Page 72 of Baby One Last Time
“Not as far as we can tell,” TJ said. “And we had solid intel on what they’d bought.”
“Your gut instinct to follow Frankie’s tip paid off,” Mai said. “All signs pointed to them moving everything tonight. They would have slipped through our fingers.”
She didn’t say the quiet part out loud, that we might have had the same result, or an even better one, if I’d followed protocol instead of my base instincts and had told TJ about Frankie’s intel from the jump.
“A highly successful mission,” X said.
“Except that Beecher got away.” I couldn’t stop myself. Idiot. I blamed the shock of her compliment for scrambling my sense of self-preservation.
She frowned. “Yes, that was unfortunate. But he’s a marked man now. Not much good to the oligarchs for the moment.”
“And when he does re-emerge, we’ll be ready for him,” TJ said. “You did good, kid.”
“Hm.” X turned toward me. “There is the matter of another teammate getting shot.”
That was a low blow, even for X. Sure, it had been my tranq dart that hadn’t hit true, giving the guard time to warn his friend in the room with Derek. But I wasn’t a sharpshooter, and anyone else on the team other than Mai probably wouldn’t have done any better.
Mai jumped to her feet. “That wasn’t her—”
X held up her hand for silence. Mai stopped speaking, but remained standing.
“No.” I puffed out my chest and stared down X. “No one feels worse about Derek getting hit than I do. I’d do anything to change places with him or to go back in time and repeat that part of the mission over and over again until we got it right, but I can’t. I didn’t screw up this time. No mission is perfect, but we all did a damn fine job.”
By the end of my little speech, TJ had moved to stand beside X.
“I’m well aware of the dangers of every HEAT mission,” X said. “You’ve made mistakes. So has everyone here. We learn from them and move on. I’ve yet to hold honest ones against my agents.”
“I know you didn’t really fire me for what happened to Henderson,” I said. “Thank you for that.”
X shook her head. “You did overreact to the ambassador’s less pleasant qualities, and even though he shot your partner, who stormed the room too soon, the tranq was taking effect. You didn’t need to shoot him with two more darts. But you’re right, your forced break wasn’t to punish you. It was to allow time and space for forgiveness from the person who did blame you.”
I nodded. “Me.”
“You lost faith in yourself, in your skills,” she said. “I couldn’t send you into the field with your head such a mess.”
“Fuck me,” Jensen said, and the tension drained from the air.
X shot a look at TJ, who shrugged. “It’s kind of the team motto,” he said.
Penn cleared his throat. “Speaking of the team”—it was easy to hear the hope in his voice—“this is a pretty damn good one, don’t you think?”
Yes, it was. It was the kind of cohesive unit every HEAT agent hoped to join, with skilled and supportive teammates who made this hard, dangerous job easier and safer. I’d found my tribe, and I’d proven myself worthy of belonging.
And now I had to walk away.
Bond joined us in the waiting room. “Wilder’s going to be fine.” Her smile sent the blood rushing back to my fingers and toes. “They’ll take him into surgery in a few minutes to remove the bullet, but it will be clean and easy.” She looked at me. “He wants to see you first.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I threw my arms around her in a quick hug, then took off down the hall.
“Hey, Kessler, hold up a minute.” Penn caught up with me, and we stood a few feet apart in the middle of the wide, empty hall. “When you said we’d lock Wilder in a room until he told us his secrets, I didn’t think you meant a hospital room.”
His words broke the tension and we smiled. He took my hand. “Seriously, thank you for saving his sorry ass.”
“It was a team effort.”
He nodded. “Still, I wanted to say that. And to say I really enjoyed working with you today. I’m actually looking forward to our next mission.”
“Words I did not expect to hear from you today. Or ever.” I squeezed his fingers. “Thanks.”
