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There’s nothing wrong with living in the grey zone. Sidney’s lived in it for years. He’s built himself a house. Hitching his proverbial wagon to Rachel Wild’s is undoubtedly the only logical choice.
Rachel is a scalpel. She is cold, sharp, precise. Surgical. She possesses a finesse many would grind themselves to dust in a futile attempt to obtain it. It’s one of the things Sid admires most about her.
The second one is her boldness. Playing stupid or not, she never bothers to hide her teeth.
Salazar is a dangerous match for her. There is a man who will see her for what she is and want her dead for it.
She knows this. She must. She’s too clever not to realize. It’s why she’s giving Bronco a full month to lay claim on Salazar’s island. Bronco must know too, judging from the look he sends Sid’s way. Sid meets it evenly: yes, of course I know too.
They each have roles to play. Bronco is the spider. Sid is the snake.
He goes back to his team. He picks Gucci to come with him to Jeddah for precisely one reason: he needs somebody who knows tech. Gucci is fairly green, but he has potential. Working with Rachel will be good for him.
They are driving back from Salazar’s ruined construction site when Sidney finally reveals his hand. “If I wanted to track somebody…”
Salazar knows they’re here, so only one of them can go fetch Rachel. Sid takes the car and leaves Bronco to do one last inspection of her RV and to drill the team one last time on how to behave around their boss.
No incident. Not that he expected one. Salazar might have men following them, but he won’t pull anything before trying to buy Rachel off. It’d be a fool’s errand.
The ride is quiet. They never play music in the car. Bronco hates not being able to hear the engine and Sid’s become too used to his habits. Rachel basks in the silence for a moment and Sid waits.
After a little while, she taps the watch. “How long do I have to press down for?”
“A couple seconds will do,” he says. He’s still got an eye on the rear view mirror, but that’s as much safe driving as anything else. “It will activate the tracker and I will find you.”
“Do I need to press it again if I’m moved around locations?”
“It’s automatic. Once it’s on, it will stay on.”
“Good.” She rests her forehead on the window. “Too much fiddling with my watch would look suspicious.”
“We will get you out, Rachel,” he says. “No matter what.”
A soft, controlled exhale.
“I know.”
Loyalty is earned first and then cultivated. They’re not with her for the money. They are with her because—
Once upon a time, a lawyer in white shoes rescued two idiots from Chiang Mai. Sid’s still not sure how she pulled it off. She was a vision then, untouchable and regal even in the darkness, not a hair out of place. Sidney remembers wanting to say ‘you didn’t have to do this’ and choking it down. He can still hear the echo of her heels as she walked away, no doubt thinking they would listen and follow her. She was right.
Bronco loved her immediately after that. He can snark and deny it all he wants, but no other client can get him to drop any job he’s in with a simple text. Nobody else would get called sir so fondly. He wouldn’t agree to the watch plan for anyone other than Rachel.
It takes more to win Sid’s heart. He waited. He watched her move through the world, watched her use her silver tongue and her encyclopedic knowledge of law and loopholes to get her way. He saw her win, he kept her from losing, and one day he saw her afraid but unyielding, gun pointed straight towards her chest.
She didn’t back away even then. She expected— she knew Sid and Bronco would get her out. I trust you with my life.
And look, fine. That’s what did him in. Nobody works a job like that one and comes out with their heart unscathed or fully theirs.
“You’re going to like the kids,” he says.
“Did you get me a cynic?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want you to get bored.”
Her laugh is just like the rest of her: bright, loud and a proper shade of mean.
“Did you give her the watch?”
“Well, I knew how important it was to you, so I thought you might want to do it,” Sid says. Bronco raises his eyebrows behind his sunglasses and he smiles. “Yes, she has the watch.”
Bronco smiles back. “Ladies, we’ve found him. The most reliable man in the world.”
“You’re selling Baker short.”
“Oh, you’re right. The second most reliable man.”
They watch the roads outside the villa in silence for a moment, shoulder to shoulder. Being with Bronco is easy. Their dialects are different but they speak the same language. Corruption and intimidation are not quite two sides of the same coin, but it’s close enough.
“When’s the meeting?”
“Fourteen hundred hours,” says Sid.
Bronco clicks his tongue. Sid nods, understanding the disdain without words. High traffic hour. They have to hope…
He sighs. “She’s definitely stopping for a beer.”
“We’ll keep Dunne and Moreno on their bikes,” says Bronco. “But we’ll still need two cars. Easier to keep Rachel off range.”
Salazar is a formidable match, but Rachel has them on her side. This will end like it always does, a fulfilled contract and a swift getaway. He will miss their celebratory drink —they all know Rachel will be safer absconding to some far-off corner while the heat dies down— but they will make up for it eventually. Rachel loves mixing too much.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, her trap will be sprung.
“We should get some chairs out here,” Sid says. “Sun’s about to set.”
“A romantic at heart,” Bronco says, hand over his own. “I do know how to pick them.”