe that’s my problem. My soulmate is out there.”

“Your soulmate could be in some tiny town in Wyoming you’ve never heard of.” Graham wagged a finger. “He’s probably perfectly content to work on some ranch. Why wait for your soulmate when you can get something almost as good?”

“A date or two wouldn’t kill me.” Kendra licked her lips. “But that can wait until after I finish up the Knickerbocker OCR Assault.”

Graham gave her a questioning look. “You’re telling me you’re going to get a man after we’re done in New York?” He tapped his watch. “You do realize we’re going there next week, and we’ll be done in a week.”

Kendra gave him an indignant look. “Yes. So?”

“And you’re not going to come up with a new excuse after it? This isn’t the first time I’ve heard you say you were ready to date and then suddenly you can’t for some reason.”

“I’ve been busy with training.”

Graham waved a hand. “You’re always training. I don’t want your life to pass you by because you’re too busy convincing yourself that you can’t have it all.” He smiled warmly at her. “You’re Kendra Champion. It’s like you always say. It’s right there in the name. Go out, and get it all.”

“I will. After New York.” Kendra nodded firmly. “I promise.”

“Okay.” Graham gave her a long, meaningful look. “There are some new sponsorship opportunities that might arise from this. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but if you do well in this event, it might not matter if the sports drink people take a walk.”

Kendra rubbed her hands together. “All the more reason for me to concentrate and not worry about men the next couple of weeks.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Just promise me one thing.”

“Sure, what?”

“If a great man drops into your lap, that you won’t pass him up. Don’t convince yourself the situation or the show means you can’t date.”

Kendra rolled her eyes. “Sure, if the perfect man happens to fall into my lap, I won’t let him go.”

Chapter Three

CJ patted his mouth as he yawned. It was far too early in the morning to get called in to talk to Maximus. Hybrids could operate with minimal sleep, but that wasn’t the same thing as not needing any, and they’d been training relentlessly lately. It wasn’t a good start to the day.

He stepped into their leader’s office, surprised to find another hybrid there, one of the few in their group to have red hair, Julius. Maximus waited behind his desk and offered a curt nod to CJ.

Whatever this was, it wasn’t a reprimand. CJ had participated in training with Julius recently, but the only person he’d come close to clashing with was Cornelius, and Maximus considered anything that didn’t end with fists flying nothing worse than the men blowing off steam.

“Good morning,” Maximus said. “I know it’s early, but we’ve received some potentially actionable intel that won’t stay fresh. We’ve got hits from all over, so we’ll be dispatching three teams to different locations and keeping everyone else in reserve in case one of these turns into something big and worth pursuing.”

Julius’s brow lifted in interest. “I see. I don’t know if that means we’ve drawn the short straw.”

“It’ll be nice to get off the island for a while,” CJ said with a shrug, trying to find the positive in the situation. “And if it gets us closer to Ouroboros, fine by me.” He looked over at Maximus. “It is Ouroboros intel?”

Maximus nodded. “Yes. Every indication is that the Phoenix Corps died with Quinen. As for this new info, we’ve got some leads from the government, some from Luna Lodge, and some from our own sources. The fact that they’re all pointing to something being up at the same time makes me suspicious, enough I’m sending you and the others out.”

“We might have to bring in the Lodge or the government on this,” Julius said with a slight frown.

“No.” Maximus shook his head firmly. “The Luna hybrids don’t need more trouble, and we can’t risk them doing anything that might expose Isla Luna’s location to Ouroboros. As for the feds…” He growled. “…we can’t even be sure we can trust them completely. The Horatius Group had government contacts, so there is no reason to think that Ouroboros doesn’t. It’ll be a long time before we can completely trust the government, if ever.”

“This is only going to get harder,” CJ replied. “I’m never going to claim Alpha Squad can’t kick ass, but we’re only twelve guys. We don’t even have everyone from our original group. If we’re trying to keep a distance from the Luna Lodge hybrids, then the only choice we have for real backup is the