Page 21 of The Entire Team

“Blunt. Probably not wrong.” After a pause, “Guess it’s a good thing they didn’t ask anything more than if we’d had sex.”

Rave sighed, “I was pissed. How do they figure that’s the way? Decide to discredit you by painting you as a slut.” Sylvie set her lips and raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Sylvie shook her head, “I’m not getting into this argument. You are faced with it because of me right now; otherwise, you’d be oblivious to it. This is normal for females. It’s not even a briefing point by the lawyer, except to ask about it so they won’t be surprised.”

25

SYLVIE

Sylvie was on the stand again. This time trying to recount what happened when Taylor had beat her.

“I had a migraine. I had gone into the bathroom to throw up. I was at the sink washing up and caught motion from the side.” her hand movement showed the movement was from the right. “Something crashed down on side of my face, threw me to the left.” Sylvie motioned toward the scar on the right side of her face. “If my vision and recall wasn’t bad enough with just the migraine, it got worse. When I hit the wall Taylor punched me, knocking me to the ground. I got kicked multiple times, ribs and stomach. As I curled up, I’m sure they glanced off my face or jaw, I don’t remember. I woke up being moved. I remember the halogen lights and trying to understand what was happening around me.”

“Anything else?”

“Doc took good care of me and got me off the ship pretty quick. I don’t remember seeing Taylor again.”

26

RED

Red was looking around Ashe’s apartment, not impressed. It looked like a poor college student’s studio. Even for a studio it was sparsely decorated. “Acushla, this place looks like you barely live in it. You don’t have anything in here but necessities.”

“I don’t need much. And it makes it easier to leave.”

“Why would you leave?”

“Why would I stay?” He watched her starting to mess with a hot pot and stepped in to take over.

“How long have you lived here?” He pulled a cup off the shelf in front of him. “What am I making?”

“You mean like this address or Hawaii? The tea behind the pot, please”

“Of course. Both, I guess.”

“A couple years, I guess. This place is close to the station I’m based out of.”

“Why didn’t anyone come visit you?” He poured the tea, looked up, returning his gaze to hers.

“Red, I don’t know,” she shrugged, “maybe you scared them all away. I talk to some coworkers, but I do some rotations to Molokai, and I like it there.”

“When are you going back to work?” He had been disappearing from the hospital for PT in the morning and then would get back in the early afternoon. She shrugged again. “Should we take a weekend trip to Molokai so you can show me the place? Do you wanna take a shower, get out of those clothes. You need more rest.” She took the cup of tea he’d made and walked away as far as she could in the 600 sq ft apartment. She had a chest of drawers she was pulling clothes out of, which drew his attention to her bed. “Holy Jesus and Mary, Acushla! I’m as big as your bed.”

“I’m a lot smaller than you.” He took a deep breath, and she held up her hand to stop him from starting. “You can figure I don’t bring guys back here. So why are you complaining?”

“There aren’t any other guys, Acushla. There’s me. And this bed doesn’t work for me.”

“Red, it’s my place. It works for me. This size is big enough to sleep on and not take up a quarter of the entire space. Honestly there probably shouldn’t be more than a fold out couch.” She might be right, but he didn’t like it.

27

MISSION

The team was sent to Brazil where they followed a group of pirates to an oil rig. Hostages were the main reason for their interference in the area. A batch of Americans were on the rig working with the gas company.

The team surfaced from under the boat platform. Red was designated to take out the pirate pulling security. Grabbing him from behind, Red drove a knife into the pirate’s carotid, in the short struggle the pirate reached behind him and pulled off Red’s hood and mask.

The team moved from level to level, clearing the platform. They dropped into some shadows as the pirates led the six executives across the same deck. A spotlight hit one of the women, Tech inhaled sharply. He’d seen all the packets, he knew the names, faces, and occupations of the six people they were supposed to be rescuing. He thought he was prepared to see her in real life, but he’d heard himself.

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