Page 75 of Love at First Rep

He responded, “But not as good as your mom’s. Now open the fucking door, Babs.”

A lock disengaged, and Rafe yanked the door open, stomping into the main area.

“I’m not going through with this. You guys promised me more time.”

Taylor Phillips stood from his chair at a metal table, a laptop in front of him. While McHugh was working at Cherrywood PD, he left Babs in charge. Rafe had no idea where the rest of the team was.

Rafe hated having to look up at the six-foot-two Taylor and his stupid movie star smile. He was annoyingly handsome, but he’d gotten them out of more than a few dire situations over the years. His confidence and dark blond hair earned him the code name Babs, short for Barbie. Rafe’s alias wasn’t nearly as embarrassing. Working as a chameleon that could blend in anywhere, his team dubbed him Misty as a nod to the X-Men character, Mystique. The shapeshifter’s transformation skills were a bit more intense, but it made Rafe confident in his skills.

“You know how this works, Misty. The priority is tracking down this kingpin and stopping them. We have to be ready for the shipment tomorrow, which means we’ve run out of time for you to play house with your boyfriend.”

Rafe lunged at Taylor, prepared to tackle him to the ground, but someone grabbed him from behind, wrapping beefy arms around him and holding him back.

“Settle down. I got you,” a deep voice said in his ear, and Rafe did his best to relax. Punching Taylor’s lights out would feel good, but it wouldn’t change a damn thing.

Something about the timbre of Robin’s voice calmed him, not to mention how his arms wrapped around Rafe like a weighted blanket.

“Okay, okay, I’m good,” Rafe said.

After another moment, the arms fell away from his body, and Rafe turned to see Darryl Rossi, aka Robin, watching him with sympathy.

Damn these guys and all their height. He liked it when Garrett towered over him. Anyone else? Not so much.

Robin stood at about the same height as Garrett and Babs, but had dark skin and a stocky body. Despite his size, he could sneak up on anyone. Usually, he stayed out of the action, preferring to position himself somewhere high with his sniper rifle, which was how he got his code name. His aim rivaled Robin Hood’s, and he loved to fuck with the rich. If he had to get directly involved, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Outside of the job, he was a big teddy bear. A big, sensitive teddy bear. It was cute how self-conscious he was about his size, always worrying about his diet and trying to lose weight. Rafe thought he didn’t need to change at all. He fit the bear stereotype perfectly, but Robin didn’t like to hear that. He hoped Robin could find someone who’d appreciate all of him one day.

It gave the team satisfaction to adopt female code names, something their old-school supervisor at the CIA hated. Now that they were on their own, they could be as LGBTQ-friendly as they wanted. Most of them fell somewhere under the rainbow umbrella, so that was one of many perks to being free of those bureaucratic strings.

“You good?” Robin asked.

Rafe sighed. “For now. I’m not about to punch Babs, but I’m still not okay with this plan for Garrett. It’s too risky, and he could get hurt. If he does, I’ll never forgive myself. I’ll never forgive you guys, either.”

“We won’t let him get hurt.”

Rafe appreciated the vehemence in Robin’s words, but that didn’t erase his fear, not only of Garrett getting hurt, but also of Garrett not forgiving him for this bullshit. Part of him wished he’d told the whole team about Garrett years ago, instead of just McHugh. Maybe they could have figured this out sooner. A growl escaped Rafe, and he angrily pulled out a chair at the table, falling into it like a petulant child who didn’t get dessert. He didn’t care.

“Isn’t there another way we can do this? Can’t I just talk to him and tell him the truth?”

Babs and Robin joined him at the table, Robin folding his hands in front of him while Babs threw his long legs on top of the surface. Typical.

“You know why we have to do it this way, man,” Babs said. “We can’t risk another Barcelona situation. We know you trust him with your life, but if we’re going to bring him into the fold, we need to make sure the rest of us can trust him, too.”

A man of few words, Robin only nodded in agreement, bowing his head as if replaying the events from Spain in his head. Third worst day of Rafe’s life. The second was the day he blew his cover and the CIA burned him and his team. The first, of course, was the day he left Garrett all those years ago. All of this was supposed to help him erase those twenty years of heartbreak. He couldn’t break Garrett’s heart again. He wouldn’t.

“What if I refuse?” Rafe asked as he glared at Babs.

Babs smiled coyly, a cocky move that had seduced many a mark over the years. It did nothing for Rafe, though. He only had eyes for Garrett. And maybe Pedro Pascal.

“You really think we wouldn’t be able to stop you? Besides, your boy is a little busy at the moment.”

Babs spun his laptop around so Rafe could see the screen, which showed four camera views from inside Cherrywood PD. When McHugh took over, he installed hidden cameras and microphones the detectives in his precinct didn’t know about, allowing the team to have a view of everything. Rafe avoided checking them this whole time, not wanting to invade Garrett’s privacy anymore. He only wished he could keep the others from doing it.

One camera showed Garrett hunched behind McHugh’s desk, his gaze bouncing between the screen and the action happening on the other cameras. Rafe leaned closer to see Cole… performing?

Babs hit the volume button and the Pokémon Theme blasted out of the speakers. Cole’s voice echoed in the empty facility. He was a better singer than Rafe expected.

“What the fuck?” Rafe whispered as he watched chaos ensue on the screen. “What are they doing?”