Chapter Eight
Reyes got a text from Roman to meet in the RangeMan garage at 10PM to head to the port. Apparently, Natasha wasn't speaking to him, not that he blamed her, but at least he was still on the task force. That was something at least.
He rolled downstairs and Natasha and Roman were talking. When he came out the elevators, they both looked at him. He smiled. Natasha just gave him the death glare. Super. It was definitely going to be a fun night. Not that he hadn't brought this all on himself.
Natasha said something to Roman and stalked past him back into the elevator. Roman just looked at him and smiled.
"I thought you were going to apologize." Roman said eyeing him.
Well Reyes thought he had apologized, and that part had gone pretty well. In fact, it was all going pretty well right up to the point where he had started interrogating her about Ranger. But really that part hadn't actually gone that bad now that he thought about it.
No, the absolute best part, was when he told her that she wasn't worth the hassle. That fucking her wasn't' worth getting fucked. He had actually said that, because clearly just being a regular run of the mill jackass hadn't been enough. Nope, had to be a crass jackass. Yep, that had probably been the moment things went from bad to worse.
God, and the look on her face. Reyes wished she would have at least gotten mad or kicked him in the balls or something. He totally deserved it. But she didn't, she just looked at him like he'd acted just like she thought he would. And, that had been the worst part. That had broken his heart just a little. That she didn't expect anything better.
"I kind of fucked it up." Reyes said.
"No shit. You think? You may want to brush up on the proper way to apologize to a woman because whatever you said to her, I'm pretty sure she took a hit out on you."
Reyes eyed Roman. He mostly thought Roman was joking about the hit part, but then this was Roman.
"Yeah, I'm going to try and fix it." Reyes sighed.
Roman nodded, but looked like he thought the likelihood of that was right up there with Reyes dating Cindy Crawford.
Natasha came out of the elevator and pretty much gave Reyes the death glare the entire time she walked to the SUV.
"I'll get in the back" Reyes said. Not like he figured he wouldn't be there anyway, but he wanted to say something to her. Anything that was neutral.
"Fine" she said. Reyes was pretty sure that fine in this case didn't mean fine. He was pretty sure what fine meant was go fuck yourself. But hey she was at least talking to him, right?
Roman and Natasha chatted companionably as they drove. Reyes felt like he had been relegated to the kid's table at Thanksgiving. They could have at least given him a juice box or something. Reyes leaned forward to say something, but Roman caught his eyes in the rearview mirror and gave a little negative shake of his head.
Reyes sat back and watched the highway go by as they drove. Maybe now would be a good time to take stock of his life. Right before Roman killed him and left him in a ditch because Reyes was an idiot.
If Natasha didn't want to talk to Reyes about Ranger than Reyes would ask Ranger. If something was going on Steph should know. But honestly the more he thought about it, he didn't think it was romantic. Clearly Ranger and Natasha had a history, but that in and of itself didn't mean anything. Maybe Reyes should mind his own business for once.
They got near the Port of Baltimore and parked in an alley between a couple of warehouses. Natasha pulled on a backpack. She was armed with a handgun and no doubt a knife or two, but otherwise she traveled light. Roman pulled a black knit cap on to cover his blond hair, and pulled out a M4 rifle and handed it to Reyes. Roman took one for himself along with some extra clips. They looked like three little ninjas all dressed in black, or probably more like two big oafs and an underworld fairy princess but really who was counting.
Natasha was up an over the fence with no problem. Roman and Reyes followed.
"Pretty boy. You go find a place to be a look out. You will be overwatch. Roman and I will go in closer. I'll set the devices and Roman will be my backup." Natasha's voice was low but authoritative.
"Yes ma'am. I'll let you know when I'm in position." Reyes said and took off looking for a good vantage point. Reyes winced, apparently pretty boy was going to stick.
Reyes always thought overwatch was weird. Even though he wasn't with them they were all hooked in with open comms. He could hear the noise around them and their breathing. He felt like a voyeur. Reyes got in position and pulled out his binoculars letting them know he was in position.
Roman fell in behind Natasha. Wait, what the hell? Roman never let anyone lead, not even Reyes, but in this case, it wasn't even a question. They both assumed she was running point and positioned themselves that way. Unease slid down Reyes' spine. These two had clearly worked together before and Natasha was the alpha. They were attuned to each other and moved like a single unit. Natasha and Roman moved out. Roman's hand on her shoulder
The hand signals and movements between them were like a well-oiled machine. When they got to the cargo container one row over from the target area, Roman hooked his hands and used them to catapult Natasha up into the air. She soundlessly hit the side of the cargo container and hung there for a beat. Reyes held his breath. Then she climbed like a spider the rest of the way up never making a sound. She went up and over the top and disappeared from sight.
Reyes was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open. He'd never seen anything like it. She was nimble and strong. She reminded him of an acrobat. No wonder she'd been offended by his suggestion she couldn't handle herself. She was far better equipped than him or Roman.
Nothing in the port suggested anyone knew they were there. Everything was quiet. No alarms. No shouting.
Ten minutes passed and he saw her appear on the top of the cargo container. Her approach was wordless, yet she leapt without hesitation towards Roman in a swan dive. Somehow, he just knew she was there. He caught her and she slid down his body to the ground never making a sound.
Roman held her flush against him for a beat. Reyes felt his jaw clench with irritation. They seemed awful familiar with each other. Natasha and Roman fell back into formation and returned to the SUV.
"Overwatch terminated" Natasha said in the comms. Reyes climbed down and met them at the SUV. The whole thing had taken about fifteen minutes and went off without a hitch.
Natasha had her laptop out and was checking the cameras and audio she had just planted.
"I think I'll install a booster at the end of the alley as a back-up" she said and took off jogging down the alley.
Reyes looked at Roman. Roman just shrugged.
"I told you to practice your I'm sorry I'm a dumbfuck speech." Roman said.
"You could have told me, and saved me from making an ass out of myself." Reyes was not happy.
"And where would the fun in that be brother?" Roman grinned and Reyes.
"You two have worked together before?" Reyes asked. He didn't know if Roman would even answer.
"Yes" Roman replied. Even though it was a one-word answer, it was more than Reyes had expected.
"Did you date her?" Reyes had no idea why he had asked that question. The minute it was out of his mouth he wished he'd learned the fine art of not talking. He sounded jealous and territorial. Probably because he was.
It was really none of his business. Besides Roman was a good-looking guy. He could see how they might be attracted to each other. Yeah Ok, if you skipped the part about him being a deadly assassin, he might even be boyfriend material. They had just moved so well together, which seemed to scream shared intimacy. The way Roman had held her there at the end. It felt like more than just efficiency. It felt like affection and maybe even attraction. And, for some reason that bothered him.
Roman laughed. The sound was completely foreign. Reyes was stunned. He was pretty sure that is the first time he had heard Roman laugh, ever.
"No, man. Never. She is sexy as hell, but she scares the shit out of me" Roman replied shaking his head.
Oh boy. The son of Satan was scared of Natasha? What did that make her? His eviler twin? Reyes figured he should probably cut his losses, but instead of being freaked out he was even more intrigued. And to his amazement, the only thing that mattered was the part where Roman had said he hadn't dated Natasha.
Roman just shook his head. "Oh man, you are so screwed. You have no idea, do you?"
Reyes wanted to ask Roman what he meant but Natasha materialized out of the darkness and they all got in the SUV to head back to DC. Reyes was in the back. He was still in the penalty box and getting the silent treatment, which he figured he absolutely deserved.
When they got back to RangeMan, Roman disappeared into the darkness and Natasha headed inside. Reyes followed her.
"Tasha look, I'm sorry." Reyes said. "Can we please just talk?"
"Fuck off, and don't even think about getting on this elevator with me." Natasha said and got on the elevator.
The doors closed and Natasha let out a breath. Ok, was it weird that she'd gotten a little thrill when he called her Tasha? Natasha rolled her eyes. Reyes was a mistake. She wasn't going to give another thought to it. She had far bigger issues to worry about than Reyes.
Reyes watched the elevator close. OK, well that had gone well. Maybe next time he would just slam his hand in the car door or something. It might be slightly less painful than that was.
Rangers phone buzzed. It was Tank. He looked at the time. It was 3 AM. Nothing good ever happened at 3 AM. Steph was laying on her side and she was finally asleep. He moved quickly to silence the phone so it wouldn't wake her.
Ranger slid out of bed and went into the kitchen. "Yo" Ranger said.
"Boss. You need to see this. I'm sending you a video" Tank said without so much as a greeting.
Rangers phone chirped letting him know the video had arrived he pulled it up and hit play. It was a security feed from RangeMan. A hooded figure appeared in the image, walked right up to the camera and pulled his hood down, and made a come here motion with his finger.
A cold chill went down Ranger's spine, son-of-a-bitch. It was Nikko, and he was in the building.