May Contain Wine (SWAT Generation 2.0 5)

He leaned back and grinned. “I thought that might get your attention.”

I gritted my teeth and leaned my elbows on my knees, my eyes completely fixated on Luke.

“This is not funny,” I snapped.

Did everyone think that this was just some big joke?

I’d been a dumbass when I was a teenager. I’d broken up with the one good person that I’d ever been able to find, and then she hadn’t given me the time of day since.

I’d tried.

Oh, how I’d tried.

After seeing her at prom nine months after I’d broken it off—and yes, I’d tried to talk to her before that, but she was stubborn and wouldn’t even take a phone call from me—I’d tried everything in my power to get her to notice me.

Except, when I tried harder, so did she.

Now it was like she barely even saw me.

Which fucking sucked.

And everyone, including the man standing in front of me, knew of my dumbassery.

“I mean that this Hero Magazine interview is Calloway’s idea,” he said. “She’s the one to set it up. And the proceeds off of it go to a great charity.”

I sighed.

That changed things.

If this was for Calloway, then everybody was going to do it, whether they wanted to or not. I’d make sure of it.

“Fine,” I said as I stood up. “I assume you told me because you wanted me to tell the others to cooperate?”

He nodded.

“That’s nice.” I rolled my eyes. “You play dirty.”

He knew damn well and good the guys weren’t going to want to sit down for another interview and photoshoot. Especially after how the last photoshoot had gone.

See, the calendar had done a lot of damage.

We were all wary of anything that would put our faces even more out there than they were. I mean, at this point, we had news stations calling us, asking for in-person interviews. We had other requests for calendars for next year. It was a shit show, and there had been quite a few refusals on everyone’s parts when it came to things like this.

So for Luke to ask this of me? He knew what he was doing.

He also knew that I’d do damn near anything to get onto Calloway’s good side, so I’d make a solid effort to get the guys to agree.

“And you have about an hour and a half until she shows,” he continued. “You might want to get started.”

I sighed and stood up, trudging my way out of Luke’s office and heading for my cruiser.

Today we were doing drills at the strip club—and it really was a strip club. Or, it used to be.

Now, it was a strip club on the outside, but a modern facility on the inside that we used to do training exercises.

Being the last to arrive, thanks to the meeting with the chief, I walked into the building to find every one of the SWAT team members in attendance, as well as Nico. Although not our boss, he was an experienced retired SWAT team member who wouldn’t let us do anything too bad.

He also kept us well in line and made it a point to tell us when we were doing something stupid when Bennett and my dad, our actual bosses, weren’t around.

Nico, again, was one of the men that I grew up around. He’d been on the SWAT team with my father, and a substitute dad when I needed him.

I walked straight up to him and offered him my hand.

He took it, then went back to leaning against the wall and staring at his two sons, Booth and Bourne, as they watched Booth’s son, Asa, climb the rope.

He was nearly all the way to the top when he lost his grip and started to fall.

Nico, Booth, and Bourne tensed.

However, Asa was able to regain control and finished his climb to the top before descending hand over hand like everyone had taught him.

He landed with a thud on the training mats, then started doing it all over again.

Nico shook his head.

“How’d the meeting with Luke go?” he asked casually.

I looked over at him. “You know what the meeting was about?”

He gave me a droll look. “Why do you think that I told you to go there and talk to him, and then Bennett made sure that everyone was gathered here in one place to give her a chance to interview them?”

I sighed. “They’re gonna want to say no.”

“But they won’t, because this is Calloway,” he pointed out.

Nico was right.

This was for Calloway, and she was one of us.

“How do you suggest I go about it?” I asked.

“I suggest that you just tell them we’re doing an interview that benefits Calloway. Get your group on your side. Then help them convince the others,” he offered his suggestion.

I sighed and did just that, walking up first to Booth and Bourne since they were the closest.