Page 87 of Tactically Acquired

“Hey, you wanted to go, too!” I shouted, pushing to my feet, slipping just a little.

“I agreed because you always bully me into everything.”

“Bully?” I laughed. “I was trying to help you!”

“Help me into an early grave! How many times have we almost died?”

I barked out a laugh at that. “Excuse me, but it’s only me that almost died. You’ve barely faced down death. Hell, you’ve had more dangerous scenes while doing stunts!”

“And that makes this okay?” he shouted. “I was happy! I was living the dream! I was?—”

“Completely fucking miserable,” I reminded him. “You don’t even want to do action movies anymore.”

“And yet, you dragged me into a live one!” he shouted, shoving his fingers through his hair.

“I was just trying to help!”

“Well, stop doing that. You’re going to get us both killed.”

“Stop being so dramatic. You always get like this when you’re stressed. You start whining about everything and pretending the world is about to end.”

“I do not,” he pouted.

“Remember two years ago when that film ran over? You blamed me for the store being out of your favorite protein powder.”

“Because you insisted we go to a different hotel,” he argued.

“Yes, because the one we were at had bed bugs. Bed bugs! Did you really want to stay there?” I moved quickly, pressing my hands to his cheeks. “This will be fine. You will be fine. You just have to calm down and relax. Just keep reminding yourself that you can do this. We’re safe. Nothing is going to happen to us.”

He stared at me with squished lips and blew out a long breath. “Promise?”

“Of course I do. When have I ever let you down?”

“You want a list?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and he sighed. “Fine. It’ll all be fine.”

“See? I told you,” I beamed. “Now, how about we go get the rest of this movie taken care of.”

“We’re covered in mud,” he grumbled.

“Yes, but if we leave now, this will all have been for nothing.”

I could see the hesitation in his eyes, but I knew I had him. “Fine, but when we get inside, I get the shower first.”

“You have my word.”

I grabbed his hand and laced it with mine. Finally, we were getting somewhere.

“Good, now let’s—ah!” My shoe slipped and the ache in my side made it impossible for me to move fast enough to catch myself. My arms whirled for some kind of balance, but it was too late. I was going down. I snatched Spencer at the last second and pulled on him, taking him with me. I fell to my back, yanking him down on top of me.

I groaned as we both laid in the mud, my pride injured more than anything else.

“God, I really hope they don’t have cameras around here,” Spencer muttered.

“We do,” a male voice said.

I swiveled my head so I could see who was walking up behind us. But it wasn’t just one person. Thumper was there, along with IRIS. Then Spencer started hitting me and I followed his line of sight, where Baldy and Rae walked over, smirking at the sight of us.

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