Insertions like tonight weren’t the worst, nor the best—but they rode that bleak zone into disappointment and frustration.
His ears still ringing, his entire body one big aching bruise, Mac slouched against the padded walls with Zane and Cosky on either side. Rawls had hauled Dr. Ansell—or Faith, as she’d insisted he call her—off into the corner, where they’d taken to cuddling all by their lonesome, until one of Wolf’s guys had invaded their privacy long enough to do a healing. At least Mac assumed it was a healing since the bastard had pressed his palms against Rawls’s side and then his arm for several minutes before retreating as silently as he’d arrived.
He scowled as he glanced at Rawls and his woman. Might as well get used to calling her Faith. From the way his corpsman was cuddling her, he’d bet they’d be seeing more of her. A lot more. Just like they were seeing way too much of Kait and Beth.
What the fuck was going on with his operators? Did men have fucking biological clocks? Christ, the motherfuckers were dropping like flies.
By the time the helicopter settled onto the super-secret tarmac masked by the ring of clouds smothering McKinley’s peak, the ache in his muscles had settled into his bones. Hardly surprising considering how hard he’d hit the ground back there. A long hot shower was sounding better by the minute.
He glanced out the cockpit window as the bird sank into the shaft. Dawn rinsed the mountains a delicate shade of lavender. No shit. Lavender.
But the sight of dawn breaking over the landscape reminded him of those early days, back when he’d been part of the teams. Before he’d taken the silver oak leaf and the gold bars. Before he traded his seat in the Zodiac for a desk, politics, and bullshit protocol. Back then he’d been a vampire, just like the rest of them. Riding the beach boat or the helicopter at zero dark whenever in the endless quest to keep hearth and home safe, and then crashing on his cot to sleep the day away.
As the helicopter settled, and the door slid back, Mac watched Wolf’s crew shake themselves awake and disembark in that all-too-familiar post-adrenaline shamble.
Cosky and Zane held back alongside him, waiting for Wolf’s team to clear the hold. As for Rawls and the good doctor, they hadn’t even emerged from their cozy little corner yet. Once the last of Team Shadow Mountain was on the ground, Mac hopped down, grunting in irritation when his entire body burned in protest.
“I still got a couple fingers left in that bottle of Jack,” Mac told Zane and Cos as they joined him.
The bottle had come with the room. He wasn’t sure whether it had been a gift from Shadow Mountain command or forgotten by the last occupant of the room. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Sure,” Zane said, with a long spine-popping stretch. “I could use a day cap.”
Cosky simply nodded.
“How about you?” Mac raised his voice as Rawls slowly walked past, supporting most of Faith’s weight. “You up for a night cap?”
The woman looked like she’d hit a wall. White face. Red eyes. Crumpled shoulders.
“I’ll pass.” Rawls turned down the offer without hesitation. “I’ll see you three at fifteen hundred.”
He meant the afternoon what-the-fuck-went-wrong meeting.
One hundred percent of his attention fixed on the woman stumbling along beside him, Rawls steered her to one of the electrical carts parked along the side of the hangar, lifted her into the passenger seat, and took the driver’s seat. Seconds later the cart was out of sight.
“Well, Rawls has finally been bitten,” Zane said, staring off in the direction the cart had taken. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
Mac snorted—he could have said the same about Zane and Cosky.
“Hell,” Mac said. “Most likely it’s a temporary thing.” He held out hope anyway. “His head’s been scrambled as hell lately. Besides, they’ve only known each other a week. Proximity and adrenaline, when combined, can have a temporary bonding effect.”
Zane shot him a dry look. “Beth and I only knew each other a few days.”
“And she was your fucking soul mate, which you realized the instant you saw her,” Mac said, forcing derision into his voice, which was surprisingly hard to sustain. Apparently he was getting soft in his old age. “Which makes that comparison complete shit.”
“I could mention how long I knew Kait,” Cosky pointed out. “But I won’t, because this has nothing to do with length of time. It has to do with the way he looks at her. He’s never looked that way at a woman before.”
“The way he looks at her?” Mac repeated with a harsh laugh. “Christ, you’ve been hanging around your woman too long. She’s turned you into a fucking emoticon.”
Zane rubbed a tired hand down his greasy, camo-painted face. “Nah, I get it. He looks at her like he looked at Baby.”