Page 31 of Deadfall

“You’re definitely not gonna work on your tan here,” he said, tossing his hand down. “Probably only going to get worse too. These winter storms can rage for days.”

Well, that wasn’t good news. I could practically hear G’s teeth grinding to dust, but he’d already turned back to the door where he leaned up against the jamb and looked out into the dark.

I sat down. “Deal me in.”

Angel shuffled and dealt the cards. He caught my eye and jerked his head toward G. I scrunched my nose with a jerk of my head, indicating he was fine, it was nothing, just G being G. Luckily, it seemed to appease Angel. I wasn’t lying—G was a surly, moody motherfucker on the best of days. But, this was the worst I’d ever seen him. It was hard not to take this job personally and I knew that was what was going to fuck him up the most. He wasn’t going to be able to be detached from this, and those demons of his were ruthlessly waiting for him to slip up. I just hoped we could wrap all this up quickly and get out, because just like the explosives G liked to play with, he was his own ticking time bomb and the fuse was scarily short.

A few hands later, Angel threw his cards down, a frown in his eyes.

“You won again.”

He made it sound like an accusation. I’d actually won the majority of the games, but who was counting? I couldn’t help it, I was just lucky. I smirked and gathered the cards as Marcello tossed his into the pile too.

“One of my many skills.”

Angel hummed like he didn’t believe me.

“We don’t play games with Seven,” G threw over his shoulder.

It was the most he’d spoken this entire shift. Angel’s eyes narrowed.

“You cheat?” Angel accused.

I gave him a mock offended look like he’d just wounded me. I opened my mouth to reply with some snarky comment, but it was G who spoke again.

“Nah,” G continued. “Might be better for your ego if you think he does though.”

That pulled a genuine grin. I chuckled and leaned over the table like I was about to tell a secret.

“He’s sore about it because I beat him at darts every time and that’s supposed to be his game,” I said in a loud whisper.

G scoffed but remained silent. Angel’s eyebrows rose and while I couldn’t see his mouth beneath the face covering, his eyes said he was fighting off a smile of his own. “So, it’s not just cards, huh?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Like I said, we don’t play any games with Seven,” G grumbled.

Angel gestured for another game, but I declined, bored from playing hand after hand of cards. We only had a few more hours before our first ten-hour shift was up, but now that I was here with Emersyn, I didn’t want to leave her. I knew we had to though—G and I had a lot of work to do. Especially if the storms were going to continue to hit the island. We had bigger problems than we planned for—primarily that the weather would delay extraction—and it was time to come up with some contingency plans.

As if mocking my thoughts, the first flash of lightning and boom of thunder erupted outside and the heavens opened. Rain poured down in sheets off the overhang in front of the guardhouse. I watched G’s shoulders stiffen and knew his focus was once more on Emersyn. This had to be eating away at him, not being able to save her.

Just like before.

Unfortunately, our shift had to end sometime and we headed back up to the estate. The storm was still going strong, and by the time we got back up to the barracks entrance, I was soaked through. G and I headed back to our room to regroup.

The moment we stepped through the door, G attacked the closet door and landed a punch that sent splintering cracks through the wood. He braced himself against it, breathing hard like he’d just been out for a run. I pulled my wet clothes off and disappeared into the bathroom to both clean up and give him a minute to come back to himself.

I leaned heavily over the small sink and watched my hair drip into the bowl. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel a similar rage—it crept under my skin like an itch I couldn’t reach—but, expressing it as violence wasn’t my first instinct. The emotions would simmer until eventually it would get to be too much. But, an eruption from me was rare. G always said it was because I felt like I needed to take care of everyone else, whose triggers were light. We couldn’t all fall apart at once after all.

I finished in the bathroom and emerged with a towel slung around my hips, using a second to dry my hair. G sat in an armchair with some of the gear sprawled across the table. He hadn’t bothered changing into dry clothes yet. I frowned and jerked my head towards the bathroom.

“You catch a cold I’m gonna be pissed,” I said.

He didn’t even spare me a glance. I pulled on clothes and leaned over the table, purposefully looming until he didn’t have a choice but to look up at me. Our eyes clashed and he looked pissed, like he was going to argue. Except, I knew this man better than I knew anyone else and after a minute of silently fighting me, he grunted in irritation and disappeared into the bathroom. I shook my head—I swear, sometimes I felt like he was an unruly teenager.

Once I was dressed, I looked down at what he’d been messing with. We’d smuggled in a few comms units and a USB drive with the code needed for Rune to be able to infiltrate behind the firewalls. However, for that to happen, we needed to find the server room. Unless—

I looked over at the tablet embedded in the wall. What if they’d given us a door that was right here?