Page 10 of Uncharted

“I’m not going to deal with a bunch of you idiots coming back shit-faced and stupid in the middle of the night, you hear me?”

“Oh, c’mon, we haven’t done it in so long. And with Colin here, and Aidan, it’s a way to welcome them in. Let ’em see it’s not all about the job, and we’re glad they’re here,” I told him, raising a brow. “Ya know morale is important, doesn’t matter if we’re ‘troops’ or not.”

“You want to drag Colin into your bullshit?” he asked doubtfully.

“Colin loves our bullshit,” I said. “And he’s responsible. He’d be your eyes, ears, and sense of responsibility. That’s why we keep sayin’—”

“Enough,” he grumbled, waving me off. “I don’t need to hear any more about your big ideas about him being⁠—”

“Your second,” I finished for him, grinning when his nostrils flared and he turned on me.

I stared back, unflinching. Ever since Colin had come to the outpost, it was pretty obvious he was a good fit for leadership. He was still learning the ropes, but unlike Aidan, he’d already had a lot of experience working under pressure, seeing as he had been a Corpsman in the Navy working with Marines for years before being an EMT in a major city. He had the medic role down pat; he was our Doc after all. All he needed was to get into the flow of how things worked around here, and that would just take time.

He was smart, capable, and a mix of hardheaded and playful that worked out well for someone who didn’t seem to mind playing middleman between Xander and the rest of us. He was relaxed enough that we could be more casual with him, but was responsible and, yeah, kinda scary enough that Xander felt comfortable leaving him to keep an eye on us. Nothing official had been said, of course, but I figured within a year we’d hear that Colin was going to take an official role as second in command.

And that would have happened whether or not the two of them had slept together.

“And Aidan?” Xander asked doubtfully, and I tried not to sigh. To say that Xander had been unhappy at the idea of having a ‘social media manager’ staying with us would have been underselling it. If there was one thing Xander hated, other than social media, it was having a decision about the outpost taken out of his hands. Aidan’s hiring had been one of those things, and while the guy was getting along just fine, Xander was clearly still annoyed at having his authority usurped by someone higher up the food chain.

I sighed. “Ya can’t keep holdin’ somethin’ he had nothin’ to do with over his head, Xander.”

“I can’t?” he asked wryly. “And that’s assuming he had nothing to do with it.”

Okay, so he was a lot more than just annoyed to have the decision taken out of his hands; he was downright offended.

I frowned at him. “Not like you to act all suspicious. Guy hasn’t done anything to earn that.”

“Yet,” he said, and in a rare moment of softness, I saw guilt flash across his face before he covered it by taking a drink. “Just…weird is all.”

I wasn’t on the up and up with politics; hell, I never was going to be, that wasn’t my thing. If anything, I hoped the job could be free of that sort of thing, but I wasn’t that big an idiot. Once I had hoped the same thing about the Corps, but by the time I’d left, it was clear I would never get any further unless I was willing to play political games. Which was why I was no longer an active, serving member and instead worked for a man who had to deal with all the nasty politicking behind the scenes.

Still, I knew some things, not a whole lot, but enough to know Xander was constantly dealing with bullshit. There was some sort of board or committee that oversaw the Search and Rescue outposts and dealings. They were in charge of our budget for one, and they breathed down Xander’s neck. I also knew there were at least a couple of people on that committee who seemed to have a massive hate boner for Xander, or at least his outpost, and they were the reason for some of Xander’s gray hairs.

At least, according to Xander whenever he was pissed off at the ‘pencil-pushing, desk-riding, arrogant, government leeches’ to express himself.

“I mean, I get it,” I said, and when he frowned, I grinned. “What? I’ve been workin’ for the government since I signed up for the Marines.”

Xander stared back and snorted softly. “Did a tour or two, bet you had a few orders that came in you weren’t too happy about.”

I did my best not to flinch. “You could say that.”

“But you’d rather I said nothing,” he said with a huff. He clearly didn’t need me to agree with him, though, and he sighed. “Yeah fine. It’s not his fault. Still⁠—”

“Something about it bothers you,” I said, and when he nodded, I said nothing. Again, politics and schemes weren’t my thing. I wasn’t a plotter any more than I was a leader; I knew that about myself. I was hard-working, loyal, strong, capable, and could be dangerous if it called for it, but I was never going to be anything special like a leader or a schemer; those were just facts.

Xander grimaced. “Fine, but there are conditions.”

I grinned. “Make sure someone is a designated driver and have a backup DD in case the first one fucks up. I need to see who’s willing to stay so we have hands on deck. And I should check with our resident weatherman to make sure the weather over the weekend won’t cause an ‘all hands on deck’ thing while most of the hands are hungover or still drunk…right?”

“It’s like you read my mind,” he grunted. “I don’t like it.”

I sucked in a breath. “No offense, Big Boss, but I don’t think anyone wants to read your mind, not Colin. Hell, I would say even you don’t wanna read your mind half the time.”

“Keep it up,” he warned, “and I’ll put everyone on work duty for that weekend instead, and tell them it’s because you, once again, didn’t know how to keep your fuckin’ mouth shut.”

“Ooh, collective punishment?” I heard Colin say as he entered, and I grinned when I watched the two of them look at each other. Xander was way too hyper-aware of me standing there to do much more than let his eyes sweep over Colin, but I caught the way he swallowed before he looked away. Colin’s eyes lingered for far longer on Xander, mostly on his face, but I would bet there were a few…heated thoughts flitting through his mind.

“Do not,” Colin warned me, his gaze sliding toward me with a knowing smirk.