Page 106 of The Company

She almost chokes on her orange juice. “Why sweet?”

“I dunno. Because you’re so deadly on your own terms, right? The hand-to-hand stuff. You kick some serious ass like that. And you can sail a megayacht, but you can’t drive a car.”

“Well, I can’t sail that thing alone. It’s crazy big. You have to have a crew. So it’s not that impressive when all you do is bark orders.”

“But if someone asked you to captain their megayacht and take them to… wherever, you could do it. Couldn’t you?”

She shrugs. “I suppose. If the crew was competent.”

“And what if the sailboat was smaller? Could you sail that?”

“Oh yeah,” she says with an excitement in her eyes that’s been missing since I met her. “If it can be manned by one or two people, I’m all over that. Sometimes Nick and I would sail alongside the main ship in a sloop.”

“And no one was on the boat with you?”

“No, it was only a two-person boat. Very small.”

“See, Harp. That shit is sexy as all fucking hell. I’d get us all killed, if I had to be in charge.”

“Well, we had a whole ship full of people who’d jump in to save us if we needed it. It was not unsafe in the least.” She slides out of her booth and comes to sit next to me. “I miss the ocean.”

“We’ll be back there tonight. Maybe we can walk out to the pier and watch the sunset?”

She grabs my upper arm and rests her head against my chest. “I’d love that.”

“Then it’s a date.” I’m suddenly glad we’ve missed all those other sunsets. That way this one tonight can be the one.

“Where’s Sasha? She’s been gone a while.”

“Shit,” I say as I push Harper to slide out of the booth. I fish through my wallet, throw forty bucks down on the table, and then take Harper’s hand.

“Wait,” she says pulling me back towards the window. “Is that her over there?”

I squint as I look out the window and sure enough, there’s Smurfette, walking over to the huge-ass dinosaur.

“You should go talk to her, James. She’s just having a hard time.”

“Harper, I have no patience for that girl. I feel bad for her, but I’ve done everything I can to be nice, and she’s just a brat. You go talk to her. I’m gonna take a piss. But we do not have time for her whacked-out bullshit. She needs to pull herself together or she’s gonna get us all killed.”

“OK, I’ll go see what’s up. But I don’t think she’s doing this on purpose. She’s just mixed up and confused.”

“About what?” I whisper in her ear, my anger surfacing as we walk towards the front of the restaurant. “There’s only one fucking thing she needs to understand. None of us are in a very good position right now. There’s a global organization that wants you back and wants her dead. If she’s half as smart as I think she is, she’ll fucking take a clue from you and do as she’s told.”