A knock sounded on the door.

"Can you get it?" Sully called from his bedroom. "I'm doing my hair."

Nate rolled his eyes as he got off the couch where he had been using his phone to doublecheck their flight for tomorrow afternoon. They had a lead on a golden artifact that had been found by drug smugglers in Bolivia and was currently held at an international checkpoint as Peru and Chile officials were also claiming rights to it. He and Sully planned to sneak in in the embassy and, if not steal the artifact outright, definitely check it for symbols and ancient messages. Their papers and notes on the artifact lay scattered over the table next to the couch.

As he walked towards the door, Nate called back, "I don't know why you want to go on a date tonight. We don't know when we're coming back."

"Carpe diem, kid!"

Another eye roll, and Nate opened the door.

He froze at the sight of the person standing there. "Chloe?"

The dark-haired woman turned dark, deep eyes on him and smiled, her teeth white against the Mediterranean tan of her face. She held up a bottle of wine. "Truce?"

The last time Nate had seen her was from a helicopter flying over the second sinking ship and she had been far below in a speedboat, and judging from her body language, she had been screaming curses at him for tricking her with incorrect coordinates. Of course, she had stolen the coordinates in the first place, but . . .

"Really expensive wine," she held up the bottle, and Nate caught the words Mazis-Chambertin on the label. "French Burgundy wine, valued at 12,000 a bottle."

"Aw, you spent that on me?" Nate cocked his head to the side in mock appreciation.

"Please," she stepped by him, handing him the bottle. "I don't have 1,200 these days since you two screwed me over."

"You bashed my head! I had a lump for a week. I could have had a concussion."

"Details, details," she glanced around. "Nice place. Where are the wine glasses?"

"This is my place," Sully stepped out of his bedroom with his hands still fussing over his hair. "The kid is squatting here for now."

Nate came back with three wine glasses and a corkscrew, and as he screwed open the cork, he said, "Squatting is not accurate. I was over here so much that it just made sense to move here when my lease ended."

"Nice way of describing an eviction," Sully leaned against the doorframe of his room.

"Whatever. There was no sense in paying for two places. This place is huge, and I do all the cooking."

"You do cook," Sully nodded.

"Where's the kitty?" Chloe took the wine glass that Nate offered.

"She's asleep in my room," Sully glanced over his shoulder, and though Chloe couldn't see the cat, the expression of adoration on Sully's face clearly indicated his feelings for his new pet.

"She kept bothering our research," Nate motioned to the papers, "so we put her in his room, and she likes to nap on his bed."

"Sweet kitty," Chloe sipped the wine and sighed at the taste. She sat down on the couch, apparently planning to stay for a while.

"We're boarding her when we go out of town from now on," Sully said. "You can't trust these pet sitters to come regularly, and they might get her food wrong. At least with pet boarding, you can make demands, and they even let you watch a cam of her so you know she's safe."

"When I got him a cat," Nate smirked, "I didn't realize I was opening the door for his new obsession."

Sully looked about ready to retort, but a bling pinged from his pocket, and he took out his phone. A second of silence while reading the screen, and then Sully said in a flat voice, "Oh, she canceled. Said she isn't interested."

"Ha-ha," Nate sniggered. "Told you so! Guess the only girl to find you interesting is the cat. We know who you'll be sleeping with from now on, old man."

He expected some kind of snarky retort, but when he looked at Sully, Nate blanched. The older man wore an expression of hurt, a look that said the joke had gone too far. A vulnerable marker of pain etched on Sully's face—raw and open—and the silence that suddenly filled the room with awkward quiet seemed to grow louder by the second.

Nate scrambled to think of something to ease the tension, but Sully turned back into his room and closed the door behind him.

"Aw, damn it," Nate lowered his head. "No, no, I pushed too hard. Man, I never know where the boundary is."

"He's that sensitive about a date?" Chloe raised her eyebrows.

"No, it's more than that. Anytime we go out to eat, girls flirt with me. They weren't paying him enough attention, and I felt bad so I started cooking at home here. I don't mind, and it's faster than walking around the city, and whatever – it saves money. But he met this woman on Tinder, and they were supposed to go out tonight, and he's been all excited. I kept joking about her canceling, and I knew I was pushing it, but he didn't seem to mind, and now I'm an idiot, and we're leaving tomorrow, and I had to open my big mouth."

He slumped onto the couch beside Chloe. "Why do I have to say these things? I'm teasing, obviously, but I keep going too far. He teases me about being young, and I take it."

"I think there's a difference between teasing and cutting people down," Chloe observed.

Nate gave her an amazed look. "That's just what the nuns used to say! They kept pointing out that I recognize people's insecurities right off the bat, and then I make fun of them. I have insecurities too, and the only way to deal with them is to laugh them off."

"You want everyone to be like you and react like you?"

He glowered at her. "You bashed me on the head and skipped out on us. Sully should be mad at you!"

"I'm a sociopathic thief," Chloe shrugged. "I don't stay anywhere long enough to make friends. But you – you moved in with this guy, you're partners, and you take care of him. A lot of bro culture seems goofy to me, but I recognize when a bro's feelings are hurt."

Nate just leaned back in the chair and covered his face, making an exaggerated groan to express his frustration.

Chloe smirked, and with a clear need to keep poking and prodding, she asked, "What did the nuns do when you acted out like this?"

Nate stiffened a little, his usual response to any reminder of growing up under the care of so many strict nuns. "They would just scold me. One made me put a bar of soap in my mouth and hold it, saying I could only take it out when I promised to be nice. They felt bad because my brother left me, except for Sister Bertha. She -" Nate broke off with a shudder.

Of course, Chloe had to know. "What? What happened with Sister Bertha?"

"Okay, I'm not proud of any of this. I was fourteen, and I missed Sam, and I was going through puberty and making dumb jokes that I would laugh at, and I was obnoxious and a straight-up nightmare."

"What happened?" anticipation lit her dark eyes with glee, and Nate kept going.

"It was terrible. Sister Bertha was overweight and not pretty, and she kept saying she was glad to give her life to God's service, but she didn't act happy about it, and she didn't seem to like kids. Most of the time, she nagged us and scolded us, and I was fourteen and didn't want a nun telling me what to do. So, one night at dinner, there was some food on my plate, and I might have made a joke about leaving our leftovers for," Nate shook his head at the reminder of his own youthful stupidity, "our blessed Hog Sister, Sister Big Ass."

Chloe's eyes went wide with delighted horror.

"And," Nate kept shaking his head, "I might have made a pig squeal and put my face in the food to eat while grunting like a pig. And Sister Bertha might have overheard the whole thing."

Before Chloe could express shock or dismay, Nate rushed on, "I was so stupid, and I thought I was funny, and you know, teenage boys really shouldn't be allowed around other people until they turn 18."

"And Sister Bertha . . .?"

"She told me to go up to my room, and if I had just seemed sorry and apologized, it might have blown over, but no, I had to go out, still laughing and cutting up in front of the other kids. I went to my room, and thank goodness my roommate was still at dinner because Sister Bertha came in with a wooden ruler."

Chloe took another sip of wine, ready to languish in Nate's embarrassment and punishment.

"I was really scrawny, and she seemed huge. Whatever bravery I had to joke around in a dining room full of kids was gone, and I just whimpered. They weren't supposed to use corporal punishment so most of our discipline consisted of timeouts and standing in corners or doing cleaning chores. I had my ears pulled occasionally, but we were all so miserable to be there in the first place that any punishment felt awful. I was an orphan, but other kids had parents in prison or they had been abandoned so they felt even more terrible. At least I had the fantasy that my parents would have wanted me if they had lived."

"But she came with a ruler," Chloe urged the story forward.

"She ordered me to lean over the bed, and I should have just done it, but as I went past her, I muttered, 'Whatever, big girl.' She grabbed me by the back of my pants, pulled them tight, and then whaled on me with the ruler. I tried to squirm, but she was so strong that she pinned me down on the bed and kept going."

"Did you keep running your mouth while she spanked you?"

Nate flushed slightly at the word but said, "I didn't do anything but squawk and cry and beg her to stop. It felt like it lasted hours though it couldn't have been more than a minute or two, but I felt like someone had lit my ass on fire. When she finally stopped, she was all 'Are you going to say or do that again?' I moaned a pathetic no. She then went 'Are you going to apologize or do I need to come in and spank you every night?' I assured her I had learned my lesson, and when she let me up, I was sobbing and gasping, but I apologized."

Nate shook his head at the memories. "It got around the home that I had been smacked, and I got teased some, but I learned my lesson. I never said another negative word about a nun again. Nothing but 'Yes, ma'am,' 'No, ma'am' for the next few years until I left. I could barely look at Sister Bertha without trembling though."

"So that was the boundary, huh?" Chloe nodded thoughtfully. "Do not compare nuns to farm animals."

"And I should have been aware that Sully was sensitive about his dating prospects and not to comment on it. I knew enough to stop going to restaurants with hot waitresses, but I can't control what comes out of my stupid mouth."

"We all say dumb things sometimes."

"But Sully has been really good to me. When we got back to the mainland after the ships sank, he was all worried over me. I was bruised up pretty bad, and he did everything and wouldn't even let me lift my suitcase on the flight and insisted I ride first class so I wouldn't aggravate any injuries. I moved in here because he wouldn't let me go home once we landed, and for weeks, he kept after me to eat good and sleep and stretch. He wouldn't let me go back to bartending, saying it was a waste of my time and talents. He jokes about me getting evicted, but I just never went back except to pick up a few things to bring here. It felt really good to have someone care what happened to me, but of course, I have to screw it up."

Nate slumped down lower on the couch, and Chloe imagined he must have worn the same woebegone expression many times in the children's home after Sam left. A forlorn look of regret and abandonment.

Chloe drank the last of her wine, took in a deep breath, and stood. "Okay. You sit tight, and I'll smooth this over."

"What? No, you'll upset him. Just go and maybe it'll blow over if I don't say anything."

"I don't like the odds with your way," Chloe went to Sully's closed door and tapped. She tried the handle and, finding it unlocked, came in quietly and shut the door again.

"Hey, man, how's it going?"

Sully sat on the bed, the cat under his hand as he stroked her head, but his eyes were fastened on the floor.

"Nate didn't mean it," she said. "He's young and goofy and always talking so he's bound to say something stupid."

Again, no answer.

Chloe thought about pointing out that Sully had betrayed Sam, that Sully in his eagerness to redeem himself had become like a big brother to Nate. That you didn't have a guy move into your apartment and go on adventures with him and not form some kind of family bond. That Nate was bad at recognizing boundaries, and that growing up an orphan would shatter all sense of normal homelife and the relationships he formed. That Nate meant well but didn't know when to stop and Sully needed to be patient with him. That a single "Knock it off about my dating life, kid" would have put an end to Nate's teasing about it because the boy wasn't mean or malicious, just naïve.

But Chloe felt words would fall short, and action was needed. "Do you have a wooden ruler?"

The surprising question had Sully glance up. "Yeah, on my desk over there. Why?" His face darkened. "Is this some kind of measuring joke about which of us is the bigger man?"

"Gross, and no." Chloe went over to the desk and removed the wooden ruler from the container that held writing and office supplies. She held it in her hand, deciding it was strong enough for the job. "Come on, I need you to do something for me."

He followed her to the door but griped, "I don't want to talk about anything right now."

"No talking," Chloe went to stand in front of Nate who had perked up with anxious eagerness to please. "We're going to set a boundary. Guys are bad about boundaries in all areas of their life, and you both are bad at being honest with each other."

She ignored their protests and went on, "So, Nate, you are going to bend over the couch. Sully, you are going to spank him with this ruler for cutting you down. Nate's going to hold still and take it and then apologize at the end. And then we're good."

"Are you crazy?" Nate blurted at the same time as Sully objected, "You don't spank guys like that. It's too weird."

"Well, it's crazy and weird to go off looking for pirate ships and treasures, but here we are. You've got to have each other's back and you can't leave mad at each other. So get to spanking."

Nate had stood and was about to protest further, but Chloe looked at Sully and said, "Nate thinks you are all sensitive and fragile, like a big porcelain doll. He called you a baby."

Nate hadn't said anything more than sensitive, but Sully let out a roar of frustration, spun the younger man around to fall on the arm of the couch, and started whacking his rear with the ruler. Nate let out a yelp of pain followed by a frantic, "No, no, I didn't!"

"He thinks you can't put him in his place because you're scared to stand up to him," Chloe nagged Sully on. "Show him who's in charge, Sully!"

Sully's free arm had wrapped around the back of Nate's shirt to hold him in place, and the other hand landed a barrage of blows all over Nate's squirming bottom.

"I don't, I don't!" Nate wailed.

"Sully is the boss of the team," Chloe jeered. "Sully makes the rules, and now Nate has to wear a muzzle!"

"Shut up, you," Sully growled at her. "When I'm done here, you got two seconds to apologize to the kid for hitting him in Barcelona, or you're going over the couch next."

Chloe went silent, and the room was filled with only the sounds of smacking and Nate's pleas for mercy.

"Please, Sully, I'm sorry. Ow! I didn't think. Please I won't – Ugh! How did you get so strong?"

"I lift weights," Sully landed a hard whack down and then straightened up. He pulled Nate to his feet and turned the trembling young man to face him. "We good now?"

"We good, we good," Nate agreed. His red face and shining eyes might have indicated the opposite of what he said, but his attention lay solely on Sully.

"Nice," Sully turned to Chloe.

"I'm sorry for bashing you in Barcelona," she said to Nate. "I'm sorry for stealing the plans from you in the Philippines."

"Nice," Sully repeated. He turned to Nate. "You good with her or you need to spank her with the ruler?"

"Sully!" Nate's cheeks went red, and he ducked back in embarrassment. "You can't – I mean, she's a girl."

"A girl who needs a spanking in my mind," Sully had his usual matter-of-fact voice back.

Chloe watched them both coolly, but Nate kept shifting and stammering, "It's not – I mean, not like that. I would want it to be different. Not a punishment, but sort of – I can't even… because it couldn't …"

"It looks like you really want to. You're all nervous but excited."

"Hey, man, don't tease," Nate couldn't even look anyone in the eye. Sully was right – it felt awful to be teased when you didn't like it.

"Fair enough," Sully tossed the ruler on a side table. "Should we all go to dinner?"

"I was going to cook," Nate said.

"You've been cooking all week, and I'm all dressed up so let's go somewhere nice."

"I'm game," Chloe smiled. She put both of her arms around each of their arms. "It will give me a chance to show off."

"You got new bling?" Sully asked.

"I got a pretty dress I can wear, but I was talking about showing off my company at somewhere expensive. I walk in with two hot guys and make every girl jealous. 'How?' they will groan. 'How did she manage to get them both?' It's always fun to make other girls jealous. Hell, it's fun to make anyone jealous."

Nate thought she was laying it on a bit thick, but Sully was eating it all up so Nate just nodded along. The burn in his rear was still fresh, and he wanted to avoid anything that would have him in jeopardy of the dreaded ruler again.

"Can I wear my new coat?" Sully sounded as eager as a teenager going to prom. "They put these super sharp lapels in it, all sleek lines. A tailor even fitted me."

"Cool! I got my dress in my car in the garage. What's the kid going to wear?"

"Help him pick out something if you can," Sully ducked back into his room, and they heard him rustling through the closet. "He's got some of the worst clothes. Everything he has makes him look like a hard-up bartender."

"I was a hard-up bartender," Nate whispered to Chloe, but she smiled as she led him back to the second bedroom where his meager positions now lived.

An hour later, when they stepped out onto the street to hail a taxi, Chloe stood between each man, her gloved hands resting in the crook of their offered arms. "I love this," she preened. "I feel like a princess."

"You look like one," Sully assured her.

Nate shifted in his own clothes, wishing his underwear wasn't quick so stiff. He wasn't thrilled about the idea of sitting for a long dinner at some fancy place that usually had uncomfortable chairs. But for Sully . . .

And then there was Chloe. Nothing but unsettling feelings there.

Nate took a breath to steady himself. He just had to get through dinner and then onto the plane tomorrow. Smugglers and governmental lawmen would seem a breeze after the drama of the day. And surely he could keep himself quiet enough to avoid any more physical punishment.

Sully's ruler would need to be lost in the jungles of South America, regardless. Just to remove that option from the older man's mind when it came to his young, impulsive partner.