19. Cash
CASH
Something twisted me out of the deep sleep I’d been in, reminding me I wasn’t at home and this was not a safe place. As my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, I spotted FNG sitting by the door, keeping an eye out through the window.
Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I stretched the ache in my back and stood with a yawn. “Anything?”
“It’s all quiet,” FNG answered, not bothering to look at me. “You should be sleeping.”
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked at my watch, surprised to find that five hours had passed. “That’s the longest I’ve slept in…” Fuck, I couldn’t even remember how long it had been. “You should have woken me up.”
He shrugged, taking a sip of something from his mug.
“Is that coffee?”
“There’s a pot over there,” he said, pointing with the mug toward the counter.
I was too lazy to walk over there and instead swiped the mug from his grip just as he was about to take another sip.
“Hey! I was drinking that.”
I grunted, taking a nice gulp. “And now I am.”
“That’s just mean.”
“Well, get used to it,” I answered, taking a seat. “Fuck, I’m sore.”
Pain shot through my neck as I rubbed the crick that had formed sometime over the past few hours. Sleeping rough was not new to me, but I hadn’t lived like this regularly in a long time.
“You know, you’re lucky I didn’t spit in that,” he muttered, getting up to grab another mug of coffee. After pouring his own, he strode back over, leaning against the wall as he stared out the window.
“You know we’re putting him in danger.”
FNG didn’t bother looking at me. “I never would have brought you here if I thought Giorgi would be hurt. Trust me on that.”
“My life isn’t exactly filled with people I can trust right now,” I muttered.
This time, his gaze snapped toward me. “And whose fault is that?”
“I’m not getting into this right now,” I sighed.
“Why not? We’re here in the middle of the night with nothing better to do. So, tell me, why the fuck would you run off to take down whoever the fuck you’re after without so much as asking for some fucking help?”
“I did!” I snapped, my eyes moving to where Thumper snored on his cot. Lowering my voice, I turned back to FNG. “I did ask for help.”
“Asking Kavanaugh to put everyone in danger without giving him any fucking details is not the same thing as keeping us in the loop.”
I knew that. And fuck, I wanted so badly to fill them in, but there was just too much going on. So much was at stake, and the idea that I had already brought this much down on their heads terrified me.
“I shouldn’t even be here with you,” I muttered. “It’s just putting a target on your back.”
“Uh, hello?” he laughed. “We came here willingly.”
“Bree is pregnant,” I spat. “Do you really think now is the time for rash decisions?”
“And Honey is pregnant also,” he said, cocking his head at me. “First kid,” he grinned. “I’m fucking ecstatic, but that does not mean I walk away from my other family just because my life is going good.”
“You don’t fucking get it,” I snapped. “What happened out there, that’s just the beginning.”
“You mean how you were framed? Yeah, I kind of figured you weren’t on the run for shits and giggles.”
Thumper’s snore got louder before he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow.
“You don’t know who you’re getting involved with,” I bit out.
“So fucking tell me.”
I gritted my teeth, wishing it was that simple. After all we’d been through, I wanted nothing more than to tell him everything. I was fucking tired of playing games, wondering who was on my side and if I could trust anyone. Even my father was now someone I had to watch my back around.
The Shadow Government was coming after me, and he was at the top of the list, in charge of it all. I knew for a fact the other agents weren’t working solo. They got orders from someone, and that someone was my father.
He’d ordered a hit on me, and now there was nowhere I could go that would be safe.
“You’re really not gonna tell me?”
“Fuck,” Thumper groaned. “Just tell him and put us out of our misery so I can get some fucking sleep.”
“See? You woke the growly bear with your indecision and poor manners. Even Thumper knows that stealing someone’s coffee is wrong.”
Thumper rolled over, sitting upright. “You know, when I signed up for this, I didn’t think we’d be having midnight discussions. I was in the middle of a really good fucking dream,” he muttered.
“See? Even Stubby is tired of your floundering.”
“Stubby?” Thumper scowled. “You wanna call me that again and see what happens?”
“Sure. I’ll give you a few minutes to put on your leg first so you can run over here and attack,” FNG grinned.
Fuck, I really missed these guys, but that didn’t change the fact that anything I told them would only put them in more danger.
“Look, I’m leaving in the morning. I need to get the fuck out of here and head back to the states.”
“With us,” FNG said as he lounged against the window frame. “I’m like a bad penny. You can’t get rid of me.”
“I can with a bullet to the head.”
“I’d like to see you try. Since when have I ever died? I mean, like, for real, died.”
“Just because you haven’t died yet doesn’t mean you won’t.”
“I beg to differ. Clearly, you don’t understand just how amazing I am.”
“Clearly?” I asked, my lips twitching in amusement.
“No. No fucking way,” Thumper snapped, standing up and striding over to us. “We are not going down this path. Alright? It’s too fucking early, and I haven’t even had coffee yet,” he said, his hand shooting out to snatch FNG’s coffee mug.
“Hey!”
He downed half the cup, wincing as it scalded his throat. “Fuck, that’s nasty coffee.”
“What is it with you people? It’s my fucking coffee!” FNG turned and stormed back over to the coffee pot, pouring yet another cup. “If you want a fucking cup, you walk over here and grab a mug. It’s really not that fucking hard.”
“You called me Stubby.”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” FNG snapped, glaring at the man who stole his mug.
“We’re getting off topic here. What we really need is a fucking plan. I did not wake up at zero dark thirty just to argue with you about fucking coffee. The real problem is that Cash is being too stubborn to allow anyone to help him.”
“Because you can’t fucking help me,” I retorted.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Thumper snarled. “I thought we were all trained in this sort of thing. I thought it was kind of a specialty of ours. Are you saying we’re no longer good at what we do?”
“No, I’m saying?—”
“Because we go out there risking our lives all the fucking time for you.”
“Thumper—”
“We would do it over and over again, always knowing we might not come home, but suddenly, this is an issue for you?”
“You have no fucking clue who you’re going up against!”
“Because you won’t fucking tell us!” he shouted, slamming his mug down on the table and cracking it. Coffee spilled everywhere, and the mug handle broke into little pieces.
“Okay…” FNG said slowly, inching toward Thumper. “Let’s not take this out on the mug. What the fuck did it ever do to you?”
Thumper didn’t take his eyes off me. I saw the resolution in his eyes. No matter what I said, he wasn’t giving in. He wasn’t walking away. If I found a way out, he would follow and probably end up getting himself killed.
Which was likely if I told him what was going on. Either way, my team was refusing to leave me alone. They were in this for the long haul.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
A crunch sounded just outside the door, drawing our attention immediately. I pulled my gun, but FNG held up his hand in warning, shaking his head for me not to move.
I shouldn’t have stopped here. I knew it would only bring trouble. I was about to get both of them killed, and in the end, our problems would still be the same.
“Looking for me?”
I whipped around, my gun trained on the familiar voice settled back in the darkness. I didn’t dare lower my weapon, already aware that this man would put a bullet in my head the moment he had the chance. After all, I had done the same to him.
His footsteps sounded quietly on the wood floor as he stepped out of the shadows and into the dim light. A slight smirk filled his face as he took in the gun aimed in his direction.
“Well, this is pretty much how I thought things would go.”