Page 64 of Oath
Maybe this new life was a little twisted, and bullet-ridden, but the feeling of home they wrapped around me was one I savored. Each time I thought about returning to the life I’d had before, I really couldn’t imagine it. Not if it meant leaving them.
Leaving us.
Dismissing the concept of abandoning them left me with other questions. How did we make this work, long-term? What did it look like? Did they want a forever? DidIwant a forever?
Did I even know how to handle a forever?
No sooner did those thoughts alight, then they were racing off again because no decisions could be made until we retrieved Bones. We needed him.
Ineeded him.
“I still think we should’ve killed him,” Legend muttered, tossing something in the pan with a little too much aggression. “Would’ve saved us time.”
“Can’t kill someone if they might still be useful,” Voodoo commented without looking up. “And O’Rourke might be a bastard, but he’s a useful bastard for now.”
“Still a bastard,” AB added as he sipped his coffee, his laptop set up to his left and one hand on it as he tabbed through data. They were always working, always finding an angle, always looking for where best to take their shot.
Despite Voodoo’s words of uncertainty in our earlier shower, he radiated a kind of quiet confidence. Maybe he didn’t know everything, but he could absolutely fake it until we made it.
After another long drink of coffee, I studied them one at time then cleared my throat. “Are we gonna talk about what you found or just keep grumbling like someone spiked your Wheaties?”
AB’s gaze flicked to mine. “You want it all or the short version?”
“Start with the short one, work your way up to the part where someone’s blood pressure explodes.” That sounded reasonable, right?
Spinning his laptop around, AB tapped the top of it. On screen: maps, code fragments, and red-flagged documents. “They’re not government. At least, not officially. No agency logos, no paper trail, no black ops stamp. Just opportunists with government clearance that expired around the same time Blockbuster went out of business.”
“Damn you’re old,” I muttered, because I’d been a kid when that happened.
“Don’t remind us, Firecracker,” Voodoo said dryly but the humor was still present in his eyes. They weren’tthatmuch older than me. Definitely older, by ten years at least on all of them, but at the same time—I would not use Blockbuster’s closing as a time reference.
Particularly because I couldn’t remember exactlywhenthat was.
“The point is, these guys aren’t some highly skilled wetwork team or specialists. What they are is clever as fuck, invested, and they have very little to lose at this point. Particularly because if you consider that they are playing a long con, they have to know leaving any of us alive will cost them in the end.”
Legend whistled low. “Damn.”
My heart sank even as my stomach bottomed out. Not leaving anyone to come after them made sense, but I didn’t want any of it to “make sense” if that meant that Bones might already be dead.
“They’re using holes in oversight,” Voodoo continued. “Dead spots. Places where the CIA or NSA or whoever used to run ops and now?—”
“No one's watching,” I finished.
“Exactly,” AB said. “It’s like a back door someone forgot to close. These guys built a whole empire out of it. No one’s looking, so they made sure to look out for themselves.”
The knot in my chest tightened. “And Bones?”
“They took him because he’s leverage,” Voodoo said. “Not just to get to us. They think he knows where the drive is. Might even think hehasit.”
“He doesn’t,” I said, though my voice wavered more than I liked. “Right?”
“He does,” AB confirmed. “We destroyed it, but they don’t know that. Or they don’t believe it. They think they can squeeze him hard enough, they’ll get what they want.”
“What about O’Rourke?”
That was the part that still itched at the base of my skull. Like I missed a piece of the puzzle and it was slicing me from the inside out.
AB and Voodoo traded a look.
