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Travis just laughs like that's a stupid question while Ace shakes his head. I don't get a chance to check with Keats before Maison speaks.
“I did. Once.” We all look at Maison. He’s staring down at his beer. He doesn’t look up as he continues. “When Carter was taken, I called Trav first. I knew without him on board, my plan would never work. It wasn’t until after he agreed that I called for approval for Travis to buy him. I got pushed to the top for the first time ever. He barely even spoke. Just fucking sat there while I explained the situation and fucking begged him to let us save him. Then he said no.” He huffs a dry, angry laugh. “Just that one word. No. I fucking detonated. I told him he better rethink his answer and help me come up with a way to pull it off without ruining the operation, or I’d figure shit out myself.”
“You threatened to go rogue?” I ask incredulously.
He raises an eyebrow at me. “Wouldn’t you?”
“I-” I pause. I don’t have a brother, but I have someone I love enough to go rogue for. Casey. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I would.”
“But you didn’t have to,” Keats says quietly, his eyes surprisingly intense on Maison. “You got approval.”
“Yup. Not right away. He told me to remember my fucking place and hung up. Few minutes later, I got a call from the guy right above me with the plan. Said the head approved of buying him, but refused to declassify for Carter. Said we had to lie. He needed to stay under the belief he was a slave and Travis had better play his part fucking convincingly."
Keats looks down at his bottle of beer, picking at the label with his thumbnail. “Do you hate him for that?”
Maison frowns. “Hate the head?”
“Yes.”
“I… don’t know. I mean, he let me save my baby brother even though it put the operation in jeopardy. He could have easily said no again and grabbed me up before I even got the chance to go rogue, but he didn’t.”
“But he made you keep it a secret.” Keats finally looks up again, this time at Travis. “It fucking tore you apart, not being able to tell Carter the truth. You were worried that Carter would never recover from that trauma. Trauma that was unnecessary. That could have been avoided. And that was the head’s fault.”
Travis’s lips quirk toward a confused smile, his eyebrows pulled together. “I guess, yeah. I mean, the easy answer is to say it was his fault. To hate the guy, whoever the fuck he is. But… I played my part too. I was the one hurting Carter. Fucking with his head. But he is recovering and we’re happy together. We survived. The operation survived. In the end, if it got us to right here, I don’t know… maybe I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“And when it was time, we broke the head’s rule anyway,” Maison points out. “We ended up telling Carter the truth when we felt it was necessary.”
“If anything, Carter probably hates the head the most,” Travis points out with a soft laugh. “Almost as much as he hated us when he found out the truth.”
“Though it might be a tie with Casey because it’s the head’s fault that Casey can’t see or talk to his dad. That damn near killed him - literally. I don’t know if he’ll ever be okay because of it.” I rub at my chest, hating the ache that’s forming there. “I’d give anything to give him just five minutes with his dad, but it’s not worth the risk. The head could fucking take him from me. He could be vindictive enough to take everything from all of us, if he wanted. And I get it. I get where he's coming from, you know? But Casey… I mean, you guys were there that day. He almost killed himself after he found out he couldn't ever see his dad again…"
Keats drops his bottle, spilling the last of his beer onto his boots. "He what?"
"He's okay," I assure the man, having had no idea he cared quite so much. "I mean, he's still struggling, but Dr. Singh doesn't think he's a risk to himself anymore. He's doing better."
"Good." Keats looks down at his boots. "God, fuck, that's good."
“I'll say one thing," Maison says with a sharp laugh. "You couldn’t pay me all the money in the world to get me to do that man’s job. Mine was fucking bad enough.”
“Amen.” Travis lifts his drink in a toast before looking back at Keats. “Either way, to answer your question, I don’t hate the guy.”
“I’ve let it go, for sure.” Maison shrugs. “Like I said, the guy let me save Carter. Any rules he added were just him trying to protect the operation. Protect himself. Protect this entire… whatever the fuck you’d call it. Agency or whatever. He needed to protect all the other operatives and victims in need of saving. The guy has a heavy as fuck weight on his shoulders. One I’d never want. I think he did the best he could.”
Keats swallows hard before jerking his head in a sharp nod. Then he carefully picks up his empty beer bottle and quietly excuses himself, disappearing around the corner of the house. We all eye each other before Travis laughs awkwardly and says, “I think he hates the head.”
“Definitely,” Maison agrees with a laugh of his own. “We totally just let him down by not joining in his hatred.”
“I wonder what happened,” Ace says. “Does anyone know what his original case was? He was the head operative, wasn’t he?”
“He’s never talked about it, actually. I… don’t know what he was. Or what case he worked.” Travis frowns. “Which is total bullshit, now that I think about it. That fucker made me spill my guts to him when we were working on finding Mica together. It drove me nuts.”
The sliding door at the back of the house opens, Carter leading the group of survivors back to us. They're all wearing blankets now. They've also seemed to find themselves refills for their alcohol. Casey gives me a small smile before curling up in my lap. He offers me his thermos. "Hard apple cider. It's yummy."
I smile, ignoring the thermos and leaning in for a kiss instead. He parts his lips the moment my tongue presses against them. A soft moan travels from his mouth to mine as I suck on his tongue.
"Mmm." I pull away, loving the dazed look on his face and the hard press of his cock against my arm. "You're right. Very yummy."
He stammers, his face red. I nuzzle against the warmth of his cheek and smile. "God, I love you, Casey."
