Lets begin the game

Chapter 17

One week later (back in Washington DC)

Coras POV.:

Everything is prepared. 

We are leaving today to Baghdad, in less than one hour. Everyone is super nervous and all are busy packing the final equipment. I'm walking around my room.

Everything will turn out just fine. It should be a routine action, we have done things like this like a thousand times. But... What if we lose people? What if I let everyone down?

No... I'll rather die than let anyone in my gang die. They are my family. I won't let something go wrong. 

I walk out of my room and I look around. I get to the big hall where everyone is rushing around and I shout "WE ARE LEAVING IN 15 MINUTES. SO HURRY UP!" Everyone nods their heads.

I see the guys standing in a corner, whispering about something. I make my way to them "What's up?" They look at me with a worried look and are completely silent. I sigh "Guys. I have literally neither time and nor patience, so spill it. Now."

Ryder grabs my arm and drags me away from the group. He looks into my eyes "Cora. We talked about you coming with us to Baghdad and... we all came to the conclusion that you should probably stay here in Washington and stay safe."

What the actual fuck.....

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Ryder pov:

Cora looks at us in complete disbelief. Like she's completely paralyzed. I really don't like the way she's reacting right now, because normally she would just yell at me and do what she wants but this time she is just completely silent.

Briefly, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, before she looks at us again. Emotionless. Something she actually rarely shows me so discreetly. 

Then she says in a really calm voice, that actually is almost creepy, given the situation ''I don't care to what conclusion you guys came, and honestly, it's really unrespectful that you actually have the guts to tell me that, given that I'm the one in charge of this whole gang and I'm the one with the most experience. So I would really appreciate it if you would stop talking shit like this and instead get back to work because we are leaving in 15 minutes.''

I fell some cold shivers running down my spine and I feel that the guys are very tense too. How could we have thought, that Cora would react positively and would have agreed with us? 

She slowly turns around and walks away but suddenly stops. What is she going to do? 

She spins and looks at us in a really serious way ''And if any of you ever come to the conclusion again that I should stay at home instead than going to a mission, then I'll make sure that you'll disappear from the face of the earth''  

This is the part of her that I absolutely hate, but without that part, I don't even know if we would've survived what happened three years ago. I guess I just have to accept it because Cora without her business attitude wouldn't be Cora.

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Nicos pov.:

Ufff well Cora is in a very good mood. Note the sarcasm, please. I guess this wouldn't be the right time to approach her to talk about the fight we had in San Francisco but I kinda can't let her go to Baghdad without talking to her. What if I never get the chance to apologize to her ever again since this is a very dangerous mission?

People are everywhere trying to pack the last things and bring everything in order. everything has to be perfect for this or it could all go south. I grab my bag that was laying on the floor and I rush off to the garage.