Chapter 20 #3
Zenko watched Shaun settle back into the seat after their exchange, but the quiet that followed felt different from the murderous silence Saxon and Noble had inspired.
His guy’s attention had turned inward again, his expression focused as the Jeep bounced over another pothole hard enough to knock Zenko’s shoulder against the window.
He shifted closer to Shaun and nudged their knees together again. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Shaun glanced over at him before looking toward the road ahead. “Just going over the steps in my head.”
“Yeah.” Zenko settled deeper into the seat and tried to run through the insertion with Shaun, but Noble and Saxon were still bitching at each other from the front.
So much for fucking concentrating. He glanced at Shaun and caught him watching him, which immediately gave Zenko a much better idea. “Me too.”
He winked and watched Shaun’s eyes narrow. There it was. His guy knew him well enough already to recognize when he was about to start some shit.
He waited until Shaun’s expression shifted into wary suspicion before leaning forward between the front seats and waited until Noble paused long enough to take a breath, then pitched his voice into his most obnoxious whine.
“Are we there yet, Dad?”
Noble twisted far enough in his seat to level a look at him that would have made a smarter man reconsider his choices.
“Shut it, Zenko. I swear to God, if you ask me that one more fucking time, I’m going to make you walk the rest of the fucking way.”
Shaun snorted beside him as Noble turned back around and immediately resumed arguing with Saxon. Zenko grinned and settled into his seat again.
SNAFU. Some things didn’t change, no matter where in the world Red Squadron happened to be operating.
“Fucking finally.” Zenko glanced at his watch as the outskirts of Kuwait City began closing around them.
It was almost noon, which gave them nearly an hour before they were due to meet the CIA contact.
The city had grown since the last time he’d been here, spreading farther out into the desert, but there were still pieces he recognized.
He’d been here in ’03, kicking in doors and swinging a sledgehammer or a hooley through whatever stood between his SEAL Team and whoever they’d been sent after.
Zenko’s attention sharpened as the Jeep moved deeper into the neighborhood.
A building on the corner caught his eye, then the narrow street beyond it, and familiarity settled harder with every block they passed.
He leaned closer to the window, watching the buildings slide by as memory started filling in what time had changed.
Fuck. He knew this place. He’d been right here before.
Shaun’s knee pressed against his, pulling part of his attention away from the window. “You good, Zen?”
“Yeah.” Zenko looked toward the front and found Noble already watching him.
Of course, he remembered. Noble had been his team commander the last time they’d come through this neighborhood, and there were some missions neither of them needed to mention for the other to know exactly where his head had gone. “It is it, right?”
“Yeah.” Noble turned back toward the window and stared through the glass for several seconds before lifting his chin toward the street ahead. “See that building on the corner? There were bullet holes all over that fucker after the firefight in ’03.”
Zenko wasn’t sure about the bullet holes, but he remembered the firefight.
He remembered leaving this neighborhood with one less man than they’d brought into it.
Their first loss since BUD/S, back when some stupid fucking part of them had still believed that if they trained hard enough and watched each other’s six, their SEAL Team might somehow make it through together.
He dragged his gaze away from the buildings before the memories could pull him any deeper into a day he had no intention of reliving just before an operation.
Saxon slowed as they approached the lights at the roundabout and glanced toward Noble.
“Are we still dropping them at the entrance to the port?”
“Yes.”
Zenko leaned forward and thumped Noble and Saxon on the shoulders before settling back into his seat. He looked at Shaun gathering his gear beside him and reached for his own.
“See you on the flip side, brothers.”
The light turned green, and Saxon took them through the roundabout before pulling over illegally beside the entrance to the port.
Zenko was out almost as soon as the Jeep stopped, hauling his gear with him while Shaun climbed out behind him.
He slammed the door and thumped the roof twice.
Saxon pulled away immediately, leaving them on the pavement as Zenko turned toward the water.
Shaun adjusted the gear on his shoulder. “Show me the road, Zen. The sooner we get this fucking water part done, the happier I’ll be.”
Zenko looked at him for a second, hearing what Shaun had trusted him enough to admit yesterday beneath the complaint.
He didn’t make a joke out of it or offer reassurance Shaun hadn’t asked for.
He brushed his fingers against Shaun’s instead and headed toward their meeting point, with his guy beside him.
“Hooyah, babe.”
Shaun’s fingers caught his for a second before their hands separated again.
“Hooyah.”