I tipped my head to the side, then nodded, carefully going back down the stairs.

I was a klutz when I was nervous, and the man currently standing at my side made me very nervous.

But in a good way.

I could see why Nikki was in love with him.

He was beautiful.

“Why do they call you Saint?” I asked by way of conversation.

I’d heard him being called that last night by the guys as they were arresting Corrinne.

Michael grimaced.

“Saint Michael. They say I’m a Saint,” he admitted. “It started the first day I went through the academy. Continued throughout, and by the time I was finished, I was dubbed that forever and always. Doesn’t matter how many times I try to get them to stop calling me that. They do it anyway.”

I snorted. “They do seem the type.”

He laughed.

Which caused me to look at him in awe.

He had a really great laugh.

He always looked so serious all the time’s I’d seen him, so it was odd to see him letting loose. Laughing over something I’d said.

“So what are they in the training room training for?” I asked as he reached for the door and held it open for me.

He waited for me to walk in before he closed the door and locked it.

“We have to have so many training hours to remain on the SWAT team. Each of us comes in here a couple of times a week and does a few rounds of hand to hand or weapons training. Sometimes we all get together and do a team exercise. Stuff like that,” Michael said as he typed a number into the keypad that led to an inner room.

“Like, surprise attacks? Do you control dummies that come swinging out of the sky and try to take them out? Like they have to kill the bad ones…like the zombies. But not kill the little girl dummies?” I asked, chattering happily.

I hadn’t even realized that he wasn’t there anymore until I turned around and saw him staring at me funny.

“What?” I asked.

Had I said something to offend him?

“Nothing. I was just surprised that you’d think of stuff like that, that’s all,” he muttered, pushing through a final door that led into a large room that overlooked a small gym of sorts.

It was similar to the one they’d made out of the old strip club, but this one seemed smaller and more compact.

“Why do you have two places like this?” I asked.

Michael came up beside me and looked out the window with me that overlooked the area below.

“This was the original. And now we use it for convenience. We already have to be here on days that we work. This is just for quick usage. The other one off the strip club is when we have a day planned out for the whole team,” he informed me.

“Ahh,” I said, leaning forward when a man in head to toe black climbed up the rope that was in the middle of the room, then quickly went back down it again.

“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing to the man.

“Downy,” he answered without hesitation.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“The color on his back. The single band of green attached to the back of his vest. Each of us has a different color,” he answered.

I blinked, surprised.

“Why would you need to know which one is which?” I asked. “Aren’t they all on your team?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. But a few years ago we had a training seminar that had to do with a large crowd. And we were watching some news feed of a few SWAT officers getting shot down by other ‘SWAT Officers’ that weren’t actually SWAT officers. They were part of the protest, and the real officers never even knew it.”

I gasped and turned to him. “Really? Holy crap!”

He nodded. “People are fucked in the head, what can I say?”

“What’s this button do?” I asked, my finger hovering over a red button in the center of the glass.

Michael smiled. “Turns out the light.”

“That’s it?” I asked, bummed that it didn’t do something cool like drop nets from the ceiling and burst out confetti or something.

“Yep,” he answered.

I pressed the button.

And it didn’t just turn out the lights!

It fucking turned it into a lightshow!

Smoke started billowing from a corner, flashing lights started streaming through the room, and really loud obnoxious music started to play throughout the area.

“Holy shit!” I breathed, really excited now. “That’s so cool!”

Michael snorted.

“How did I know you were going to press that?” He asked dryly.

I couldn’t see the men anymore because of the awesome light show, but I could hear yelling over the music.

Confusion. Amusement.

“Is this new or something?” I asked with a smile tilting up the side of my mouth.

“Yep. The chief put it in last week. Not everyone’s gotten a chance to try it out yet. It’s supposed to help teach us about sensory deprivation, and keeping our head in the game when there are outside influences trying to steal our attention,” he answered.

“Aces,” I said, smiling widely.

“I think I like you, Nox,” Michael answered just before he pressed the button once again, and headed out of the room without waiting for me to answer.

“Not you, too!” I yelled to his retreating back.

His laugh followed him out of the room.

Smiling, I turned back to the window and watched the men gather into a circle staring at the leftover smoke still hovering high in the air.

They all had their masks pulled up over their faces, and I finally got my first good look at Bennett in all his SWAT glory.

Lordy me, the man looked good.

Without all the gear, he looked big. With the gear he looked massive, plus intimidating. Which was one hell of a combination.

I’d be scared shitless to see them coming at me if I was doing something bad.

I saw Michael make his way down into the middle of the room from a side door, then stop once he reached the huddle.

Once there, he spoke, gestured to the room, and pointed at me.

Bennett turned his head, saw me and smiled.

I waved frantically like the dork I was, and got rewarded with a small smile from him before he slapped Nico on the back and started jogging towards the door Michael had gone through to get there.

I watched him disappear through an exit, and a minute later he appeared at the entranceway to the room I was standing in.

He’d removed his face cover on the way, and I was surprised to see that sometime in the span of him coming to bed last night, and right now, he’d shaved his hair.

“What happened to your hair?” I asked in alarm.

Not that he’d had that much in the first place, but it was enough that I could sink my fingers into it and guide his face where I wanted him to go.

He smiled and bent his head down.

“I cut it once a month. It bothers me with this heat,” he explained.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Then why didn’t you shave your beard?” I countered.

He moved until the box of cookies I was holding pressed into his chest.

“I like my beard,” he stated firmly. “And I like the way your thighs quiver when I run my beard along them. And I like the way your nipples bead when my beard tickles them. That’s why I like my beard and I won’t be shaving it.”

I blinked.

“Well, okay,” I said with a smile. “Do you want a cookie?”

He looked down at the colorful icing covered cookies, and shook his head. “I don’t like those kind of cookies.”

I blinked. “What do you mean you don’t like these? They taste awesome.”

“I mean I don’t like them, that’s what I mean,” he laughed. “Now, what’re you doing here?”

I pointed at the box of cookies.

He looked down at them.

“That’s not why you’re here. That’s just a convenient excuse to come up here. What do you need?” He asked, pressing closer.

The cookies were flipped up, and I heard all the sprinkles leave their prospective cookies, but I didn’t care.

Then his mouth descended, and I really didn’t care.