Page 60 of Coup De Grâce
“Hey!”
He downed half the cup, wincing as it scalded his throat. “Fuck, that’s nasty coffee.”
“What is it with you people? It’s my fucking coffee!” FNG turned and stormed back over to the coffee pot, pouring yet another cup. “If you want a fucking cup, you walk over here and grab a mug. It’s really not that fucking hard.”
“You called me Stubby.”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” FNG snapped, glaring at the man who stole his mug.
“We’re getting off topic here. What we really need is a fucking plan. I did not wake up at zero dark thirty just to argue with you about fucking coffee. The real problem is that Cash is being too stubborn to allow anyone to help him.”
“Because you can’t fucking help me,” I retorted.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Thumper snarled. “I thought we were all trained in this sort of thing. I thought it was kind of a specialty of ours. Are you saying we’re no longer good at what we do?”
“No, I’m saying?—”
“Because we go out there risking our lives all the fucking time for you.”
“Thumper—”
“We would do it over and over again, always knowing we might not come home, but suddenly, this is an issue for you?”
“You have no fucking clue who you’re going up against!”
“Because you won’t fucking tell us!” he shouted, slamming his mug down on the table and cracking it. Coffee spilled everywhere, and the mug handle broke into little pieces.
“Okay…” FNG said slowly, inching toward Thumper. “Let’s not take this out on the mug. What the fuck did it ever do to you?”
Thumper didn’t take his eyes off me. I saw the resolution in his eyes. No matter what I said, he wasn’t giving in. He wasn’t walking away. If I found a way out, he would follow and probably end up getting himself killed.
Which was likely if I told him what was going on. Either way, my team was refusing to leave me alone. They were in this for the long haul.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
A crunch sounded just outside the door, drawing our attention immediately. I pulled my gun, but FNG held up his hand in warning, shaking his head for me not to move.
I shouldn’t have stopped here. I knew it would only bring trouble. I was about to get both of them killed, and in the end, our problems would still be the same.
“Looking for me?”
I whipped around, my gun trained on the familiar voice settled back in the darkness. I didn’t dare lower my weapon, already aware that this man would put a bullet in my head the moment he had the chance. After all, I had done the same to him.
His footsteps sounded quietly on the wood floor as he stepped out of the shadows and into the dim light. A slight smirk filled his face as he took in the gun aimed in his direction.
“Well, this is pretty much how I thought things would go.”
20
LIBBY
Cornfields passedin a blur as we headed out of town toward the OPS building. I had barely spent more than a few days in this town, but I already felt like it was a place I could have settled down in if things had turned out differently.
Rafe would have happily settled down with his brother just down the road, and I would have gone to their small town events, getting involved instead of always ignoring the people around me. Maybe I would have joined a quilting bee or started making jams.
We would go to the local farmers’ markets and pick out fresh vegetables. Then we would get together with the guys at OPS and have a big cookout. I would chat with everyone, and maybe even make friends with the wives.
A smile tilted my lips as I imagined dragging Rafe to any of that. There was no way he would have been happy settling down in a small town or going to a farmers’ market. And having a barbecue with the men of OPS definitely wasn’t his scene.
