Chapter 8

Chris called to make sure Buck and JD were home. The apartment door opened as he approached and Buck ushered him in. "We've got a pot of coffee brewing, should be about ready. What's this all about?"

Chris followed him to the kitchen where JD was placing three mugs on the table. Chris sat down, still trying to decide how to tell these men that someone they considered a friend was looking increasingly like a dirty cop.

"Chris?" JD said tentatively.

With a sigh, Chris started. "Everything we say must stay here for now. We're working on building evidence, but we aren't there yet and I don't want our suspect prematurely spooked."

The two friends exchanged a troubled glance. "Who are we talking about?" asked Buck.

Chris made eye contact with his teammates. "Marco."

JD started shaking his head and Buck opened his mouth to protest. Chris raised a hand. "Just hear me out and then you can decide for yourselves."

Buck's lips thinned as he stared at his old friend. With a gentle sigh he said, "All right, we can do that. Start talking."

Chris was impressed at the way they listened quietly as he explained everything from Marco's cryptic remarks to Vin and taking credit for the donut delivery to the reports from his former partners. He finished by telling them that Vin and Ezra were going to research Marco's time in the FBI the next day. He studied Buck and JD's expressions as he finished, noting a combination of anger and confusion.

"Why didn't we know this was going on?" asked Buck with a touch of anger. "Do you not trust us?"

Chris shook his head. "If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't be here now. I didn't know for a while. Vin was trying not to overreact." He rubbed the side of his face. "I think at first he was trying to tell himself that . . ."

"That we weren't abandoning him like just about everyone else in his life has done," said Buck, dropping his face into his hands.

"Like we did at the hospital," said JD with a horrified look on his face. "We took Marco's side over Vin's. How could we do that?"

"You didn't know what was going on. Vin didn't have any evidence of wrong-doing, just a gut-feeling that Marco was up to no good. He didn't even come to me with it, I just kind of stumbled onto some of this stuff," said Chris. "Everything escalated earlier today when Marco planted drugs and guns in Vin's apartment to get him out of the way. My assumption is that he needs a place in the ATF in order to assist whatever criminal element he's hooked up with right now."

Chris recognized the moment Buck went from guilt to determination as his friend straightened his slumped shoulders and set his jaw. "What do you need us to do?" JD gave a short nod, mirroring his mentor's actions.

Inwardly, Chris grinned. His team was united once again. "We need to clear Vin's apartment to make sure nothing new has been planted and then I'd like JD to set up a surveillance camera in case Marco tries that again."

"I know just what to use," JD said. "I can hook it up to a motion detector that will ding me if the door opens. We'll know in real time if anyone comes in."

Chris nodded his approval. "Now, the hard part. Tomorrow I need you to treat Marco exactly the same as you have been."

Buck and JD looked at each other, doubt in their faces. "This is why we waited to tell you two until we really needed you involved. I know it's going to be hard to act like you don't know any of this stuff. But if Marco thinks we're onto him, he'll be gone."

Buck rubbed his chin, his brow furrowed while JD just looked one step away from panicking. "Can you do it or not? Because if that's going to be a problem, we need to find an excuse to keep you two out of the office until this is over and hope he doesn't spook."

Buck let out a deep breath and met Chris's eyes. "I can do it." His tone was so confident, that Chris didn't doubt the statement.

"Good. JD?"

"I don't . . . I don't know Chris. I don't want to let Vin down, but I just . . . I don't know." JD had never looked more like a kid than he did at that moment. Chris found himself feeling sorry for the boy.

Buck reached over to ruffle the kid's hair. "We'll talk more after we set up the camera." Looking back at Chris, he said, "If he isn't sure he can pull it off in the mornin', I'll come in and say he got up sick."

Chris nodded. "Good enough. Either way, don't worry about it JD. I don't know that it's a bad thing to say you aren't good at lying. Let's go get Vin's apartment taken care of."

oOo

Wednesday, May 30

Vin crutched his way over to sit at the bar between the kitchen and living room. Ezra set a glass of lemonade in front of him. "Thanks."

Ezra nodded, setting his own cup next to Vin's. "Did you speak with our illustrious leader?"

"If you mean Chris, then yes," Vin said with a grin. "No hits on the VinCam that JD set up."

Ezra rolled his eyes. "I am still unable to believe you anointed the surveillance camera with such a moniker."

"I thought it was a pretty good name myself. Anyhew, Chris said Buck and JD have actually done a really good job of acting normal around Marco. I think Chris is thinkin' of puttin' them up for an actin' award."

"That is good news."

"Yeah, I have to admit, I was a mite worried about if JD could pull it off, but Chris said he couldn't a done any better. Guess I'll owe those guys a beer or two for puttin' up with him."

Ezra snorted. "You owe them nothing, Vin. They are the ones who aligned themselves with the miscreant and they are now reaping what they have sown. Mr. Larabee indicated when he called last night that they are apparently quite repentant for having treated you poorly and are happy to have a chance to make recompense for their earlier misjudgment."

Vin frowned at him. "So, they're sorry for how they acted and are tryin' to make up for it?"

"I believe that is what I just said."

"Right, I knew that." Vin was relieved when there was a knock at the door followed by Chris and Josiah coming in.

"Special delivery," Josiah said as they set several bags on the dining room table. "Everyone's order is in its own sack with your name on it." Several minutes later they were all seated with their deli sandwich in front of them.

"Buck and JD get stuck eatin' lunch with Marco?" Vin asked.

"Not stuck exactly," said Chris. "They asked him out so they could hopefully get him to talk about his past some. Don't worry, I told them to be subtle and drop it if he acted nervous or suspicious."

Ezra stopped chewing and stared at Chris. After a moment he swallowed and said, "You expect Mr. Wilmington and Mr. Dunne to be subtle? Who are you sir and what have you done with Chris Larabee?"

Chris glared at Ezra, but only a half-hearted attempt. Vin figured Chris was just as worried about the boys scaring Marco off as they were. After a moment he gave it up and shook his head. "Did you boys find anything helpful this morning?"

Vin dipped his head toward Ezra to let him know he should start. "We did indeed study Mr. Valdez's time in the FBI. He went to work for them almost four years ago straight from the DEA. It appears he was on his best behavior for the first fifteen months or so, with nothing out of the ordinary cropping up. He spent most of that time in a pool of low-ranking agents doing a lot of mundane, random things that usually garnered little danger or excitement."

"In other words, Marco took himself a bit of a break," Vin said. "Don't know if he was lettin' things cool down or he was figurin' out his next gig."

"Possibly a bit of both," said Ezra. "That was about the time the state began having issues with crime families and drug cartels. We had two well established crime families and two more looking to stake their own claim, as well as a drug cartel seeking to establish a presence. Denver of course was in the middle of everything resulting in a rather sharp rise in violent crime."

"FBI established a task force to start dealin' with the crime families," Vin continued. "Marco made noise that he wanted on it, but he was turned down. He hadn't been with the FBI all that long and he'd been kind of coastin' til then so the right people weren't impressed. Two months later, guess what happens to the youngest guy on the task force?"

Josiah broke out in a grim smile. "I'm guessing an anonymous tip led the police to drugs in his possession."

Ezra pointed at Josiah. "Ring, ring, give a prize to the profiler. Following a tip, they found him passed out in his car with a bag of cocaine under the passenger seat. The last thing he remembered was having a drink in a bar, waiting on an informant who had requested his presence. He of course claimed he was set up. This time they managed to find one clear set of prints on the bag, his of course."

Vin growled under his breath. "Guess we know Marco learns from his mistakes. The agent said someone must of slipped somethin' in his drink. No one thought to test the guy for drugs until it was too late. The bartender conveniently didn't remember anythin' other than seein' him there."

Chris sighed. "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"As well you should be," said Ezra. "The poor man was released on bail only to be killed in a mugging on the way home."

"Mighty convenient," said Josiah as he scowled at the table.

"Ain't it just," Vin said bitterly. "And you'll never guess who took his spot."

"Marco," Josiah said with a huff of disgust.

"Bravo Mr. Sanchez," said Ezra. "It's almost as if we have played this game before."

"Startin' to sound like a repeatin' record," said Vin as he pushed the crumbs from his sandwich around the plate. The meal he'd been ravenous for suddenly felt like a rock in his stomach as he thought of all the lives Marco had destroyed. Biting his lip, he tapped down the anger he felt rising within him. Now was not the time for that.

Chris frowned and looked up at the two wounded agents. "So how did he go from too low on the totem pole to get on the task force to the shoo-in replacement?"

The two agents exchanged a look before Ezra nodded once and Vin replied. "Guess who got a tip about one of the crime families runnin' a money launderin' scheme through a construction firm that turned out to be confirmed, bringin' down one of their main operations? Good old Marco scores a home run again."

Josiah frowned and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "So, if Marco is operating true to form, chances are that he's hooked up with one of the families. They help him get on the task force, he gives them inside information and maybe helps keep the competition in check."

"That was our conclusion as well," said Ezra.

"Any sign of which one?" asked Chris.

Both men shook their heads. "That's kinda what we were workin' on when ya'll got here."

Chris nodded. "Well keep on it and let me know what you get. Ezra, don't you have a doctor's appointment this afternoon?"

"Yes, at 3:00pm."

Chris nodded. "I'll take a break about then and take you so you can bring me up to speed on whatever you've found. This is all turning out to be a lot more complicated than I was expecting. I just thought we were dealing with an overeager agent hoping to take Vin's place on the team."

One of Ezra's eyebrows raised slightly. "Mr. Larabee, you should know by now that things are rarely as simple as they seem on the surface."

Chris sighed audibly. "I know, Ezra, but somehow I keep hoping."

"Well," Ezra drawled in a reasonable imitation of Vin's accent, "we'll just have t' beat that right outta ya."

oOo

Thursday, May 21

"I'm here, just to the left of the door."

"On my way." Vin stuck his cell phone in his pocket and took one final look around Ezra's living room, making sure everything was picked up. Satisfied, he grabbed the cane from where it was propped against the couch and began hobbling to the parking lot where Chris waited for him.

Ezra had been cleared by the doctor yesterday, so today was his first day back at work. He'd been able to dump the cane, although he still had a bit of a limp. Cleared for driving and desk duty, Ezra had done his best not to gloat at Vin's current hobbled existence. Vin had comforted himself during the day by graduating himself from crutches to Ezra's now abandoned cane. He was actually quite proud of how well he was getting around.

Chris had called a team meeting/cookout at the ranch so they could share all their information without unwanted ears listening in. Vin had to grin at the thought of Mr. I'm-going-to-take-your-place Valdez being unwanted. He grinned even wider when he stepped outside the townhouse to see Chris's truck parked and waiting on him, knowing his boss would be upset that he'd ditched his crutches.

Opening the truck door, he leaned against the cane as he swung himself up and into the truck. If he could manage that, he could manage the stairs to his apartment. This day just kept looking up. "Hey, Chris."

Green eyes glared at him. "Where are your crutches?"

Vin returned the glare. "In Ezra's guest bedroom. Don't start on me, Chris. I been usin' Ezra's cane all day and I ain't had no problems. My knee's hardly swollen and it only hurts if I twist on it."

Chris continued the hard look for several seconds before relaxing to throw Vin a grin. "Okay," he said lightly.

"Okay?"

Chris shrugged and shifted into drive. "Yeah, Ezra wanted to bet on the likelihood you'd be on his cane tonight and I told him I didn't take sucker bets. It's what I'd have probably done. Now Nathan . . . he might not take it so well."

"Yeah, well, I can handle Nathan," Vin muttered, not particularly thrilled that his teammates knew him so well and discussed him at the office. "If you're so okay with it, then you know I'll be wanting to get back to my own place this evenin'."

Chris frowned and Vin could tell he was deep in thought, probably trying to figure out how to talk him out of going home. He decided to make a preemptive attack. "Look, there ain't been no activity at my place since that one time. I think Marco'll lay low for a bit, makin' sure I don't remember what he done. He succeeded in getting' me out of action for a bit longer. As long as I'm not threaten' to come back, I think he'll leave me be. That'll give us some time to figure him out."

Chris sighed, slowing to a stop at a red light before glancing at his passenger. "I guess. Look, why don't you stay at my place tonight and I'll drop you by your apartment on the way in tomorrow? That'll give you lots of time to impress me with your ability to use that cane."

Vin thought about how late they would probably break up their little meeting and how tired he'd be trying to climb three flights of stairs. "Okay, I can do that."

Chris bobbed his head once, apparently satisfied with the arrangement. After a few minutes of silence, Chris snorted. "Okay, I was going to wait until we met tonight to discuss this, but since everyone else knows the basics, I'll update you. Marco decided to put in some time practicing on the range this afternoon, so we were able to do some snooping without having to watch him."

Vin studied Chris, noting the broad grin on his face. "You found somethin'?"

"We did. Or rather JD did. He dug into Marco's finances over the past few years. Everything looks above board, like he's living within his means as a federal officer. Then he dug a little deeper and did his thing. He found two offshore accounts that total in the millions. Marco looks to be setting himself up for a big retirement, probably on some tropical island."

Vin whistled. "Wow, I hadn't thought about that. As much as I hate to admit it, that's pretty smart. A standard investigation would make him look totally legit. He didn't win a lottery or have some rich uncle die, did he?"

Chris shook his head. "Nope. JD checked out his family history going back three generations. No money there. No records of lottery wins or anything else that would explain away the money. Now we just have to tie him to illegal activity and we're set to take him down."

"Been doin' some studyin' on my own today. I think I know what family he's in bed with. I was goin' to throw that out there this evenin', see if anyone has contacts that could verify it."

After a few moments, Chris huffed and said, "Well are you going to tell me?"

"What, you don't want to wait til the meetin' tonight?"

Chris growled. "No, I don't. Just tell me."

Vin laughed, feeling hopeful that they were on the right track to taking Marco down for good. "Demarkis. I know they're relatively new to the game, but they've advanced faster than any of the others in the last couple of years. First family they pushed back against was Volkov and he's almost been shut down in Denver."

Chris frowned. "What's the Demarkis family into?"

"Up til now, mostly drugs, illegal gamblin', prostitution, and human traffickin', although no one's ever found enough evidence to make a solid tie back to the family."

"So why make the switch from FBI to ATF? From what we can tell, no one was breathing down his neck figuring things out. While several agents seem to have figured out he was in it for him, we know of others with the same agenda and there weren't any red flags that the higher ups were concerned. I know they shut down the task force a few months ago, but he would still have been in a good position to help them."

"Only thing I can figure is Demarkis is wantin' to expand into guns or alcohol or both. Havin' an inside man would be a big help."

"Well, crap. So Demarkis thinks he's moving his ballgame into our park, huh. We'll just see about that."

They stopped by the grocery store on the way to the ranch. Once they were home, Chris got the meat and grill ready while Vin threw together his baked beans. By the time the others began arriving Vin's stomach was starting to growl. "About time you lollygaggers got here."

Buck put his arm around the sharpshooter and pulled his head in close, almost in a headlock. "Well son, you should know that some of us poor slobs have to work for a living."

Normally Vin would loop his foot around Buck's leg and pull it out from under him, but his sore knee prevented that move. He was deciding between tickling the big man or stomping his foot when Buck let him go, giving him a gentle shove onto the couch. "Better be watchin' your back, Bucklin," Vin growled, annoyed that the agent had gotten the best of him.

Ezra patted Buck on the arm on his way by. "It was nice knowing you Mr. Wilmington."

Buck laughed. "Aw, Vin ain't gonna hurt me, are you pard? Just a little joshin' amongst brothers."

Vin paused in his efforts to get off the couch, the word brother hitting him hard. He glanced up to see Buck with his hand stretched out, offering his assistance. The big man's eyes twinkled with sincerity, the care behind the offering deep felt. Brother. These men had become more than teammates; they were his brothers. Vin smiled as he accepted the help up. "Guess I could overlook it this time," he said quietly.

Buck nodded. "I 'preciate it, Vin." After a moment, Buck sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Look, Vin, I uh . . . that is to say . . . sometimes my mouth gets a little ahead of my brain and what comes out of my mouth ain't exactly what I'm tryin' to say."

JD rolled his eyes. "Good grief, Buck, just spit it out." He moved over to stand beside Buck, his brows furrowed as he looked at Vin. "What Buck's doin' a horrible job of sayin' is that we're both really sorry. Marco played us like a couple of fools and we let him. We never meant to hurt you, Vin and that's the God's honest truth. We didn't even realize how bad we was treatin' you til we got to talkin' about it. Anyway, we're sorry for being such piss-poor friends."

The anger Vin had carried since the first time he saw Buck and JD carrying on with Marco melted away. The fact was they had always had his back. They weren't the only ones to have had a moment of poor judgment and Vin was honest enough with himself that he could admit that. The truth was that he loved these guys like family, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Vin took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, watching his anxious friends wait on his decision. "Well, I guess even though family sometimes acts a fool, you still have to stick by 'em. Josiah keeps sayin' we should be our brother's keeper, so I guess we're all kinda stuck with each other." Vin broke out in a grin. If Buck could give a round-about apology he reckoned he could accept it in an equally round-about way.

They looked at each other a moment and then Buck reached out to muss Vin's hair as he hurried off to the kitchen. "Always wanted little brothers to tease."

Vin stared at the man's retreating back and then glanced over to see Ezra and JD looking as shocked as he felt. JD closed his mouth and shook his head. "Welcome to my world," he said as he also headed for the kitchen.

"I believe I will seat myself at the opposite end of the table from Mr. Wilmingon." Ezra bent down to retrieve the cane from the floor. "You seem to have dropped this."

Vin grinned sheepishly as he took the cane. "Thanks. I took you up on your offer to use your cane. Hope you don't mind."

Ezra shook his head. "Not at all. That is why I offered it, although I am not convinced it was prudent to do it quite so soon."

Vin shrugged. "Them crutches were givin' my arms fits. This just seemed easier." He stepped into the kitchen behind Ezra and ran right into Nathan's glare.

"Vin Tanner, where are your crutches?"

"Aw, crap," Vin muttered, leaning against the cane. "I can get around on this thing a lot better than on them crutches."

"The crutches allow you to keep the weight off that knee, give it more time to heal."

Vin settled into the chair that Ezra had pulled away from the table for him. "Well my knee might be gettin' better, but my arms is payin' a steep price."

Nathan sighed. "I get it. I'm just not so sure you were ready for that transition. Just stay off it as much as you can tonight and I'll have a look later, okay?"

Vin nodded. "Wasn't plannin' on takin' no hike."

"I never know with you," muttered Nathan as he finished setting the table.

Once the meal was eaten, the plates taken, and the coffee served, the team got down to business. They went over everything that had happened and everything they had learned about Marco and his activities. After brainstorming about the man's move from the FBI to the ATF, the team had to agree with Vin's theory.

"Mr. Larabee, if you will excuse me from coming into the office tomorrow, I believe that my alter ego, Ethan Sanford, could possibly gain information on the Demarkis family and their current business endeavors," said Ezra.

"Sounds like a plan," said Chris. The head agent rubbed the top of his coffee cup while he stared at the table.

"You got an idea, Chris?" said Buck. "I recognize that look on your face."

Chris grinned. "Maybe. Let's see how Ezra's information plays out tomorrow. If Marco is working for someone as an information leak, I may have an idea on how to flush him out."

Vin grinned. "I like it when you have a plan. It usually means some bad guys are goin' down."

The corner of Chris's mouth twitched up. "The more I think about it, the more I think it'll work no matter who Marco is working for." He looked around the table, meeting the eyes of each man. "I'll tell you my idea and you guys can play the devil's advocate. Voice any problems you see so we can work our way through all the possibilities." The men around the table nodded.

"We currently have a lot of guns in the evidence room. Teams 2 and 5 both made busts last week and took in a large number of automatic weapons. I'm thinking of having Marco move them down to the warehouse. I'll get the guard to let it slip that we've accumulated a lot of illegal weapons lately and they've decided to destroy a bunch of them over the weekend."

Vin recognized the glint in Chris's eyes. It was the look he had right before they took down someone who'd really been a thorn in their side. Vin grinned as he saw the hungry look in the eyes of his friends.

Josiah nodded as his grin widened. "If Marco is working for Demarkis, or anyone else wanting to run guns, that would provide a sore temptation and a critical timeline."

Chris nodded. "Hit the guns over the weekend or lose them. If you've got someone just breaking into the gun trade, it's too good to pass up. Get your first load of weapons for free and then sell them for a hefty profit."

"You thinkin' to hit them at the warehouse?" asked Buck.

"Yes. We can't allow them to leave with the weapons. Once they're gone, too many things can go wrong and we can't take the chance of them getting on the street," said Chris.

"What if Mr. Demarkis does not dirty his hands with the act of stealing the guns?" asked Ezra. "Would it not be more prudent to let them take the guns and then set up a buy with Mr. Sanford?"

"Marco's not likely to be at a buy even if he is working for Demarkis, is he?" asked Nathan.

Chris shook his head. "No, probably not. As the inside man, he wouldn't want to expose himself like that."

They all sighed as JD voiced what they were all thinking. "So, if we take them down at the warehouse we get Marco, but probably not Demarkis. If we wait on a buy, we get Demarkis but not Marco and we chance losing the guns altogether."

Vin scowled, wanting both men to go down. After a moment, he said, "Demarkis will send some of his men to meet Marco and get the guns. If he doesn't come himself, maybe we could persuade Marco or one of his guys to call Demarkis and tell him there's a problem he needs to come fix."

"Like what?" asked Josiah, his eyebrows raised.

"I don't know . . . maybe Marco wants more money for his part."

Chris stared at Vin for a moment and then nodded. "Might work. Couldn't hurt to try. At the least we'll get Marco and some of Demarkis' men. We can't chance losing those guns. The bust will go down at the warehouse. JD, we need the place wired, cameras if you can. I don't want him fast-talking his way out of this."

"I'll get on it first thing in the morning."

"We won't have much time to pull this together," said Nathan.

"No, we won't. Do you guys think we can pull it off?" A series of affirmations from each of the team followed.

Chris nodded. "I'll tell Marco that JD and Ezra have gone to a training class on some new software. He knows Ezra's our backup IT guy and with him on desk duty, it sounds like a reasonable thing I would do. JD, you need to be in and out before he gets there. If it looks like a go, I'll send Marco with the weapons after lunch and the rest of us can work out the particulars."

"The good thing is he won't have much time to prepare for the heist," said Nathan. "They'll have to keep it simple."

Chris nodded. "I'll even make it easier by giving him the key to the gate. He'll have plenty of time to get that copied."

Grinning, Vin waggled his eyebrows at Chris. "What, aren't you going to give him a key to the building and a map of the warehouse?"

Chris snorted. "There's making it easy and there's being obvious. I'm trying not to go that far. I'm counting on his arrogance to get him to think I trust him and that I'm not onto him. Besides, might as well make them work for it a little bit."

The rest of the team chuckled at that as Chris continued. "If all goes as planned, he'll take the guns to the warehouse, scope it out while pumping a bored guard for information. Once he finds out the giant storehouse is full of weapons set to be destroyed, he'll call Demarkis or whoever he's selling out to and give them the rundown. He copies the key to the gate and leads a bunch of criminals into the warehouse tomorrow night. We'll be sitting there waiting for him with cameras rolling. If we get really lucky, the big boss will be there. If not, we'll try to lure him in."

"He'll probably have several men if they're planning on moving all those crates of weapons," said Nathan. "And we'll be two men down."

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Jackson," said Ezra, scowling at the medic. "I will be fine to participate in taking down Mr. Valdez."

"You're supposed to be on desk duty Ezra," said Chris.

"Nonsense. I barely have a limp. If you insist, then I shall park myself in a safe locale and stay there providing cover." Ezra's scowl turned into a glare aimed at Chris. "Marco went after one of our own, Mr. Larabee. I will be there."

"Me too," Vin said. He'd been trying to figure out how to broach the subject of going along for the bust. He'd have to thank Ezra later for giving him the opening he needed.

"No," said Chris and Nathan simultaneously. They looked at each other a moment and then Chris nodded to Nathan, turning the building argument over to him.

Nathan leaned forward, poking the table with his index finger as he made points. "You can't get around very quickly with that knee so if everything blows up on us like things have a way of doing, you won't be able to move quickly enough to get out of the way. And that head injury is still giving you trouble. I know you're still having headaches pretty often and under a stressful situation like that, dizziness is a lot more likely. You could pass out right when you need to defend yourself. No, Vin, you are not going."

Vin grit his teeth together in anger. He knew his limitations and he was perfectly capable of staying out of the way if that's what they wanted. He'd been a lot steadier on his feet the last couple of days and he knew he could help with back-up if they'd let him. But Nathan had dug in and Vin knew he was fighting a losing battle. He took a deep breath, crossed his arms across his chest, and said, "Fine."

His team sat staring at him with open mouths. "Fine?" Nathan echoed.

"S'what I said," Vin said tightly.

Chris narrowed his eyes and shifted back in his chair, stretching his legs out in front of him. He clasped his hands together, making a steeple with his index fingers while he studied the sniper. Vin purposely kept his eyes averted, knowing Chris could read him all too well. Finally, Chris spoke.

"You're going, with or without us, right?"

Vin ignored him and sipped his coffee. Yep, Chris could read him all too well. Chris sighed and rubbed his face before looking toward Nathan. "If we don't let him go, he'll just sneak in anyway. At least if he comes with us, we can keep some measure of control."

Annoyance, anger, and finally resolve flowed over the medic's face. He looked tired all of a sudden and Vin felt bad for being so much trouble. "You'll do what we say?"

Vin shrugged. "As long as it ain't somethin' stupid like stay in the truck."

Nathan frowned, studying Vin as if looking at him would give him an honest answer. Finally, he sighed and threw up his arms. "Great," he muttered. "No one listens to me. Not sure why I try. I definitely don't get paid enough for this crap."

"Nathan," said Vin softly, pausing until the agent looked at him. "Thanks."

Nathan gave a short nod. "Just don't get yourself killed or I'm gonna bring you back to life so I can yell at ya."