Was that relief in his boss’s voice? It wasn’t typical of him to be worried about his operators, or at least not to show he was. “Yes, Sir.”
“Trust Bauer and his people.” His boss didn’t wait around for pleasantries. “Don’t come back ’til we figure this shit out.”
Mixed feelings slammed into him, staying here meant more time to explore this thing with Saxon. Staying away from his team meant he was grounded. But he didn’t have time to figure out how he felt about either of those situations yet. He had more pressing things to worry about. “What do I tell them?”
“The truth.”
Huh?His boss had never said that before. He couldn’t mean that. No way was he doing that without getting clarification. “All of it?”
“Does it land you in shit I’ll need to clean up later?”
Was that frustration in his boss’s voice? It sure didn’t sound like his normal tone for pissed off. His guts told him there was more going on than he knew yet. Maybe some of the guys were on another mission and had shit to deal with. He could hope it was that and not connected to the shitshow that was currently his life. Still, he knew better than to ask questions, so instead he answered the one he had been asked. “Nope.”
“Then give them what they want to know.”
“Including who we are?” That had never ever been authorized before. Family members didn’t even know who they worked for or what their jobs entailed.
“Bauer knows me and owes me a favor.”
If he had wanted or needed an endorsement for Saxon’s boss, his own boss had just given him the highest one he could. Rick had always trusted his Commander’s judgement before, there was no reason to change that now. “Got it.”
“Let me know if you need an out.” His boss paused a second, “I won’t leave your ass swinging in the breeze if you have to come home.”
Damn it, reading between the lines sucked. He’d never been very good at it, but if he had to guess, he had just been told, ‘stay put until I tell you it’s safe to come back.’ “It causes shit for you if I am back?”
“Maybe.”
That confirmation proved all was not good in the house of Black. Even with his crappy ‘read between the lines’ skills, he could tell there was obviously more going on here than he knew. Something was making his boss tell him not to be visible at their home base unless absolutely necessary. And why was he safer here with Saxon and his people than he was with his own team? But he wouldn’t ask those questions now. It was neither the time nor the place. “Then I stay.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
“Yes, Sir.” By the time he’d finished the sentence, his boss had hung up the phone.
“Later, boss. Nice talking to you, boss.” Muttering sarcastic goodbyes to dead air, he scrolled through the cell to the call log and deleted the number. His boss may say to trust Noble Bauer, but something smelled off, the caution and order to stay bothered him. He’d wait and see what happened. “Let’s do it, debrief.” He opened the door to the war-room. Debriefings were a part of his life. They had been for years. How bad could this one be?
* * *
Ten minutes later,Rick was ready to kick his own ass. He’d been an idiot to tempt fate. How bad could it be indeed. Bah! How about pissing on what turned out to be an electric fence. Biting down on your tongue as the electricity from an elephant fence traveled through your dick and up through your body. Yup, that bad. He’d been the city cousin who’d been told it was perfectly good to touch the wire surrounding the pasture. Yeah, lesson learned. “Stop.”
“Sure.” Noble paused mid-step.
“Are you seriously telling me that my father got the ransom demand and offered to give those fuckers the drones they wanted if they disposed of me?” Only Saxon’s boot landing on top of his kept him from jumping to his feet at the round table they were all seated at. He watched the slight wince cross Noble’s face, and already knew the answer before the man gave it.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“And I thought my family were dicks.”
He wasn’t quite sure which one said it, but the mumbles of agreement from Saxon and the others told Rick it made sense to at least some of the men in the room.
“Peanut, your asshole family are living on borrowed time.” Noble agreed. “Unless you want to share all the gory details with the class right now, it’s not relevant.”
“Sorry, Boss.”
Across the table from him, Rick had a front seat view of the grimace on Peanut’s face. There was a story there, but call him selfish, he didn’t have time for that shit now. Right now, he wanted to know how badly his family wanted him dead. “How much did he offer on top of the drones?”
“Nothing that I can find.” the one he’d heard called Max replied.
“Dickwads didn’t know gold when they had it the first time, you expect them to have studied its value between then and now? Duct tape only muffles the sound of stupid, it doesn’t fix it.”
