Pierce

Chapter Ten

 Pierce ~

Pierce took the day off and spent his time lounging around his apartment with Natalie. With such an active lifestyle, Pierce usually hated sitting around doing nothing all day, but he quickly realized that he'd rather do nothing with Natalie, than do something with anyone else.

They watched movies and talked the day away, learning about each other one hilarious story at a time. Pierce's cheeks hurt from laughing so hard at Natalie's quick witted comebacks and loved the fact that she matched his playfulness pound for pound. What he loved even more was the light in her eyes, that had been dim and faint the night before, was starting to brighten with each passing hour.

"Okay so help me understand this dynamic, Declan is your boss?" Natalie asked, trying to understand the hierarchy of his team.

"Sort of. There are four teams at Knight Security: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta." 

"Marcus, Caleb, Declan, and myself are members of Bravo team, with Declan being the Leader. But Hunter is the handler of all four teams. He's the big man in charge." Pierce explained.

Natalie nodded along with his words as she pieced together each person and their title.

"Is that why you called Declan Boss on the phone?"

"Yes and no. Boss is Declan's call sign. It's like a nickname we can use over a radio so that anyone eavesdropping won't know his identity. Have you heard them call me Hollywood?"

"Yeah, I wondered what that was about." she admitted.

"Hollywood's my call sign. Got it at boot camp because everyone said I looked more like a movie star than a Marine, Hollywood just kind of stuck."

"Hollywood." she repeated to herself. "I like it."

"Are you close with the other teams or is it just you four?"

"Alpha and Charlie team are overseas at the moment, so we usually do most of our tandem assignments with Delta team, which is Slater, Gunner, Kincaid, and Logan and we're not just close, we're basically family."

"I love that." Her bright smile and genuine interest in his teammates warmed his heart. He was both excited and nervous to introduce her to them. On the one hand, she was incredible and he knew they would love her instantly, but on the other hand he had never brought a woman to meet his teammates. Not Ever.

An alarm sounded from her phone, breaking her gaze and turning it to the bedroom.

"Shit, I've got to leave for work soon," she huffed, looking at the time on her phone.

"Here, let me program some numbers into your phone before you go."

She gladly handed over her phone allowing Pierce to input the numbers of every member of Bravo and Delta team.

"If you ever can't get a hold of me, call any one of these numbers and they'll either find me or come help you with whatever you need."

"But they don't know who I am." she chuckled.

"Yeah they do." He said with a wink.

Giving him a knowing smile, she fully understood that meant he had been talking about her all week to his teammates.

Following her into the bedroom Pierce balled and flexed his fists with nervous energy as he worked up the courage to ask her to stay another night with him. Maybe even longer if he could pull that off, but for now he'd settle for at least one more night. He loved having her in space and wasn't ready for her to go just yet.