“I’ll keep my head on a swivel,” Oliver promised with a sharp nod.
And God, Aberlour hoped it would be enough.
“Radio command. Tell ‘em we’ve got five males in the nest now.”
“Descriptions?” Oliver asked, all businesslike.
Aberlour rattled them off quickly from memory.
“Roger,” Oliver said before he was gone again.
It was several more hours until he was relieved from his shift. Oliver tapped his foot three times, their usual code for switch. Carefully, Aberlour slid off the makeshift sniper bed so his movements wouldn’t be spotted through any window. He kept himself low to the floor, and only stood back up with his back to a solid wall out of sight of the windows. Oliver was waiting for him there. He grabbed Aberlour’s arm to stop him from moving.
“The younger one is afraid—only the older kid spoke to us,” Oliver told him quickly and efficiently even as he kept hiseyes peeled for any action on the road he would now have to cover.
Abe gave a sharp nod and nodded towards the sniper cache. “Stay sharp,” he ordered. Oliver stepped out, getting ready to mimic Aberlour’s earlier movements, just in reverse. None of them had gotten much sleep or rest over the past few days, but Oliver didn’t look any the worse for wear. In fact, he looked damned good. His golden hair stuck out in every direction, giving the distinct impression he’d just gotten out of bed. And fuck, what Aberlour wouldn’t give to be rolling around in a bed with this man right now. Unable to restrain himself, he reached out and grabbed Oli, his fingers tingling with need as they grazed the exposed skin of the back of Oli’s neck.
Oliver turned, clearly surprised, one eyebrow hitched.
Abe opened his mouth—desperate for something to say, but couldn’t say a thing. No subterfuge to hide his desire, no pretense in order to cover his lapse in judgement.
He chuckled instead, unable to keep from smiling as Oliver’s blue gaze settled on him and plucked every corrupt thought out of his head.
“Aye,” Oliver said, his smile in response to Abe’s cheeky asshole grin firmly in place. Then he winked.
Aberlour clucked his tongue and abruptly released him, stepping away so he wouldn’t be tempted to stay even longer. Fuck—they’d left the scope unattended for at least a minute. If they’d missed anything, they’d be in deep shit.
Clearing his throat, and hopefully his thoughts, he headed over to the children, getting his first good look of them. Marcus was sitting a few feet away from them, eating his own MRE. He watched Aberlour approach, an all too familiar grin on his face.
“What?” Aberlour barked as low as he could manage.
“Nothing,” Marcus joked, shrugging. “Just enjoying the show,” he said, nodding towards where Aberlour had been standing just a few seconds ago. Abe did his best not to react. He focused on the children instead.
It was immediately clear which child Oliver had been talking about. One was a tween, while the other was barely out of diapers. The older one—a girl, if Aberlour had to wager a guess, had doe eyes that pierced right down to your soul. Dark and wide, surrounded by thick dark eyelashes. Aberlour forced himself not to meet them.
The younger one wouldn’t meet his gaze. It was a tiny thing—emaciated and dirty. The skin pulled so taunt over its facial bone structure that it didn’t evenlooklike a child. Aberlour couldn’t have guessed their gender. Their hair was hidden beneath a tuque of sorts, what few strands it had.
Fuck. He wasn’t sure the poor little thing would make it through the night.
Aberlour grabbed his pack he’d stashed against the wall, and reached into it, pulling out one more of the extra MRE’s. It had been a couple of hours since they’d fed them. Enough time for their stomachs to handle another meal, hopefully. As he prepped the MRE, their hungry eyes followed every one of his movements.
“I didn’t radio them in,” Marcus said, and it sounded like a confession. He supposed it was. Protocol was clear. They should have told base about the children. Should have mentioned their arrival and awaited orders.
Aberlour knew instantly why he hadn’t. He didn’t acknowledge the confession. If he didn’t, he might be able to lie his way through a polygraph.
Instead, he cast a dark look in Marcus’ direction, trying to tell him without words that he needed to stay quiet on the topic, and continued dividing the MRE into two portions. It wasn’tanything fancy. Just some kind of boiled chicken, but when he handed two portions to the children, they snatched the food out of his hands so fast it was a blur.
“Slow,” Aberlour cautioned them, as they began shoveling food in their mouths. He looked over at Marcus.
His friend shrugged. “Where’s the harm?” Marcus whispered, but they both knew the answer to that question.
After a few more meals, the older one began to let down her guard. Speaking in broken English, she thanked them charmingly and told them her name was Ali, and the other child was her sister Mia. Oliver and Marcus bonded quickly with the two children. Aberlour did his very best not to, but God, it was nearly impossible to remain indifferent. Stakeouts were long and boring, which only sped up the process of their bonding with the team as the minutes turned into hours, and the hours turned into days. Hours usually spent lounging or sleeping turned into quiet games of tic-tac-toe played on the dusty floor, and rock-paper-scissors matches, their muffled chuckles breaking up an otherwise somber mood. It was all too heartwarming—a definite problem in a war zone.
Aberlour grew increasingly worried with each passing hour, and he dreaded the moment he’d have to order the team to leave the kids behind. The look in Oli’s eyes said there was a plan brewing in that marvelously clever mind—one Aberlour wasn’t sure he’d have to strength to shoot down when the time came.
Abe shook his head in a bid for clarity. He was on duty again and couldn’t afford any distractions. Bringing his focus back to his primary task, he saw several men go into and then come out of the target house, looking no more suspicious than before—then the third evening came around, and a crowd began to gather.
The energy was different, and JD spent his entire shift noting details about the men that he and Abe saw go into the house. They believed there were at least seven now occupying the rat’s nest.
