LITMIR.BIZ

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      “REPORT, O’BRIAN. DID you complete your mission?”

      Petty Officer Shane O’Brian stood at attention. Shoulders back, chin high, eyes ahead.

      “Yes, sir,” he barked. “Completed with resources to spare.”

      “Is that so. And at any time did the target become aware of your mission?”

      “Hell, no.” Eyes dancing, Shane grinned. “He’s as clueless as a newborn. Which, I’ve gotta tell you, is totally weird. Of all people, you’d think he’d be suspicious.”

      “Nice job.” Shane’s commander, Mitch Donovan, slapped him on the back before dropping onto the couch. Resting his booted foot on the knee of his camouflage fatigues, Mitch laughed. “Gabriel’s a wily SOB, but there’s no way he’d expect an engagement party. Especially since the bride-to-be doesn’t even know they’re getting engaged.”

      “He’s going to be so pissed,” Shane observed, handing Mitch the list of what had and hadn’t been done so far.

      “That you accessed his private information, evaluated his actions, went behind his back to report said information and actions, then compounded it by bringing multiple people into it in a way that will, when it comes out, be a huge slap in the face?” Mitch jutted out his chin and considered that, then nodded. “Yup. Seriously pissed.”

      “I can’t wait.” Laughing, Shane dropped into the chair opposite Mitch. Like most everything else in the apartment, the brown furniture was butt ugly, but it was comfortable. Shane figured that’s all a person could ask for with base housing.

      Both he and Mitch, along with their friend Gabriel—better known as Romeo to the SEAL team—had got the PCS—permanent change of station—to the Coronado base a year ago. The three of them had bunked together until his buddies had hooked their perfect women. After they’d moved out, Shane hadn’t seen any point in looking for other quarters—or in replacing the butt-ugly furniture.

      “You’re sure he’s going to propose?”

      Shane simply raised one brow. They didn’t call him Scavenger for nothing. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t find. Supplies, enemies, information.

      “Right,” Mitch said, shaking his head. “Of course you’re sure. Which means he has no clue what you’re planning.”

      “That’d be we, not me,” Shane pointed out. “And yeah, I’m sure. Nobody expects a party for getting engaged. Married, having a kid, okay. But for volunteering to hook on a ball and chain?” He gave a pitying shake of his head. Not over Gabriel landing Tessa, or that Mitch was newly married with a baby due any day. His friends had scored some great women.

      But Shane figured the odds of military guys, SEALs especially, making it work long-term? Of finding a woman who got what they did, was okay living their life with a man who answered to Uncle Sam, put his life on the line on a regular basis and kept 90 percent of what he did to himself? Pretty much zilch.

      Hell, he’d experienced issues himself in his family alone. His own mother was so pissed about his career, she refused to acknowledge it. To keep her happy, the entire family pretended he was a traveling salesman. It’d been funny for a while, but over the past couple of years it’d started getting to him. He’d got to the point that he rarely went back home to Little Lake, Idaho, and since nobody acknowledged his career, none of the family had ever visited him here in Southern California.

      Shane frowned, taking the list from Mitch. He was better off without any more emotional crap in his life.

      Maybe his buddies would do better. But he doubted it. Mitch had actually walked away from a shot to join the elite Special Mission Unit, DEVGRU. Sure, he said it was because he preferred training and wanted to stay with his team, but given that it’d happened about the same time as he met Livi, Shane had his doubts. And now Romeo was getting ready to pop the question. He’d already started making noises about extended training, taking on things that would keep him stateside instead of hot zones.

      Shane got it. He understood why his friends were making those choices. But those weren’t the kind of choices he wanted to make.

      So he’d make damned sure he didn’t get himself in a situation that would call for them.

      “Any thoughts on the ETA?”

      “Not yet.” Shane glanced over his list again. “He’s bought the engagement ring, but you know Romeo. He’s going to want to set the scene, make it something special. He’s leaving on maneuvers in the morning and he’ll be gone for the next two weeks, though, so it won’t be before that.”

      When the front door swung open, neither Shane nor Mitch had to school their expressions. They were experts at keeping their faces blank.

      And in came Romeo, in all his glory. But if you knew to look, you could see a hint of smug terror in his eyes. Yeah, he deserved this party. Shane casually folded the list into a neat rectangle and stuck it in his pocket as if he hadn’t just been planning on going behind the man’s

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