Page 17 of Endurance

Finn frowned. “Are you still pissed from this afternoon?”

Brenna glared at him. “You really shouldn’t piss off your roommate. They might kill you in your sleep.”

Her words took me by surprise. I had given myself a little tour of the cabin earlier and there were only four bedrooms. Jameson and I were sharing one. I had assumed the girls would share one while Vincent and Maura’s security shared the remaining two. If Brenna was bunking with Finn, who was Maura sharing a room with?

“Roommate?” Jameson said, obviously coming to the same conclusion.

Hoping I'd misunderstood, I asked, “You aren’t sharing a room with Maura?”

Brenna winced and exchanged a look with Maura. “Finn, that’s our cue to leave.” Finn didn’t argue and the two of them took off down the hall.

Jameson and I both looked to Maura.

I swore she surpassed Stefan when it came to being unreadable. “Dean is bunking with me,” she said.

Anger burned in my chest and I didn’t fucking care to hide it. “Are you fucking him?”

Maura didn’t even react. She just blinked at me and replied simply, “No.”

I looked at Dean. He had been quietly cleaning his gun where he sat in a chair across from us. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he shook his head. “None of us trust you not to take her.” He stood and gestured for Maura to leave with him.

When she did, I waited until I heard their door click shut before I stormed down the hall, leaving Jameson behind, and shut myself in the room we shared.

I had been jealous before when Maura and Jameson had gotten together but it had never been as bad as this.

Louie and I rode up in a cargo van with Dean and Maura, while Brenna and Finn followed with Asher in his truck. Dean parked the van on the side of the road about a mile away from where Alex Roth was hiding out. Everyone climbed out of the vehicles and began checking over their weapons. We were all dressed in black. Black long sleeved shirts, cargo pants, boots, and ski masks.

I couldn’t stop staring at Maura as she cocked her Glocks before shoving them back in the holsters strapped under her arms. I didn’t like how involved she was in this.

She caught me staring. “What?”

“No one would think less of you if you stayed behind until we captured him,” I said as delicately as possible.

Everyone around us paused. Maura rolled her eyes. “No.”

“You’re important, Maura,” I said, trying to reason with her.

“Not just to us but to the family,” Louie added. “If anything happens to you—”

A gun was cocked by my ear and Brenna stepped between us and Maura. “Back off.”

Dean stepped up next to her. “Don’t forget that you’re just guests here.”

I wasn’t trying to take charge. I wasn’t trying to be chivalrous and make her feel weak. It was that I needed her to be okay. I needed it as much as my next breath.

“If you’re worried about the danger, you’re more than welcome to wait here and watch the cars,” Asher quipped as he carried over two large rifle cases and held one out to Brenna.

When neither Louie nor I responded, Maura said, “Let’s go.”

We all split off. Because the sun was just starting to rise it was still a little dark out. It made it easy to go unseen as we made our way through the wooded area surrounding the house.

Asher and Brenna were the first to get into position where they’d watch over us through the scopes of their sniper rifles. “The sister is sitting on the porch, boiling heroin in a spoon,” Asher said through the tiny radio tucked into my ear.

Louie and I crept up to the last line of trees and peeked from behind them. Sure enough, Alex Roth’s sister was getting high. “We have a visual,” I said.

Dean’s voice followed. “Us too.”

“Same,” Finn said last.