Page 86 of Never Enough

“I’ll try,” she promised.

“Good. Now, get some sleep. I think we’ll both sleep better now that we’re together. I’ll wake you up when everyone gets here.”

Haskell snuggled into Nemo, and within moments, she was asleep.

33

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

Nemo

After just a few hours of sleep on the plane, they were off on another thirteen-hour flight that got them to Sri Lanka to pick up Cerberus and the rest of his supplies. Upon arrival at a private airstrip at Bandaranaike International Airport, the group exited the plane, Nemo’s hand on Gem’s back, and he saw Cerberus stiffen involuntarily.

“You got something going with Cerberus?” he asked in a voice only she could hear.

“No. Why?”

“He saw us, and he went military-straight.”

She paused, and he could see her formulating a careful response. “When I first met him, we were together a lot. I thought… maybe… I might see if there was something between us. We tried, but I just couldn’t seem to let go enough to be romantically attached.”

“He clearly still feels something for you.”

“If he does, it’s more of a sibling kind of thing.” She looked up at him. “You should know that I did share with him that I’d been involved with someone, and it hadn’t ended well, either the first time we’d been together or the second time. He’s very perceptive, and it’s likely he picked up on there being something between us when he saw us over the video chat. He probably figured out that someone was you. He won’t say anything, though.”

“No one likes to lose, tiny. This feels like more than sibling affection.”

“I guarantee it’s not. Even if it were, he knows it’s never going to happen between us. His interests are a bit more… varied. Last I knew, he had his partners stashed away in Barbados.”

He looked at her quizzically, then he got it. “Partners? As in plural?”

Gem nodded. “Yes. Last I knew, he had two women living with him. I adore him, but I don’t share.”

After an hour to load up supplies and grab some food, it was another seven hours until they landed in Mozambique. Everyone was exhausted and grumpy after two days of straight flying, but it was better for them to all be together to do the last-minute planning before they arrived.

They landed in Vilanculos, a popular seaside city for tourists, and traveled a short ten minutes to a house they had rented. It was large enough to house all of them, had a pool, and was just a walk across the street to the ocean. They were a couple of women short of looking like they were an honest group of friends on vacation. But most of them didn’t plan to be out and about in more than pairings or small groups, if at all, and they weren’t going to be at the house much in a day or two. Or at least, that was the plan.

When they arrived at the house, everyone paired up and took over their rooms, some with the intention of napping. Others began taking over the common areas.

Midas immediately began to set up his computer base on the dining room table. He claimed he didn’t sleep much anyway, and given his sugar intake, it wasn’t really a surprise. Nemo knew that much of his lack of sleep had to do with the conditioning from their big boss, who had Midas going almost nonstop. When Midas did sleep, he slept hard, and it took nothing short of a bomb blast to wake him up.

Cerberus took over the kitchen table to set up his workshop area. Waters gave a shout down the hallway not to blow them all up in the process, to which Cerberus merely grunted.

Suddenly, Steel was back in the room. “I’m going to pick up food. Hopefully, that’s enough time because I need a shower and about twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep.” A quizzical look from Nemo brought out the reason he was really leaving. “Waters is on the phone with Kubrick, and I’m not intruding on the phone sex,” he grumbled.

Demon came down the hall in his short-sleeved wetsuit and flip-flops. “And TB is texting Flame, so I’m heading out to the beach.” He made a stop in the kitchen, his cupped hand popping up to his mouth, then reaching for his bottled water on the counter.

“Another sexting session?” Nemo filled in.

Disgruntled, Demon replied, “You’d think he’d just call her, but no. All out of some weird nostalgia for how they met.”

“At least you can’t hear them if they’re sexting.”

“No, but I might see something I don’t want to see, especially if they suddenly get too worked up.”

“Same here,” Steel added.

Nemo decided to poke at Demon to see if things there had calmed down at all. “You’re not calling Cherry?”

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