Page 55 of Play the Game

“Nearly got Li and Wilder killed,” Tam interrupted.

“You don’t have to remind me,” Kessler said. “The love of my life nearly bled out in my arms on that operation. Seems like punishment enough for breaking the rules, don’t you think?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Tam glanced at me, the stress evidenced by her pale skin and tense muscles that had her shoulders bunched up near her ears.

I’d misread the situation. Kessler’s problem wasn’t with me. “Do you two need to hug this out?” I asked.

“No.” Kessler leaned back in her bucket seat. “Sparks is just so fucking tense that it’s messing with my head.”

Those were the last words we wanted to hear from an agent before they went into the field.

“What the fuck is going on?” TJ asked in the comms. “Do I need to pull the plug on this whole fucking operation?”

“No, sir,” the three women with me said in unison.

“Why don’t we take a walk?” I suggested. “You don’t need to leave for fifteen more minutes. Li, you take Kessler; I’ll take Sparks. We’ll work off some of the excess adrenaline and meet back here in ten.”

“Sounds good to me,” Li said. She climbed out of the back of the van. “Get your ass out here, Cynthia.”

Kessler glared at me as she exited the vehicle, but Tam let out a sigh of relief. She pointed to her comms. I used my phone to adjust both our devices so we could hear the team, but they couldn’t hear us. We climbed out of the van and walked out of the parking lot, taking the opposite direction from Kessler and Li, and slipped deeper into the darkness of the empty urban streets.

After a few minutes, we stopped on the edge of the shadows thrown by the watery light of a sad, lone streetlamp. I turned toward her and took both her hands in mine.

“Talk to me.”

She stared down at our hands and blew out a long breath. “It’s this operation.” She shook her head. “I’ve just had a bad feeling about it for a while now.”

“Makes sense. You’re walking in blind, there’s a civilian, and it’s the fucking Carbonados.”

“I guess, but it feels like something more.”

“Are Kessler and Li getting the same bad vibes?”

“Are you kidding? Have you ever seen Kessler react that badly to someone else’s negative mood? And Li stress-ate six peanut butter cups on the drive from the airport.”

“You mean the little snack-size ones?”

She shook her head. “The full-size ones. We’re all stressed.”

“Is it time to call an audible?”

“You mean cancel the op? Absolutely not.”

“Tam, if it’s too dangerous—”

She yanked her hands away from me. “Don’t you dare do this. You’ve trusted me to do my job well for years. You don’t get to start doubting me now, on what is probably our last operation together.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just...”

“I know exactly what it is.” She took one of my hands again. “I feel the same way, but I can’t stop doing my job, and you can’t ask me to.”

“Agreed.”

In our comms, TJ said, “Jensen, I know you went off-channel. Turn your unit back on, and get your ass back here.”

“One thing first,” I whispered to Tam.

I pulled her into my arms and pulled her against me. I gave her a long, slow, deep kiss, the kind that made her curl her fists into my T-shirt and moan deep in her throat. When I released her, I gave us both a few seconds to catch our breath, then turned on our mics as we hustled back to the parking lot. TJ and Hart were standing behind the control van. The back doors were open, and Bond and Penn were turned to look out at us. We arrived in front of the group at the same time Kessler and Li did.

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