Page 81 of Over the Top

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.

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