Page 31 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Fine,” Kostya muttered.
Gideon gave him the side-eye. Kostya shook his head a minuscule amount, and Gideon got the message.
Or he damn well better have!
“I say Gideon has to put in two hundred since he can come up with educated guesses on stats,” Ryker chuckled as he put quote marks around the words educated guesses. At least Kostya assumed that’s what he was trying to do with his heavy gloves.
“McQueen, that’s a damn fine idea.” Sebastian smiled broadly as he turned to Gideon. Gideon didn’t even frown. The man was just too damned sure of himself.
Kostya looked over at Nolan. “You keeping tabs?”
“Yep. The pot’s at seven hundred.” Nolan bit the glove off his right hand and pulled out a notepad.
Kostya liked it. After two hundred kilometers of Landon’s incessant chatter, they needed something to keep them from scooping out their eardrums with spoons.
“How lame, you have to actually write this shit down? You can’t remember?” Gideon scoffed.
Nolan pulled out a notepad and pencil from his backpack. “Give me your guesses, gentlemen. And for being a sarcastic asshole, you go first, Gideon.”
Mateo snickered; that was the worst position to be guessing.
“We’re not falling for that, O’Rourke. You’d end up being last, because you’re holding the paper. We’re on to you,” Gideon mocked quietly. “Tear up the paper into pieces, pass the pencil, we’ll all write our guesses with our names, and you’ll hold them.”
“You know, at this rate, you might have to put three hundred dollars into the pot for being an annoying prick,” Kostya said evenly. The laughter started up again.
“What’s so funny back there?” Landon asked again from the front seat.
They all laughed harder.
“Just reliving your story about the Masked Singer,” Nolan prevaricated.
Landon turned farther in his seat so he could see everyone. “I know, right? Wait until I start telling Linc about that one episode of the Bachelor. I bet some of you remember it, it was epic!”
“You should save some for when Ryker’s driving,” Nolan responded.
“Good idea,” Landon said as he turned around to look out the windshield.
“I will get you back,” Ryker growled at Nolan through gritted teeth.
“It’s going to be hard to top that,” Kostya noted.
Nolan collected everyone’s guesses.
“Okay, we’re still not even close to where we need to cross into Russia, so let’s see if we can get some shut-eye,” Kostya suggested. “We’re still fourteen hours out before we’re going to get to the Joensuu airport,and that’s only if we can actually stay on the road and continue on at a reasonable rate of speed.”
“I say we bet on that,” Ryker piped up.
“Shut the hell up, McQueen. We never bet on parts of the mission, don’t be an asshole.”
* * *
Kostya decidedto get some sleep when Ryker took over driving, which was possible since the man didn’t need his co-pilot to talk to him. Instead, he and Sebastian sat up front in companionable silence.
Kostya glanced around the back of the SUSI. Almost all of his men were in some stage of relaxation, but most importantly Landon was asleep, so all in all, he should be able to finally get some shut-eye. With that pleasant thought, he let his mind drift and found himself with Lark Sorenson in his arms. This was odd; in the many years of his career, he could count on one hand the times when a woman occupied his thoughts like this.
He shook his head to clear his mind. He needed sleep and thinking about Lark was not the way to get any.
Kostya employed a technique that he’d learned very early in his career, even before BUD/S to get to sleep fast, a technique he’d taught Lexi and Roman when he’d babysat them as hyperactive children.
