Chapter 7 Twidget #3
“They’re widening the road, or something.
Whole thing is messed up. They detoured over to…
” he spun the map so he could get a better look and traced another route.
“But it’s completely trashed. We drove by earlier.
Whole thing is blocked by downed buildings.
You could take Park Ave; traffic won’t matter now, but you’ll have to walk.
No way you’re getting a vehicle down that street. ”
He resisted the urge to groan. Gabriel would give anything to have a working satellite with a team behind it giving him real-time directions.
“Where are you trying to go?”
Quickly, Gabriel explained his plan with the cell tower. “I know the area. I can get you there.”
“Sure, you could,” Gabriel agreed, folding up his map. “If you were coming with me.”
Blake rolled his eyes. “Are we going to do this? I’ve seen this movie.
You’re the soldier with a job to do. I’m the local who knows how to get there.
You don’t want to take me because it’s dangerous and blah blah blah.
We can argue about it for twenty minutes, and I will still get my way.
Or you could just agree that it’s a good idea and we can avoid the whole cliché. ”
Gabriel didn’t know how to respond to that. His knee-jerk reaction was to ignore Blake altogether, but he took a minute to think. For the cliché of it all.
It wasn’t that he didn’t think Blake was right. Of any local, a paramedic who spent most of his shifts on these streets was the ideal person to take along. He would know all the shortcuts. And he’d proven himself capable and quick on his feet.
But Blake was a liability. One that weighed heavily. And he was already carrying so much.
“You said you guys volunteered for this. Why?” Blake’s face was serious. “We both know DC is lost. This is a suicide mission.”
Gabriel wished the answer was complicated. But it wasn’t. Not really. Each of them had their own reasons for being here. All of them valid. All of them selfish.
“What’s the point in living if I can’t live with myself?”
Blake didn’t answer. Gabriel didn’t expect him to. He was still trying to figure it out himself.
Gabriel was seeking redemption at the end of his rifle.
Atonement with every bullet he fired. He wasn’t sure if he could buy salvation with blood, but it was all he had.
He would spill the blood of his enemies until it wasn’t enough, and then he would give his own.
Not for some fabled promise of eternity, or a divine reward he knew he didn’t deserve.
For this life. For the one he took. For the one he almost lost.
Because he didn’t know what else he was supposed to do, and if he stopped to consider that, he’d lose his fucking mind.
And if he added Blake’s life to all of that, he wasn’t sure he could take another step.
“So let me volunteer,” Blake argued. “Let me do something. Let me save something. Please.”
There it was. Under the thin veneer of his pushiness was the truth. Blake was a savior, whether he wanted to admit it or not. And not being able to help, of constantly losing, was taking its toll.
Gabriel understood. He hated it. But he understood.
He exhaled out his nose. “Fine.”
Blake didn’t smile. He didn’t thank him, either. He just turned back to his jump bag, beginning to sort things into piles.
Phin barreled into the room bringing with him the harsh smell of sweaty male. Gabriel laughed when Blake wrinkled his nose.
The grenadier noticed his face and cocked an eyebrow. “Too manly for your delicate sensibilities?”
Blake didn’t rise to the bait. He stared Phin down. Or rather, up. Phin was a good head and shoulders taller than the medic.
“I’ve been in moldy crack houses that smelled better than you.”
“That right?” Phin sidled up to Blake, looking down his nose at him. “That your thing?”
It was friendly on the surface. Two guys coming off an adrenaline high, taking the piss out of each other. But there was something more. Phin was too sharp. Too confrontational. His easy grin, the one he used to make himself seem harmless despite his size, was gone.
“No,” Blake drawled, refusing to step up to Phin. “But if you get on your knees, I’d be more than happy to show you what I like.”
Gabriel choked, coughing to hide from his friend’s harsh glare. Phin yanked his helmet off. “Can’t wait to whip it out, huh?”
“Someone’s got to show you what a real dick looks like.”
There was no hesitation. Blake’s barbs were fast, not a trace of hesitation in the face of Phin’s rapidly declining mood.
The big guy’s fist clenched, and Gabriel hissed at him. Phin faked a smile, the corners of his mouth cracking like granite before he moved off. He tossed his helmet onto the couch with a little more force than necessary and began removing his body armor.
“You didn’t need to do that,” Blake mused lightly, still watching Phin’s back.
“He didn’t—”
“I’ve been in enough dick measuring contests to know exactly what he was doing.” Blake smiled, a small dimple flashing on his cheek. “He was testing me.”
Gabriel was once again speechless, completely surprised by Blake’s understanding.
To the outsider, a military squad might look like a bunch of uncivilized, insensitive apes.
And they were. But there was a culture to it—a language, religion, and hierarchy all of their own design.
Phin didn’t know Blake, so he didn’t trust him.
And like it or not, they were stuck together.
Phin wanted to know if he could trust Blake at his back.
And Blake had risen to the challenge.
“I’m going to go check on Tommy,” Blake pushed off the counter, pushing his hair out of his face. “But thanks for stepping in.”
He walked away, pausing at the doorway. Looking over his shoulder, there was a smile on his face, eyes twinkling mischievously. “I’d hate to embarrass one of your soldiers, Commander.”
Gabriel stared after him with a dry mouth.
Fuck. Blake was so much more than pretty.
He was a fucking geode—hard as a rock on the outside, equally tough on the inside, but goddamn did he sparkle once you got a peek.
Gabriel couldn’t help but let his eyes linger on his ass as he walked away.
It was a damn fine ass in those tactical pants.
“Stop drooling,” Phin groused from across the room, nursing his wounded pride.
Gabriel flipped him off. “You try that shit with him again and I’ll adjust the sight on all your guns."
Phin gaped at him. “You wouldn’t dare touch Betty.”
“Talk about his dick again, and I’ll Betty Boop her right out of alignment.”