Page 39 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“Absolutely not.”

Raven’s smile widened. “That one has potential.”

“You are all terrible at this.”

The side door opened.

Wolf entered carrying a black mug, his hair pulled back now and his mask still covering the lower half of his face. His arrival pulled everyone’s attention without stopping the conversation.

Jackal looked at him.

“Perfect timing boss. Mercer needs a callsign.”

Wolf kept walking.

“No, she doesn’t.”

“We have options.”

“I don’t care.”

Jackal persisted because self-preservation was apparently an intermittent condition. “Mongoose, goose, fox, magpie, honey badger.”

Wolf stopped near the coffee machine. I watched him, curious despite myself. He poured coffee and looked at me over the rim of the mug.

“She’s temporary.”

The table went quiet.

Jackal lowered the hot sauce bottle he had somehow recovered and Raven looked at Wolf with a flicker of disapproval that vanished almost immediately.

I swallowed the bite in my mouth. “Temporary?”

“You don’t need one.”

“Because I’m… temporary.”

“You said it.”

There was enough casual certainty in his voice that irritation crawled straight up my spine.

I leaned back in my chair. “Whatever.”

Wolf’s eyes rested on me for another second.

“6:30,” he said to Raven.

Raven glanced at the clock. “She’s ready.”

“I can see that.”

Wolf’s gaze flicked down once, taking in the fitted training clothes and the shoes Raven had requested, then returned to my face without comment. For some reason, I became sharply aware of the leggings against my thighs and the way the quarter-zip fit across my chest.

Wolf walked away.

Jackal waited until the side door shut behind him before saying, “Shit, temporary is kind of a metal name.”

“I will put hot sauce in your shampoo.”