Page 102 of Trigger Happy Ending

“Don’t fall in.” I grab her hand. “There’s sharks in the water.”

She leans in, her breath warm against my neck. “I hear they’re well fed around here.”

I grin; the memory of kicking that piece of shit, Alex, into the ocean fills me with satisfaction. I tap her on the thigh and beckon her to slide to the front of the jet ski. I shift to the left slightly, letting her slide over me on the right. I shift backwards as she straddles the front of the jet ski, facing me. She squints at the horizon, eyes lit with the reflection of sun.

“We’ve gotta talk,” I begin. “I met with Carson this morning. We’re on. He offered me PARM-17.”

“Did you contact O?”

I nod. “Yeah. I’ve got the go-ahead to confirm the deal.”

“Where is it?”

“Back in New York.”

“Okay. So then what?”

“I’ll arrange the payment, take delivery back in the city, and hand it over to O.”

“Mission accomplished.”

“Yeah,” I repeat, letting a beat pass. “I guess so.”

Neither of us seem happy. Which is exactly the opposite to how I always imagined this moment might be like. When we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, the finish line within reach. I thought I’d feel threaded with relief. Relief that, finally, I’d be free.

But I don’t feel excited. I don’t feel relieved at all.

“Listen,” I start. “There’s a lot we don’t know. We’ve been kept in the dark about a lot of shit.”

Raine’s eyebrows furrow together. “Like what?”

“Like where PARM-17 originated from. Carson said it was Agency developed.”

"Carson knows about the Agency?"

"Yeah."

"Agency developed?"

"Yep."

The sound of the water splashes against the jet ski. Raine doesn’t say anything for a few moments. “Why wouldn’t O have told us that?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

The whole assignment feels dark. At the beginning, I couldn’t give a fuck where this shit came from or who created it. My one goal was to secure it and sever ties with the Agency for good. But it feels complicated now, and not just because I’ve fallen for the girl, but because it feels like there’s so much more to the story.

Raine’s heavy sigh draws me out of my thoughts.

“It’s so beautiful out here,” she says softly, gazing out over the ocean. “Away from it all.”

“Yeah,” I agree, watching her freckles glint under the sunlight. I wonder if she knows how beautiful she is when she drops the act. When she’s just Raine. Her face relaxes, her breathing slows, and her eyes … Fuck, they even kind of sparkle.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring.”