Dice paused for a moment and a silence fell on the gathered men, Rio and Ryker exchanging a look that spoke volumes between them, while Thor simply stared with idle interest at Dice and Meredith. The werewolf twins were leaning back casually, the only two who had come out of the mission mostly unscathed.
How Price had gotten hold of that helicopter was going to be a story to tell the grandkids one day, Meredith imagined.
If we ever get to have any.
"So what's next?" Rio asked, cocking a brow.
"Yeah, what's next, Slicey?" Prowler echoed with a grin.
Meredith could feel the way Dice pricked up a bit at that nickname, but he nodded quietly and relaxed.
"The transport is supposed to come in tonight and pick you guys up. I will take Rowen and Meredith and leave before they do. I assume they might be a little bit early because of that."
Meredith followed the direction Dice was pointing at, only to look at the gently smoking Etihad Tower number one in the distance. She grinned to herself.
Serves them right.
"Not exactly the kind of low-key mission Spade was hoping for, I imagine."
"He's been blowing up our comm lines for a while now, you know. Someone should talk to him," Prowler noted absently.
"Fuck him," came the joint rebuttal to that comment, with at least three distinct voices joining in – Dice's being one of them.
"I don't think we're going to leave," Ryker said, exchanging another one of those looks with Rio.
Rio nodded, confirming what his brother had said. Meredith frowned, glancing from Dice to his squad. It didn't take a psychologist to realize that while these men worked together, they were far from a team – at least for now. But with what Rio and Ryker were saying, she had to wonder if she was maybe misreading the situation.
Slipping her hand into Dice's, she gave it a squeeze, feeling his warmth spread through her. Though it was hot as hell in Abu Dhabi, she still felt like she'd just stepped out of the freezer – or the Arctic, as one might put it.
"I think we want to help you get your kid back, Dice," Ryker said, grinning slightly as he fished out one of his trademark cigars and popped it between his lips.
No one said a word as he lit it up, taking a long drag from it.
"I couldn't ask you to do that. The Firm will have your asses for it," Dice said, his gray and hazel eyes sparking with a fire that Meredith had come to expect in them.
Now, knowing about his son, it seemed to burn all the more hotter.
"Fuck them," Rio said, snorting.
"Yeah. Fuck 'em," Ryker confirmed. "Way I see it, Spade doesn't like any of us anyway. If he gets rid of you, Dice, then we're the next ones to go. We all know that."
A round of confirmatory murmurs sealed that assumption. Meredith sat up a bit straighter, feeling Dice's hand squeeze her side.
"Maybe if we can take out this Rowen creep's little hideaway then we can turn this into something that benefits us," Rio noted.
"And if not, then at least we get to go out with a bang," Prowler exclaimed, snickering.
Price didn't seem quite so convinced but after a moment of contemplation, the other werewolf seemed to relent, shrugging his shoulders with a sigh.
"Sure, why not. It's not like you fuckers can get out of there on your own anyway. I say we ride and kick some Arctics' ass and get your boy back, Dice."
"I appreciate that," Dice said, a slight waver in his tone.
Meredith hadn't discussed their options with Dice during the short moment she'd had alone with him, getting into the apartment and settling down, but one look at him now told her that before the squad started volunteering, there weren't a lot of options to go on. If it had been just Dice and her then it would have been a definite suicide mission.
But I would have gone anyway, she thought resolutely. If there was even the slightest chance of getting my baby back, I would have gone.
There was no question in her mind about that.
"So, what do you say, Thor?" Rio asked, looking at the last hold-out of the group.
But Thor was already grinning, shaking his head as he peeled away from the group and stalked into what must have been his bedroom.
"You guys can go get yourselves killed, be my guest. I won't have any part in this."
"Can't win 'em all," Ryker said with a shrug, though the looks that followed Thor into his room could have scorched the earth even in the desert outside of Abu Dhabi.
Eighteen
Meredith
As the door slammed shut behind Thor, the rest of the squad launched into a discussion about what they were going to do. It was quickly decided that Prowler would very 'gently' beat some sense into Rowen and get the coordinates of the compound from him. They'd leave in some hours, when it got dark, and snatch one of the transports afforded to them by The Firm.
It was too early to go yet as the city was buzzing with news and heightened security because of what had happened at Etihad Towers. Luck was on their side, however, as The Firm didn't have any bases in the near vicinity and Dice had it on good authority that Spade had to be in the United States at the moment. That bought them some time, as no one in the squad thought that Spade would send anyone else to deal with 'Shifter Squad Suicide' if he knew what was good for him and The Firm.
Everything from getting out of Abu Dhabi onwards would have to be played by ear, relying on Meredith's memory on the outline of the corridors and floors of the building and Rowen's keenness to cooperate.
"We've done more with worse," Price had said, and the rest of the squad seemed to agree.
I don't want to know what kind of horrible things they've seen if they've been through worse already, Meredith thought with a shudder, ignoring the fact that she herself had gone through enough shit to fill at least a few horror novels' worth.
Somehow, her own suffering didn't really seem all that important now that she had another life to worry about. A life that she had barely been able to rejoice in the growing of.
When Meredith finally got Dice out of the living room area and into a separate bedroom, she was completely exhausted. The day – or night, rather - had been crazy but it wasn't all of the action that got her so worn out. It was the constant knowledge that somewhere her child needed her and she couldn't be there for him.
It weighed on her mind like nothing else.
"I need to look at that, Dice," she said as he locked the door to the bedroom while she held a medkit in her hands. "But that went well, right?"
Any 'normal' soldier would have checked out his wounds the moment he could to avoid infection, sepsis and further damage. The Shifter Squad Nine guys seemed to barely notice the fact that they were bleeding profusely and some of them probably still had bullets in them.
Meredith had to guess that it was one part macho bullshit and one part shifter commando awesomeness. She'd seen it a few times with the werewolves of The Arctics, but never quite this pronounced. Meredith had half-expected Ryker to put his cigar out on the bruised and bloodied ribs of his that were showing from underneath his white dress shirt where he'd gotten hit.
"Sure," he said, finally shrugging off the tatters of his jacket and unbuttoning his dress shirt. "It went better than I could have ever expected it to. Sort of makes me wonder how I'm going to end up paying for it."
"Not everything has to be with some sort of an ominous undertone," Meredith parried, honestly wishing she could believe that. "Maybe you just misjudged them. Maybe they're nice guys."
"Yeah, and maybe the polar ice caps are actually all a mirage," Dice grumbled, his brows furrowing.
She saw the slightest wince go through him as he unbuttoned the top button, moving his shoulder in a way that wasn't exactly comfortable. Quickly, she dropped the medkit on a nearby table and rushed to him, undoing the rest of the buttons herself and batting away his big hands when he tried to help.
"Stop it, I can do it faster and I'm not the one with a bullet wound in my shoulder."
"It's nothing," he said with a grin, and looking up at him, Meredith knew he really thought it was nothing.
Crazy, loveable fool.