Graham was across the room before he’d even realized he was moving, shoving Ty against the wall. “You ever talk about her like that again, and you’ll never come down from those fucking trees. I’ll keep you on fire watch for the rest of the goddamn apocalypse. Get me?”
“Whoa, G-man ... I was just fucking with you.”
“Sitrep?” Graham let him go and crossed the room to look at the map showing the area surrounding the property and the sensors glowing red to indicate where the beams had been broken. Graham tried to focus on the situation at hand; otherwise he might strangle one of his best friends.
Ty’s attitude did a one-eighty as he straightened. “At fifteen hundred hours, the beam near the southwest corner of the property was tripped. Approximately five minutes later, the next beam was broken. Zach, Alex, and Cam are currently on fire watch and haven’t gotten eyes on whatever or whoever it was.”
The door opened and Travis entered, holding out both a sidearm and a radio to Graham.
Ty continued, “You want to send out a few more—” A series of three fast beeps sounded and then repeated from the perimeter sensor station. The three men whipped around to look at the map.
Ty got on the radio, “Be advised, we’ve got another beam tripped on the south side of the fence.”
The radio squawked, “Copy that, boys. Still not seeing any movement. I’m coming down the west fence line, but I’m a ways out,” Zach reported.
“I’m near the northeast corner, so it’ll take me the longest to get over there,” Alex added.
“I just finished my loop in the southeast corner. I’m headed west along south fence line,” Cam radioed.
Shit. Graham checked the pistol, holstered it, and reached for the radio. “Travis, you’re with me. We’ll get there just as quick as anyone. Let’s figure out what the fuck is going on.”
Ty relayed the order into the radio, “Be advised. G-man and T-dog are headed out.”
Jamie grabbed body armor from the hooks on the wall and tossed it to Graham and Travis. With efficient movements, the men strapped it on and then loaded up with extra magazines. Graham grabbed the face paint on the shelf by the door more out of habit than anything. He smeared green, gray, and brown paint on his face and jogged out of the building.
Ro was glad that Graham had thought to leave her a radio, so she’d at least have some idea of what the hell was going on. A third sensor being tripped definitely wasn’t good. She hoped, maybe naively, that it was just some deer out in the wild trying to get at the lush grass inside the fence.
“Be advised. G-man and T-dog are headed out.”
Ro froze; the cards she’d been shuffling fluttering into a rendition of Fifty-two Pick-Up on the counter. “G-man” had to be Graham. And Zach was out there on fire watch, too.
“They’ll both be fine. It’s not like this is their first rodeo,” Rowan said to herself. But still, she didn’t like the fear that pooled and clumped in the pit of her stomach like globs of mercury.
How could she be afraid for people that she’d only known for a day? It seemed insane. No, it was insane. But she couldn’t help it. Hell. She needed to help it. She couldn’t afford to get attached. Whatever this was had a definite expiration date. A really short one. Another few days at most. She would not get attached. Because there was no way this ... thing could last any longer.
“This is about sex and making it home safe. That’s it. That’s all. Then it’s over. End of story. Finished,” Ro said resolutely.
Stamping out all of the other thoughts in her head like a blanket on fire, Ro gathered up the scattered cards and proceeded to deal a game of solitaire. She tried not to wince at the irony.
Graham and Zach had both returned for Ro, but their grim expressions didn’t bode well for what they had discovered. Footprints all along the fence line. No people spotted. Both men were quiet and contemplative. The banter that Ro had grown used to was absent when Zach gave her a piggyback ride to the mess for dinner. Neither shared their thoughts on the day’s events.
The pork chop and mashed potatoes Graham had piled onto her plate smelled delicious, but her twisting gut made them hard to choke down. Unable to stand the silence any longer, Ro said, “You need to put me to work or something. I get that I’m gimpy, but boredom is a dangerous thing for me.”
Graham and Zach jerked up from their respective plates to look at her. The smirk she saw easing onto Zach’s face helped to soothe the churning in her stomach.
“Don’t take this the wrong way and think I’m a misogynistic pig, but ... Allison could use some help with prep and clean up in the kitchen, and maybe even with the laundry and the garden,” Zach said, his smirk having reached full power.