the artemis (expendables) (lee christmas x reader)

eight.

A couple of days later everyone met again at the hangar. You had been hunkered down in your apartment with Lee since the hit over your head was presented, but nobody had come to collect on it. The guys would take watch in shifts from the street, but the most suspicious thing they had reported seeing was a kid drawing obscene things on the sidewalk with some chalk. None of it made any sense. You were tired of feeling on edge. You were exhausted.

"Dusty?"

You looked up at the rest of the table to find everyone staring at you. You frowned. "What?"

"Did you hear anything that we just said?" Barney asked.

"No," you said, furrowing your brows. "Sorry."

Lee sighed and settled his hand on your thigh just above your knee. He gave you a reassuring squeeze.

"I said that none of us have noticed anything, and we haven't received any further information from any contacts," he said.

You grunted, sitting back in your chair and zoning out again for a second. The last few days had been full of nightmares about Africa and Russia, closed curtains, and Lee sitting with a gun facing the front door. You felt like you had dug yourself into a mess you couldn't make heads or tails of. You were trying to figure out what the point of all of it was. Maybe it was just the few people you had saved. That had to be enough, right?

In that moment, it didn't feel like enough. Everybody shared worried looks and you looked up, dead eyes finding Barney's. He waited patiently for you to speak.

"Use me to set up a trap," you said.

Barney blinked a few times, taking in your words. Lee responded before Barney even had the chance.

"Absolutely not, no way," he said, turning towards you and gripping your leg a bit harder.

"I agree with Lee," Toll said.

"Me too," Caesar said.

"Too risky," Tool said over a huff of smoke. "Too many unknowns."

You rolled your eyes and let them drift closed. You felt yourself on the verge of tears again but you held them back with a shake of your head.

"We have no way to know if the people that are after you would show up or if would just be somebody who took the job," Barney said, planting his hands flat against the table and leaning over. "It's safer just to wait."

You didn't have the energy to argue.

"Bait might not be a bad idea," Pup said, and all eyes turned towards her.

"Excuse me?" Lee asked, glancing between her and Gunner like the big man would have any say in what Pup was suggesting.

"Not Dusty," she continued, perking a brow at Lee. "One of us. Maybe me and Rue and Dusty all wear the same clothes. They wouldn't be able to pick out who was who. If somebody went after one of us, we would all know."

Lee pressed his lips together and looked to Barney.

"We could switch places," Rue said. "One night I can stay at her apartment, Pup can stay at my hotel, and Dusty could stay here."

Trench had stayed quiet because the entire situation was giving him an ulcer. He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose and groaned.

"We should send people back to Africa to track and take out the Yena."

"We don't even have a name on the leader yet," Caesar said. "Hard to track a ghost."

You glanced up at Lee who was looking across the table at everyone else. He looked tired, too.