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“But, sir—” Giza began sternly, looking mighty pissed off himself.

“Isaid, Sergeant Major, that I’m done talking about this.” Wes met Giza’s gaze, their eyes locking, and exchanged heated stares before Giza rolled his shoulders back and gave one definitive nod, remaining silent. Wes flashed everyone the fakest smile I’d ever seen. “Good. Now that that’s settled, I expect to hear from you all within the next two hours with details.”

“Yes, sir,” they all responded in unison.

Wes cleared his throat and stepped away from the table towards the door. Just as he reached it, he paused, turned around and looked right at me. I was still glued to my chair,overwhelmed, lost about what just happened, and unsure of how I felt about Wes’s involvement in all this. Understanding his motives left me feeling a little, well, disappointed if I was honest with myself. But I couldn’t figure out why.

Wes cleared his throat. “Are you coming, or what?”

“Uh…” I stood up and gave a half nod to everyone in the room. “Thanks,” was all I could muster before I stepped away quickly and followed Wes out the door.

***

We were standing outside the building, waiting for Smiley and Roger to bring our respective cars around to pick us up. And it was awkward. So much happened so fast, and now I didn’t know what to say. Moreover, I had a million questions, and I wanted answers for all of them. Then again, a part of me was nervous to ask and find my suspicions confirmed. What I just couldn’t put my finger on was why did I feel bothered by it? That piece made no sense to me.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a meeting with Giza this morning?” Wes’s curt voice caught me off guard, startling me.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you,” he began again slowly, like I was an idiot, “tell me…you were…meeting with Giza?” He dragged the whole thing out.

Since when did I need to tell him my business? “Last time I checked, you aren’t my babysitter anymore.” My words came out with a bite, and I knew that Wes knew exactly what I meant when I used the wordbabysitter. So often in the rebel camp, that’s exactly how he referred to himself whenever he was stuck training with me.

He got the reference, looking taken aback. He hesitated, and then cleared his throat, standing a little taller as he spoke. “True.But last time I checked, you and I are stuck in a tighter bond than babysitting. If we’re going to do this, it would be nice if we started trusting each other a bit more.” He looked at me, eyes sincere but filled with fiery energy I couldn’t peg. “As in actuallytellingeach other what’s going on. Just a suggestion…” he added sarcastically.

“Oh yeah,” I fired back hotly, “then why didn’tyoutell me you were meeting with Giza?”

“I wasn’t.”

Wait, what?“Hold up…were you not just in the same craptastic meeting I was?”

Wes sighed, looking at the sky before speaking. “I didn’t have a meeting with Giza. You mentioned meeting with him before you ran off this morning. So I made a few calls and got my ass over here.”

“Why?”

Wes cracked his neck as he rolled his head over his shoulders, then glanced at me with a bored expression. “Why what?”

God, I hated when he played stupid. “Come on, Wes. Why did you come? This has nothing to do with you.”

His expression changed, flickering through an emotion that looked like…hurt? No, why would he be hurt? It disappeared quickly, and his features went back to annoyance. “Well, it has something to do with me now. So moving forward, when you’ve got meetings like these, you tell me,” he demanded.

I didn’t like it.

“Oh, well excuse me, your highness. I didn’t mean to get your boxers all up in a bunch, but I don’t have to tell you squat, got it? And you didn’t answer my question. Why the hell are you here?”

He stood up straight, turning to face me as he crossed his arms, muscles bulging deliciously under the sleeves of his t-shirt. “I’m not asking you, Mara, I’m telling you. I’m co-leadingthis operation now, and I’d like for us both to come back alive. Unlike you, I don’t have a death wish—”

“I don’t have a death wish,” I argued back. “And you can’t boss me around like that, Wes.Co-leaders don’t boss each other around.”

Wes scoffed. “Clearly you’ve never been a leader then.”

Ouch…that one, that one hurt.I stayed silent as my brows knitted together and a frown took over my lips. Wes noticed the shift, flicking his gaze toward me. Then the scowl dropped from his face.

“Hey,” he began, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Whatever.I didn’t need to hear his lame excuses. It didn’t matter, anyway. “It’s fine,” I said sharply. “Whatever… We just sat in a meeting for over an hour arguing about how I’m not fit to lead. Fine,” I spat out. “So maybe I’mnota leader.” I shifted my gaze back to him, hardening myself, letting my hurt surround me and act like a shield. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t boss me around or tell me what I can or can’t do.”

His face went blank, holding my gaze, until he finally nodded.