Page 95 of Never Enough

“One day to get whatever rest you can, people.” Loki looked each one of them in the eye. “You’re going to need it. Especially those of you on the river cruise.”

Everyone started to break up and head in different directions. Nemo looked at Gem and muttered under his breath. “A whole day with nothing to do. However shall we occupy our time?”

Haskell looked up at him. “I don’t know about you, but I have a book.”

“Kama Sutra?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a boy.”

“I’ll show you ‘boy.’”

35

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

Nemo

During preparation time, Midas barely left his computer, only complying when Gem dragged him away, reminding him he’d be useless to them on the big day if he didn’t sleep. Still, he was able to add to their intel daily, updating them on comings and goings. It was becoming normal to hear him talking to Nova nonstop. Not that they didn’t find it a little creepy since he treated her like a real person, but it felt normal to hear the conversations. Nemo told Gem the man needed to get laid, but he kept back the information that it was about as likely to happen as hell freezing over.

The group barely saw Demon. The man spent almost forty-eight hours on the beach, probably sleeping there if he slept at all. Since they were on a job, he wasn’t medicating, and that meant he was grumpier than the devil. Not that he was all that pleasant when hewasmedicating.

Waters and Loki closeted themselves with the telecommunications, finally able to get in touch with God. Waters was concerned. God had never stayed off the grid so long before, and the team leader said the man sounded strange. Almost as if he was drugged up himself. He didn’t offer the distress code, so Waters was leaving it alone for the time being. They were also talking to Cherry, who was cranky as fuck, and very pointedly not asking about a certain medic. When they weren’t talking to one of those two, they were bothering Midas for updates every five minutes. Waters only took breaks to talk to Kubrick, and Nemo joked that the phone sex had to be costing him a small fortune.

TB was just as bad with Flame, but at least they saw him most of the time. He spent the bulk of his time working with Steel, poring over maps and contingency exit strategies out of Zimbabwe.

The downtime they had saw the crew playing poker, napping, or reading Flame’s latest book, much to TB’s dismay. Apparently, it was her steamiest one yet. Nemo had read it before it was published, so he spent his off time focusing on Gem.

Nemo couldn’t put his finger on it, but something had changed with her. She’d withdrawn from him just when he thought he’d been making progress. They slept together at night, and there had been some making out but no sex since the first morning. Even after replaying the conversation in the kitchen over and over in his head, he couldn’t figure out what had been said that caused it. He knew he should just corner her and ask, but he was more than a little afraid of having that discussion. His best bet at this point, he felt, was to let things play out, and maybe they’d just naturally return to normal.

Before they set off with Itai, Cerberus had given them a lesson on how to set the distraction charge while they were inthe tunnels. He, with the help of Demon, had also gone over how to use the oxygen masks and tanks should they get themselves caught in a situation with noxious gasses or, heaven forbid, a surprise cave-in. They’d have roughly three hours, which was very little time in the event of a cave-in, but it was better than the thirty minutes they would have had with Tribe’s equipment.

On the trek down the river yesterday, she’d spent a lot of the time sleeping. He’d been reluctant to disturb her, even though it would have been the perfect time to talk in private. Distracting her would be the worst thing he could do.

Now they were on the riverbank going over the plan one more time. His head was on a swivel, constantly worrying about the hit that had been contracted on her. Out in the open like this, even in the dark of the early morning hours, snipers were still a concern. His inner radar wasn’t tripping, but he did find it odd that no attempt had been made yet. The contract wouldn’t have been bid on if the individual hadn’t been relatively sure of where she was and how to get to her.

With Midas in his ear watching the drone footage with Nova, the six of them and the dog made their way across the lowland to where Gem and Nemo would use the tunnels.

“Good luck,” Steel wished them.

Nemo looked at TB. “Scheherazade?—”

TB clasped his shoulder. “I know. I’ve got her.”

The dog looked up at Nemo, who crouched down at her side. Forehead to hers, eyes closed, he scratched her behind both ears. He whispered to her in Afrikaans. He knew the dog wouldn’t understand the words, but she would understand the tone.

“Gaan saammetTB,” he said as he stood.

Scheherazade gave a soft yip as if in agreement.

As the dog took her position at his side, TB absently pettedher head in comfort and glanced one more time at Nemo. “And… the other thing?” he asked.

Nemo nodded. “Always. Like my own.”

The giant smiled sadly.

Turning to Gem, Nemo saw the question in her eyes. “Requests. In case one of us doesn’t come back. TB will take Scheherazade if something happens to me.”

She grimaced and gave a slow, single head nod. “And you’ll watch over Flame.”

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