Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Shaun peered through the net curtain, watching the street where Zenko’s convoy should have appeared more than half an hour ago.
Still nothing, not even a fucking cat. The plane had landed on schedule, and the last update from Rock had put them less than twenty minutes out. They should have been here by now.
“You’re going to wear a hole in that fucking floor.” Max sprawled deeper into the chair behind him, having given up on trying to convince him to sit down sometime during the last twenty minutes. “Rock said he’d call you if anything changed.”
He grimaced and checked his phone again, finding the screen as empty as it had been the last time he looked.
Rock knew they were waiting, and if this were a routine delay, he would have updated him by now.
Something was wrong. He let the curtain fall back into place and crossed to where they had stacked their weapons and gear.
He had already checked his weapon twice while waiting, but his hands went through the familiar motions again anyway.
“I thought this was supposed to be a safe house,” Castiel grumbled as he started gathering his weapons. “Doesn’t inspire a whole lot of fucking confidence when the guys who own the place disappear between the airstrip and the front door.”
“If they’re that late, we should go looking for them.” Max reached for the keys to the vehicle they had used from the airstrip, but Reese snatched them off the table first. “Hey, give those back, asshole.”
“Nope.” Reese shoved the keys into his pocket before Max could take them back, a grin spreading across his face. “Last time you drove, it took us a week to make it to our destination.”
“It was across the freaking Sahara, fuckwad.” Max reached for the keys again, but Reese twisted away before he could get his hands on them.
The first flash of black at the end of the street pulled Shaun’s attention back to the window, and he crossed the room before the SUVs came fully into view.
“Heads up. We’ve got vehicles coming in.
” He stayed at the window as the SUVs drew closer, trying to see through the windshields without getting a clear enough angle to identify anyone inside.
His hand settled on his weapon while the bullshit with the keys died behind him and the others turned their attention toward the street.
Until the vehicles slowed or somebody inside gave him something he recognized, he wasn’t calling them Rock’s.
He heaved out the breath he’d been holding when the first SUV door opened and Rock’s massive frame appeared.
Thank fuck.
If Rock was here, Zenko had to be somewhere in that convoy. He secured his weapon and squeezed past Max, heading down the steps to meet his boss. Halfway there, he faltered when he caught the thunderous expression on Rock’s face and the mutinous one on Grif’s behind him.
Shit.
Something had happened between the airstrip and the safe house, unless the two assholes were arguing over their woman again.
“Rock?” He kept moving, his gaze slipping past his boss toward the other SUVs as doors opened and men started climbing out, searching for the one face he needed to see.
Rock caught him by the back of the neck as they met and hauled him in, one thick arm locking around his shoulders for a hard, brief squeeze.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Shaw.” He shoved him back far enough to run a quick gaze over him before jerking his head toward the safe house. “Inside. Everybody. Now.”
He turned with Rock, finally catching sight of Zenko climbing out of the second SUV. Relief hit hard enough to loosen something in his chest, but this wasn’t the place for either of them to stop. Zenko’s gaze found his almost immediately, holding it as everyone moved toward the safe house.
The unexpected lump in his throat pissed him off almost as much as the fucking bear hug had hurt. He swallowed it and gave Rock a quick nod.
“Yeah, Boss. I’m good.”
“We have a problem.” Rock’s tone was colder than he’d heard in a while. Last time was when Mossad had kidnapped Grif in an effort to make one of his old teammates defect again.
“I’ve already checked in with Cade. We are secure and good to transmit, so do I need to call the rest of the team?”
“No,” Grif told him, his expression doing nothing to ease the knot forming in Shaun’s gut. “Organize transport. We’re going stateside STAT.”
“Shit.” Shaun’s curse was for the confirmation that shit had hit the fan, but every other thought in his head disappeared when a hand landed lightly on the small of his back.
He knew that touch.
Zenko.
His eyes closed for a split second as he leaned into the warmth of the palm against him, relief hitting hard enough that he had to fight the urge to turn around and make sure for himself that Zenko had come back in one piece.
Fuck it.
He turned anyway, his gaze running over Zenko from head to boots as he checked for blood or an injury Rock might have neglected to mention.
There was dirt on him and exhaustion around his eyes, but he was standing there, alive and whole, looking right back at him with an expression that suggested Rock had probably opened his big fucking mouth somewhere between Syria and Croatia.
He should have cared more about that. Right then, he didn’t. Zenko was here, standing close enough that the warmth of his body reached him, and Rock opening his mouth hadn’t made him back away.
What the actual fuck?
I want this right here.
I want Zenko coming back to me.
His gaze flicked toward Rock and Grif across the room. They made it work despite everything their lives threw at them.
Maybe we can, too.
The thought should probably have scared the shit out of him more than it did.
He gave himself one more second to look at Zenko before forcing his attention back to whatever had Rock and Grif preparing to move them Stateside.
“You good?”
Zenko’s mouth twitched, although there wasn’t much humor in it. “Yeah, I am now.” His hand slid briefly around his waist before falling away. “But you and me? We are going to be having a conversation about keeping secrets, especially all that spooky shit you’ve had going on.”
Yep. Rock definitely opened his fucking mouth.
He gave Zenko what he knew had to be a guilty look, but this was neither the time nor the place to explain a life he’d spent years making damn sure nobody outside Ghost Team knew existed.
“Later.” He jerked his head toward Rock and Grif as they moved farther into the safe house. “Rock said we have a problem.”
He followed Rock and Grif into the den with Zenko close behind him, the awareness of the man crawling over his skin. He glanced back once and caught Zenko’s gaze somewhere considerably lower than his face.
Bastard.
Apparently being pissed about his secrets hadn’t stopped Zenko from checking out his ass.
Noble stood with Allie near the center of the room, while Red Squadron and the Ghosts filled the den around them until the normally decent-sized space felt a hell of a lot smaller.
“Still nothing?” Zenko asked Noble, his attention shifting toward Allie as he waited for the answer.
Noble shook his head, and Shaun caught the worry tightening Allie’s face before Rock’s voice cut across the room.
“Listen up.” Rock’s commanding tone had an immediate effect on the room.
Zenko straightened beside Shaun and clasped his hands behind his back, his feet automatically shifting into parade rest. Most of Red Squadron did the same, and a quick glance showed several of the Ghosts falling into familiar stances without appearing to think about it.
Two of his teammates remained slouched against the wall, looking for all the world as though Rock had called them together to discuss what they wanted for fucking dinner instead of whatever had put that expression on his face.
“Earlier today we discovered that Allie’s kid is missing.” Rock’s gaze moved across the room, his expression giving away nothing else yet.
“Shit.” The curse escaped Shaun before he could stop it, his gaze going immediately to Allie as the words sank in.
Lexi was missing. Someone had taken a kid he’d watched grow up around the Ghosts, and for one hard second, everything else in the room ceased to matter.
The tension he’d noticed between Rock and Grif outside suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense.
No wonder Grif had told him they were going stateside STAT.
“Do we know she is really missing?” One of his teammates asked the question slowly, his lower face still covered by a scarf.
Shaun glanced over at him and damn near snorted.
With his size and the scarf hiding half his face, all he needed was a shitload of gold around his neck before he could start muttering about pitying the fool.
A scuffle to Shaun’s left pulled his attention away, and he pressed his lips together when he caught sight of Noble with one hand clamped over his much smaller cousin’s mouth while Allie fought to get free.
Whatever she was yelling behind his palm was muffled, but Shaun had known her long enough to figure most of it involved creative variations of the word fuck.
“We know she’s not where she is supposed to be,” Grif growled from across the room. “We need to give Micah a heads-up. He’s closer than we are.”
“No.”
Allie ripped free of Noble’s grasp the second Rock refused and crossed the room to get right up in his face, forcing Shaun to bite the inside of his cheek because there were very few people on the planet willing to square up to his boss when Rock looked like he did right now.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do either, Rock.
We are calling Micah, and he is going to be in on this, or you can face Hawk and Creed and tell them why the fuck you stopped it.
” Her shoulders heaved as she pointed a finger in Rock’s face.
“You just try and fucking stop me from calling my brother, asshole.”