Catch A Tiger By The Tail (THIRDS 6)

Ethan burst into laughter.

“Well, I’m glad someone finds this funny,” Dex grumbled. He looked Calvin over. “You look nice and clean. Did you make it out?”

“We thought we had. Turns out there was a sniper.” Calvin took a seat on the bench next to Rosa while Ethan showed Dex the back of his head. He turned with a frown and shook his head.

“Ethan didn’t see it or feel the blow.”

“Damn. You didn’t feel it?” Dex pointed to his forehead. “This shit knocked me on my ass. Fucking hurt like a bitch. It still burns.”

“You’re going to have that for days,” Ash said with a laugh.

The security console’s speakers buzzed, and Sparks’s voice came through. “Austen will get you back to HQ. I expect to see you all in the training bay. Clean yourselves off before you reach HQ. There are extra uniforms in the duffle bags.”

Rosa got up to help Cael with his shift and PSTC, hitting the button to drop the privacy screen. As Cael shifted, Ash spoke quietly. As if Sparks couldn’t hear them. Ethan wouldn’t be surprised if she’d placed wiretaps in the showers at HQ. She seemed to know every move they made no matter where they were. It was unsettling.

“Why us? Sparks hasn’t given us a reason why she’s picked us for her so-called specialist training. My fucking bruises have bruises. It’s not like we work for her. Them. Whoever the fuck they are.” Ash jutted a thumb toward the front cabin of the truck. Ethan’s frown deepened. He wasn’t crazy about Austen driving his BearCat.

“I don’t know, but it’s good for us,” Sloane replied, removing his boots so he could put on a clean pair of tac pants. Dex playfully smacked Sloane’s ass.

“They shot your ass off,” Ash reminded Sloane.

“Because someone decided he was going to be John McClane and thought the fire hose he’d tied around his waist would hold him as he jumped through a window,” Sloane grumbled, buttoning up his clean tac pants.

Ethan shook his head at Dex, who blinked innocently. “Had that wall been real and made of concrete instead of shitty plaster, it would have worked.”

“I had to save his ass and in return lost mine.”

Calvin grinned wickedly at Dex. “Did you say the line?”

Dex looked affronted. “Dude. Of course I said the line.”

“This is bullshit,” Ash grumbled as he finished buttoning up a clean shirt. “We’ve been fucking training since this morning, and now she wants us back at HQ training some more? This was supposed to be our day off.”

Sloane rolled his eyes. “We’ve been at this for weeks. Quit bitching. We agreed, remember?”

Ash’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. “No. Nope. I’m pretty sure I didn’t agree to jack shit. You agreed for us. The CQC and Muay Thai is one thing, but all that other shit? Why? We don’t know who the hell these TIN guys are or what they do. What happens when the training is over? What are we even training for?”

Ash was kind of right. Technically, none of them had agreed to anything, but Sloane was also right. The extra training would be good for them. The last few months proved being better prepared wouldn’t hurt. When he’d first joined the THIRDS, their callouts had been mostly disturbances, high-risk warrant cases, and providing backup for Recon with the occasional Therian gone feral. Nowadays it seemed like someone was always trying to blow them up or shoot them down. Ethan hated to admit it, but he also agreed with Ash. Were they supposed to blindly follow Sparks? Ethan trusted her, to an extent. Their training was intense, with some disciplines far more than they needed for the THIRDS. It was rare for them to come up against a perp who also happened to be a secret spy.

“You’re right,” Sloane said, “about all of it.” He put his finger to his lips before tapping his ear. They were most likely being listened to. “You don’t like it, you can tell Sparks.”

Ash let out a snort. “Yeah, sure. I’ll tell the fucking Black Widow what to do with her extra training. She’ll probably snap my neck in my sleep.”

“You think she’d do that?” Cael asked, eyes wide.

Dex folded his arms over his chest and pinned Ash with a glare. The two had developed some kind of weird method of telepathic communication where Cael was

concerned. It was creepy. Ash let out a heavy sigh and patted the bench next to him. Cael took a seat, snuggling up close to him, his arm wrapping around Ash’s waist.

“No, I don’t think she’d do that, sweetheart. But let’s face it, whoever we thought she was….”

“Pretty sure she can hear us,” Dex murmured, scrubbing furiously at the paint on his forehead.

“Thank you, Justice, for your amazing insight.”

Whoa, hold on. That was the second time Ash had referred to Dex as Justice. Ethan held a hand up before Dex could tell Ash off. He pointed to Dex, who let out a groan as he dropped into the chair across the bench. “Yes, all right. Since Simba opened his big freakin’ mouth—”

“Technically, your boyfriend spilled the beans first,” Ash corrected, smiling broadly.