Page 47 of Sink With Me

I never thought I’d be the guy to find anything a woman does adorable, but the snort she makes as she buries her head deeper into the pillow is such a horrific sound I can’t help but grin as I pull on my pants. I’ll be making fun of her later for that.

Quietly, I make my way out of the room, careful not to slam the door this time. I know she’ll find me when she wakes up. For now, I need her rested, so when I get my hands on her later, I can wear her back out.

I shake my head, trying to focus on the task at hand. There’s something off. Nothing has made sense from the moment she arrived. I’ve always believed she was in the wrong, her team waged a war for no probable cause, and she followed. She hasn’t lied to me yet though, and something about last night keeps pulling at me. As always, I’m missing a piece.

There’s nowhere else to go than the one person I’ve been focusing on the whole time. Even that doesn’t make sense. What would he have to gain? It also doesn’t explain the planted bombs in both boats. I need to see the big picture. All he needs is a little nudge to show me the real reason behind it all.

The soft patter of feet follows behind me but that’s not unusual, the base is filled with men and women alike. What is unusual is flaming red hair tied in a neat bun below a new uniformed hat brushing straight past me making me pause in my tracks. I guess since I’ve been so wrapped in everything revolving around my little siren; I didn’t even realize we had brought in recruits.

Maybe Cordelia will be happier if she has a role here and fucking snacks. I’ll send Sam to the store tomorrow to stock up. Hopefully, she has enough for tonight because I need him for the day. He has the brain and no bias in the situation. So far, he’s been the only one to not show any emotion towards her. Honestly, it’s a smart choice on his end.

It doesn’t take long to find him, per usual he’s perched up in the security room checking over cameras, something I learned over time is like an obsessive behavior for him and thank God there’s more than one cup of coffee. No sleep was a bad idea, but it was so fucking worth it.

“Can’t you ever get your own fucking coffee?”

I try to fight back a smile as I bring his extra cup to my mouth and take a long drink of it. I prefer tea, but beggars can’t be choosers, right?

“You don’t get your coffee, so why should I?”

I place the paper cup in front of me as I sit down beside him. Most of the base assumes I’m too wrapped up in my things to catch onto anything else, but I’m not. After all, this is my base.

He’s quiet for a long moment, but I feel like he knows I’m not upset. Hell, I couldn't care less. I have what I want and she’s not leaving anytime soon. Correction: she’s not leaving ever. I should’ve installed cameras in our room. I’m already going insane with the need to at least see her.

“It’s not like that.” He mumbles. I’m half tempted to punch him in the face. I can't stand when someone lies or keeps secrets. I have a level enough head that most of the time I'm able to process the information without flipping out. I open my mouth to speak, but something catches my peripheral as he scrolls along his screen.

“Stop.” I bark, my fingers already hovering over the article, where he clicks it without question. We had been over all of them in the past. Americans feel the need to put everything in writing. However, this one is from years ago.

It’s still strange to me to see pictures of my little fish family with her nowhere in it, but I guess that was smart on her parents’ part. Oddly enough, Dutton isn’t even in this one, it’s just her parents standing proudly in front of a boat, each paragraph explaining what their travels will consist of.

Reading it now with Sharkie's words echoing in my head makes it seem more believable than before, but that still leaves me with the question of what the hell is happening.

“I can’t read minds, Tide, you gotta tell me what you’re thinking.”

“We’re missing something.” I mumble to myself more than him, not because I hate admitting it, but because I need to know how it feels coming off my tongue. Strangely enough, it doesn’t feel any different.

“It might be easier if you go through–”

“No.” I quickly disagree, already knowing he’s about to suggest my father's diaries. "We can figure this out."

“This is a fucking mess.”

I can’t disagree with him there. It is, and I’ll clean it up. During this time, I can categorize everything I already know and revisit things I try to forget. That bit of information I haven't told a soul about surely fits somewhere in this mess. I pull at the collar of my shirt suddenly finding it hard to swallow, I should find Moe soon. Just to check on him.

“Try to clean it up as much as you can. Don’t look so much at the cause and more at when it changed.” I lean back in my seat knowing it's a repeated phrase he constantly hears as his fingers fly over the keyboard, making that god-awful sound. Sam has always been amazing in the field, but I like it even better when he’s behind screens. That’s mainly because he thinks I don’t know where he was before the prison. Here he can’t get triggered.

There’s too much tension in the air and it’s pissing me off. I should still be riding the high of last night, but my shoulders are tight, and the silence is deafening.

One step forward and ten steps back, as always. I swallow the lump in my throat and turn my chair to face him.

“Did you get it out?”

“Yeah, as soon as I received it. No response yet.”

My eyes narrow in his direction. He groans.

"I had no other way of uploading the file without looking. You know that."

I wish I could turn off my feelings like him. I know I hide them as well as he does, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

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