Chapter 17 #2
The kitchen door opened behind them, and someone bumped into Shaun, who in turn bumped into Zenko.
He shifted sideways to make room as Griffin and Rock crowded into the already cramped space.
With this many large men packed into one kitchen, Zenko was beginning to understand why everyone seemed to be standing wherever they could find a few inches of floor.
“Micah?”
“Allie?” Micah responded immediately, and whatever Hawk had told him was obviously enough to put him on alert. “What’s going on, Allie? Why are you with Noble, and why are you calling on this line?”
“Because my phone is set up to call this line when I tell it to call Micah,” she told him. “I need your help.”
“We’re on our way. We can spin up in five minutes flat.” There was a pause before he tacked on, “Am I bringing Panthers?”
Micah’s question drew Zenko’s attention back to Allie, but it was Grif who answered. The harsh inhale that came through the speaker the instant Grif spoke told Zenko that Micah recognized the voice.
“Mic, Rock, some of our team, and I are bringing Allie stateside.”
“Grif?”
“Yeah?”
“Want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
Grif looked toward Allie, one eyebrow raised in silent question.
She gave him a small nod, and Zenko watched some of the tension leave Grif’s shoulders.
Whatever Micah needed to know, Allie had apparently decided he could tell him.
Given how badly she was still shaking, Zenko suspected she’d reached the point where getting the words out herself was going to be harder than letting someone else handle it.
“Micah?” Grif’s tone changed, and Zenko heard the difference immediately. There was nothing casual left in it now. “SITREP is that Josh was supposed to take Lexi to visit his family. Noble spoke to his mother, and they never arrived in Tennessee.”
“Fuck!”
The single word came through the speaker with enough menace and disbelief that Zenko’s attention sharpened.
Yeah. This was the kind of man he wanted on their side when things went bad.
He watched Grif lean back slightly until his shoulder rested against Rock’s chest as he continued explaining how Allie had tried to contact her husband and hadn’t been able to reach him.
“Fly Allie to Matt’s in Texas; we’ll meet you there.
” The voice was different from both Hawk’s and Micah’s, and Zenko looked around the crowded kitchen as several of the others did the same.
A third man had been listening to the entire conversation without saying a damn word, and nobody in the room seemed particularly surprised by it.
“Creed, that you, Viking?” Rock asked.
“Yup,” the voice answered. “And, Rock, you still owe me a bottle of Jack.”
“We can deal with your fucking reunions and stupid bets later.” Allie’s sharp rebuke cut through the room and dragged everyone’s attention back where it belonged. “Right now we have to find Lexi.”
“Micah, we’re gonna take her to Virginia Beach.
We have a safe house there, and it’s a lot closer to both Allie’s house and to Tennessee than Texas is.
” Grif glanced toward Rock, and the hard look on his face told Zenko the change of safe house wasn’t sitting well with their team leader.
Rock had already exposed one of their locations tonight, and Zenko had the distinct impression that giving up another one went against every instinct the man possessed.
Grif most likely didn’t give a damn about that right now.
“Meet us at the first checkpoint to Oceana Naval Base in twenty-four hours.”
“Done.” There was a slight pause before Micah added, “Look after my sister, Grif.”
“Always,” Grif answered immediately. “And, Mic?”
“Yeah?”
“Bring Panther.”
“Will do,” Micah answered. “Hawk is already on the line to Matt and Jonah.”
As soon as Allie swiped the phone to end the call, Zenko asked the question that had been bugging him since the unfamiliar voice had come through the speaker.
“Viking… as in Creed Erikson?”
Noble shrugged his shoulders and nodded in response, but before Zenko could ask any more questions or even grasp the small niggle tapping at the back of his memory, he saw Rock motion to Shaun, and both men left the room.
Oh, fuck that shit. Where Shaun went, he was going, too, and Rock would just have to deal.
Zenko swiveled on his heels and turned to follow Shaun. A fist in the back of his shirt stopped him in his tracks, and he had his fist closed as he swung around to thump the idiot who was stopping him from going after his guy.
Once again, it was Noble’s reflexes that saved him from a black eye or a split lip.
Zenko wasn’t sure where he had been aiming for, but the fact that it was Noble pissed him off more.
He thought they had settled this shit in Turkey.
Shaun was his, and Noble could keep his fucking nose out unless it was official military or team business.
That little reminder that it probably was official military orders took the fight right out of him, and instead of the “what the fuck?” he had been about to say, he paused mid-swing and held his hands up.
“Sorry.”
“Get your fucking head in the game, Zenko,” Noble whispered harshly.
“Before I decide that a trip to the shrink’s office is in order before you go back to active duty, because something is fucking with your head.
” Noble paused, cocking his head to the side as if he was considering something before adding, “Or someone… and if working with Shaun is going to be an issue, then your ass is getting on the flight stateside with Allie, Grif, and Rock. Got it?”
“Yeah.” Fuck, he knew better than to let anyone see his reactions, but when it came to Shaun, he had an irrational need to protect him.
It didn’t matter a damn that Shaun was as trained as he was, probably even more so.
Keeping one eye on the door and his ear cocked for the sounds of raised voices, Zenko looked back at Noble. “What’s going on?”
“We have orders to go after an HVT,” Noble told him. “And I am taking Shaun to do it.”
Zenko moved a few steps closer to his commander so he could ask under his breath.
“Who?” He knew Noble would be well within his rights to refuse to answer in a room full of people, especially with Ghosts and Allie already dealing with their own situation, but when Noble gave him the answer, it answered another question that had been nagging at him since Shaun had first told him what happened.
“Wade Sheridan, former commander of Al Asad Air Base in Iraq.”
Zenko whistled softly. “And I assume the asshole who arranged for Shaun to be taken on that fuel run out of Baghdad.”
“That’s the one,” Noble answered. “Fucker was gone when the MPs went to bring him in for questioning.”
“Do we know where he is?”
Noble smirked at Zenko. “When have you ever known me to agree to go after a target without all of the information?”
“Well, there was that one time…” Zenko started to say, then swiftly ducked out of the way of the swat Noble sent his way. Thank fuck, things were settling back to normal between them. If Noble was swatting him instead of yelling at him, then they were good.
“Shut it,” Noble grunted before continuing. “Max is mining satellite data as we speak. Last known sighting was in Iran close to the Persian Gulf.”
“Then I am going fishing?”
“Yup,” Noble told him. “You and Shaun are going fishing. We have to do the briefing and mission planning, but we can do that on the plane once Rock is done telling your man that he is coming with us.”