He held the shirt tight as Ryan untangled the rest of himself from the stretchy fabric and stalked off to the bathroom.
“I’m talking to you.” Marco threw the bloodied shirt at him. Ryan ducked, and the shirt hit the wall instead. “First, you think she’s into Dave—”
“No, you thought she was into Dave.” Ryan was suddenly in his face, his long finger pointing at Marco. “You told me you saw them flirting, you started all this!”
His sudden hostility made Marco take a step back. He quickly regained his composure and retorted, “And? Did you do anything about it? Coward.”
Ryan rolled his eyes, turning back to the bathroom.
Since his brain wouldn’t shut up at this point, Marco continued to gloat. “You waited for months. You’ve anticipated this trip like the Second Coming, and chickened out again. And now she’ll find someone else, with all these new boys here, and you’ll be brooding again all day long, until I go crazy and jump out the window. Just do it, Ryan!”
Ryan turned to look at him, his lips twitching at Marco’s sudden outburst. “You done with your lecture? I have an awkward shower to take.”
“There will never be a perfect moment!” Marco pointed his finger at him, and Ryan shoved him out so he could close the bathroom door.
“God!” Marco paced in circles before the door, muttering to himself, “I swear, another week like this, and I’ll tell her myself. I—”
“Tell her what?” Pain’s voice froze him in place.
He turned to find her leaning in the doorway, arms crossed. Just how long had she been standing there?
“And who is she?”
He breathed out in relief. She didn’t know what they’d been talking about.
“Nobody. What do you want?”
“Peter’s waiting for us. The others are already there, come on.”
Marco grunted, snatching his sweatshirt off a chair as he followed her out of the room.
“What does Peter want from us?” he asked.
“He didn’t say. He and Dave got some idea concerning the Commandos.”
“He and Dave?”
Pain shot him a skeptical look. “That’s what I thought.”
Chapter 3
Jane finished the report as the room slowly filled with people.
Skull sat to her right, Elena to her left, and Luke was pacing back and forth while Peter and Dave were discussing something in hushed voices in Peter’s room. It was impossible to hear anything through the open door, and she gave up, giving the report another look.
Her sister’s sharp voice startled her. “Where have you been?” Pain stared at her with her best stern look.
“Um. Writing the report?” Jane said.
“Since when do you write reports?”
“Since Ryan’s been injured?”
Jane saw it in her sister’s face when Pain realized she was being ridiculous and gave up.
“Mm-hmm.” Pain stalked off to the other side of the table and took a seat next to Marco. Their expressions strangely matched.
“Everyone’s here, great!” Peter greeted them, walking into the office. He paused in front of Marco. “Where’s Ryan? Is he okay?”
“Peachy,” Marco grumbled. “He’s showering.”
“You’ll get him caught up then.” Peter perched on his desk and looked at Jane, humor lurking in his gaze. He quickly masked it, and she narrowed her eyes, sensing she wasn’t going to like what happened next.
Dave brought out a flip chart with an excited look, and Jane heard her sister sigh and mutter, “Brace yourself. Nonsense is coming.”
Marco’s lips quirked up in a lazy smile.
As Dave drew a few horizontal lines on the flip chart, Peter said, “Dave got an idea that could help us track down the Commandos, but I’d like to hear more opinions, hence the meeting. Hear him out and let us know what you think.”
“Thank you,” Dave said with a polite nod, making Pain roll her eyes.
He looked over the gathering with a serious face. His wrinkled t-shirt and messy hair weren’t helping the situation, and Jane found herself suppressing a smile.
“As you all know, the Commandos have only been seen in deserted, industrial parts of Brooklyn, and the search parties haven’t brought any results. They’re obviously tracking us—probably using infrared scanners—to keep their distance, so it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to sneak up on them.”
“We,” Pain whispered with an ironic glance at Marco. He elbowed her but smiled anyway.
Dave ignored her, too preoccupied with whatever was on his mind. He drew a few squares in between the lines on the flip chart.
“The weather makes it difficult to track them from the air, and there are no good cameras in those areas, so Rooney can’t track them down either. Now, we could install cameras there, but covering every street would be impossible. However, if we could get the cameras to move somehow, each covering a part of the area, it would give us a more dynamic picture at less cost. But the cameras still have to be inconspicuous, so using a car or a drone is not an option.”
He drew a few vertical lines, separating the imaginary street into square blocks with four buildings in each of them.
“So, we need someone to carry the cameras and GPS trackers.” He ticked it off on his fingers. “We need them to stick to a specific area. And we need them to be invisible.”
He made a dramatic pause as everyone stared at him, and Skull yawned like a bear.
“Stray dogs! That’s what we need!”
Everyone’s expressions slowly turned into frowns. Jane darted a look at her sister. Pain was staring at Dave without blinking, as if she were having a heart attack.
Seeing that no one had anything to say, Jane cleared her throat and asked, “How are you going to, um, make them stick to one area?”
“That’s the thing!” Dave clapped his hands, making everyone flinch. “We
