Page 88 of Fool Me Twice

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Ez saunters through a rift to the address Obie gave her, Roma following close behind. “All right,” Ez says, waving it shut and glancing around. They’re in an unfamiliar living room‍—Naomi and Sawyer’s real house, she presumes‍—with the two ex-hunters themselves standing by the fireplace, Obie leaning against the couch, and Cass and JJ obstinatelysittingon said couch, looking tense but defiant in their decision to be comfortable. “Are we the last ones here?”

“Not quite,” Obie says. His voice is even and his posture is deceptively relaxed, but Ez knows him well enough to see that he’s ready to throw down at a moment’s notice. “Still waiting on Micah and Gregorio.”

“Make yourselves at home,” Naomi adds, her eyes lingering on Roma. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight, kiddo.”

JJ leans forward on the couch, a faint frown creasing his brow. “What are you doing out so late? It’s almost curfew.”

Roma gives him a guarded smile, edging subtly closer to Ez. “Curfew hasn’t exactly been suspended, but it’s been less enforced since the mega-rift epidemic started. I, um, already texted Bryant to let her know I wouldn’t be back tonight.”

Cass’s eyebrows shoot up. “Were you two going to spend the whole night working on the counterspell?” he asks, nodding at Ez. “That’s hardcore.”

Ez bites back a smirk. She and Roma were probably going to spend at least alittletime working on the counterspell in between their… other plans, so the sentiment isn’t entirely inaccurate. “We’re always hardcore,” she says loftily. “And we already tried the reversal at sunset with some mildly unpleasant results, so we’re going to try again at sunrise‍—unless the Conspiracy Fam has other ideas.” She arches an eyebrow at Naomi and Sawyer. “So whereareMicah and Gregorio, anyway? Do we actually need them here?”

Naomi squints at her. “‘The Conspiracy Fam’? Do you seriously call us that?”

“And Micah and Gregorio are just running some tests,” Sawyer says lightly. “Nothing major. They should be here in a few minutes.”

Roma and JJ shift in place at the same time, their narrowed eyes fixed on Sawyer, and a prickle of unease runs down Ez’s spine. Sawyer actively trained JJ for six years and indirectly mentored Roma for almost as long, so if anyone would know when the purebred is lying, it’s them.

Whether Sawyer is deliberately misleading them or just being intentionally vague, she’s clearly hiding something.

“And us?” Cass’s spine is ramrod straight and his shoulders are stiff. “Me and JJ, I mean. Why do you need us here?”

He looks like he’s prepared to physically fight someone, and JJ has hunched shoulders and downcast eyes next to him. Ez’s heart hurts. She knows that their last meeting with this particular group didn’t go well for them, between Naomi and Sawyer nearly sending JJ into a full breakdown and Cass making the executive decision to get him out of there‍—even though it meant leaving Ez and Obie behind.

Ez doesn’t want to think about how much it must’ve pained Cass to ask JJ to trust his old mentors one more time.

Sawyer hesitates before answering. “Technically, we don’t need you here. We want to keep you both in the loop for any important updates, but…” She smiles unsurely. “Mostly, we just wanted to see JJ again.”

JJ’s head jerks up. “Me? Why me?”

Naomi huffs out an impatient breath. “Because wemissedyou, dumbass. Why else?”

“I thought we were trying to be more tactful this time,” Sawyer says pointedly.

“Please. I don’t think anyone in this room has even an ounce of tact,” Naomi says, and she meets JJ’s eyes. “Listen, Sawyer and I have made a lot of mistakes over the past six years, okay? Alotof mistakes. We’ve been fumbling around in the dark, trying to do what’s right for Redwater and the world, but we lost sight of some important things along the way. Like‍—like you.” Her eyes dart to Roma. “And you. I promised I’d be there to celebrate with you after Strike Team Kappa’s first official mission. I wasn’t. And I wasn’t there for any of your other accomplishments, either. I’m‍—I’m really sorry about that, Roma.”

“Same here,” Sawyer says softly, pain twining through her voice. “I know we’ve said it before, but we never wanted to leave you two behind‍—not you two, and not Chester and Bryant, either. At the time, we thought it was the best option to keep you safe, but‍—but even if you were safe, you weren’t happy. You weren’t free. And safety versus freedom is a choice, just like anything else, but we made that choiceforyou, and that wasn’t right. Not with what we knew back then, and not with what we know now. So…” Unexpectedly, she reaches out, threading her fingers through Naomi’s. “We’re sorry for leaving you. We both are.”

“And about our trash fire of a reunion earlier this month,” Naomi adds, looking chagrined. “JJ, weneverthought you were expendable, okay? We just thought you were the only defector who still knew the Sanctum well enough to find what we needed. But we never even stopped to ask if youwantedto help us. We shouldn’t have assumed.”

“And we didn’t trust you at all,” Sawyer says to Roma bluntly, and Ez fights back a snort. “I still think that was justified, considering what we’ve heard about the last time you were allegedly on our side, but‍—but Ez trusted you. And we should’ve realized that any friend of Ez’s is a friend of ours, too.”

Roma’s breathing looks the slightest bit shaky. “Thanks,” she croaks.

Ez’s chest aches for her, but for once, it’s a good ache. “Well, now,” she says, clapping a hand on Roma’s shoulder and squeezing lightly. Roma relaxes the tiniest bit. “This is all very sweet. I should’ve brought tissues.”

Obie looks towards the ceiling like he’s praying to Nostringvadha for patience. “Ez.”

“What? I’m not immune to heartfelt apologies and the power of forgiveness!” She takes a deep breath, glancing at Roma. “And Roma might be working with us more in the future, too. So it’s probably good that we’re airing out all these emotions now.”

JJ snaps to attention. “You are?” he asks, frowning at Roma. “But after the epidemic is over, the Sanctum is going to be on their guard again. You’ll barely be able to talk to us without drawing suspicion, much less work with us.”

Roma raises her eyebrows. “Well,youmanaged it, didn’t you?”

JJ’s lips twitch. “The Sanctum wasn’t on high alert back then,” he says, and he absently shifts to the side, pressing his shoulder against Cass’s. “And I had help.”

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