“It’s about Thumper.”
Again, that innocent and trusting face flashed before his eyes. Pain and anger, swelled within his chest. This was supposed to have been something he’d gotten over, moved beyond. Yet day in and day out he was bombarded with memories.
“In regards to?”
Harry tuned to him, expression one hundred percent serious. Aarne hated all of this. Past Harry’s broad shoulder were his men doing their best not to appear as if they were trying to hear the exchange between them.
“There is news about the one who shot him.”
Aarne clenched his jaw. “Shot? Thumper was murdered. Don’t make fucking excuses.”
The plane touched down with a shudder of her large body. Harry rose.
“I’m not. We both know he signed up for this but you are so fucking right. He was murdered. Doesn’t matter.” The man swore and shook his head. “This comes from over my head. I need you to know that.”
Irritated now, he grabbed his gear as Ruler tossed him it in his direction. “The point of all this is what?”
“Our guide.”
He scowled, pieces clicking and him finally seeing the correlation of where this shit fest all led.
“Don’t say it. “Don’t you fucking say it.”
The ramp lowered and he walked away from his CO before he put a fist in his face.
Two SUVs waited and he moved toward them when a man came around the hood and the blood in Aarne’s veins slowed to a crawl. A painful, thorn infested crawl.
He’d not wanted to hear it. The words didn’t register because in his mind they should not ever work with someone who killed one of their own.
Yet, here he stood facing the bastard who put a bullet in Thumper’s chest.
Jakeb Wynn expected a bullet between the eyes or a few in center mass. He prided himself on being a man who didn’t run and didn’t do scared. All of that meant shit right now because the man who walked off that plane was the one who’d been beside the guy, he’d been under orders to shoot.
Back then, Jakeb hadn’t asked questions. All he’d done was follow orders like a good little solider.
That was then. This is now. And I no longer blindly follow orders.
He knew the name of one approaching him because he’d wanted to know the man’s name of the one who had survived, the one he knew would hate him and kill him the first chance he got. Aarne LeVesque.
A whole lot of sexy wrapped up in a dark package. He had no doubt right now, those eyes damn near a fathomless black were burning holes in him from behind those aviator sunglasses. Where this any other situation and he would have been hitting on the man, hoping for a chance to spend a night or more with Aarne as a lover.
Even now, some nights his dreams morphed and presented him all that stood before him, just naked, hard, and wanting. Him.
He didn’t speak, moving his focus beyond the one he wouldn’t ever forget to the man recognizable from the dossier he’d gotten.
“Two vehicles,” he said. “I’ll lead you there.”
“Gomer?” one from behind asked.
Fuck, none of these men were anything he’d like to tangle with and yet his gaze continually drifted back to Aarne.
“Two teams, stay sharp.” The older gentleman readjusted the bag around his shoulder and spit to his left.
In that moment, Jakeb realized that while the one called Gomer was technically and officially the leader, all of them looked to Aarne, whether or not they recognized that fact. The ones without sunglasses on, glanced at him and the others, if they looked or not, he couldn’t swear to it, but no one moved until the most miniscule head bob came from Aarne.
They piled in and he realized that Aarne was in his vehicle. Not in the front beside him but in the back, diagonal to him. Jakeb settled behind the wheel and turned the key. He understood the tactic. Some people wished to be directly in line with their target but he didn’t doubt that Aarne was there so he could watch all his movements. Not to mention, the man had to be a crack shot. Maybe not to his level as a sniper, but a damn good one.
The last one in was a young, innocent-esque faced man who got in. Gomer, if that truly was his name, was in the front with him. Checking the mirror, they began driving, he made sure that the following vehicle didn’t have any issues.
Not a word was spoken during the long drive. Also, something he understood from his days serving a faceless name in some office, safe from the dangers he was put before. He didn’t push conversation and he was grateful for his own mirrored shades, allowing him to look more often then he should in the mirror, hoping for a glance at the one who wanted to kill him.
He slowed for the final turn up to the hut they were using as ground zero. After backing in and waiting for the second vehicle to do the same, he cut the engine and climbed out.
“Well, don’t this look fucking cheerful,” one of the guys said as he hopped out of the second set of wheels.
“Not much but it’s home. At least for a while.” Jakeb made sure not to look in Aarne’s direction. He wasn’t sure if the other men knew, there wasn’t the hostility coming to him from their direction. Then again, what did he know about their ability to not show their true emotions?
“Dig.”
Leaning against the hood, Jakeb watched Aarne move towards the one who went by Gomer. Every move was perfect, no expended energy and yet, he looked like a deadly predator. He didn’t verbally respond to the man, just stood before him.
Their discussion wasn’t pleasant whatever it was about. Jakeb shoved a hand through his short hair after removing his hat then replaced it.
Two of the others approached and he moved from the side and went to meet them.
“We’re all crashing in the same place, even though there’s a second hut, there’s bottled water and chow in there if you want any. There are sensors set up half a klick out and I will warn you, we have a lot of poisonous things out here. Typically, the prettier it is, the more deadly.” He rested his hand on the butt of his sidearm.
As one they looked at the youngest of the group. “Well, you certainly are the prettiest, but I have to disagree, I highly doubt Ruler is the deadliest here. We all know who that honor goes to.” One of the men teased, he believed it was the one who went by Turtle.
“Dig,” they all said as one. The men smiled and fist bumped. Three of them peeled off and headed for the hut.
After they had walked off, he took a breath and followed.
“Not you.”
Jakeb paused, angling his head to see Dig and Gomer walking toward him.
“Something you needed?” he asked.
“Take Dig here around the perimeter and give him a run down of where and what you’ve learned about the shitstorm we’re heading toward and what the plan is.”
“Yes sir,” he said. Aarne checked the magazine of his FN SCAR and made sure it was ready to fire, his expression closed off. “Just us two?”
“Gonna be a problem?” Gomer’s voice held an edge.
“No sir.”
He ran a gaze over the man dressed in jungle fatigues, armed to the teeth, he actually carried two FN SCARs, one ten inch barrel and one fourteen point five. There were knives and a lot more Jakeb was sure he wasn’t seeing.
Silence stretched between them.
“Why are you ladies standing around?” Gomer pulled out a cigar and smelled it before putting it in his mouth and rolling it. “Move it.”
Aarne still hadn’t spoken a word to him.
He walked away, assuming the man would either shoot him in the back or follow.
Aarne:
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