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“It was three steps,” Ed moaned.
“You still landed on your face,” Kairo argued.
Charlie gave a growl at his companions and turned his attention to Will. His thumb rubbed along his jaw in the sweetest caress. “I’ll never lie and say that what we do is safe, but we’re very careful. We take a lot of precautions. We’re good at what we do, I swear. Next time won’t be like this.”
Will barked out a harsh laugh. “We both know you can’t possibly promise that the next time won’t go batshit crazy like tonight.” He stepped into Charlie, poking him in the center of the chest. “And I’m fucking insulted that you think I would run the first time things get crazy. I’ve seen some crazy shit in the past six years. You don’t know what I’ve survived. I’m not gonna run because of bullet wounds and some little explosions. If anything, tonight proved to me that you need me. These two would probably bleed out before you got to your safe house, or you’d have to risk stopping at a hospital to get them help.”
West giggled in the background. “He called your explosion ‘little.’ ”
“Awww,” Ed whined.
“You’re not leaving?” Charlie asked, ignoring their banter.
“Because of this?” Will demanded, his voice jumping with his incredulity. “God! Sometimes you’re a complete moron, Charlie. You need me to keep your head attached to your body. If I leave you, it’ll be because of something you do like cheating on me or-or lying to me. I—”
Will didn’t get any further. Charlie slammed his mouth over Will’s, swallowing his words. This. He needed this to get balanced, to reassure himself that Charlie was safe. It didn’t matter what his doctor brain told him. He needed to hold Charlie, to kiss him and feel that he was safe in his arms.
Unfortunately, the kiss broke off just as he started to fully lean into Charlie, deepening it so that he could get lost in the feel and taste of him. The van jerked and they pulled apart to keep their balance. Will flashed him an uneven smile, and Charlie stared at him with such warmth and open affection that Will’s heart just sort of flopped over and sighed.
“Back to work,” Charlie murmured as he made his way to the front of the van, where he dropped into the passenger seat. Will returned to Edison’s side, checking the bandage on his shoulder. He needed to be sewn up, but the van was no place for such things.
“I’m okay,” Ed reassured him with a crooked grin.
Will nodded, feeling the tension unwinding from his chest. “You will be. Though I’m thinking you might still need some physical therapy after you’ve healed to get full mobility in this shoulder.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I needed a little PT. No big deal.”
“What I want to know is, what the hell happened?” Charlie demanded gruffly.
Will checked on West before sitting on the floor with his shoulder braced against Charlie’s seat.
“In short, they were expecting us,” Kairo said with a heavy sigh.
“Definitely,” Ed grumbled. “There’s no way in hell he keeps that number of guards roaming around the compound on a daily basis. We moved too quickly.”
“The other thing is that I underestimated the security system,” Kairo continued. “He had a better IT team or maybe even another hacker on hand. Once I got inside, all my attention was on monitoring the cameras and giving you directions. I didn’t notice that they were sending a virus back to disable my equipment and lock me out. It’s my bad, guys. I’m sorry.”
Charlie immediately reached over and placed his hand on Kairo’s shoulder. “Don’t. We got out safe.”
“But—”
“Seriously, Kairo, don’t,” West snapped. “Shit happened. That’s the way it goes. We knew the risks were going to be higher because we were rushing this mission. Half of this shit wouldn’t have happened if we’d taken more time to scope out the situation.”
“Lesson learned,” Ed chimed in.
“I’m sorry for asking that you try to do this so quickly,” Will murmured.
“There’s nothing you can do about this timetable, baby.” Charlie gave Kairo’s shoulder a final squeeze and dropped his hand to hold on to Will’s arm. “Every job we take has its own unique complications. The fact is that we not only rushed it, but we also underestimated Perez. He’s an arrogant, self-absorbed asshole, but we also took that to mean that he’s an idiot. He’s not, and we paid a price for that assumption.”
They all fell silent for a long time. Will closed his eyes and rested his head against Charlie’s chair, letting the feel of his fingers moving on his arm relax him. It was so freaking late. The sun was going to be rising in just a few hours and he still needed to finish patching up both West and Ed before he could actually get some sleep.
