“A big problem,” Gunner supplied dryly. “That’s what we call it.”
Spencer nodded. “Now and then somebody cracks. People thought I’d gone bad when I disobeyed my orders to arrest Drago and bring him home. There was a rather concerted effort to bring me in, get me off the street, and make sure I didn’t go on some kind of rampage.”
“Did you crack?” Chas asked curiously.
Spencer smiled over at Drago. “It was a close thing. But Dray got me through it in one piece.”
Drago reached out to squeeze Spencer’s hand affectionately. “We saved each other. I think I was in worse shape than he was when we found each other.”
Chas looked on with envy at the two warriors who’d found true love with each other. God, he would love to have that with Gunner. But the guy was so emotionally closed off, he didn’t think he’d ever get there. Sadness washed over him. Such a waste of a human heart.
Gunner stood up, gathering plates. “I’ll clear the table if you guys will lay out the topographical map. I want to go over the plan one more time. Now that I’ve walked the property and have visuals on it, I want to see it on paper.”
Spencer stood as well. “After we go over it here, how about we walk through it outside in night conditions?”
Gunner nodded. “Perfect.”
Chas winced. Not perfect. He hated running around in the dark, particularly when there were bad guys in the darkness out to kill him, or worse, out to kill Gunner. “How fast do you think your prisoner dude will get in touch with his friends and lead them here to attack us?”
“Two, maybe three days.”
“So, tonight?” Chas asked sarcastically.
Drago harrumphed. “Fuckers have been moving faster than we anticipated almost every step of the way.”
Spencer shrugged. “We’ll be ready for them tonight, regardless. They do seem desperate to impress the bosses back in Japan.”
Gunner added, “Either that, or the bosses in Japan are breathing fire at them to get the kid back so they don’t look like incompetent fuckups to the Yakuza brass.”
Chas fretted through the map session. His job was literally to stay in the house and stay out of the way. Period. He hated every second of the talk about the guys moving around in the woods trying to flush out targets, what search patterns they would use, and where they would go to hide if they got overwhelmed by too many bad guys at once.
Faced with three violent special operators, it wasn’t as if he could stand up and make an argument for finding a way to do this nonviolently. Maybe contact the Oshiro clan. Explain that they weren’t getting the kid back and should call off their war dogs. Maybe negotiate some sort of truce between Grandpa Tanaka and whoever was in charge of the Oshiro gang.
He was privately appalled when Drago brought out huge bags of gear and weapons that the three men methodically commenced inspecting, cleaning, oiling, and loading with ammunition. Every lens got polished, and even the knives got sharpened before they declared their gear ready to go. Nope. This thing was going down violently if Gunner and his friends had anything to say about it.
Chas allowed that they probably wouldn’t start the shooting, but he had no doubt they would retaliate aggressively when the shooting started.
And then it was time for the midnight walk-through. He followed Gunner to the back door, murmuring, “I don’t like this. Be careful out there.”
“Relax. There’s nobody out there, Chas. This’ll be a stroll through the woods. Wanna come along?”
“No!”
Gunner grinned. “Why don’t you go on up to bed and try to get some sleep? This’ll take a couple of hours.”
“Sleep?” he squawked. “Are you mad?”
“What else would you do late at night, given that I won’t be there to have epic sex with?”
Chas punched Gunner’s upper arm. “Can I call you if I freak out?”
“Like on my cell phone?” Gunner blurted.
“Yeah.”
“Not ideal. Even a silenced cell phone makes some noise.”
“Yeah, but if nobody’s out there—”
Gunner cut him off. “I have an idea. How about we give you a headset? You can listen in on us as we run through the plan and patrol the property. And if you freak out, you can ping me on the radio. I’ll set up a secondary frequency for you that’ll be private just between you and me.”
“You can do that?”
“Of course. The SEALs use only the best equipment. I can monitor two frequencies at once.”
That would work. He’d meant to ask why, if nobody was out in the woods tonight, Gunner was concerned about running silent, but the headset suggestion derailed him. And besides, he knew the answer already. They were being cautious, operating as if the worst-case scenario was going to happen and the bad guys would show up this evening.
Gunner spent the next few minutes showing him how to operate the headset, change frequencies, and transmit. It didn’t distract him from the coming violence one bit, however, nor from how relaxed Gunner was about going into a bloodbath and possible death.
Gunner startled him by transmitting loudly in his ear over the radio, “How do you hear me, Chas?”
“Umm, super loud.”
Gunner grinned. “In military parlance, we rate loudness and clarity each on a scale from one to five. So I’ve got you five by five, which means you’re very loud and very clear.”
“Fine,” Chas said off the radio. “You’re five by five by five.”
“What’s the third five for?”
“Fuck-off factor.”
Gunner grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him close for a hard, hot kiss. “Go to bed.”
“Wake me up when you come in?”
“Count on it.”
“Okay, then. Five by five by zero.”
Gunner kissed him again and then turned and disappeared into the night as Chas stood at the back door, watching him jog into the trees, hating every single second of this. One second Gunner was moving away confidently, and the next he was just… gone.
He probably ought to have more faith in Gunner’s ability to keep himself alive. But if it came to him or Poppy getting hurt or Gunner doing something stupid and heroic, stupid and heroic would win out every time.
Chas didn’t know what time it was when he felt Gunner’s heat slip under the covers behind him. Strong arms went around him, and he leaned back against Gunner’s muscular body, loving how it felt like home.
“Have fun playing GI Joe?” Chas murmured sleepily.
“Had a blast.”
“Please tell me you didn’t kill anyone.”
“I didn’t kill anyone. Go back to sleep.”
“Mmm. Sweet dreams.”
“If they’re of you, they will be.”
“Love you,” he mumbled, already slipping back into unconsciousness.
He thought he heard Gunner whisper, “Love you too,” but he wasn’t sure if that was real or part of the dream he was already drifting into.
Chapter Nineteen
GUNNER SAT out in the woods in the dark again, ghillie net draped over him, NODs in place over his eyes. God, he’d love to have drone coverage of the farm right now. Something with look-down infrared capability that could tell them if, when, and where any incoming hostiles approached. As it was, they were having to do this old-school, using boots on the ground and eyes on the forest.