Page 23 of The Entire Team

Amari finished watching him, shrugged, he seemed honest enough. “Did I get stuck with you because you have a crush?” His eyebrow quirked. She smirked to herself.

His eyes met hers, a fire behind them. “Like I said ‘fierce’.

Shifting slightly Amari decided to change topics. “How did you get into your field?”

“I don’t like talking about work when I’m out. Are you all finished?” As they stood Tech pulled out his phone, looking down quickly to read the message from his team leader. “Looks like travel is all set, time to go.” Amari stood with a flourish that Tech was getting accustomed to, as far as he could tell she swirled in and out of everything, untouchable.

29

KAILANI

Kailani was running late, not unusual but tonight she was supposed to be meeting up with her boyfriend. She had had finished her last job and left directly to the restaurant. Uncle’s wasn’t a place she went too often, definitely not for dinner, and upon hitting the door she felt out of place in her work clothes. She patted down her constantly frizzy hair as she looked around for her boyfriend’s table. As she turned to check the bar area she overheard a man, “So where’s your MO-ANa?” In her head she was hoping that statement was going to be rescued. She hoped it wasn’t the group she was supposed to be sitting down with. She heard a resounding peel of laughter from the group. Her eyes locked on the bartender, also a native Hawaiian, his shoulders stiffened as they shared a looked. As she stepped forward, she froze hearing the next statement from her boyfriend, “She is a hot piece of ass.” The bartender’s gaze was hard as she looked at him in embarrassment.

She turned to leave, dazed by the revelation. She smacked into Stitch hard enough to bounce off. As she fell back his hands grabbed her, one around her waist and the other between hershoulder blades. “Sorry” Kailani started to mutter as she tried sidestepping around him.

“Are you okay?” he cut her off, his grip not loosening. She didn’t look up as she pushed his arms away. Stitch stepped back, allowing her space to leave, and watched as she slunk out the door as fast as possible.

Flash, Red, Tech, and Stitch had come in for dinner. Rave and Genie had gone home from work. They were making their way to the far corner of the restaurant when Stitch turned to catch up. As they sat around the table Tech asked, “what was that?”

“I don‘t know. She didn’t say anything. I’ll probably have bruises,” Stitched rubbed his chest, “she hit me like a brick.” Stitch was the smallest of the team at 5’11” with dirty blond hair and light brown eyes.

“Not a surprise, you’re basically tiny,” Red said, his brogue heavy as he laughed. Red was the largest of the team at 6’5” and matched his Irish background.

Stitch gave him a slight smirk as he sat down.

30

RED

Red hadn’t heard from Ashe in two days. He tried calling multiple times with no luck. He left work early when Genie realized he wasn’t getting anything from him. He showed up at Ashe’s apartment and started knocking. She barely opened the door, her body behind it, her face just peeking around the edge of the door. The anger drained out of his body when he saw her. He pushed into the apartment and shut the door. She was in a hoodie and sweatpants, and she was visibly freezing. He snatched her up and took her to bed. When her body sagged into his arms he really started to worry. He pulled up her hoodie and put a hand over the bandage on her side. It was warm and goosebumps were coming up over her newly exposed torso. “Why didn’t you call me,” he grit out as he righted her sweater, picked her back up, and headed to the door.

“I don’t want to go back to the hospital.”

“Too bad. I just found you, you aren’t getting away from me so easy-”

“Red, I can’t sleep,” she cut him off and leaned back into the passenger seat of his truck.

“Fine, I’ll take you to my place.” Red shut the door and got into the driver’s seat.

“I can stay at my own house.”

Pointing back at her building, Red retorted, “That is an address, girlie.”

Stopped at a red light it hit Red. Without turning to look at Ashe he started, “You were a foster kid.” When he turned to look at her for verification, she was asleep.

When he got to his apartment he pulled Ashe out of her seat, walked her into his room and set her down on his king-sized bed. He realized he had pulled her out of her building so fast she only had thick socks on her feet. She rolled onto her right side. Red signaled his dog, “Toby, this is Ashe. She’s my Acushla, nothing happens to her.” Toby jumped onto the bed and nestled up against her back, his view back toward the door.

31

ASHE

Ashe woke up hot, she could feel someone breathing against her. She started to push up off the bed and Toby jumped off the bed, she watched him head down the hall. She followed quietly. Red came around the corner, “How are you feeling? Hungry?”

“Yeah,” Red immediately crossed in front of her heading into the kitchen. She followed him and leaned against the closest counter. “You have a dog.”

“Toby’s retired. I was his handler once.” Red was going through cabinets pulling out dishes and food. “Is spaghetti ok?”

“Sounds good. Is it really 9 o’clock?"

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