Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
SShaun didn’t have much time to observe the base the helo landed at before Ambra One was hustling him into one of the two SUVs waiting on the tarmac for them, and they were headed to the other side of the compound.
The razor-wire and all the antennas and aerials told him this was a well-funded operation.
That the guards on duty at the gate they passed through were dressed in black fatigues was enough to tell him this was a black site base, but it didn’t look like Iraq to him either.
“Where are we?”
“I have to get clearance before I can tell you.” Ambra One sighed and took his attention off the road for a split second. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Shaun got it. He supposed he was a potential threat considering where he’d been found.
But damn it, he hadn’t wanted to be in that fucking cave or to get captured, and his security clearance was probably higher than everyone on this base combined.
But for now, he had to play the game and wait for the opportunity to contact Rock.
All he’d wanted to do was report the damn terrorist threat he’d overheard to his team?—
“Shit. Pull over.” His stomach roiled and churned. How the fuck had he forgotten it? Shaun gagged and slapped his hand over his mouth.
“What?” Ambra One shot him a confused look, but one glance at Shaun and the sound of him heaving had the man whipping the SUV to a stop.
Shaun barely waited for the wheels to quit moving before he shoved open the door, stumbled out, and bent over puking.
The other vehicle pulled to a stop behind them, and through another round of heaving, he was vaguely aware of Ambra One lifting his shoulders toward the occupants as if to indicate he didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on before motioning for them to remain in their vehicle.
“Here.” Ambra One handed him a pack of tissues he’d found in the glovebox and a bottle of water to rinse out his mouth. The water would be warm and probably taste like shit, but it would still be better than the taste of vomit.
“Sorry,” Shaun told him, his cheeks stained red as he sank back into the seat. Fucking hell, talk about a pussy-assed thing to do.
“You okay now?” Ambra One eyed him suspiciously, and Shaun was quite sure the last thing the man wanted to be doing for the rest of the day was cleaning vomit out of the SUV. “Want to tell me what caused that?”
Shaun thought about it and turned the possibilities over in his mind.
On one hand, the mission he had been undercover for was classified.
On the other, there was information that needed to be reported and fast. He wasn’t sure if Ambra One was the right person to trust or not, but if he couldn’t trust this man, then he was fucked anyway.
Plus, the fact the man had rescued him meant he was pretty much on the good side as far as Shaun was concerned.
He was sure that his rescuer was starting to think he was either totally fucked up from being held captive or that he was losing his mind. Thank fuck his position as a Ghost gave him the latitude to make some decisions like this. And with a credible terrorist threat, this was one of those times.
“I overheard a plot to hijack a plane and crash it into the Naval Support Facility on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. When I reported it to the good people at the base in Iraq, I thought my part was done.” He quirked an eyebrow up at Ambra One. “You would think, right?”
“Yeah.” Ambra One shrugged. “Normally stuff like that goes right up the food chain, or at least it should since September Eleventh.”
“Yeah,” Shaun agreed. “That’s what I thought, too, until my next supply run, and I was taken right after we had stopped for lunch, I think.
” He watched Ambra One to see what reaction he would have when he added the next bit.
“The only people who knew I overheard them were the people I reported it to at the base.”
Ambra One’s jaw tightened. “Fuck. So not only was there a fucking terrorist planning an attack, but they had inside fucking help? Tell my boss everything.” He looked at Shaun. “I’m serious, Shaun, tell him everything.”
“Do you trust him?”
“One thousand percent,” Ambra One answered immediately. “He’s had my back since we went through BUDs together over ten years ago.”
Shaun nodded. “BUDs? You’re a SEAL then.”
“Military brat.” Ambra One softened his teasing with a smile, but he nodded, too.
“Yeah.” Shaun must not have hidden his surprise particularly well, because the man shrugged.
“You were going to figure it out anyway.” He pulled the SUV to a stop in front of a containerized unit and switched off the engine. “Here we are, our home away from home.”
Shaun cursed himself for the little twinge of guilt that flashed through him at the other man’s teasing. Fuck, he shouldn’t be here long enough for it to matter. He just needed access to comms or a satellite phone, and his team would organize an extraction for him.
***
Noble Bauer stood in his briefing room doorway and watched as Zenko and the man he and his team had rescued, Shaun Jacobsen, got out of the first SUV in front of the building. Drax whipped his vehicle into park beside Zenko’s, and both he and Reese got out and came to stand beside Noble.
Noble was relieved to have his men back in the fold.
He wasn’t yet sure what to make of Jacobsen.
How the fuck did he get from Iraq to Syria, and how the hell was he in the hands of ISIS?
Noble felt his eyebrows rising. He couldn’t have stopped it if he tried.
Holy shit, was Zenko actually wrapping around the other man’s waist and helping him to move?
He fucking was. Shaun Jacobsen hadn’t seemed that badly hurt when Noble had watched him sprinting to the helo on Zen’s body camera, but then Noble told himself that he was being unfair.
Adrenaline and the rush of bullets flying at you would get even the laziest of people to haul ass.
“Zenko.”
At the sound of his voice, Zenko’s head whipped up, and he dropped his arm from the other man’s waist fast.
Interesting.
“Yes, Boss?”
Zenko’s response raised Noble’s eyebrows even further. He knew he must look comical, but he really didn’t give a fuck. This was going to get very interesting indeed. Zenko wasn’t usually a polite shit. Noble frowned. Was this polite shit a new way Zenko was hoping to piss him off?
“Briefing room, now. Bring your friend.”
“Sir, yes, Sir.”
That little shit. If he was fucking with him, Noble was going to kick his ass from here to the other side of the compound before he put him on kitchen duty for a month. Asshole.
“Is there something I need to know about Zenko and this Shaun dude?” Noble asked both the operators who were nearly stepping on his heels as he led the way to his office.
“Nope.”
“Not a thing.”
Noble glanced over his shoulder at both Drax and Reese, but neither so much as flinched at his steely-eyed stare. Shit, he was either losing his touch or his gut was wrong.
Or the dumbasses don’t know what they were looking at.
Zenko entered the briefing room carefully, followed by Shaun, while Drax and Reese took their normal positions against the wall near the door rather than bothering with the chairs.
Noble watched Zenko approach the table and wondered whether the asshole had started counting up everything he’d done to piss him off yet.
Having a building blown up around his ears was pretty high on the fucking list, followed closely by deciding to rescue a prisoner before Noble had given him the go-ahead.
Yeah, there was a shit ton of washing dishes in Zenko’s very near future.
“Noble.” Zenko gestured to Shaun. “This is Shaun Jacobsen.” He waved back toward Noble. “Shaun, this is Noble Bauer, my boss.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Shaun held his hand out to Noble. “For allowing your men to rescue me.”
“I didn’t allow them to do anything,” Noble grumbled as he caught Shaun’s hand and gave it a firm shake.
Shaun returned it with every bit as much strength, which earned him a point in Noble’s book.
His daddy had always said you could tell the measure of a man by his handshake, and based on Shaun Jacobsen’s, he seemed like a pretty solid individual.
Zenko glanced over his shoulder at Drax and winced before turning back to Noble. Whatever the hell was going through his head, Noble watched the change come over him as his jaw tightened and his expression darkened.
Interesting.
Zenko had been hovering around Shaun since they arrived, and now he looked ready to pick a fucking fight over him. Noble let his stare linger, curious to see what the asshole would do with it.
“What?” Zenko growled out.
Shaun lifted his eyebrows at the menace in Zenko’s voice, his attention shifting between the two men as his posture became noticeably more guarded.
Noble caught the change immediately. Whatever Shaun had made of Zenko during the rescue, this was apparently the first time he’d seen the asshole’s temper come out to play, and he didn’t seem entirely sure what to make of it.
“Not you,” Zenko muttered out of the corner of his mouth before nodding at Noble. “Him. Want to tell me what crawled up your ass?” A beat passed before he seemed to remember this was supposed to be an official meeting and added, “Sir?”
“Nope,” Noble answered. “Want to tell me why you’re all growly and shit?”
“No, Sir.” The answer came through clenched teeth, and Noble had to fight the smirk threatening to give him away.
He knew Zenko well enough to hear the ‘fuck off’ buried beneath those two perfectly respectful words.
Shaun nudged Zenko’s foot beneath the table, drawing his attention, and some of the heat disappeared from his expression when he glanced over.
Noble finally let the smirk loose. Fuck, winding Zenko up was almost too damn easy.
Zenko dropped his arm on Shaun’s shoulder and squeezed lightly.
“Tell him what you told me. It will give him something else to worry about besides what I may or may not have done while I was out of the country.”
Shaun looked between them, his attention dropping briefly to the arm Zenko still had resting across his shoulder before he shrugged and turned back to Noble.
“Okay, what do you need to know?”
Noble frowned at them. There was definitely more going on between Zenko and Shaun than he was aware of, but he could worry about that shit later.
“You are going to tell me your abduction was more than ISIS seizing the opportunity to take an American captive, aren’t you? You’re bringing a clusterfuck to my front door?”
“Yup.” Zenko smirked at Noble before nudging Shaun with his elbow. “Go on.”
“I was in the showers on base after a fuel run. I’d switched off the water when two dudes came in.
” Shaun paused, appearing to think through what he wanted to say next.
Noble waited him out, watching the other man closely.
There was something almost deliberate about the hesitation, although after what Shaun had been through, Noble wasn’t about to read too much into every pause.
“I heard them talking about hijacking a plane and crashing it into Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.”
“Shit.” Noble reached for his phone but froze when Zenko’s hand smacked down on his. He looked from the hand covering his to Zenko’s face. “I was going to pass this up the food chain. I’m not going to like the rest of it, am I?”
Zenko slowly shook his head.
Noble sighed. “Damn, I was afraid of that. Go on.”
“I went to the MPs as I wasn’t sure who I should tell,” Shaun told them.
“They sent me to base command. Once I’d filled him in, he told me that he would let me know if he had more questions, and I thought that was it.
” A shudder ran through him before he continued.
“The following day I had to do a fuel run to Baghdad. I remember checking the gauges on the truck for the return trip. I remember stopping for lunch with the other drivers. That is the last thing I remember before I woke up and I was in that cave. I had no idea how long I’d been knocked out or where the hell I was. I still don’t.”
“The only people you told were the MPs and base command?” Noble asked for clarification as he clicked through the screens on his computer and pulled up the details for Al Asad Air Base. “Who did you speak to at base command?”
“Commander Wade Sheridan.”
“Fuck.” Nothing pissed Noble off more than a fucking traitor to the flag. He looked toward his men. “You three go get cleaned up; we’ll debrief once I’m finished here.” Drax and Reese nodded before disappearing out the door, but Zenko didn’t move.
“I’ll wait.”
Noble’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline again. “Are you refusing a hot shower and food to sit here and listen to this?”
“Yup.” Zenko settled back into his chair as if that ended the discussion, his attention shifting to Shaun. Noble followed his gaze, but Shaun’s expression had gone so fucking blank it would have done most seasoned operators proud.
Damn it.
Noble caught the slight tightening around Shaun’s eyes and the restless bounce of his leg beneath the table where it pressed against Zenko’s. Whatever Shaun was trying to hide behind that blank expression, he wasn’t quite managing it.
Zenko’s attention stayed fixed on Shaun. “You want me to stay, Shaun?” he asked softly.
Noble wasn’t sure Shaun understood why Zenko had suddenly decided he needed protection, but then Noble wasn’t entirely fucking sure Zenko understood it either. He’d seen his friend protective before. This felt different, and Noble had known him far too long to ignore that particular gut feeling.
“Do you trust him?”
Noble remembered Shaun asking Zenko the same question in the truck over the comms, and it seemed he needed to hear the answer again.
“He’s a hardass and more often than not a bastard, but he’s straight,” Zenko answered. “We might have our differences, and sometimes we beat the shit out of each other on the training mats, but I trust him with my life. Noble by name, Noble by nature. That’s what we always say.”
Noble watched the exchange between them with growing interest. Neither man seemed particularly aware of his scrutiny, too focused on each other to notice much of anything else. Shaun clearly needed reassurance, and Zenko had given it without hesitation.
“Then I am good,” Shaun told him, his eyes serious as he watched him. “Really, I promise.”
Zenko searched Shaun’s face for a couple of seconds before he nodded. “Come find me when you are done. You can bunk with me.”
Noble barely stopped his eyebrows from shooting into his fucking hairline again. Bunk with him? Zenko had lost his goddamn mind somewhere between leaving this base and coming back with Shaun Jacobsen.
Once Shaun nodded his agreement, Zenko stood and nodded to Noble before he left the room.