Captured By The Mercenaries

We managed to keep the peace until lunchtime. There were times I wanted to pitch Rafe off a cliff. He may be an excellent mercenary, a great leader, and an even better friend, but his relationship skills left much to be desired. He had no finesse, and no patience. As soon as an idea entered his head he had to act on it. If the idea was something that angered him, like say a birth control implant? Well fuck off to anyone that stood in his way.

Arsen and I were used to him, having lived and worked with him for years. Colby, on the other hand, was just getting to know him. She was stubborn and independent and Rafe required a certain level of obedience—even from us. We’d made our peace with him being in charge long ago. But his controlling nature was butting up against her need to figure out how she contributed to our group and what was left of her independence. She hadn’t fully come to grips with what it meant to be ours.

It was easy to see that she was desperate to be a part of our team in more ways than she was at the moment. She wanted to help us in our missions. Rafe wanted her in our bed. He’d already compromised far more than I ever thought he would by agreeing to have her help take out Roj. She wanted to be more than our property, and Rafe, begrudgingly, was allowing it.

I wasn’t sure if that was because he felt guilty over the loss of her team, or if he saw that she was struggling to find her place with us. She wasn’t going to be content being left at camp every time we went on a mission.

Rafe had cooked lunch and it didn’t take us long to realize he’d gone back to only dishing three plates.

Inwardly, I groaned. Before I could comment, Colby exploded.

“If you think I’m going back to begging you for food you can kiss my ass!”

Dropping my head into my hands, I wondered if we were ever going to get more than a few days of quiet with these two living together. I doubted it.

“You’ll eat from my hand until you’re finished throwing your tantrum,” Rafe told her, his voice even and calm.

This time I groaned out loud. It was drowned out by Colby cussing him out and knocking his plate out of his hand as she swept past. She went over to the tent and climbed in. It was her only solitude away from us.

Rafe’s jaw clenched as he stared down at the food sitting in the dirt near the fire. He didn’t get a chance to say anything before Arsen stood.

Arsen handed Rafe his own plate and headed to the tent. “I’ll talk to her,” he called out over his shoulder.

“Tell her to adjust her attitude or I’ll do it for her,” Rafe muttered.

I shook my head and gave him a look of frustration.

“What?”

“Haven’t had many women around long-term, have you?”

“Neither have you, asshole,” Rafe growled at me. His disposition was as pleasant as a porcupine’s ass.

He wasn’t wrong. None of us had been in long-term relationships. Arsen and I had naturally given over the lead where Colby was concerned to Rafe and now I was wondering if that’d been a bad idea. His ideas worked often enough when it came to her, but they also led to explosive results the other half of the time.

“True enough,” I sighed, eating my food in silence after that.