Chapter 29 #3
Drax: Nope, you’re on your own with that one.
Shaun: Fuck.
He slipped his phone back into his pocket and rested his forearm across the back of the wheelchair. Zenko tipped his head back far enough to catch his eye, and the quiet smile he gave him had Shaun smiling right back despite the shitstorm they were undoubtedly heading toward with Noble.
“You are down to ten minutes, Mr. Jacobsen.” The nurse’s voice came from directly behind them, close enough that Shaun damn near came out of his skin.
Adrenaline slammed through him before his brain caught up with the fact that the threat behind him was a five-foot-nothing nurse keeping track of her fucking wheelchair.
“Um…” He cleared his throat, hoping she hadn’t noticed how badly she’d startled him. “Yes, ma’am.”
Ding.
The elevator finally arrived, and Shaun wasted no time pushing Zenko inside.
“We’ll be right back, ma’am.” Zenko gave the nurse a mock salute as the doors began to close, earning himself a quiet groan from Shaun.
“You are going to freaking get us into trouble, Zen.”
“She hates me.” Zenko waited until the elevator doors closed before continuing. “Always stabbing me with her damn needles and stealing what little blood I have left. I’m telling you, babe, she’s a freaking vampire. There’s no other explanation for why that woman needs that many damn samples.”
“Don’t remind me about your lack of blood, Z.” His stomach tightened as the nightmare tried to shove its way back into his head. “I’ve seen enough of yours to last me a fucking lifetime.”
“Stop bitching. You were the idiot who gave me more of yours than you should have.” Zenko jabbed the button for the ground floor again, as though the elevator needed reminding where they were going.
“Then you passed out cold while I was in surgery, so you don’t exactly get to lecture me about knowing your limits. ”
He recognized the muttering for what it was and let Zenko keep talking. The elevator was too fucking small, and after Iran, neither of them needed to discuss why enclosed spaces felt different now. He understood the distraction because he needed it too.
He kept his attention on the illuminated numbers above the doors as they counted down, listening to Zenko bitch about the elevator taking too fucking long until it finally stopped at the ground floor.
The doors slid open, and the first breath of air from the larger lobby had some of the tension easing out of him before he pushed Zenko forward.
“You driving?” Zenko asked as Shaun pushed him out of the elevator and across the lobby toward the south entrance.
Shaun lowered his eyes to meet Zenko’s gaze briefly before watching where he was steering the wheelchair. “Nope, Drax is picking us up.”
“Fuck.” Zenko winced. “He pissed?”
“He says you’re on your own with Noble.” Shaun pushed him toward the south entrance. “Apparently helping you escape the hospital is where Drax draws the line. Dealing with the boss afterward is all yours.”
“Can’t believe the fucker didn’t bring my go-bag.” Zenko glanced down at the hospital gown covering his thighs. “He had to know I wasn’t staying in there forever.”
“Probably because he knew if you had jeans and boots, you’d sign yourself out.
” Shaun pushed through the south entrance and searched the vehicles beyond the doors for Drax.
“Considering you’re escaping in a hospital gown anyway, I’d say Noble underestimated how determined you are to be a pain in everyone’s ass. ”
Zenko tipped his chin toward the dark blue SUV pulling in near the south entrance. “There he is. Looks like Drax underestimated me too.”
“Yup, I see him.” Shaun kept the wheelchair moving toward the SUV, acutely aware that somewhere behind them a fifteen-minute clock was still ticking.
“Keep your ass in that chair until we’re out of sight of the door.
We’ve made it this far without your vampire nurse figuring out what we’re doing, and I’d like to keep it that way. ”
“Oh.” Zenko abandoned his attempt to get out of the wheelchair and settled back into it. “Good thinking, Batman. I’d hate to get tackled by a five-foot-nothing vampire when freedom is right fucking there.”
Drax pulled the SUV close to the sidewalk, climbed out, and came around to open the rear door. “I leave you alone for a couple of days, and you’re already breaking out of a hospital with your ass hanging out. I see you’re still causing trouble, asshole.”
“Of course.” Zenko gripped the hand Drax held out to him and used the leverage he offered to get to his feet. “Would you have me any other way?”
“I’m telling Noble you hijacked a truck.” Drax kept hold of Zenko until he was steady on his feet. “I’m not taking the fall for this shit when he starts looking for someone to kill.”
“Is Noble pissed?” Zenko asked as Drax kept him steady beside the SUV. “Or are we still in that brief window where he doesn’t know enough to start threatening to send my ass Stateside?”
“Didn’t tell him. You’re on your own with that one.
” Drax helped Zenko into the rear seat and waited until he was settled before shutting the door.
“I’m brave, asshole, not fucking suicidal.
” He rounded the hood toward the driver’s side while Shaun grabbed the abandoned wheelchair and started pushing it back toward the hospital entrance.
Shaun had almost reached the entrance when the nurse appeared on the other side of the glass, scanning the lobby with the determined expression of a woman who had discovered her patient was missing.
Fuck.
He abandoned the wheelchair beside the doors, spun around, and hauled ass back toward the SUV.
Shaun yanked open the passenger door, threw himself into the seat, and barely had it closed before he slapped the dash.
“Go, go, go. She fucking found us.”
“The fuck?” Drax dropped behind the wheel and fired up the SUV, throwing it into gear before Shaun had finished buckling himself in. “What happened?”
“The nurse.” Shaun twisted in his seat to keep the hospital entrance in sight as Drax pulled away from the curb. “She’s looking for Zenko, and I’m pretty fucking sure she saw me running.”
“Stabby vampire woman can go find another victim.” Zenko sounded entirely too pleased with himself from the back seat. “She had fifteen minutes. Technically, I’m still within the terms of our agreement.”
“Shush, you.” Shaun twisted in his seat far enough to see Zenko grinning in the back.
“It’s your fault we’re acting like getaway drivers from a fucking bank robbery.
” He checked the hospital entrance again as Drax pulled them farther away.
“And when she calls Noble to tell him his idiot SEAL disappeared in a hospital gown, you can explain how this was somehow a perfectly reasonable plan.”
Shaun smiled when Zenko caught his hand and laced their fingers together.
For a moment, the hospital disappeared behind them, and the nightmare that had dragged him awake felt farther away than it had all morning.
Zenko was here, alive and already causing enough trouble to have them fleeing a pissed-off nurse.
Somehow, that felt exactly fucking right.
“Dumbass.” Drax shoved his SIG between the center console and his seat.
“I saw you freeze at those doors and thought we had a fucking tango coming after you.” He accelerated through an amber light before it changed.
“Next time you decide to haul ass toward the truck like the devil is chasing you, maybe lead with ‘nurse’ before I start preparing for a firefight.”
“She’d make a good tango,” Zenko muttered from the back seat.
“She’s already got the intimidation part down.
” He shifted against the seat and apparently moved on from his escape without another thought.
“There better be coffee and real food wherever we’re going.
Hospital food sucks, their coffee is fucking criminal, and I’m starving. Where are we staying?”
“Base.” Drax checked the rearview mirror, catching Zenko’s reaction before returning his attention to the road. “Where else did you think Noble was going to keep all of us while this shit gets sorted?”
“What?” Zenko’s head came up. “We’re staying on base?”
“Yeah.” Shaun caught the surprise in Zenko’s voice and smiled. “Noble decided keeping everyone where he can find them is the safest option. Given what we’ve put him through over the last few days, I can’t exactly blame him.”
“The go-bag next to you has sweats and boots.” Drax pulled around a slower car before checking the rearview mirror. “Don’t know how clean any of that shit is, but considering your current outfit has your ass hanging out, I figure you can’t afford to be picky.”
“You are the fucking bomb.” Zenko dragged the go-bag closer and had the zipper open for maybe two seconds before he recoiled. “Holy shit, D-Man, what the fuck is that smell?”
He yanked the collar of his hospital gown over his nose and mouth. “Jesus fucking Christ. Whatever died in there needs to be buried before I throw up all over your truck.”
“That would be your socks, man.” Drax didn’t sound remotely apologetic. “Pretty sure they’ve been fermenting in there since Turkey.”
“Fuck me.”
“Not while you smell like that.” Drax lowered the window. “Those socks could kill a fucking hard-on at fifty paces.”
“Asshole.” Zenko swatted Drax across the back of the head, earning himself an immediate curse when Drax’s ear clipped the seat belt holder.
“Ow, you limp-dick motherfucker.” Drax shot him a murderous look through the rearview mirror. “I’m fucking driving here.”
“You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
Shaun laughed as Zenko and Drax fell straight back into giving each other shit, the familiar banter coming so easily that for a few seconds it felt like nothing had changed.
Behind him, Zenko started wrestling with the sweats from the go-bag, muttering curses as he tried to get one foot through while wedged into the back seat.