Page 133 of Lone Star

“I wanted to pursue the shooter,” he said. “It was Luis. The one sexually involved with Melanie Menendez. The one whose father–”

“I know who he is. I was at the briefing, too.”

“I could have caught him.”

“Maybe.”

“I could have. I’m fast.” And it wasn’t like when Aidan said something about himself and the other guys laughed until he blushed and told them all to “fuck off.” No, Reese knew that he was fast; he’d pushed himself, isolated muscle groups, trained. His first handler had even timed him, and…

Tenny was making a sour face. “Fine, yeah, sure, you’re fast. And you should have gone after him.”

“That’s what Fox said.” Anger washed through him all over again remembering that conversation.

Tenny blinked – one quick pulse of uncertainty – before he settled back to sourness. “But you saved me instead.”

“Yes.” Something in his voice or face – he was going to need to practice in front of the mirror after this, if this morning’s reactions were anything to go by – caused Tenny to smile again, sharp with repressed glee this time.

“You disobeyed orders.”

“No.”

“You did. Youdisobeyed.” When he chuckled, he ended up wincing and groaning at the pain it caused, but the smile stayed fixed.

The cup he held started to buckle, and Reese forced his hand to relax before hot coffee showered all over his lap. “No,” he said, calmly; he could be calm, he could control his voice, and his face, too. “I didn’t have orders to pursue the shooter at all costs. We didn’t know Luis was going to be there. I was told – we were told – to clear the office, living room, and upper floors. We were supposed to look for contraband, and you looked for a fight instead.”

“Ooh, very good. Mincing words. You’re learning.”

Reese ignored him. “After, Fox said you were reckless and stupid, and that I should have let you die.”

“He said that?” Ten asked, mildly.

Reese checked the urge to clench his teeth. It was a new and strange impulse that unsettled him. “He said it. Your own brother.”

Tenny managed to shrug with one shoulder, on his good side. “He doesn’t like me much.”

“Don’t you care?” The part that angered him the most was that this conversation was happening after the conversation in the dorm room, just before they’d left for the op. When Ten had let his frustration and anger and confusion get the best of him and he’d allowed some of the truth to bleed through. Reese knew that he didn’t have his own secret inner truth; there wasn’t a person waiting to come awake and unfurl like a tender new plant reaching for the sun. He justwas.

But Tenny could be different. Could be better. But he was back to all his bored tricks.

“Youseem to care,” Ten said. “I wonder why.”

“I–” He closed his mouth, because he had no idea what might slip out. His thumb had nearly punctured his coffee cup.

“You’re angry,” Tenny observed, mildly.

“Yes,” Reese said, not at all mildly. His temper throbbed inside him, a living, parasitic thing robbing him of his normal, orderly thought processes. He hated it – hated Tenny.

“If you’dhadorders to let me die, youwouldhave disobeyed them.”

Through his teeth: “Yes.”

“Look at Pinocchio, turning into a real boy.”

“I’m not–”

“He’s testing you, you know.” Ten’s voice softened a fraction, no longer mocking. “Fox. He’s been testing both of us the whole time.”

The anger evaporated. His face did something else, unbidden, something that had Tenny shifting his head on the pillow and offering a wry grin.

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