Page 131 of The Heart

“Okay enough to report back, and we have his location now.” He smiles before getting back to work.

“Thank fuck. He cut that one close,” Sebastian says, crossing his arms. And he’s right. We gave him three days to check in, or we would come looking for him. Today’s day three, which means that tomorrow probably wouldn’t have gone over well. Barreling into not one, but three known hideaways looking for our friend wasn’t part of the plan at all.

“What can I do?” Ava asks from behind us.

It’s Leena who turns to answer. “Jones, pull up all the maps and satellite images you have of the area surrounding that compound. Let’s go over every single way in and out of that place again, and start digging deeper, anything we don’t already have. County records, building permits, whatever you can find without drawing attention,” she says.

“On it, boss!” Ava settles into a chair in front of one of the large double monitors.

“Chen, think you can hack into any local cameras or the utility companies so we can get an idea on how active they are at this location?” she says.

“You got it!” Ryan says, pulling up another screen and clicking away.

When Leena turns to me, I smile. I’m so fucking proud of this woman.

“Grab your weapons, boys. Let’s go put up some cameras.” She smiles.

—

“Fisher, if you don’t stop singing, I will personally tattoo you with a spade and leave your ass in Diamond territory,” Sebastian growls out, gripping the wheel a little tighter than he needs to.

“Oh come on, man! We’ve been driving around for hours, and it’s past fucking midnight. Let us have a little fun,” Colton retorts.

“This is notfun.You’re making my ears bleed.” Sebastian glares at our friend in the rearview mirror.

“Be fucking nice!” Leena reprimands.

“No.” He smirks back at her and she slaps his bulky arm, as if that will do anything, but it makes him chuckle. I shake my head.

“There,” I say, pointing to a utility pole that’s down off the side of the road. We’ve spent the past few hours putting up hidden cameras along every roadway in and out of Jace’s location. Our team will make sure that every single car, license plate and fucking woodland critter that strolls past those cameras is on our radar. If Jace leaves the compound, we’ll know. If he doesn’t check in when he’s supposed to, then we need to know what we’re dealing with in order to get his ass out of there.

“Is this the last one?” Leena asks through a yawn. She’s hardly slept since we dropped Jace off. Hopefully tonight will be better, now that we know where he is.

“Yeah, last one. You guys wait here. Just call us if you see anyone,” Sebastian says as the two of us get out of the car.

We hike down the slope of the overgrown hillside until we’re out of view of the road, then walk together along the culvert. We’re far from town out here, so the night is quiet. The full moon casts enough light on the vibrant green of the grass and surrounding forest that we’re able to see without using the flashlights.

I suddenly realize that this is the first time I’ve been alone with Sebastian since we arrived in Jamaica. Between sharing a house with the team and having both Leena and Colton in our bed, we haven’t had a minute to ourselves. Not that I’m complaining about the bed situation, that’s been strangely… comfortable. It’s just been hectic.

“Seb?” I finally manage to say.

“Yeah?” he replies, dropping the gear at the base of the pole and scrunching his eyes up to where we will need to mount it.

“Why did you decide to tell the team? You know… aboutus,” I ask.

He immediately pauses what he’s doing.

“I don’t know. I just… It just… I don’t know how to talk about this, Lu,” he says, looking down at where he’s fidgeting with the screws between his fingers.

“I don’t either. Neither of us ever wanted a serious relationship. But this is working, right? I’m not fucking it up by not telling my family? Or by asking too much of you?” I ask, because I feel like as well as I can read him, this is so new for both of us. And he told the team, so now it’s just me holding back.

I told him that I love him, well, I wrote it, but I haven’t been able to say it out loud. And he hasn’t said those words to me.

“No, Lu.” His eyes shoot to mine. He drops the tools to the ground, walking closer to me. He pinches the bridge of his nose and squeezes his eyes shut. When they open, I stare into the dark blue of them, illuminated by the moonlight. I find so much emotion there, but I truly don’t know what he’s thinking at this moment. “I didn’t realize how much I was hurting you… hurting myself, until Leena fucking pointed it out. Our woman sees everything.” He lets out a huff, I do too, because he’s right. “It felt really fucking good telling Colton. And…” he pauses, pulling out his wallet and handing me a folded slip of paper from the bill fold.

I open it, already knowing what I’ll find. I stare down at my handwriting, at the“I love you”I finally put into words and found the courage to give him last week.

Except this paper feels soft, like it’s much older.

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