BUCKY

Emerald Isle was a beautiful, beachy town with the kind of vibrant, scrubby foliage you see in vacation brochures. The smell of sea water was less briny here than in New York, the air clearer. Crystal blue water, soft white sand, smiling people everywhere… you’d think I would have been less tense.

It had taken nearly 10 hours to drive down, during which Sam made every attempt to talk me out of our little rogue mission. Luckily, he gave up somewhere near Fredericksburg. I didn’t know how to explain the restlessness that plagued me. I didn’t really have words for the crawling feeling beneath my skin that I might not be doing enough.

“So,” Sam said as we walked down the sidewalk, sunshine spilling down so brightly that every window blinded me. “Where to now, Hothead?”

I ignored the name and squinted up at the buildings surrounding us. “Kate’s mom was loaded, right?”

“Yeah,” Sam said slowly, trying to read my face.

“Maybe she’s holed up in one of these fancy hotels or something.” My gaze lingered on a large building with a green roof and brick foundation. Islander Hotel and Resort.Once we had walked a little further past it, we saw a short white fence enclosing the back of the hotel property, which included a pool and a bunch of chairs for lounging. Seemed like a rich people haunt.

Sam stopped in his tracks and stared at me with that irritating line between his eyebrows.

Here it comes.

“This was your plan? To come down here and start searching around on whatever hunch hits you? Because that’s not a plan, Bucky.”

“Sam-”

“That’s just you running around glaring at everyone like a lunatic, hoping one of them is the person we’re looking for.”

“Sam.”

My firm tone of voice made him look up. I nodded my head at a bar where a man with a dark beard and a gray coat was slinking in through the door. His eyes scanned the street, passing over us disinterestedly for the split second it took him to pull the door open and enter.

“Was that-”

“That’s one of our strays,” I affirmed, beginning to smile.

Sam gave me a bland look. “This doesn’t mean you were right.”

“Sure,” I said snarkily, my smile dying before it could grow. “We’ve only just hit pay-dirt for the first time in weeks. That doesn’t count for anything.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Sam said, shaking his head with a sigh. “Let’s just get this over with.”

INDY

“You know,” I said idly, my eyes closed even though my sunglasses kept the sun out of my eyes. “I think I like it here.”

“My parents used to bring me here when I was a kid. We had a summer house here, but-” Kate hesitated for only a moment before continuing, “-mom sold it after dad died.”

I turned my head and looked over at her, sympathy sending a dull and half-forgotten pain through my chest. I put my hand over hers on the arm of her beach chair and tried to give her an encouraging smile.

“Is there anywhere else around here you’d expect her to come back to?” John asked at the end of our row of chairs on the beach, facing the water. A bright white patch of sunscreen coated his nose and (for some reason) nothing else. All of us sported swimsuits; easier to go unnoticed by our rogue teammates without our usual choices in clothing.

“Nothing comes to mind,” Kate said with a frown. “Although sometimes she would suggest the two of us coming back here and renting out a cabin for a while. I never took her up on it. I couldn’t without…”

Dad.

I felt rather than heard the conclusion to that sentence. How long had it been since I had thought about my own parents? I wasn’t sure.

“There they are,” Yelena said suddenly.

She had been holding her phone up and pretending to take selfies so she could watch the street behind us. We didn’t want either Bucky and Sam or Eleanor and her constituents to spot us too early; at this point, either party could spook and do something stupid.

I reached my arms above my head, pretending to stretch before turning just a little to the left. Over my shoulder I could see Bucky and Sam’s familiar forms yards away, across the street. They were walking toward the door of a bar.

They have no idea what they’re doing, do they?

I scowled and settled back into the chair. “They’ll be out again in a second.”

“How do you know that?” John asked leisurely, peering over at me from the top of his sunglasses.

I didn’t respond, instead pointing over my shoulder.

John, Yelena, and Kate turned their heads as one, watching as Sam and Bucky reemerged. I couldn’t see their faces from here, but I would imagine they both had flexed jaws and eyes full of fire right now. Immediately behind them were the two men Eleanor had disappeared with. They followed our teammates so closely I assumed there were guns beneath their coats trained on Sam and Bucky.

Normally the two of them would have no problem taking on these two low-level goons, but there was almost nothing but families around. If they had bothered to include me in this little excursion of theirs, I could have warned them that this would be the case. I could also have told them Eleanor’s agenda and current hideout.

This is why my job is so vital to the operation. Finesse and precision can’t be achieved without intel.

Just as the door was swinging shut, another person stepped out with the group we were all now watching.

“Mom,” Kate breathed as her mother’s satisfied expression came into the sunlight that slanted in beneath the bar’s awning.

BUCKY

“MMPH!” I grunted through the duct tape covering my mouth as another metal-ringed fist collided with my cheek. The taste of blood flooded my mouth, with nowhere to go. As I rocked with the blow, I could feel Sam at my back being tugged to the side by the interlinked cuffs that bound both of our hands behind us. I probably could’ve broken them with my metal hand, but I might’ve broken Sam’s wrists in the process.

We’d been escorted at gunpoint through young couples, kids, and elderly retirees. Sam had cut his eyes at me over and over on our way out to the pier and onto a small yacht. I could practically see the “I told you so” in his eyes.

That had been hours ago. We’d been cuffed and questioned on the whereabouts of the rest of our team.

“I’d been hoping to come for my daughter eventually,” Eleanor had gloated passively. “But how much more convenient that you two should fall into my lap. Now she’ll come to me.”

Wherever Eleanor was on this boat now, we hadn’t seen her since the sun had set. The two men who had us held below deck either couldn’t speak or refused to. Every question we’d asked had been met with violence until finally they had taped our mouths shut and taken to giving us a punch or kick when we looked too boldly at them. Of course, they knew I was a super soldier, so I got the brass knuckles instead of bare hands.

Sam wriggled impatiently at my back, reminding me again that I had dragged him into this as well. I wasn’t too proud to admit to myself that I had been wrong. Very wrong. Not only had I not questioned a single variable, I had rushed into danger with my teammate — my friend — in tow. I grit my teeth against the knowledge that I was, again, making the wrong decisions. Getting people hurt…

I lifted my head and my eyes fell on the porthole directly ahead of me. As a reflective flare outside the glass began to grow, a high-pitched whistle made us all cringe. In the next second, glass was flying everywhere and people were flooding the yacht. I turned my face away from the spray of glass, but a few shards still tore through my shirt and pant legs.

“ON THE GROUND!”

“HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!”

“DROP THE GUNS!”

“GET DOWN! NOW!”

So many harshly barked orders filled the space that I was unsurprised when Eleanor’s two henchmen simply stood there, dumbfounded. Their guns were quickly knocked out of their hands, and their arms were yanked roughly behind them as one of the geared-up men rattled off what I’d recently learned were called Miranda rights. One person stowed their gun and came to help Sam and I. The key for our restraints was still on Eleanor, presumably. So all they could really do for us was tear the tape off our mouths.

Sam groaned loudly as soon as his mouth was uncovered. “Man, I am never taking a road trip with you again,” he snarled over his shoulder at me.

I frowned, but a stirring of guilt kept me from saying anything.

The only door to the room opened, and a familiar group entered. I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the team. Or most of them. Kate was probably dealing with her mother.

Indy was first through the door, dressed tactically and with her hair down for the first time that I’d seen. And flanking her were John and Yelena, who wore matching stern glares and black suits.

The overhead lights caught on the gold streaks in the dark waves of Indy’s hair as she swept her eyes over the room. The glass on the floor, the men who were now kneeling in cuffs, then Sam and I.

I grinned weakly at her. “Hey, Indy.”

Her impassive expression didn’t give way as she walked over to us, key in hand. I felt her fingers close over my right wrist as she lifted the tangle of hands and shoved the key in. I heard Sam hiss in pain behind me and winced along with him. She jerked the key to the side, making us both groan in pain again before letting us go, the cuffs falling to the floor with a clatter.

I brought my metal hand around to rub out the soreness in my wrist as Indy came around and crouched in front of me. Yelena did the same on Sam’s side, both of them cutting through the thick zip-ties that trapped our legs against those of our chairs.

The tension along Indy’s jaw was unfamiliar. She was always so free with her smiles, I guess it hadn’t occurred to me that she could ever be as angry as she was happy. But when she raised her guarded amber-colored eyes to mine, I felt a chill run through me.

“Thanks,” I murmured.

She didn’t respond, just stood up and tossed the pair of cutters she’d untied me with into my lap. I jolted, then frowned as she left the room without another word.

“You fucked up,” John said as he surveyed the procession of agents who led the goons away. “The two of you could have been killed if Indy and Kate hadn’t acted so quick.”

Heat swept up my neck. But before I could answer, Sam had stepped between us.

“Why don’t we save the finger pointing and scolding for later,” he suggested. He stood with his shoulders back and head up, like he was challenging John rather than trying to diffuse things.

Yelena rolled her eyes and marched between us all, toward the door and out.

John stared hard at the two of us for a moment longer before shaking his head and turning to leave.

As soon as they were gone, I let my grimace fall. I felt… tired. Old and tired.

Sam slapped my back bracingly, turning for the door as well. I followed.

Up top, Eleanor Bishop was being led away in cuffs, the first amount of warmth in her expression as she looked worriedly back at her daughter. Indy, finally not grimacing, had her arms around Kate as she cried. Yelena frowned down at her boots as she put a hand on Kate’s shoulder.

I looked away quickly. Why hadn’t the possibility of this hurting Kate ever crossed my mind?

Indy returned to being jarringly distant as she ushered us into the Uber she’d called for us after facilitating the evacuation of our criminals. It was a silent, uncomfortable ride to the jet.

I couldn’t bring myself to meet anyone’s eye. Or even look up.

I almost got Sam killed. And he still stuck up for me.

Why do I keep messing up?

They’re all right about me.

The others went up the gangplank ahead of me. I hesitated outside the door. Indy stood just to the right of it, waiting to board until the rest of us were on. I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off by raising her hand.

“I’ll deal with you at home,” she said in a low voice that would have terrified me when I was younger. She jerked her thumb behind her testily. “Get in.”

I complied, seating myself as far from the others as I could get. Indy stepped inside and secured the door, then strode up to the cockpit. A few minutes later, we were taking off.

I stared out of my window, watching stars and clouds and sky pass by. The cold glass felt good against my cheek. It had been punched enough times that even being a super soldier wasn’t keeping the soreness off.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Indy return from the cockpit and walk down the aisle toward the back, to a separate cabin. I couldn’t look up from the blue-blackness outside the window, so if she scowled at me as she passed, I didn’t know. But I wouldn’t blame her if she had.