Page 59 of Baby One Last Time
“My partner needs me.” I glanced at her. “No man left behind, right?”
“Your partner is sitting right here, ready to back you up in front of the team.” Mai was a cool customer. Shoulders relaxed, hand loose on the pistol laying across her lap. “And you need to trust that yourex-partner has things under control on his end.”
She glanced at me, her gaze flicking ever so slightly toward the weapon I held at Jensen’s neck, giving away her slight worry that I was unhinged enough to release the dart. She should have been much, much more concerned. “What is it with you and trust issues, anyway?” she asked.
“Says the person who tranqued me.”
“That was Jensen’s idea,” she said. “And it was a damn good one.”
Jensen, white-knuckling the steering wheel, was throwing off tension in waves. He was the weak link.
“You were talking to Mai and Derek about me on a private channel? So no one is on my side. Great.” I pushed the tranq gun harder against his neck to make my point. “I don’t care. Turn around.”
“Kessler, I am not turning around, so if you’re serious about pulling that trigger, do it. But when I pass out, we’re going to cause one hell of a wreck, and someone could die. It could even be civilians.”
So much for weak. He’d called my bluff, and it wasn’t until he did that I even realized itwasa bluff. I withdrew the gun, set the safety, and pushed myself up onto the back seat. Mai gave one nod of approval, and Jensen eased off his death grip on the steering wheel.
“I hope you both know I’ll hate you forever,” I said, but I couldn’t summon the energy to force anger into my voice. Derek knew what he was doing. Probably. Definitely. But there were no guarantees, and I’d screwed up big. “You’ll never be safe around me. You’ll always have to look over your shoulder on a mission, wonder if I really have your back.”
Mai glanced at Jensen. “I think it’s cute that she thinks we ever trusted her.”
Jensen smiled. “It’s also cute that she’s such a bad liar.”
“I am not cute.” I slouched down in the seat, my bravado deflated.
I stared out the window as the Miami skyline shimmered in the gray, pre-dawn light. We left Derek with Beecher. We really did that. I put him in harm’s way and then deserted him. Sure, it was done against my will, but the hell of it was I knew Mai and Jensen—and Derek, too—were right. Gathering the team to make a thorough extraction plan was his best chance. That didn’t mean I stopped feeling like someone had sliced me stem to stern with a Ka-Bar knife and ripped out my still-beating heart. And it didn’t mean I could forgive myself for trading one partner for another, especially when the partner I’d left behind had just worked his way back into my heart.
Who was I kidding? He’d never been kicked out.
We werea somber group on the brisk walk from the parking lot to our enclave, decked out in black, weapons hidden in duffel bags slung over our shoulders, me glaring at my two teammates, them ignoring my disdain. When we stepped through the gate, TJ was waiting for us on the patio in front of the team house.
“Tactical, IT.”
Having your team lead address you by your crew name when you weren’t either training or working in the field was a very bad sign. Like having your mom call you by your full name when you were a kid. You knew there was going to be hell to pay for something you’d done. No mystery here. We’d fucked up.I’dfucked up.
“I’m not going to tell you you fucked up,” TJ said. “Pretty sure you already know that.”
At least we all agreed on that.
TJ started toward the team house, waving his hand to indicate we should fall in behind him. “I assure you there will be disciplinary action taken when this mission is complete.”
I gripped the shoulder strap of my duffel until it cut into my hand. “But we’re not kicked off the mission, right?” It wasn’t a possibility I had even allowed myself to consider until that minute.
TJ glanced at me over his shoulder. “No, Kessler, you’re not off the mission. Unfortunately, I need all three of you to help extract Wilder from the shit-show you led him into.”
His tone of voice offered no indication of compromise. We were going in as a full team with Mai at my back. A calm settled over my shoulders like a warm blanket. I tried to shrug it off but it wouldn’t budge.
“It’s not like she twisted Wilder’s arm,” Jensen told TJ. “He came pretty willingly when she called him. And fast as a bat out of hell.”
I wanted to hug Jensen for standing up for me, but also punch him hard to shut him up. The magnetic pull between my ex-partner and me was the last thing I wanted anyone in HEAT considering right now. I’d worry about whether I was going to lose my job—this time for real and for good—after Derek was safe and sound.
TJ stopped and turned around to face us. “Don’t look so guilty, Kessler. The reasons for Wilder’s poor judgement where you’re concerned is for the two of you to sort out with X. But the vigilante bullshit stops right here, right now. We’re a team, and it’s going to take every one of us to bring Wilder home. Understood?”
We three chastised vigilantes nodded. “Roger that,” Mai added.
I took TJ’s words to heart. No more going it alone. The entire team was all in for Derek, and that was all that mattered.
TJ opened the door to the team house. Everyone was gathered off to our right around the large dining table, hunched over computers and writing on roll-away whiteboards.
