Page 10 of The Team

Oh my god.

Fucking Totoro.

Jay burst out laughing, and Azrael smiled. Sid, Echo, and Coyote all had no clue.

They looked to Jay for an explanation. “That’s perfect, I love it,” Jay said.

“I’ll show you guys later,” Azrael said to the others.

Rhett checked his watch. “We have a meeting with Director King.”

Jay stood up, his chair scraping the floor, and he clapped his hands. “Come on, Totoro. Let’s go get our asses kicked again.”

Chen smiled at Jay like he was his new favourite toy.

Rhett resisted smiling as he held the door.

“How’s your lip?” Jay asked, pointing to the big guy’s cut as they walked out.

“Is fine, no trouble,” he said. “You fight good.”

“For a small guy,” Jay added, and Chen laughed.

Yin gave Rhett a nod as he followed them out. Rhett looked back at his team, did his best not to sigh or roll his eyes, and quickly fell into step beside Yin.

An exercise of diplomacy, indeed.

FOUR

Rhett expectedan ass chewing and he wasn’t disappointed. King was pissed, and rightfully so.

He did have to clean up Rhett’s mess, after all.

And Rhett didn’t like mess.

Punishment was gruelling. A solid eight hours of fitness. Not just for him and Jay and Chen and Yin. But for his whole squad.

And oh boy, did they love him for that.

They bitched the four of them out, cussed at them, and Rhett was pretty sure Echo even cussed his mother. Rhett’s Urdu wasn’t great, but he understood that much.

Still, he deserved it.

Now, they ran fitness on the regular. Sometimes for hours. Sometimes for days on end. Pushing their bodies and minds to the limits was expected as part of the job. But this punishment felt like a burden.

He’dburdenedhis team with this. They were going through this punishment because of his actions. But thescathing glares he got as they did drills soon turned to the occasional smile as the hours wore on.

They loved being pushed. They urged each other on, they pushed each other, and would always,alwaysstrive for excellence.

The challenge always spurred them on.

And Chen and Yin held their own.

Rhett had expected the big fella to struggle, but the man was a freaking warhorse. He was red in the face, sweating, but once he got past the pain threshold, he was in the zone. Crazy sonofabitch even laughed a few times.

Yin, on the other hand, took the punishment seriously and without so much as a murmur. He ran, he climbed, he swam, he pushed, pushed, pushed with laser focus and determination. He worked as part of the team seamlessly. He kept an even pace, sensible and practised, and Rhett had to wonder just how long he could keep it up.

Until he dropped dead, probably.

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