Chapter 29 #4
“Want some help, babe? Because watching you try to put pants on in the back of a moving SUV is entertaining as fuck, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to end up strangling yourself with them.”
“Yes, I do kiss my mother with this mouth. She was married to a sailor for thirty-seven years.” Drax shot Zenko another look through the rearview mirror and answered his question. “She’d be worried if I didn’t cuss, and would probably ask me what the hell was wrong with me.”
Shaun caught the brief silence that followed Drax’s answer and filed the information away without commenting on it.
Thirty-seven years married to a sailor meant Drax had grown up with the Navy in his blood, yet Shaun couldn’t remember him ever mentioning his father before.
Considering how little Drax volunteered about anything personal, asking questions now would probably earn him a creative suggestion about where he could shove his curiosity.
Shaun let it go. Whatever Drax wanted them to know about his family, he’d tell them when he was damn well ready, and Shaun had enough secrets of his own to understand that better than most. Still, thirty-seven years married to a sailor stuck in the back of his mind, another small piece of Drax Mitchell that Shaun hadn’t known existed until five minutes ago.
“Um.” Zenko pulled the T-shirt over his head and worked his arm through the last sleeve before something apparently occurred to him. “I have no ID. Please tell me somebody thought to grab it before we try getting through the base gates.”
“I brought it.”
“I fucking love you, D-Man.” Zenko blew out a breath. “Where did you find it?”
“Noble’s wallet.” Drax kept his attention on the road as if he hadn’t just admitted to going through their commander’s shit.
“You went in the boss’s wallet?” Zenko stared at the back of Drax’s head. “Fuck. Forget the hospital escape. We’ll be double fucking dead the second he finds that shit out.”
“Hey, I wasn’t spending all freaking week at the base gates only to have Noble called down to confirm your ID.” Drax shifted gears. “Nope. I fully intend to drop you two assholes off at the end of the block and be somewhere else when he realizes what we did.”
He took the next right and immediately slammed on the brakes when a hatchback tried to sideswipe them.
“I have the right of way, asshole. See the fucking line? That means you stop, dickfuck.”
Drax gave the other driver his middle finger and continued past Block 13 before the smell of oil and natural gas from the industrial zone poured through the open window.
“Jeez, that fucking stinks.” He hit the button and closed the window. “Congratulations, Zen. Your socks officially smell better than outside.”
“It always does around here.” Shaun glanced toward Drax. “How pissed is Noble gonna be when we roll onto base with the patient he thinks is still safely tucked up in a hospital bed?”
“Expect to find your asses Stateside.” Drax glanced at Shaun before returning his attention to the road.
“He’s been threatening me with leave too, but the fuck am I going to the US.
If Noble makes me take it, I’m going somewhere I actually want to see again, like Switzerland.
” He gestured toward the back seat. “Dumbass back there is different. Noble can order his ass to a base for more medical testing or whatever shit they decide he needs. Me? He can insist I leave our home base and take my leave, but sending me to the US?” Drax snorted. “That’s not happening.”
“Okay.” Shaun couldn’t find much of a downside to that threat. “Send us Stateside. My team’s already there, so if Noble decides Zen needs more medical checks, I can catch up with Grif and Rock while we’re back.”
Drax downshifted and pulled out around an oil tanker crawling along ahead of them.
“Jesus Christ, buddy, it’s the skinny pedal on the right.
You might want to fucking use it sometime today.
” On the next batch of roundabouts, he nodded in the direction of a huge sign.
“We should have just taken you to the veterinary hospital, Zen.”
“They might have released me sooner, and the dogs probably got fed better.”
“You had a freaking tube down your throat,” Shaun reminded him. “You couldn’t freaking eat.”
“Exactly,” Zenko muttered. “At least at the veterinary hospital they might have given me ice cream or something.”
“They could’ve neutered you, too.” Drax glanced at Zenko in the rearview mirror. “Might’ve done the rest of us a fucking favor while they were at it.”
“Fuck.” Zenko cupped his hands over his balls. “Shaun, punch that fucker.”
“Nope.” Shaun’s lips twisted into a smirk. “He’s driving.”
“Assholes.” Zenko settled back into the seat, but Shaun caught the smile he was trying to hide. The banter with Drax had brought something familiar back into the SUV, and after the last few days, hearing Zenko giving as good as he got felt pretty fucking good.
“Noble will deal.” Zenko sounded far more confident about that than Shaun felt.
“He’s known me long enough to know I was plotting my escape about ten minutes after they pulled the tube and gave me that freaking soup.
It wasn’t even as appetizing as Shit Ready to Shit.
An MRE wouldn’t have been as disgusting as that fucking soup. ”
“We’re coming up on the gate.” Drax flicked on the indicator.
The rhythmic tick-tock of the indicator had Shaun fighting the urge to reach across and rip the fucking thing out of the dash.
“Jesus, I hate that sound.” The fact that Drax hadn’t already disabled it told him the SUV probably belonged to the base motor pool, because there was no way any of these assholes willingly drove around listening to something that sounded that much like a ticking bomb.
Drax took the turn toward the base gates and pulled in behind a delivery truck before checking the rearview mirror.
“I’d rather take a knife into a firefight than be in your shoes when Noble sees your ass.”
“I have no intention of showing Noble my ass.” Zenko shifted on the seat. “My ass belongs to Shaun.”
“Dickhead.” Drax eased his foot off the brake and followed the truck toward the checkpoint. “I didn’t need to know that.” When they reached the guards manning the gate, he lowered the window and waited.
“Good evening, sirs. May I have your IDs?”
“Sure.” Drax took Shaun’s ID, added it to his and Zenko’s, and handed all three to the guard. “Here you go.”
The guard checked each ID against the base security system before handing them back to Drax. “You know where you’re going, sir?”
“Yes.”
Shaun breathed out when the guard nodded to the man controlling the barrier and waved them through as it lifted.
Drax drove slowly along the dusty streets between the containerized units serving as offices and housing before pulling over.
“This is your stop.” He tossed Zenko’s ID over his shoulder. “Give me enough time to return the truck and get back to our quarters.”
“Yeah.” Shaun opened the door.
“Hey, this door won’t open.” Zenko pulled on the lever again. “What the fuck?”
“Oops.” Drax didn’t bother hiding the snicker in his voice. “Kiddo lock… my bad.”
“Dickwad.”
Shaun opened the rear door from the outside and waited while Zenko climbed out beside him. Once he was sure Zenko was steady, he closed the door and tapped the roof. “We’ll give him a couple of minutes, then head back, ’kay?”
“We sit a sec?” Zenko nodded to the wooden steps attached to one of the containerized housing units.
“Sure.” Shaun frowned at Zenko’s back. “You good?”
“Yeah.” Zenko planted his ass on the step. “I wouldn’t be much help in a firefight, but I can walk.” He blew out a breath and chewed on his bottom lip.
“Spit it out, Zen.” Shaun moved around until he was standing in front of him. “I’m starting to think I should’ve tied your ass to that damn bed and kept you in the hospital.”
Zenko snorted. “Yeah, because that would’ve gone well for you.”
“Nope.” Shaun’s mouth twitched. “I like having sex with you. Tying you to that hospital bed would probably mean no sex for at least twenty fucking years.”
“That might have been what happened.” Zenko scanned the street before looking back at Shaun. “I hurt like fuck, but I’ve been worse. I’ll eat some Ranger candy when we get to HQ.”
“Drax didn’t seem so sure about us surviving long enough for you to eat a handful of painkillers, babe.”
“D-Man didn’t take a bang-stick shot in the ass to protect Noble from a GWS,” Zenko muttered. “He’ll yell and stomp, maybe ground my ass, but he’ll be so relieved to see me vertical that he’ll probably deal.”