Page 26 of Running Scared
The cold truth was that there wasn’t a plan.There was never a plan.There was anobjective,and there were hard limits.As the plane buzzcut through the arid heavens, Dean and Marcus outlined their objectives and their limits and where they saw the mission beginning and how they saw it ending.
And figured they’d fill in the blanks when they walked into the void.
BIRDIE WASaiming the plane about a mile from the small village.It had sprung up the way a lot of small towns in Mexico had—people were goingacrossthe land and needed a fueling place to get them from point A, which was a hundred milesthatway, and point B, which was two hundred in the other direction.Because itwasso much the middle of nowhere, other amenities had sprung up: hotels, a few small bodegas, a couple of bars.It would never be a vacation spot, but it was big enough that a couple of gringos riding the all-terrain motorcycles stashed in the tail section of the plane wouldn’t really be noticed.It was not unheard of for Americans to get lost in the desert, and Dean and Marcus both had leathers and bandanas to cover up their Bureau-length hair until it grew out, which it had done a couple of times when they’d been undercover down south trying to figure out what was coming up north that they could bust.
Technically speaking—or nontechnically speaking—they were US Feds.They weren’t supposed to evenbesouth of the border.
Practically speaking, as long as they didn’t act on any of their intel unless they were north of the border, nobody in their division asked any questions.
And their division was so grateful for the wins Dean and Marcus had been giving them that they pretended they didn’t know the answers anyway.
Vlade had been agodsend,because they could legitimately say they got all their info from a CI in Austin, and besides being more worried for Bailey than he knew what to do with, Dean was also irritated that his one excuse for staying in Austin was no longer going to be his excuse, because he wasdead.
“What are you thinking?”Marcus shouted after Birdie started their descent.
“Fuckin’ Vlade,” Dean said honestly.“Life was a lot easier when that asshole was still alive.”
Marcus grunted.“Think our two hitters know who saw them?”
Dean shrugged, unsettled.“I think Bailey’s nurse is going to cover for him, smooth as silk.That woman does not look like she could lie to save her life, but boy did she get some determination in her spine when it came to lying to save Bailey’s.”
Marcus frowned.“Friends?”he asked uncertainly.
But Dean had done his research on Bailey’s life before Dean had powered into it, and he’d pulled up death statistics in Outskirts General, and the unsupervised death statistics as well.Many states had been told to “lie with the truth” during the pandemic by not mentioning COVID on the death statistics if no tests had been run, even when the virus had clearly been responsible for the illness that killed the victim.
The numbers for Outskirts General had been devastating, and the numbers of staff and frontline workers who’d died in the course of those dreadful two years must have felt like severed limbs to the survivors left to fight another day.
“Brothers in arms,” Dean told him shortly.“They both lost people during the pandemic, and there was nobody else to come in.You don’t rat out your foxhole buddy, you know?”
Marcus’s eyes widened.“Ouch,” he said softly.“Your boy okay after that?”
Dean shook his head.“His boyfriend died,” he said baldly.Because yeah, he’d seen that.People in the Bureau didn’t date people who hadn’t been vetted.And while Dean and Marcus had both had their share of fly-by-night lovers, when Dean had made the decision to show up on Bailey’s doorstep, it hadn’t been impulsively or recklessly done.
It had been because he’d been thinking of Bailey nonstop since he’d left the man sleeping, exhaustion written all over his appealing features, and he wanted to know if Bailey would welcome him into his life.
And, yeah, to make sure Bailey wasn’t part of themanydrug pipelines that ventured across the border.
Of course if Dean had thought for a moment hewason the take, he wouldn’t have even indulged in that rather magical moment in the crib, but once he’d been officially cleared, Dean had been able to barge into the man’s life and force him to allow Dean to stay with a completely clear conscience.
“Oh wow,” Marcus said, so softly Dean had to read his lips over the engine noise.“Has he recovered yet?”
Dean gnawed his lip, uncharacteristically worried about another person’s feelings.
“Not entirely,” he said after a moment.“Or he would have told me about the man before now.But enough, I think.He was worried this morning because he felt like I didn’t”—Dean wrinkled his nose in distaste—“shareenough.”
Marcus’s eyebrows—perfectly plucked to accentuate his liquid brown trust-me eyes—went up to the shaved edge of his corkscrew hair.“Did you… what did you…?”He squeezed his eyes nearly shut and squinted at Dean.“Good God, Dean, I have no idea what kind of sharing you would even do.”
Dean shrugged.“It was no big deal.He wanted to know about my family.What’s not to tell?”
Marcus shrugged in honest bemusement.“Got me there.Your family is about as transparent as Baja gulf, but was it, you know….”His voice dropped, and Dean knew he had his own demons and secrets.They both did, but not from each other.“Hard?”
Dean thought about it.“It was weird,” he said frankly.“It felt like he should have known already.They’re, you know, a part of me.How could he knowmeand not know them?”
Saying it out loud made him blink.
“Which is why,” he said, filling in the blanks, “he wanted me to meet his father.Oh!I totally get it now.”
Marcus slow-blinked at him.“Dean Royal, ladies and gentlemen, super genius.”
