Hell & High Water (THIRDS 1)

Dex gave a snort. “Of course he is.”

With two plastic bags full of cakes and drinks, Dex walked up to Sloane and motioned toward the door. “Looks like Sarge has cleared the way. Ready to make a break for it?”

“Yeah.” Dex made for the door when Sloane took hold of his arm. “Listen, about earlier….”

Dex tilted his head to one side, his expression softening. “Don’t mention it. You need me, just… you know. Now let’s get going.”

Sloane opened the door for him and, with a quick glance to see the flock of reporters down at the end of the block surrounding Maddock, they made a run for the BearCat sitting idle in the street. The back doors opened, and Sloane helped Dex up before climbing in after him.

“You guys okay?” Cael asked before sniffing the air, his eyes going huge. “Oh my God, did you get food?”

Dex held the bags up. “Bear claw is Sloane’s and the cinnamon bun is mine. Anyone touches it and I swear I will bust your shit up.” He started handing out little white paper bags along with drinks.

“Oh my God, this is sooo good,” Rosa moaned. “Dex, if you didn’t have a penis, I would totally sex you up right now.”

Dex gave her a wink. “And if you had a penis, I would totally let you.”

Sloane couldn’t help but chuckle. “Idiot.”

“What?” Dex warbled through a mouthful of cinnamon bun.

“What the hell is going on in here? Sounds like a goddamn orgy.”

Everyone froze, cakes and breads half-stuffed into mouths. Dex swallowed what he’d been chewing before holding a hand up. “My fault, Sarge. We were in the café, I was starving, so I thought why not have a quick bite on the way to wherever we’re going next?”

“So you got sugar.”

“And carbs,” Dex added. He rummaged in the bag and held up a white paper bag, waving it at Maddock. “Chocolate croissant.”

Maddock marched over, and snatched the croissant from him. “You think that’s going to cut it, Agent Daley?” Dex held up a Diet Pepsi, which Maddock promptly swiped as well. “Thought so.” He went to his seat and got busy eating his croissant. “Calvin, Hobbs, finish up your damn donuts so we can get moving. We’re heading back to HQ.”

Calvin murmured an acknowledgment around a mouthful of donut, and Hobbs merely continued eating. As Sloane quietly ate his bear claw, he observed his team all smiling and laughing. Each of them had learned to cope with Gabe’s death in their own way. It had been only recently that his team had regained some of its lightheartedness, something needed to keep them sane on the job. There had been a lot of anger, anger that had manifested itself in different ways. Sloane

had been aware, but his own grieving had made it difficult to address. How could he help them move on when he couldn’t find the strength to do it himself?

Now there was a dirty-blond enigma making his team laugh so hard they were in tears, and it was only his first day on the job. None of the others had lasted, not with Sloane, and not with his team. The only reason they’d given Dex a chance was because of Cael and Maddock, but the more Sloane watched the team interact with Dex, the more he started to believe maybe the rookie would be good for them. He was charming, in his own weird way. He talked a hell of a lot, always had a stupid smile on his face, and Sloane had caught him a couple of times humming some cheesy ballad. But the light in Dex’s blue eyes seemed to be spreading to the rest of his team. Sloane didn’t know what that meant, other than it was scaring the shit out of him. His team needed this, so he would suck it up and ride it out as long as he could.

SLOANE AND his team returned to HQ, shed all their gear, and headed for their respective offices. Recon agents would take things from here, chasing down leads until they came up with something, while Hudson and Nina worked with the lab to get every tiny piece of evidence analyzed. The moment they got a hit, Sloane and the rest of Destructive Delta would suit up and head out again, but until then, they’d go about their usual duties.

After lunch, where Dex nearly came in his pants from the sight of the canteen and all the vendors offering an assortment of free food, Sloane had spent a good deal of the afternoon training his partner on Themis, how it worked, how to create, access, and amend files, helpful shortcuts that would make the process more streamlined, and how to send information to their fellow teammates.

“Shit, I broke it.” Dex pushed himself away from his desk and threw his hands up.

Sloane chuckled and rose to his feet, walking around to Dex and wheeling him back to his desk. “You didn’t break it. Themis won’t let you do anything you shouldn’t.” He hovered over Dex’s shoulder to see what he’d done now. It was the fifth time the rookie had supposedly broken their intelligence network. Sloane slid a finger down near the edge of the desk and three files popped up. “There they are. You only minimized them. When you tap the same spot twice inside the file, it brings them to the bottom, and the screen flashes once to let you know they’re still open, just out of sight.”

“Awesome. Now how do I access Google?”

Was he serious? “Why do you need Google?”

“When don’t you need Google?”

He was serious. There were moments Sloane wondered how Dex had made it this far. Either the guy was deceptively clever or extremely talented at pretending he was. “How about when you have a powerful, multimillion dollar government interface linked to numerous intelligence agencies across the globe right in front of you.”

Dex squinted at him, his lips pursed thoughtfully. “So… is that a no on Google?”

“Are you on medication?” Sloane asked, eyeing him. “Because that’s the kind of thing I need to know if you’re going to be handling anything more dangerous than a smoke bomb.”

Dex let out a bark of laughter. “I knew you had a sense of humor.”