Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Shaun pointed to the minivan backing out of a space. “There’s a spot.”
“I see her.” Zenko eased the truck to a stop. “You sure we can’t just order online?”
“We need coffee, Zen.” He picked at the frayed edges of the hole above the knee of his jeans. “And we’re going to need more booze for when I call Rock later.”
“You think he’ll answer?”
“Probably not.” He blew out a breath. He was still so fucking pissed at his boss.
Yeah, he got that the fucker had taken a mule kick when one-third of their triad kidnapped Lexi, Ghost Team’s youngest member and Allie’s kiddo.
He hated that he hadn’t been there to help because his ass had been lying in a critical care unit in Kuwait, with Zenko in another room fighting to stay alive.
Rock taking off afterward without a fucking word still made him want to kick the man’s ass.
“But if he doesn’t, I want to go and check on G and Allie. ”
“You got it.” Zenko eyed the van pulling to a stop on the opposite side, its driver clearly after the same parking spot.
“If you try to steal my spot, I am going to shoot you, fuckwad.” The second the minivan backed out, Zenko eased the truck forward until he was almost sitting on its rear bumper, then swung into the empty space. The other driver blasted the horn.
“Fuck you, asshole.” Zenko gave him a one-finger salute. “I was here first.”
“You are not driving the cart.” He opened the door and climbed out of the truck. “You’ll get road rage if some old lady stops in front of you.”
“I’m insulted.” Zenko rounded the hood with a grin. “You have an awful opinion of me.”
“Yup.” He shoulder-checked Zenko and smiled back at him. This everyday shit had a lot going for it. Who knew doing normal, run-of-the-mill shit like grocery shopping could be so freaking comfortable? He sure as hell hadn’t.
“The only good store is a weapons store.” Zenko gestured to the other side of the lot.
“If you behave in the grocery store, we can stop by and see what they’ve got.”
“Really?”
“Uh.” He frowned at Zenko. “Sure. I love guns as much as you do.”
“Damn, I knew I loved you for a reason.”
He ignored the gasp from the old lady returning her shopping cart to the rack. “I love you too, doofus. Now, behave.”
Zenko dug into his jeans pocket for a coin for the cart, only to drop it before he could feed it into the slot.
“Damn it.” He bent to pick it up.
Oh, damn it indeed.
He discreetly adjusted his dick. They’d spent the morning fucking and loving, getting reacquainted with each other, so his dick had no freaking business twitching at the sight of Zenko’s jeans pulling tight across his ass.
Ah, who the fuck am I kidding?
He’d have to be dead not to appreciate the delight that was Zenko’s ass in jeans. He took the cart from Zenko, and they walked side by side into the store. He gave it five minutes before Zenko started racing ahead and tossing random shit into the cart. He paused at the veggie aisle.
“What are we doing for dinner?”
Zenko shrugged. “Food?”
“Smartass.” He grabbed lettuce and tomatoes. “We can’t get delivery out at the house, so one of us has to cook.”
“You’re better at cooking than me.” Zenko sidestepped sharply to avoid stepping on a toddler.
He bit back a grin and caught one of Zenko’s windmilling arms before he could land ass-first in the carrots. Last time they’d gone shopping, they’d spent an hour picking cereal boxes up off the floor. “Easy there, Zen.”
“Tiny tots should come with a hazard warning.” Zenko ignored the frown the toddler’s mother sent his way.
He swallowed back a laugh while considering what they had at home. “Pasta?”
“Homemade?” Zenko leaned closer and gave him his best impression of puppy-dog eyes. “Pleeeease.”
“Jeez, what is wrong with you?” He pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh at Zenko’s antics. Still, he’d take this playful version of his man over the frustrated asshole medical leave had turned him into any day of the fucking week.
Pop. Pop.
Holy fuck, Shaun knew that sound. Every instinct he possessed flared to life, his body already moving before conscious thought caught up with it.
“Shots fired.” He reached for the stunned woman in front of him and dragged her to the floor, covering her with his own body.
Zenko spun toward the toddler he’d nearly tripped over seconds earlier, snatched the kid against him, and took them both to the floor.
Pop. Pop.
“You see where it’s coming from?” Zenko kept the child tight against his chest as he crawled toward the cover Shaun had found behind the vegetable stand.
“Outside, I think.” He shifted enough to let the woman pull her kid from Zenko’s arms. “Stay down, ma’am.”
The woman clutched her child against her chest and nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Zenko pointed two fingers toward his eyes, then toward the front of the store before looking back at him.
Shaun shook his head once. Nope. His phone was already coming out of his pocket as he shifted farther behind cover and dialed 911.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“Ma’am, we’re at the grocery store off Holland and White. We have shots fired.”
“What’s your name, sir?”
“Shaun.”
“Shaun, what’s your surname?”
“Irrelevant, ma’am.” He edged his head around the vegetable stand, listening as another faint burst of gunfire carried in from outside. “You need to send every available unit to whatever building is across the street.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ma’am, in my job you learn to tell where the hell the shooting is coming from.” He kept his attention on the front of the store. “The shots are coming from across the street, and I haven’t lived here long enough to know what that building is for sure.”
“It’s the pharmacy or the school.” The woman tightened her arms around her son. “Oh my God, is it the school?” She started scrambling to her knees. “My daughter is over there.”
Zenko caught her arm and pulled her back beneath the cover of the vegetable stand. “Stay put, ma’am. You aren’t going to be any use to your kids if you get shot.”
Shaun counted backward from ten on his fingers, forcing himself to stay where he was while every instinct he had screamed at him to move toward the gunfire. This shit was frustrating as hell. They were trained to fight. The sound of gunfire was a call to battle for warriors such as them.
“I’m being told it’s either the pharmacy or the school.” He kept his attention on the front of the store, listening for any change in the direction of the shots.
“I have units on the way,” she answered. “They were all at a road accident out on the highway, so it’s going to take them a hot minute to get there.”
He looked at Zenko. The answering nod came immediately. “Ma’am, my partner and I are going over there.”
“Sir.” The dispatcher’s voice wobbled badly enough that Shaun tightened his grip on the phone.
This was a small town where everyone seemed to know everyone, and he’d bet good money she had family or friends in that school.
Hell, she probably knew most of the people working or shopping at the pharmacy too.
“You cannot go over there. You’re not trained to do so. ”
“Lady, there is no one better suited to this than us.” He looked over his shoulder at Zenko, and whatever his man saw in his face wiped away the last trace of grocery-store Zenko.
“Ambra, contact bossman and give him a sit-rep. Tell him I’m going to need his guy to access any security cameras that can give us intel. ”
***
Zenko nodded, keeping one ear on Shaun’s conversation while he pulled out his phone and called Noble. The second he’d heard Shaun call him by his code name, he’d known the decision was made.
He agreed with Shaun. They could not and would not leave innocents to fend for themselves.
This small town where they had chosen to live didn’t have a hostage negotiation team; the FBI was at least an hour away, and from the lack of sirens, that accident out on the highway the dispatcher had mentioned was either farther away or more serious than they’d understood.
“Bauer.”
“Bossman, it’s me.” Now that they’d determined the shots weren’t coming from this building, Zenko moved farther away from the woman and her kid, putting enough distance between them that his conversation with Noble wouldn’t carry. “We got a situation.”
“What the fuck have you done now, Zenko? I sent you Stateside to recover, not to cause trouble?—”
“Boss, code red.” Zenko cut across him before Noble could get going. “Shots fired at what we think is the pharmacy or the local school. Local law enforcement isn’t on scene yet, so Shaw and me are it. I need access to their security and traffic cameras, and I need it STAT.”
“Fuck. Two minutes.”
Zenko could hear the pounding of Noble’s feet as he moved. Even without being a fly on the wall in Stromboli, he knew Noble was racing through the corridors of his Italian home toward the war-room Max had set up in the basement.
“Max!”
Zenko jerked the phone away from his ear and winced at Noble’s bellow. “Jeez, boss, I’m deaf now.”
“Shut it.” Noble didn’t miss a beat. “Max, I need access to any and all security cameras for?—”
Zenko filled in the blanks. “We’re just off the corner of Holland and White. Best guess is either the pharmacy or the elementary school.”
“You got it.” Fingers immediately started clacking over a keyboard in the background while Noble gave Max a quick rundown of the situation.
“You secure?” Noble’s attention came straight back to him. “Weapons?”
“Handguns.” Zenko nudged Shaun and pointed toward the gun store across the parking lot. “Ask the dispatcher to contact the gun store. We’re going to need to gear up.”
Shaun nodded and passed the request on to the 911 operator.
“Ma’am?” Shaun turned to the woman still crouched with her toddler son, tears rolling down her face. “Leave your kid here and crawl over there.” He pointed to a stand farther behind them. “Grab me every bicycle lock they have, got it?”
“Okay.”