Page 93 of The Company We Keep

"What the hell is he doing?" Carrow asked, turning to Leta.

"He says that fish is small. He wants to throw it back."

The two men looked at each other.

"Vâng, không sao," one answered, finally, smiling and shrugging.

Dust smiled back and nodded before lobbing the fish back into the bay.

Some of the villagers laughed. Others looked at him like he was crazy.

"The fisherman said 'whatever,'" Leta translated.

"B?n th?t t?t!" Dust said, hurriedly.

A child stepped forward. She squeezed in between Dust and the fishermen, reaching out to pick out her own little fish.

"Làm on?” she asked politely. The same fisherman laughed and nodded at her. She threw the fish back to the bay.

More of the gathered kids stepped forward, and soon there were many hands sorting through the catch, taking out everything that wasn’t good to eat and throwing it back into the water. Crabs and little eels, invertebrates that Carrow didn’t recognize, even clumps of seaweed.

By the time they were done sorting the contents of the net, the two fishermen were laughing, clapping Dust on the back with wet hands and speaking too fast for Leta to catch what they were saying. In his halting Vietnamese, Dust worked out a transaction, accepting a big fish wrapped in newsprint in exchange for some colorful bills.

He jogged back to the others, breathless and holding the big, fresh catch under one arm. His shirt was soaked and he stank like fish. He looked like he was having the time of his life.

“What was that about?” Leta asked. Carrow searched his face, puzzled by the extreme delight he seemed to have taken in sorting through the stinking fish and little animals.

“It was cruel to let everything in the net die when there were so many hands to help sort,” Dust said, hitching a shoulder. “I wanted to see what they caught. And then I wanted to put the castoffs back in the water, where they belonged.”

No one pushed him to explain further — and although he didn’t fully understand it, Carrow knew he’d just witnessed something more important than the sorting habits of a fishing village and a tourist.

When they got back to the villa, Carrow watched Dust clean the fish and filet it with something like reverence across his face.

After dinner, they returned to the beach for a walk, leaving the others in the house to clean up and play xiangqi.

“Do you want to know something?” Carrow asked him, fixing him with a strange look.

Dust nodded.

“I fell in love without any knowledge of the person you were before Dustin Wrenshall. I didn’t think it was possibleto love you more than that — to love you as anyone but Dust.”

Carrow pulled him closer, looping him around the waist.

“But the impossible happened. I love you even more now that I understand where you came from.”

“It feels strange to let you know who I was,” Dust admitted, dropping his eyes to the sand.

“You’reyou,” Carrow said quickly. “Even when you were Charlie — you were always you. Dust isn’t some part you played. You know that, right?”

He caught Dust by the chin, eyes full of concern when Dust finally met them.

“I love every part of you,” Carrow said. “The shy kid who grew up in Georgia, the Abe agent who wanted to fix the world, and the cocky asshole who strode into my back booth and was flirting with me before I barely had time to think. I loveyou, Dust. All of you.”

“You’re sure about that?”

Carrow didn’t bother answering him. There in the moonlight, he held Dust for the millionth time, their bodies fitting together like they were made to do so, toes curling in the fine sand. He drew Dust into a kiss that somehow meant more than a kiss — a meeting of lips that felt like a promise, that spoke of a future together, that bound him together with Carrow through danger and safety, storms and calm seas.

There was still so much ahead of them. El Comandante and his cartel would be waiting for them back in Southern California. AIIB would be planning, undeterred by Emerson’s death and Dust’s defection. Both enemies were guaranteed to be waiting for them and better armed than before.

There on the beach, it didn’t matter what they faced. Together, they would thrive in chaos and they would thrive in peace. The Company would be by their sides. They could faceimpossible odds and emerge victorious — because their bond and their family was more important than where they came from, more important than their pasts.

It was the sweetest and best crime they’d ever pulled off.

The End

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