B met his gaze, the resentment he saw mirrored there matching what he felt perfectly. “All right,” she muttered.
Once he hung up, Matt tucked his phone away and walked over to open the command vehicle’s door. “Schroder. Finish patching her up.” He turned his head to look back at her. Celida and Travers’s questioning session with her would have to wait. “Looks like I’m driving her into town.”
Chapter Four
Special Agent Nate Schroder waited until the SUV he was riding in pulled out behind the second vehicle in line before asking the question that had been burning a hole through his brain for the past twenty minutes.
“Is anyone else not loving the fact that our CO is alone with that female sniper right now?” He looked around as the rest of the guys raised their hands. Evers and Cruz in the back with him, and Vance riding shotgun. The others were in the vehicle in front of them, following behind DeLuca to wherever the hell they were going.
At the wheel, Bauer was the only one who responded with a grunt. “He’ll be fine.”
“Oh, okay,” Nate said, all sarcasm. He respected the hell out of the former SEAL, but in this case didn’t agree with him.
What if DeLuca wasn’t okay alone with her? What if she attacked him while he was driving or something? That chick had just taken out their HVT with a single, spectacular head shot through a tiny gable window in the middle of a snowstorm, without anyone detecting her presence until it was too late. He’d been serious when he’d asked if she planned to knee him in the balls, because her gaze had been flat out hostile when he’d started tending to her in the mobile command center. He was glad he hadn’t been able to see her expression while he carried her down the damn mountain.
They knew nothing about her, except that she was deadly, and Nate was willing to bet not just with a rifle. He knew DeLuca could hold his own if a dangerous situation arose, but he didn’t trust the woman one bit. He’d have felt way better if at least one of them had been able to accompany them on the drive, but for whatever reason, DeLuca had refused.
“Wonder what the deal is,” Cruz murmured beside him, staring out the window as the snow swirled outside, then glanced his way. “You said he was talking to someone on the phone when you were outside the command trailer.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know who and I didn’t hear most of the conversation.” He wished he had. He was curious as hell about what was going on, because this whole thing was way outside normal protocol.
“Must have been talking to someone high up there in the intel world,” Vance said. “He sure moved in a hell of a hurry after that.”
“I don’t like it,” Nate announced, folding his arms. Who the hell was that woman, anyway?
“You don’t have to like it,” Bauer muttered, steering the big vehicle down the steep, winding road.
Nate refrained from replying, reminding himself that Bauer was missing an emotion chip and had ice water in his veins instead of warm, red blood. He was remote and a total hardass, but one of the best operators on the team, aside from Tuck.
Well, okay, he wasn’t completely immune to emotion because everyone knew how bananas he was over his girl, Zoe. Not that anyone could blame him. Zoe was hot in an edgy, I-don’t-take-shit-from-anyone way. Nate liked her and she’d done wonders for Bauer’s usually grim personality. If she could make the grimmest guy on the team happy enough that he actually smiled in public these days, then that said it all.
“As long as he stays in radio contact with Tuck, we’ll know she hasn’t killed him yet,” Blackwell said dryly from Nate’s right.
“Great,” he muttered. As the newest and youngest man on the team Nate had vowed to learn as much as he could from these guys.
Ever since getting out of the Air Force he’d wanted to make the HRT and on his second try he’d made that dream come true. He paid attention and did what he was told, made sure he wasn’t a weak link and they all treated him well in return, albeit with a shitload of ribbing, since he was the FNG—fucking new guy. He didn’t mind. Hell, even the worst of their verbal and physical abuse barely registered on his measuring scale compared to what he’d endured until he’d left home at eighteen. Besides, the guys meant well, and he’d learned something valuable from all of them.
These guys were like brothers to him, a family that meant more to him than the people he was embarrassed to be related to. Nate had every one of his teammate’s backs, no questions asked, same as they had his. It was the biggest reason why he loved this job so much.