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There was a point after which rest turned to rust. Instincts honed over years lost their edge. It was okay to pretend they were civilians for a while, so long as they knew that, in the end, they weren’t. They were fugitives.
Not thinking about the future didn’t stop the future from thinking about you.
Not one honest word had been spoken, but the nature of their lies told the story to anyone who knew how to read it.
The old Hendricks would never have let himself be hushed by Jenn that way. They were all meek, pale shadows of themselves.
We’re just going to live in Portugal now and work for a drug dealer? Is that what we are now? Mercenaries?”
when principle collided with the real world, taking a stand could get you killed. Gibson had always had a hard time accepting that.
This was why she didn’t believe in olive branches. People had a habit of sharpening them to points and using them as weapons.
Gibson made her grateful to be an only child. Caring about people was exhausting.
She’d been drinking too much; she knew that. But she’d told herself that when the time came she could control it. A voice of golden honey asked, Why would you want to fight something that feels so good? Problem was, she didn’t know that she did.
They were each the other’s reminder of all they’d lost. Being together made forgetting the past impossible. Or what had brought them here.
That was Gibson’s first choice, because then George, Jenn, and Hendricks would have no choice but to quit screwing around and move on. What he couldn’t anticipate was how the fall of Baltasar Alves would affect them.
Anibal stopped again, hugging the wall and using a doorframe for cover. No, thank you. Gibson knelt in the center of the corridor instead. Bullets had a nasty habit of skating along walls until finding somewhere soft to call home.
For most, loyalty lasted only as long as interests aligned. Baltasar looked vulnerable, so that meant he was vulnerable.
It certainly ran counter to her philosophy about men. About all her relationships, if she was being honest. People were temporary. They came. They went. To expect otherwise made you dependent on others. Dependency led to a weakness that bled you from a thousand invisible wounds. Watching her mother disintegrate after her father had been killed in Beirut had taught Jenn that lesson.
Since permitting himself to be rescued by Gibson Vaughn, Fernando hadn’t had a moment to himself.
“A person shouldn’t be defined by their worst moment. I mean, who would that leave? Best we can do is learn from our mistakes, not kill ourselves over them. Penance is overrated.”
When a species adapts to survive in its environment, that’s evolution. That’s all it is. We’re not evolving into something better, more enlightened. Or worse. We evolve to survive. Nothing more. And survival is amoral. It is not an enlightened state.” “That’s pretty cynical.”
Like many kids who had grown up achingly poor before making something of themselves, Sebastião spent money not out of need but to reassure himself that he had escaped.
“So, if it comes down to it, what’s your priority? Our lives or the kids?”
“Of course Daniel will come.” “Why?” Jenn said. “If all four of us are here, and Gibson is wrong, then we’re all as good as dead.” “If it were you, would you stay where it was safe? This is who we are, Jennifer. This is why I hired you and Daniel in the first place.”
Because I have nothing, and if I stay, I will rely on you for everything. Money. Safety. Because nothing lasts forever, and my life would depend on you never getting tired of me. We will never be equals, and I can’t live that way. Dependent. Deferring to you. Afraid to rock the boat. You will come to despise me for it. While I come to resent you.
