It felt like everything stopped. Time. His heart. His breath.
In her lap, she held Paris, the little girl TB and Flame had adopted after rescuing her, Mouse, and four other little girls from a Mythos school in Cairo earlier this year.
A ray of sunshine cast its way through the L.A. smog and the tinted windows of Tribe’s conference room, rolling across the room to her. For just a second, he swore he saw a shadowy form of a six-year-old boy standing next to her chair, looking down into the sleeping face. Then it was gone.
“Steel?” Waters’ voice came from behind him.
He turned his head toward his boss. “It’s up to Daleyza, but… I know what she’d say. We’re staying.”
Waters smiled. “The offer is always open-ended. And that goes for all of you,” he said, turning in a half circle around the room, his finger pointed at each man in turn. “You change your mind, all you have to do is say.”
“We’re not going anywhere, boss man.”
There was a long pause, then Nemo clapped his hands together. “Alrighty then. Would you rather…?”
A collective groan rose from every man in the room.
“Midas, please tell me Ka-Bar can push him out of the helicopter tomorrow, and that I get to pack his parachute. Pretty please?With NikNaks on top?” TB whined, his head leaning back on the couch.
Laughter rang out across the room.
“NikNaks on ice cream? That’s disgusting. Are you two pregnant again?”
TB grabbed Nemo, who was sitting next to him, and put him in a headlock.
“Seriously, gang. This might be our last chance to play for a while,” Nemo reminded them from TB’s grip.
Instantly, the mood turned sober. TB let go of his nemesis, and they all turned their focus on Nemo.
Midas nodded. “Ask your question, brother.”
“Would you rather…?” Nemo looked around at his fellow deadmen. “Live a finite number of years with your blood family, or an infinite life with your friends?”
There was a pause before TB spoke. “You know, I think I liked you more when you weren’t so philosophical.”
The blond smiled at him, but with none of his usual cockiness. “Your answer?”
The giant shook his head. “It’s an impossible question.”
“Nothing’s impossible.”
“Well, it’s not fair, then.”
Steel interjected, “Why do we always have to pick one answer or the other?”
“Because… duh! Those are the rules of the game,” Nemo reminded him.
“Look around this space.” The men looked at each other, a question in their eyes. “Since when have any of us ever followed the rules?”
There was a pause as they all ruminated on the question.
“Each one of us has been a rule breaker our entire lives. Waters constantly circumvented orders as a SEAL. TB deserted the Israeli Army. Nemo and Midas stole from anyone and everyone. Demon ran races with anything meant to kill someone. I led two lives that weresecret from one another. Ka-Bar was also leading a double life within the United States Navy, for fuck’s sake. None of that is exactly synonymous with following the rules. So why would we start now?”
All of them were nodding their heads.
Waters nodded. “I want forever with my found family. Kubrick. The girls. All of you.” He looked up. “I miss Sarah every goddamn day,” he admitted. “I still feel guilty that she’s gone and I’m not. I want her, as part of my blood family, with me infinitely as well, but I know she’d tell me to make that same decision in Afghanistan all those years ago that cost me my kidney and my career.
“She’d remind me that opening that folder may have played a part in costing me a sister, but it brought me the love of my life and two little girls who are the very embodiment of why I lost that kidney in the first place. When Liliana and Catalina came into our lives, I realized I didn’t lose anything when that knife plunged into me. I gainedeverythingfrom that day forward. Now I get to watch them become whatever they want to be, to have the lives their blood families seemed so determined to keep from them. In the end, what destroyed me brought me full circle and made me whole.”
