Marcus

Chapter Twenty Two

Caroline ~

After a few days of quality time with Marcus, Caroline felt up to a briefing at Knight Security with Hunter and the rest of the team.

Playing house with Marcus was a nice distraction but there was no denying that there was something shady going on and Fox seemed to be the one pulling the strings.

Caroline was eager to get to the bottom of it, but was nervous about what they would find. Faking multiple people's deaths without their knowledge didn't indicate undercover work, it indicated a cover up and cover ups were dangerous.

Marcus kept his hand on the small of her back as he walked her into Knight. He'd made it a point to maintain some type of physical connection with her when they went out in public which was comforting in more ways than one. Of course she adored his affection and attention, but the most irrational part of her was scared that he was going to disappear and she'd had to say goodbye to him all over again. She'd confessed her irrational fear to him and he responded by making sure she always knew he was near.

Pierce walked in directly in front of them, heading toward the conference room where Hunter was waiting.

Taking a seat next to Hunter, Pierce leaned back in his chair before changing his posture and sniffing the air near Hunter. 

"Why do you smell like Christmas?" Pierce asked Hunter.

"You know, normal people just say good morning." Hunter grumbled without lifting his eyes from the file in front of him.

"I'm serious...Mac, come smell Hunter."

Caroline's shoulders started bouncing with laughter at Pierce's words as they took a seat at the conference table.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" Marcus chuckled.

"I'm not making it up." Pierce protested as Caleb appeared in the doorway.

"Caleb, come smell Hunter," Pierce said as Caleb entered the room.

"Hard pass." Caleb said casually before he turned his attention to Caroline.

"How ya feeling Caroline?"

"Pretty good." Caroline answered, still laughing at the banter around her.

"Good, thought I'd take those stitches out for you today after we're done here." Caleb offered.

"That would be amazing, thank you." Caroline said feeling comfortable and accepted by Marcus' team.

Giving her a wide grin, Caleb took a seat then lifted his head and sniffed the air.

"Something smells minty." Caleb said, causing Pierce to throw this hands up and motion toward Hunter.

"It's Hunter, I'm telling you," Pierce said with an exasperated laugh.

Huffing out an irritated breath, Hunter narrowed his eyes at Pierce before he spoke. 

"I woke up with a headache that Advil wouldn't touch this morning, so Kenzie gave me some kind of peppermint oil or some shit that she thought she would help, okay? Can we move on now?" Hunter said.

"Who's got a headache?" Lainey asked as she took a seat next to Caleb.

"Hollywood is a headache." Hunter muttered.

"Well we all knew that." Declan said with a half smile as he entered the room with Axel following behind him.

The team's dynamic had Caroline grinning and she loved the playful energy the men brought to the room as if they were brothers - which they were.