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The attempt at arrogance didn’t fool Aidan. Behind the snide tone and the attempt at anger, Aidan could see the small nugget of fear lying at the back of Sean’s eyes. For all their fighting, for all their feuding, and how often they’d slammed their heads together, Aidan could see the man who was terrified of the power he thought Aidan had. Worse, he was terrified of the power he thought Aidan might be willing to use.

All too aware of Sean’s pride and the nearby team, Aidan bit back his first response. Despite how much the other man infuriated him, driving him to the edge of madness, Aidan wanted so badly to reach out and take hold of Sean’s hand as a show of support. Maybe once he would have thought the idea of Sean being unnerved by him, maybe even scared of him, would have been enough to give him pleasure.

But not like this.

Aidan smiled, looking down. “I-I won’t go into it. I can’t. But I can promise you, Sean, from the deepest part of me, I won’t use that against you. I never would.”

Sean looked up, brow creased. His bright eyes searched Aidan’s face, and Aidan couldn’t help the ache in his chest as he saw the desperation to believe, to hope. Sean had already had so much torn from him, and his place in the military, his team, was all he had left. Even if Aidan hated Sean with every inch of his being, could he really have been capable of ripping the last shred, the last handhold of sanity and reality from him?

No.

“You mean that,” Sean said softly.

Aidan smiled, still fighting the urge to reach out to him. “I do.”

Sean continued to gaze at him with wonder. Aidan watched him, still holding the smile he hoped was comforting on his face. It was like watching Sean wake up to something he thought was only a dream, and Aidan had a hard time pulling his eyes away.

Matt’s voice rose up over the fire. “Oi, Aidan!”

Aidan pulled his eyes away. “What’s up?”

“Got a sec? Ricardo’s trying to tell me we’re still twenty miles away, according to some bird.”

“Probably by the crow,” Aidan said with a chuckle.

“Go sort them out before they start arguing again,” Sean grunted, turning his eyes back to the fire.

“Yes, sir,” Aidan said, pushing himself up.

Leaving Sean to his thoughts, Aidan waded into the argument that had somehow embroiled Ricardo and Matt. He wasn’t sure if he’d managed to get through to Sean, but he hoped he’d at least given the man something to think about.

And maybe he’d given himself food for thought too.

SEAN

After two days of miles of snow-covered ground, trees, and the sight of frozen peaks all around them, Sean thought he would never be happier than the day he again saw sunbaked sand dunes for miles. Considering they only had a general idea where they were supposed to be going and didn’t have the best equipment for the environment, their progress was slow. They’d reached the base of the nearest range of mountains, one Aidan and Ricardo had agreed would take them to the rendezvous point once they skirted around it.

Nick looked up, frowning at it as they trudged along. “Anyone else feel like twenty miles was some bullshit General Winter passed on to make us feel better?”

Sean snorted. “Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been lied to.”

It was Matt who laughed. “You still mad about the goat herder?”

“Yes! Even Clint was pissed about that. A waste of our time,” Sean grumbled.

“Goat herder?” Aidan asked, looking around.

Sean sighed. “Bad intel.”

“But not on Clint’s part,” Matt was quick to point out.

Aidan chuckled. “Bad intel stories that don’t go tits up are the best ones.”

Sean grunted. “We were supposed to be going to this middle-of-nowhere place that Intel was damn sure had a bunch of hidden insurgents in it. Absolutely convinced there was a whole armed militia group waiting to gun us down if we didn’t take care of it.”

From the back came Ricardo’s chuckle. “Turns out what they thought was a weapons store was some poor goat herder’s cellar.”

“We invaded this poor man’s house and scared the shit out of him,” Sean continued.