“Oh.” How did he respond to that? Should he respond to that? “Um—you have kids here too?”
“Hell no.” Grif grumbled. “She’s safe at home, he’s going to call her on the damn phone.”
“Aren’t you both meant to be home this week?” Cade held onto the counter with one hand, bending down to open the small fridge under the worktop looking for milk, “Rio, you want milk or sugar in your coffee?”
“No, thank you.”
“I don’t either.” Grif watched Cade, checking for any signs of aftereffects of the drugs he’d been given.
“I know you don’t.” Cade handed over the mugs.
“Hey G,” another man appeared in the doorway, “Boss says get your asses to the War - Room, we got a development.” The man frowned when he caught sight of Rio. “Who are you?”
“I—”
“Shaun, this is Rio,” Cade moved forward, placing himself between them, “Rio, Shaun. He’s one of us.”
“Why didn’t he freaking call me then?” Grif placed the coffee on the table to stuff all the equipment he had taken out back into his medical kit.
“No clue,” Shaun pointedly looked at his watch. “He did say something about breaking down a bunch of batshittery, stat. So can ya hurry your ass up?”
“You come with me,” Grif pointed at Cade. “Your friend can stay here.”
Friend? He was a friend now? Rio wondered how many friends got the privilege of private guards sitting at the door of their rooms. He got it, they didn’t really know him, he wasn’t meant to know about them. But yet… here he was in their private bat cave and he had to deal with their rules. By the time he had finished the thought, though, Cade had winked at him and left the room with the others, closing the door behind him.Shit, maybe bringing Cade here was a bad idea. Have I left one prison for another?
* * *
“Did Zenko come with you?” Cade ignored the thumping in his head. If he acted like he was having any side effects from the drugs, Grif would have had him back at medical and be using those damn needles he’d pulled out of the bag earlier. Plus, he was curious. Shaun Jacobsen had worked with him for years, but he hadn’t seen as much of him lately as he had been working in Europe with Zenko’s team.
“Yeah,” Shaun keyed in the code to take them from the corridor onto the catwalk above the sunken War - Room. Shaun’s life partner and soon to be husband, Zenko Marks, rarely came to Dreamland. He worked with his own Covert team. Red Squadron was mostly based in Europe, and the shit show that had been Shaun and Zenko getting together had caused ripples across the Black Ops community. Oh, not that anyone gave a shit that they had a relationship, nope, it was more that two of the United States’ most covert teams, were now one big happy family, doubling not only their fire power but also their loyalty to each other. “We had some documents Zen pulled on a mission in Syria that are related to the chatter your analysts have been investigating. Red Squadron has some shit going down. Noble and Max decided it was safer to hand deliver copies rather than risk a non-secure line.”
“Makes sense.” Cade followed Shaun down the metal spiral staircase. No matter how silent your footsteps were, walking on metal made it harder to be silent, but the lack of noise from his own feet made Cade look down.Shit, I forgot my damn boots.
Computers buzzed, lit up maps lined one massive wall, and screens filled with satellite images took up most of another. But it was the screen Rock and Zenko stood in front of that drew Cade’s attention. Sometime during the night, one of his analysts had obviously scanned in the paperwork Zenko and Shaun had brought.
“This the paperwork?”
“Yup.” Rock kept staring at the screen, tilting his head back and forth as he read the information in Arabic. “Tell me what I am looking for?”
“Keep reading.” Shaun’s hand stroked across Zenko’s back before he moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with his man. Just seeing the two of them together sent a twinge of envy down Cade’s back. He didn’t begrudge Shaun his happiness, not at all. He just also wanted a little bit of it for himself.
“Where did this come from?” Grif dumped his med-kit on a desk before he too took a place in front of the screen. A former Delta Force Operator, Grif was well versed in recon and intelligence.
“Noble and I took it from the weapons cache,” Zenko lifted one shoulder, “The day you nearly stood on my nose in the damn field in Syria.” His gravelly voice made the growl of his response sound deeper, “Just before a US CH-47F Chinook took out the ruin, the weapons cache, and damn near us with it.”
“Syria?” Grif asked, “Before we knew Shaun was alive?”
“Yup.” Shaun nodded his head, “Red Squadron lost their base in Turkey in a coordinated attack.”
Rock stilled, even though Cade knew his boss had been aware of the situation. Hell, he and their team had met up with Noble and Red Squadron shortly after. He could almost see the smoke billowing out his boss’ ears as the wheels in his brain started putting links together. “Why did Noble send this here?” Rock turned to face Zenko and Shaun, “Why isn’t he dealing with this himself?”
“Because we lost Santorini.”
“What?”
“We had a situation with Drax.” Shaun chewed on the side of his nail, “Roman had a job and took his principle to Santorini, within two days it was blown to pieces.”
“Casualties?”
