Chapter 19 #2
“Yup, that will work. We can take the mini sub to Zoor and then to Khark. If they drop Zen and Shaun at that little island, they can swim their way in, and if Sheridan has alarms or monitoring equipment set in the water, they should be able to avoid it.”
“Yeah, agreed.” Shaun had followed Drax’s finger as he traced out the route, and nothing about the insertion looked beyond his capabilities.
That didn’t mean there weren’t a few details he wanted cleared up before somebody sealed him inside a mini sub and dumped his ass into the Persian Gulf. “Will there be sharks?”
Zenko’s head came up, and the smirk spreading across his face immediately told Shaun he was going to regret asking the fucking question.
“What’s the matter, babe, you alright? You need a barf bag?”
Babe.
Shaun felt that one somewhere considerably lower than his chest. Zenko had moved on from growling ‘mine’ in front of everyone to casually dropping endearments into conversation, and fuck if he didn’t like the sound of it coming from him.
He filed that particular discovery away for later because right now the smart-ass was still smirking at him.
“Are you one of those guys who has a death fantasy about becoming a shark’s dinner?” Zenko asked, his amusement obvious. He paused before adding, “Just curious, and you know, asking for research purposes.”
He would make him pay for that smart-assed comment somehow. “Nope... maybe.” He kept his eyes on Zenko, letting the humor fall away because this part he needed his guy to understand. “What scares me is being separated from you in the water.”
Saying it in front of the others didn’t bother him.
This was mission intel as far as he was concerned.
If something went wrong during the insertion, Zenko needed to know what could get inside his head before it happened.
The fear might be irrational, but Shaun had never allowed it to stop him from doing his job, and he sure as fuck wasn’t starting now.
“Okay.” Zenko’s smirk disappeared as he held Shaun’s gaze, and for a second there was no teasing in his expression at all. He gave him a small nod, accepting what Shaun had told him without making a fucking production out of it. Then the amusement crept back into his face.
He immediately regretted appreciating the bastard’s understanding two seconds earlier. He was going to freaking beat him. “What now?”
“Nuthin...” Zenko dragged the word out while doing an absolutely shitty job of pretending there wasn’t something going on behind that innocent expression.
“Spit it out, Zen.” Shaun lowered his voice, although the sudden lack of conversation around them told him every nosy fucker on the plane was listening anyway.
Zenko continued trying to look innocent.
“Zen...” He let a little warning bleed into his voice and watched the asshole actually attempt a sheepish shrug.
Oh, bullshit.
There was no fucking way Zenko Marks had a sheepish bone in his body.
Zenko’s attempt at looking sheepish disappeared beneath a grin. “I’m gonna leash you to me.”
Jerk.
Shaun froze as his brain immediately supplied several interpretations of that statement that had absolutely fuck-all to do with keeping them together during a water insertion.
He wasn’t the only one whose mind went there, because silence dropped over the others for a split second before Reese piped up from behind them.
“Well, you did ask him if you were a puppy last night?”
The others had heard their argument. Of course, they fucking had. Stupid houses with thin-assed walls. Shaun ignored Reese and focused on Zenko instead, wondering what response the smart-ass expected from him. An immediate no? Embarrassed silence?
Yeah, fuck that. He’d never been the type to back down from a challenge, and Zenko had walked straight into this one all by himself. He waited until the bastard lifted his coffee and took a massive gulp before giving him an easy smile.
“K... who knows? We might enjoy the kinky shit.”
The effect was immediate. Zenko choked and sprayed coffee everywhere as Shaun stepped neatly out of range.
Drax and Noble weren’t so lucky. Both men caught the spray, and Shaun pressed his lips together as Zenko coughed and spluttered in front of him.
He really did try not to laugh. For maybe half a fucking second.
“Oh my fucking god. That was just too funny... I can’t...” Max was laughing too hard to finish whatever the hell he had been trying to say.
Shaun followed his gaze back to Zenko, who was still coughing while staring at him as if he couldn’t decide whether to be impressed or pissed. That finished him. The laughter he’d been fighting broke loose, made worse when Zenko finally got his breath back and flipped him off.
“Assholes!” Noble roared as he wiped coffee from his face.
That only earned another burst of laughter from somewhere behind Shaun before Noble pointed toward the maps and equipment still spread around them.
“We have less than forty minutes before we land. Clean this shit up and stow your gear. Be ready to move as soon as we have wheels down on the tarmac.”