“That your brother?” Sean asked, eyes glued to the holoscreens onhisdesk.
“Da. On his way back. Isbigmess.”
“Someone tried to murder a presidential candidate and sitting senator. Big mess is anunderstatement.”
Alexei walked around the desk and squeezed between Sean’s chair and the bookcase cluttered with holopics of his family and a few wayward tablets. He settled his hands on Sean’s shoulders, digging his fingers and thumbs into the tight muscles there. Alexei made a face at the numerous knots he found in Sean’sshoulders.
“Need break,”Alexeisaid.
Sean stopped typing, head hanging down a little as Alexei worked at the knots in his muscles. “We don’t have time for abreak.”
“You complain this morning about only have one suit. You leave clothes at my place last time you come over. Could go get, have late lunch in city? Get mindoffmess?”
“Only way I’ll get my mind off this mess is if I’m dead,” Seanmuttered.
Alexei flicked Sean’s ear as hard as he could. “Notfunny.”
Sean craned his head around to glare at Alexei. “I wasn’t trying to befunny.”
“Grouchy.” Alexei caught him by the chin and leaned down to kiss Sean solidly on the mouth. “Need change scenery.Wego.”
“I have worktodo.”
“Do any more work, you drive Elena up wall.” Alexei dug his thumbs into the base of Sean’s neck for a couple more seconds before letting him go, pleased at the soft moan that escaped the other man’s mouth. “Come on. Up. Take break then come back and worklater.”
If Sean protested, Alexei was prepared to physically carry him out of the office. Sean must have realized that, because Sean snapped his mouth shut and gave him a sulky look that Alexei shouldn’t have found adorable, buthedid.
“You’re going to annoy me about this until I give in, aren’t you?” Seanasked.
“Know me so well,kotyonok.”
Sean made a face as he stood up. Alexei watched as he locked down the terminal, making sure he didn’t try to get sucked into another task. Alexei grabbed the suit jacket off the chair and unfolded it, holding it out for Sean to slip his arms into. The synthfabric didn’t wrinkle as badly as the dress shirt did, but he knew Sean didn’t like a messy appearance unless the cover calledforit.
“Ceres, send a notification to Deputy Director Stirling,” Sean said as he buttoned up his suitjacket.
“Ready to receive,” the MDF’s smart-building AIreplied.
“Going off base with Alexei to run a personal errand. Will returnby1700.”
That didn’t give them a lot of time, but Alexei wasn’t going to argue. Sean’s safety was his number-one priority, which was why Alexei was the one escorting him off base. He knew Sean could take care of himself, but Alexei felt better having eyes on theotherman.
“Let’s go,”Alexeisaid.
Ten minutes later they were driving toward the Washington, D.C. megacity and the apartment Alexei shared with Kyle. The car was signed out of the motor pool in case Cillian knew what their personal vehicles looked like. The direct route would’ve been the quickest way to go, especially on a Wednesday afternoon with rush-hour traffic starting up. Alexei opted instead to take a roundabout way to the apartment involving copious amounts of backtracking and side streets to shake anypossibletail.
Sean didn’t protest the extra time added onto the trip. He did keep a hand on the gun holstered on his hip as they got out in the subterranean garage, but Alexei couldn’t fault him for being jumpy. Alexei was on heightened alert as well—he was just better athidingit.
On the elevator ride up, Sean grabbed his hand and gave it a hard squeeze. Alexei quirked an eyebrow at him. “MDF would say if apartmentbrokeninto.”
“Humor me,”Seansaid.
Alexei lifted Sean’s hand to his mouth, kissing hisknuckles. “Okay.”
He let Sean keep the connection between them as they entered Alexei’s apartment, both of them tense in anticipation of something going terribly wrong. Alexei knew Sean was ready to phase them at the first hint of trouble that never came. The place was exactly how he’d left it last week, up to and including the clean dishes in the dishwasher that Kyle hadn’t unloaded before leaving to spend time withJamie.
Alexei glanced at the new security cameras placed near the entrance to the apartment, wondering who was on watch duty right now. Sean did one full walkthrough of the apartment before being satisfied with the current state of affairs. He let Alexei go in favor of rummaging around in the closet for a couple of extra suits he’d stashed there a fewmonthsago.
“Need to order more clothes. Can get shipped here,”Alexeisaid.
