Page 7 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
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Pullinginto the parking lot at Little Creek, Kostya rolled his neck, working out the kinks from the weekend. It was funny, but the weekends were always the stressor, never the time at work. He wondered if his nephew was right, maybe he did have a problem with his priorities.
Stop with the worthless thinking, Baronakov!
Kostya snorted. Shit, he had to be tired and stressed if he was referring to himself by his actual last name instead of the one that had been given to him when he arrived in the States. He stepped down from his forest-green Land Rover Defender and locked her up. He took a deep breath, forced himself to focus on something calming, and smiled at the shine on his baby’s chrome. It had taken him almost a year to get the 1981 vehicle restored to mint condition when he’d found her in that Tennessee barn.
That goddamned Drake Avery had conned him and some of his team members into going hunting down in the scenic Smoky Mountains. Turned out that he wanted free labor from them first—fixing up the local youth activity center that had been decimated by a tornado—thenthey were going bow-hunting.
Kostya’s lip quirked up. At least he’d conned members of the Night Storm and Black Dawn teams as well. It hadn’t been too bad; with the fourteen of them working they’d made short work of the construction. To tell the truth, Kostya wasn’t much into hunting, he’d just wanted a chance to spend time with the other teams, and it turned out that the other lieutenants had as well. Drake acted like it had been his plan all along. Truly, Kostya didn’t know how Lieutenant Mason Gault handled such an ego on the Midnight Delta team. But, there must be something to the guy, because the three of his team members who had gone to Jasper Creek still kept in touch with the man. However, he was pretty sure Jase was staying in touch with one of Drake’s sisters more than he was with Drake Avery.
Enough with the trip down memory lane, time to get shit done.
Kostya gave a chin lift to the Command Master Chief who was herding four newbies for the construction battalion maintenance unit. Ned had his hands full—one of the kids’ boots was untied, and another one looked like he was Roman’s age.
At least they’re not my problem.
His cell started ringing the exact moment he opened the door to his tiny office.
“Barona here,” he answered.
“I’ve got five of the six you wanted,” Gideon said.
Kostya frowned.
Not good.
“Let me guess, it’s Kelly who’s a no-show.”
Gideon sighed. “Yeah.”
Kostya shut his office door and put his phone on speaker so he could multitask. This was the third time in the last six months that some kind of bullshit had occurred that kept Landon Kelly away from base when he was supposed to be here.
“What is it this time?” Kostya asked as he shuffled through the files on his desk while waiting for his second-in-command’s answer. “And it better not be fucking Angelique.”
He pulled out the file he needed—of course, it was at the bottom. He opened it and shook his head. It was going to take at least an hour to fill out these forms. The Navy was supposed to be paperless, so why in the hell was there still so much paper?
Kostya looked down at his phone on his desk, which was eerily silent. “I take it by your non-answer, that the problemisAngelique.”
“Yeah,” Gideon bit out the answer. “I don’t know what it is about Landon, but this is the third crazy girlfriend he’s had in the three years he’s been on the team. We should have known better than to use him for this training exercise, but knowing you, that’s exactly why you’re using him. This was a test, wasn’t it?”
Kostya raised an eyebrow. “Go with your instincts, Gideon,” he purred.
“Shit, itwasa test.”
“If Petty Officer Kelly can’t make it to a simple training assignment or meetings on time, who’s to say that he won’t let us down when it comes to an actual mission?”
“I hear you, boss.”
“You handle the others and explain they’ve been chosen to take part in the joint mission readiness exercise with Marine Capt. Julie Lockhart and her squadron. Grab Jase to take Landon’s place. He’ll be available.”
“What about Kelly?” Gideon asked.
“Don’t ask such a stupid question,” Kostya snorted. His lip tipped upwards; he could see Gideon wincing in his mind’s eye.
“I take it you’re going to be calling Landon?” Gideon surmised.
“Not necessarily calling him. Did he give you an ETA?”
