"You've done enough already."
"You still have to handle my problem," she reminded me. "Who knows how uneven we will all be after that?"
"This isn't a scale that needs to be evened out, Sass. I want to help because I want to help, no matter what helping brings."
"Well, then you know how I feel."
"Sass..."
"Oh my God, Che. This is what I do for a living," she reminded me, rolling her eyes.
"I just realized that I don't like it," I said, smiling.
"Well, that's too bad. It's what I do. And wouldn't you rather it be me, than take on some unknown idiot? Or trust one of your brothers who hasn't ever done what I do? This is Miami. You're closer than you think to getting caught by the cops if you don't plan and execute this perfectly."
"That's what I'm worried about," I admitted. "I don't want you in jail because of us."
"I'm not going to jail. Their cars have never been fast enough to catch mine. Oh," she said, face falling.
"Seeley and the others are working on the car situation," I told her.
"I'd need to inspect and test drive it," she said, already slipping into work mode.
"Obviously," I agreed.
"Do you really hate the plan, or do you just hate my part in it?" she asked.
"I don't know. I mean, I know I don't like you having a part in it. But it is a high-stakes plan given the location of it."
"Alright, come on. Let's go iron out the details, so we can see if it is doable or not," she said, starting to fold up.
My hand landed on her shoulder, pushing her back down.
"Just one minute," I said, leaning down, sealing my lips to hers.
I kept it short, knowing we needed to get out to the common area.
"When this is all over, we need to do more of that," I told her.
"A lot more of that," she agreed, eyes a little far away as the desire slowly melted away.
When we made it back to the common area, Ayanna, Teddy, and Gus were nowhere to be found, likely hiding out so they could have deniability if something went down. That was something I couldn't offer to Sass, and it was bothering me more than it should have.
Remy and Huck were waiting with West in the kitchen, everyone with mugs of coffee in their hands.
"West," I said, nodding at him. "Shouldn't you be with the others?"
"I figure I can pitch in," he said.
"Is your president okay with that?" I asked.
"You guys have come up to help us. We can return the favor every now and again."
"I mean, it all hinges on the plan not being a complete clusterfuck," Sass said, taking a mug of coffee when Remy passed it to her.
Gone was any of the insecurity, any of the softness that I'd seen in her before. This was Saskia, the professional. And she didn't doubt herself in the slightest.
If I wasn't so determined to hate her involvement in all of this, I would have found it sexy as hell.
"We've already ironed out the details," Huck informed her.
"No, no you haven't," she said, shaking her head. "Since you'd need me to do that. But I'm here now. Let me see what you've got. I'll let you know if it is possible."
Huck shot me a smirk before launching into it.
"Are you serious? That is what you call ironed out details?" Sass asked, rolling her eyes, letting out a sigh. "Who is going to be where? What is the traffic like that time of night? How many patrol cars are in the area?" she asked, walking over toward the door, snagging a notepad from the console table.
"Now that," she declared an hour later, waving at the many pages of paper on the kitchen island, "is what an ironed-out plan looks like," she told us.
"You better not have put us through all this shit only to tell us it isn't workable," Huck declared, going for his third cup of coffee.
"It's... it's a little rough. It is dependent upon the actions of people you don't know, so you can't guess if they will react predictably or not. But, as a whole, even men who aren't scared of guns, are pretty scared of fire. So, you will probably get them outside. From there, it's all wind patterns and good aim and a little bit of luck."
"What about you?"
"Well, me, I swing around here, and pick up McCoy," she said, stabbing a finger into her map. "The rest of you need to haul ass to your locations," she went on, pointing to the designated spots for each of us. "The margin of error is so slight. One minute too late or early could fuck the whole thing up. Especially on a weeknight in the area. The cops won't have a lot going on. If you all could have watches with alarms set, that would be good. It has to be perfect, or some of you will be stranded until the heat dies down."