Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
They were ignoring him completely. Gunnar glared at Remi and Jorja’s backs as they chatted among themselves.
Assholes!
Remi was an asshole for kicking back at him with the dig about him ruling in here in his room. It didn’t matter that he was correct, as head of Intel and Comms, his word was law when it came to making decisions related to information and intelligence. But it didn’t make the sting any less.
“Hey, Grizz. I got Dory on the line.” Tyrone stuck his head out of the office he shared with Levi. “He needs to talk to you. Want me to send him through to your office or your cell?”
“Office. Thanks, Zorro.” He sent one last annoyed glare at Remi and Jorja and headed for his own office.
If Dory was calling him from Morocco, then something had happened.
Commadore *Dory* Petrusek kept himself to himself, and pretty much handled that side of The Four X’s Group without much hand holding.
He slammed his office door louder than was probably needed, but he didn’t care.
He would do whatever the fuck he wanted in his own damn house.
He picked up the phone and pressed the blinking button to answer the call. “Hello?”
“Hey, Grizzly. Dory here.”
He sat heavily into his leather chair and propped his feet on the corner of the desk. “I wasn’t expecting the pope. What’s wrong?”
“Jeez, bro, what fucking bit your dick?” There were very few people who would dare to call him on his shit. Dory was one of those people. They’d worked together long enough and been through enough firefights and battles to not get insulted or upset by the other one’s grumpy assholeness.
Gunnar massaged the side of one temple with his forefinger. “Same shit, different day.”
“My fucking ass,” Dory grunted. “How long have we known each other?”
What had that got to do with anything? “About fifteen years, give or take a decade.”
“Then quit blowing smoke up my ass and tell me why you are on edge and more of a bastard than normal, even for you. Want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Not particularly.” If one of the bastards he called brothers and friends had called Dory to bitch at him, then he had some dry wall which needed hanging in the last remaining wing of the property to be put up. That would keep them out of trouble.
“Liar,” Dory said softly. “Bro…”
“Let it go, Commadore.” Gunnar rarely used his friend’s full name. When he did, Dory typically backed off, as he understood he was skating close to some imaginary line only Gunnar could see. “What’s happening in Agadir?”
There was silence for a moment before Dory did what Gunnar had hoped he would and went back to the reason he’d called in the first place. “I had a message from Dalton Knight. He’s sending Caleb Hunt our way.”
“Why? Does Nemesis’s man need backup?” He latched onto the hope like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood in the ocean.
This he could do. Operations, planning, and helping old friends was something he could focus on.
Something which wasn’t a five-foot-five with curves for days which made his dick ache despite having an attitude a mile wide.
A woman who made him want to lift the self-imposed ban he had on inviting women into his life.
“Last time Nemesis sent a man to you, he ended up married with a kid. Hasn’t Nem figured out what happens when he sends his people our way yet? ”
“That shit doesn’t just happen in my house,” Dory interrupted. “If you recall, the last one of Nemesis’s men to stay in a Four X’s house, it was there with you at HQ, and Kilkenny ended up married too. Or close to it.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re a regular matchmaking agency.” Gunnar snorted. “All unattached operators, fill in this form and we’ll find you a bird in trouble to marry.”
“Hah.”
It would be funny if it wasn’t starting to become a trend at this point.
The Black Ops community were a bunch of gossips.
The last thing he wanted was The Four X’s Group earning a reputation for matchmaking.
But he knew better than to bring it up or someone would put it out there just for shits and giggles. “What does Nemesis need from us?”
“Not sure yet,” Dory replied. “I had a message on my phone when I got out of the pool. I just wanted to give you a heads up that shit may fly.”
“I appreciate that.” If there was one thing Gunnar could guarantee, it was when Nemesis sent someone their way, shit would fly, and lately the reasons behind it was a woman in trouble.
Gunnar refused to acknowledge the parallels between Nemesis Inc.
and him. He and Dalton Knight had a friendly rivalry thing going on.
It kept things interesting. “Whatever he needs, give it to him,” he told Dory.
“Keep a log of everything so we can bill Nemesis.”
“Yeah, I’ll be sure to tag on some extras.” Dory snorted. “If only to see Dalton’s face for carbon tax and shit.”
“Ha.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on over there?” Of course it was too much to hope that Dory had forgotten about his attitude. “Or do I have to ask Zorro, because you know he’ll spill and embellish shit up the waazoo?”
Fuck!
“No need to ask Zorro for his opinion on shit. Remi is working on it.” Most of the time he loved having people who knew him so well working for him. Today, not so much. He couldn’t hide anything from the nosey bastards. “It doesn’t affect Morocco. If it becomes a thing, I’ll let you know.”
“I think my feelings are hurt,” Dory muttered to him before Gunnar yanked the phone away from his ear as his friend yelled to one of his guys, “Hey, Mojo, are my feelings hurt?”
In the background, Gunnar heard a yelled response to Dory’s question. “Boss, what kind of shit are you smoking? That was a fucking earthquake, not a damn emotion.”
“Earthquake?” Gunnar’s ears picked up. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, we’ve been rocking and rolling with some minor quakes for the last couple of days,” Dory replied. “Nothing to worry about, just some boundary strain fixing itself from some shit further along the line. There’s no damage here, and none in town that I’m aware of.”
“If something happens in town, throw everything we have into helping the locals,” Gunnar ordered. “Those people help us out all the time. If they need something and we have it or can get it, just do it. Paperwork and shit can be sorted later.”
“Roger that, bro. I knew you’d say that which is why I didn’t bring it up in the first place. But for now, we are good.”
“Good, I’ll call Nemesis and see what’s going on.
” That would keep him out of the war-room and Jorja Buchanan’s orbit for at least another half an hour.
Maybe by the time he was done talking to Dalton, she’d have forgotten she was pissed at him.
He scribbled a sticky note reminder and stuck it to the edge of his computer screen so he’d see it first thing in the morning and glanced at the clock.
“It’s almost midnight. If there’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow, I’m gonna go shut shit down for the night.
” He hadn’t forgotten that Remi was running on too much Monster and too little sleep.
Come to think of it, he had no idea if Jorja was rested enough to be working either.
That bothered him. “I gotta go.” He hung up on Dory before the other man could respond and got to his feet.
Kidnapping, and yes, she was right, technically what he’d done could be classed as kidnapping, was one thing.
Being a complete and utter dick was another altogether.
He strode through the kitchen, into the courtyard, and to the war-room door.
Remi and Jorja were just as he’d left them a little while ago.
Both still had their backs to him, working on their computers.
Gunnar leaned one shoulder against the frame of the door, just watching the ease between his brother and that woman.
He tramped down on the weird feeling which urged him to cross the room and pull her away from Remi’s side.
He refused to acknowledge what that feeling was.
He wasn’t fifteen, and fits of jealousy over a woman were not and should not be in his wheelhouse. “Shut—”
“Shit.” Jorja jerked, sending the wine glass she had just lifted to her lips flying. “Jerk, don’t sneak up on us.” She reached for the rag Remi kept next to his computer for the same reason and dabbed at something in front of her, probably the keyboard. “You could make a little noise.”
Remi must have known he was there as the little shit didn’t do anything but snicker.
Jorja turned and walloped him on the shoulder.
That in itself didn’t surprise Gunnar. What did was Remi didn’t jerk away from her touch.
That wasn’t normal. Remi didn’t like people touching him much.
That he allowed it from Jorja was… interesting, to say the least. Gunnar made a mental note to think about it later.
“Is that urgent?” he asked Remi, “or can it wait until the morning?”
“What I’m running can wait,” Remi replied. “George?”
He was shortening her name already? Fuck. Remi had better not be getting ideas about hiring the delectable Ms. Buchanan. Just having her on the property for a few days was disturbing enough. Gunnar knew having her here wasn’t something he wanted to deal with long term.
Hell fucking no.
Not happening.
We are not keeping her or employing her.
I’ll kick his ass first.
He knew Remi well enough to know how his mind worked. That he allowed her into the war-room in the first place was different enough, but allowing her to access a computer, even a ring-fenced one which wasn’t connected to their computer systems, blew his freaking mind.
“I can’t do much until my bot gets the code we need,” Jorja replied to Remi. “That could be anything from five minutes to five hours.”
“And will probably happen the second you walk away from the screen.”
“Right. Why does that always happen?”
“Because computers are finicky creatures, and they like to be babied.”
“Truth.”
They appeared to have forgotten he was there at all. Gunnar cleared his throat loudly and opened his mouth to speak.
Jorja tossed an irritated glare his way, stopping him from speaking. “What?”
“It’s late, shut it down for the night.” He ignored her and spoke to Remi. “Come back to it with fresh eyes in the morning. Even if there is a list, you guys can’t do anything about it tonight, right?”
“Yeah.” Remi rubbed the inside of his wrist, one of his tells for when his head was hurting and he didn’t want to say anything. Thankfully, this time, Gunnar didn’t have to insist or give a direct order as he turned to Jorja. “He’s right. It’s late and I haven’t slept in a couple of days.”
Gunnar’s jaw tightened. He was an idiot.
He should have noticed that Remi was pulling all-nighters.
He was the older brother; it was his responsibility to ensure the other three were looked after.
It didn’t matter that they all had been some of the deadliest operators on the planet.
To him, and more importantly, to their mom, they were still little boys who needed corralling and looking after.
“Okay, if you’re sure.” The computer screen in front of their guest went dark as she pressed something on the monitor. “I’ll let this run in the background. What time do you want me back here in the morning? And can you call me a cab?”
“No cabs, you are staying here.” She couldn’t possibly think he was going to allow her to leave, could she?