“It’s a good thing Sharr is fucking dead already.” Cade picked up his cell, “I’m gonna call Max.”
“Yeah,” Shaun rubbed at his eyes, “We need to catch some ZZ’s. Zen gets cranky if he goes more than twenty-four hours without a nap.”
“I did nap,” Zenko muttered, “on the damn plane.”
“Lo should be making lunch,” Cade glanced at the clock, jeez, it was midday. When did that happen? “If you head to the mess, you might be able to persuade him to give you some.”
“Nah,” Shaun tugged Zenko toward the door, “We can eat in our quarters.”
Cade watched them leave, grabbed a box of painkillers from the desk, and shook a couple into his hand. Maybe he shouldn’t be taking these until he had an update from Grif about what had been in the tranq dart, but damn it, if he wanted to make any sense of what Max had to say or wanted to get any work done then he needed his head not to thump quite so much. Hitting call on his cell, he waited for the line to connect. “Hey Max, it’s Cade…”
* * *
“Boss, we got something.” Cade squeezed his thumbs into his eyes, they hurt. He would shoot his granny for a couple of hours' sleep, but between him and Max, they had figured it out. Now he just had to get Rock to see that Rio was the answer. Oh, and he had to get Rio to agree to help.
“On my way.”
Cade hit the end button on the call, leaned back in his chair, and stretched his neck from side to side to relieve the knot which had taken up residence at the base of his skull. Glancing at his watch had him mouthing a curse. He’d been here for hours. Had done his usual thing and gotten lost in his work. Tracking, tracing, and cross-referencing everything took time. But, gah, Rio had been on his own all freaking day. “I’m a dick.”
“This is news how?” Grif clattered down the steps into the War - Room. “Rock will be here in a sec.”
“Okay,” Cade picked up the phone, “Imma just going to call Rio.”
“Sure,” Grif headed toward the table set against one wall, coffee calling his name.
Cade looked up the code for the Victor One, entered it into his phone, and hit call. Drumming his fingers on the desk, he waited for Rio to answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hi.”
“You okay?” Cade spun his chair around to face the wall. He knew that Grif could hear every word he said, but he’d take the illusion of privacy turning around gave him.
“I’m a little ass hurt that I am stuck here,”the television in the background muted, allowing Rio’s sigh of frustration to filter through the phone.
“I’m sorry,” Cade knew it wasn’t enough, but it was all he could do for now, “I’ll talk to Rock.”
“Talk to me about what?”
“Jesus, fuck, Boss?” Cade jerked in his chair and slammed the phone against his chest in an effort to muffle what Rio could hear. He’d been so focused on the phone he hadn’t heard Rock coming down the stairs. “Make a little noise, will ya?”
“I did make noise,” Rock, the corner of his mouth twisted upward, “You are kinda not paying attention.”
“Move over there, Boss. I’ll finish my phone call and be right with you.”
Rock opened his mouth to respond, but Grif beat him to it.
“Babe, let the man sweet talk his guy. You got some. Let him see if he can, too.”
“Spoilsport.” Rock held up two fingers telling him he had two minutes and waved Cade back to his call.
“You still there? Cade put the phone back to his ear.
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
“Sorry about that.”
