Page 17 of At Their Mercy: Part I

“What time is it?” Reese muttered.

Finally. He was gearing up for whatever crazy plan he’d cooked up. My bet? We were taking a drive.

I glanced at my nightstand. “Two-fourteen.”

He sighed. “We fucked up bad, didn’t we?”

Only one response to that. “Yeah.”

It was real fucking simple. We’d spent our lives so focused on shaking memories of the family that had hurt us that we’d missed having been adopted into a new one. Emerson and Danny had always been there for us. We were the ones who’d created the distance.

On the other hand, it was dangerous thinking of Hillcroft people as family. Because that was how they sucked you back in. Very few operators quit because it was boring or we didn’t like our colleagues. We quit because fieldwork wore you down, and the lifestyle swallowed you whole.

“Are you gonna tell me I’m an impatient dumbass?” Reese asked next.

“No. This moment calls for impatient dumbassery.”

He grunted and sat up in bed, then flicked on the light on his nightstand. “All right. Let’s go.” He lifted the covers and rubbed Shay’s ass. “Baby? Wake up.”

I kissed Shay’s arm before easing out from under it, and I trailed over to the chair where we dumped our clothes every night. Reese had ordered it for me, like a reading chair, but I preferred the couch downstairs.

Before picking up my jeans, I bent down and patted Romeo on the head. Their bed was right next to the chair, and that was as close to our bed as they’d get. No matter how much Shay hinted we should let them sleep with us.

“Wha…?” Shay mumbled drowsily.

I stepped into my jeans, forgoing boxer briefs.

“River and I are gonna go talk to Danny and Emerson,” Reese murmured. “You wanna come with?”

Shay groaned and rolled over onto his back. “What time is it?”

“A bit past two in the mornin’.” Reese slipped off the bed to get dressed. “We know it’s a little out there.”

I pulled on my tee and reached for my socks.

Shay blinked sleepily and glanced between us. “You’re gonna drive for an hour to get yelled at for wakin’ them up in the middle of the night?”

No, that would be insane. “They’re in town.” I pocketed my phone. “This time of year, they’re balls deep in preparin’ for the recruits to go through the final selection, so they stay close to the agency.”

“Good God,” Shay muttered, rubbing his eyes. “No, you know what? You go do your crazy. I’ll wait here for the green light to invite them over for a nice barbecue like ordinary people.”

I furrowed my brow.

So did Reese. “Boy, we don’t beat you enough.”

Seriously.

Shay answered by pulling up the covers and rolling over again, and he hugged Reese’s pillow to him. “Bye, crazies.”

All right, now he was just asking for it.

“For the record,” Reese said, “we are anything but ordinary, baby.”

Fucking fact.

“And nine times out of ten, that’s a great thing,” Shay groused from under the covers. “Guess which time this is.”

He didn’t know what he was talking about.