Page 55 of The Team

Azrael laughed behind Jay, giving him a quick shove. “You got time to ogle, you got time to work.”

Jay smirked at her. “Fair.” Then he hauled the crate up and followed them out to the plane. Following Rhett meant he could ogle his ass the whole way out.

Rhett felt strung too tight,pulled in too many directions at all the wrong angles.

As if he were thrown into a war with no clue who was the enemy or who was an ally. He didn’t know who to trust, who to turn to, who to believe.

He did trust Yunho, Asher, and Harry. And Jay, undoubtedly. He trusted Sid, Echo, and Azrael. With his life. And he thought he could trust Yin and Chen.

He believed he could.

He wanted to... part of him couldn’t believe Yin wasn’t trustworthy. The man was a Sea Dragon, for fuck’ssake. The Chinese equivalent of a Navy SEAL. They were forged out of integrity.

But whose government did his allegiance fall to now?

The core foundation of Milvus was not to be bound by one country’s legal constraints.

Or their oaths to the UN or NATO.

But like any soldier, Yin would follow orders.

Whose orders he was following was the question Rhett needed answered.

So when Chen abandoned his seat next to Yin in exchange for the lavatory, Rhett was quick to take his place. He fell into the seat next to him, and Yin gave him a nod. “Captain.”

Rhett kept his voice down. “The phone in your right vest pocket.” He held his hand out. “Give it to me.”

Yin’s eyes met his, flashing with... fear? “It’s not what you think,” he whispered. “Please.”

Rhett kept his hand out. “Now.”

Yin’s eyes flinched, and for the briefest second, a mask of distress crossed his face. But then he reached into his vest pocket and produced a small thin phone, and reluctantly, regretfully, he slid it onto Rhett’s palm.

“It’s not what you think,” he said again.

“And what do I think?”

Yin winced again, his mouth pulled down, and he looked Rhett dead in the eye. The genuine sorrow in his eyes struck Rhett as odd, but he was now holding the phone.

Rhett switched it on and, of course, it was all in Chinese. He couldn’t get past the homepage. But he didn’t need to. If Jay couldn’t read it, Yunho could make short work of it.

“It’s a personal phone,” Yin whispered. “I shouldn’t have had it. I know that. I’m sorry. It’s not traceable. It’s not detectable, it’s...”

Yin finished with a sigh.

“It’s now mine.” Rhett inhaled deeply. “I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna refuel in Bosnia. And you and Chen?—”

“He’s not involved in this.”

Rhett glared at him. “And you and Chen are gonna sit down and shut up. Pretend to be asleep or something, I don’t give a fuck. Not a word, not a fucking peep. Don’t speak to anyone. Don’t do anything. Not one fucking thing. Because right now, I’d be well within my rights to shoot you in your fucking seat and toss your corpse out of this fucking plane, and I swear to fucking Christ, not one person on this plane will try and stop me.”

Yin swallowed hard and let out a short, helpless breath. “It’s not what you think. I’m not... Ouston, I can explain?—”

“Oh, believe me, you’re going to. But not to me. Save it for the Hague because you’re gonna fucking need it.”

“Captain,” he tried, but Rhett had heard enough.

He’d seen enough.

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