Page 56 of The Team

Yin had a fucking phone on his person, and even if he wasn’t the mole, even if he wasn’t sending information back to Zihao or back to China, he had put the entire operation—Rhett’s entire goddamn team—in jeopardy.

Rhett stood up just as Chen returned, and he slipped past him without so much as a smile and went back to his seat.

“What did he say?” Jay asked quietly.

Rhett turned his palm over, showing him the phone, and Jay’s eyes went wide. “He didn’t deny it?”

Rhett shook his head. “Nope. Said it’s a personal phone.”

“What the fuck?”

“Exactly.” He turned it on, bringing up the home screen. “Can you read this?”

Jay took it. “Speak Mandarin, yes. Read it, not so much.” He pressed something. “Need a password or a fingerprint.”

Rhett smirked, took the phone back, and stood up.

“Without blood, preferably,” Jay added. “It smudges.”

Rhett smirked as he went back to Yin. No words, no explanation, he snatched up Yin’s hand and forced his finger onto the fingerprint button.

Yin didn’t fight it. He didn’t react at all.

Just sadness.

Rhett had expected more of a fight out of him and was kinda disappointed he didn’t get a reaction.

Chen, on the other hand, couldn’t hide his alarm, his reaction. He was about to protest, about to stand up, until Yin put his free hand on Chen’s arm to stop him.

Rhett aimed a fiery glare at Chen for good measure. He actually liked the big guy. Everyone liked him. His call sign of Totoro was perfect. But he was protective of Yin, his bodyguard of sorts. Rhett almost wished he knew more of their story but now it didn’t matter.

Rhett knew Sid had clocked this interaction. If he’d seen the phone, Rhett couldn’t be sure, but Sid didn’t miss much.

Putting Yin on Sid’s radar wasn’t a bad thing.

Another pair of eyes on him, without knowing why,would work in Rhett’s favour. If Yin so much as breathed wrong, Sid would be on him.

Rhett also noticed Azrael. He thought she’d been asleep, but no, she was watching. And Rhett didn’t have to wonder about Echo or Coyote. If Sid and Azrael were watching, then they were too.

His team always had his back.

But he noticed Giardello watching too.

Giardello, who was with Rhett when King had voiced his and Harrigan’s concern about the infiltration of the two newest members. Yunho was looking into it and hoped to know more by the time they landed in Bosnia to refuel.

Rhett hoped to god he did.

Whether Yin and Chen were alive or dead for the next leg of the flight back to London would hinge entirely on what they found on this phone or what Yunho found out.

When the home screen unlocked, Rhett let go of Yin’s hand and returned back to his seat. He handed the phone to Jay. “Can you read any of this?”

Jay frowned at it. “Looks like a burner,” he said quietly. “There are no apps. Just factory settings. No emails, no calls, incoming or outgoing. No contacts.” He clicked on one button and brought up what looked like unanswered text messages. Jay thumbed up into the history. “Texts with one number...”

Rhett could see there had been some back and forth a few days ago, but all of Yin’s texts in the last two days were unanswered.

“He said he arrived and all was well,” Jay said. “Whoever replied said work was fine. To be careful, and that they love him. He said it back, and see this character here,” Jay murmured, pointing to one word in Mandarin. “I can’tbe sure, because I’m rusty with this, but I think it’s a woman.”

A woman? “He said he has no one back home,” Rhett whispered.

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