Page 22 of The Team

“Hard to tell,” Jay whispered. Then he put his hand on Rhett’s stomach. “Trust your gut. It’s never been wrong.”

Rhett smiled and wished he could pull Jay against him,kiss him softly for being exactly what Rhett needed. But they weren’t like that on the job. Work was work, personal lives were separate, and they never showed PDAs when in uniform.

They just didn’t.

Even with everyone else asleep, even in the dark, Rhett wouldn’t allow himself the smallest luxury of comfort.

The best he could do was a gentle look and a soft voice. “You should sleep.”

Jay’s bright eyes shone in the moonlight, the soft glow touching only half his face, highlighting his smile. “Yes, Captain.”

It made Rhett smile, even briefly.

And he went back to scoping out the street below. The building half a block up and adjacent was his target. It was all dark and quiet now and had been since they’d arrived.

Intel had told him no one had entered or left the building since Kowalski or Myles were escorted out. They’d been ushered into the waiting green van by two men, presumably armed, a black van following them.

Rhett had wanted to take a look in the building for himself but had been told to sit tight.

Rhett didn’t like sitting tight. And what for? If the place was empty, then what the hell were they waiting for?

He didn’t like it when his instructions went against his training, against his instinct.

They were supposed to be kites, free agents hired for their tactical experience. But they were very much still tethered to their agency.

He recalled what Harry Harrigan had told him once.

I can tell you right now that kind of power is not good. No good will ever come of it.

Rhett liked to believe that the Milvus Division was on the side of good. He had to believe that. Since the Clive Parrish scandal—when the Australian military leaders and politicians were exposed as traitors, when Harry and Asher had brought the whole operation to its knees—the Milvus Division had been established to counter such threats.

The special counsel, with Directors King and Depraz and their ilk, had powers that exceeded international borders.

That kind of power is not good . . .

Rhett didn’t like questioning their motives. Sure, the tech was state of the art; the weapons, the transport, the secrecy were all the best there was.

Having world-class hackers like Yunho and Yixing also helped.

But Rhett had to wonder... who were they really working for?

He and Jay were still tethered to the Australian government. Each member of the Milvus Division was employed, as such, by their own country.

And those governments each had a say, a stake in the game. Rhett and Jay were two pieces on the chessboard. He knew that. He was fine with that.

But it begged the question—the damn question he couldn’t get out of his mind, thanks to Harry—what stake did the Chinese government have by putting Yin and Chen into the game?

What did they want?

Did it have something to do with Yixing? The genius kid absorbed into the Milvus agency for his hacking skills?

Was it simply an exercise in diplomacy, as King had said?

Did they want to be included with the international good guys?

Was the Milvus Division the good guys?

Rhett groaned, mad at himself for being too much in his head, and he straightened up, wishing he could do something constructive instead of sitting around waiting for the puppeteers to pull his strings.

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