Page 69 of Good Enough

“Three of us can’t maintain that. Hell, we’re good, but even all six of us couldn’t do it. We’re talking total clusterfuck.”

“Well, you’re not planning on leaving her side anytime soon. Not that you had been before you decided to play house. But at least now it won’t look weird if you keep with her.”

“Yeah, but then we have to make public that we’re in a relationship.”

Goddamnit.

TB smirked and looked out the passenger side window to hide the smile. Nemo just raised an eyebrow at him in the rearview mirror, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“You tell anyone what I just said, I will bury you both in a pit of vipers like Ragnar.”

“Nice. Double confirmation for the betting pool. With that, I shall make my exit.” Nemo clapped him on the shoulder, a little lighter this time. “She makes you smile. I don’t even need binoculars to see that. Enjoy it, Boss.” With that, he rolled out of the Jeep and disappeared into the cover of the jungle.

Silence hit the Jeep once more. TB showed no sign of leaving any time soon. Waters sighed. “Something on your mind, TB?”

“Just wondering if you’ve thought this through. Don’t forget. I’m the one who hauled your ass off that meat hook in Egypt. All because someone took off with a woman close to you.”

“It’s not the same.”

“No, Kubrick isn’t your sister. She’s your woman. In some ways, that’s probably worse.”

“She’s not ‘my woman.’ It’s not serious. It’s a short-term thing, done at the end of the shoot. Besides that, no one’s looking to get at me. I’m a dead man.”

“You were a dead man when those fucksticks took Sarah. But you know in our line of work that attachments are dangerous. Any day, we could piss the wrong person off, and then someone we love gets put in harm’s way to make us pay. That’s why God delivered the message from on high to you, then us.

“Sarah was taken because you happened to piss off the wrong guy who had some crazy-smart tech guys of his own. She was God’s unfortunate, expensive proof that operatives having attachments in the real world can be catastrophic. And those of us who did still have family and friends when we took the job? If we hadn’t already, we forfeited them as soon as Sarah died. So now we have each other, but each of us knows the score if something goes FUBAR.”

“I know.” Fingers playing absently with the thread bracelet on his wrist, Waters stared at the Jeep’s console, but he wasn’t seeing it. “I tried to resist her. I really did.”

TB shook his head. “You think I’m condemning you? Fuck, no. That’s not where I’m going with this. I’m happy you’ve found someone who’s bringing you back to life because heaven knows you, not me, have been the total bastard of the group since you came back to work. I want you to make sure she’s worth the risk. Just take that into account because it doesn’t have to be over when the assignment’s over.”

“God says no—”

“Fuck God and fuck his rules. He has no right to hold you to them.”

“She’s totally out in the open. I can’t do my job and be with her.”

TB sat in silence for a moment before going in for the kill shot. “Are you really going to keep making excuses? Whom are you trying to fool? Not me. Not any of the guys, including the boss, so you must be trying to fool yourself.”

Waters let TB’s words sink in and begin to digest when suddenly a surprise question came.

“Do you love fieldwork?”

Waters shrugged.

“No, you don’t. You love analysis. You’re the demigod. Mind like a fucking steel trap.” TB smiled. “Yeah, you’re great in the field. We know you’ve got our backs, and we’ve been lucky to have you with us. But none of us can do fieldwork forever.”

“You make me sound old. I’m only thirty-four and younger than you.”

“It’s got nothing to do with age, and you know it. Did being younger than us keep us from accepting you as our team leader? Fuck, no. It’s everything to do with using assets where they’re best suited. You’re certainly not a liability. Look, would you send Midas out as a sniper?”

“If I absolutely had to.”

“Right. ‘Absolutely had to.’ He can shoot better than the average man, but he’s best behind his screens. It’s the most efficient use of him.

“Want her in your life? Then use your sexy analysis shit and figure out how to keep your ass out of the field, or at least out of the direct line of fire. Fuck, all it takes for you to do what you do in person is for us to wear comms, and you watch through the body cams, like the past year. You were out of the loop completely for a year and working remotely on projects for the past eleven months. We’ve been working that way just fine.” He held up a hand to stave off Waters’ protest. “Trust me. We would have rather had you with us. But we’re okay. And you’ve been excellent in the office running interference with God. Believe me, we appreciate him not being up our asses all the time. Thrilled your ass has been taking it instead of ours.

“So, keep your hand in. Do the day-to-day bullshit jobs. Vet the clients. Hire some extra help, and you can take on some local work or even actually do consulting jobs to hide us better. Run the analysis. Be the eye in the sky and order us around. And there’s never a shortage of shit to do that none of us like doing, but you’re totally boss at.

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