Page 33 of Men of Fort Dale: The Complete Series

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?”

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

“Goat herder?” Aidan asked, looking around.

“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.

“Literally,” Nick said.

“Literally,” Sean said with a sigh.

“Oh, God. That’s one unlucky bastard,” Aidan said, shaking his head.

Sean didn’t say anything, still smarting over the terrible intel.

If the situation had gone any other way, the outcome could have been entirely different.

The only reason no trigger had been pulled was that Clint had taken one look at the place from a distance and voiced an uneasy feeling.

After that, Sean ordered Team Maelstrom to keep their fingers off the trigger unless absolutely necessary.

And thank God he had too, he didn’t want to think what might have happened if they hadn’t been so cautious.

“The guy alright?” Aidan asked, glancing at Sean.

“Other than needing new underwear, yeah,” Sean said.

Nick snorted. “I’ve never seen Sean yell at a whole tent full of people before. We got back, and he didn’t even bother removing his gear. Just marched into the command tent and let them have it.”

Aidan laughed, a cloud of mist gusting out through his mouth cover. “It’s nice to see I’m not the only one he’s willing to give hell.”

“Oh shit, you should have heard him. Sounded like it went on forever. I was sure he was going to get his ass thrown in a hole for a few days afterward. But I guess they decided to let it go,” Nick said.

“What the hell were they going to do? Lock me up because there was bad intel they gave and even worse orders?” Sean asked with a snort.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Aidan said.

“Why do I get the feeling you’ve had your ass thrown in a hole because of your mouth?” Sean asked.

Aidan chuckled. “You’d be right.”

“I’m not going to pretend to be surprised.”

“Kinda worked like you guys. They were damn sure they knew where there was a buried cache of weapons and explosives. Like, the Intel guys from their little command center were absolutely sure, totally. Willing to go to bat over it.”

“But you weren’t so sure.”

Aidan shook his head. “No, sir, it didn’t make sense. It was nowhere near the normal routes, not even close to one of the lesser-used ones. There was nothing around to use as a marker, and anyone trying to dig something up out there would have been spotted miles off.”

“What the hell were they working off then?” Sean asked.

“I guess they’d seen some people making camp out that way before and had it in their heads that they were about to find themselves a good supply of weapons to yank out from under the enemy.”

Sean could understand the appeal. There were plenty of times when they or someone else was ordered out without warning to retrieve a discovered cache of weapons.

Though the insurgents would always have their suppliers, they didn’t have the ability to transport supplies quickly.

Taking out a hidden store or two meant less capability in a fight somewhere down the road or at least a delay before the next battle.

“They threw me and a few boys out into the desert and told us to find it and dig it up. I told them it was a waste of time. A few people having a camp didn’t mean a thing, but they were eager to prove they were out there for a reason.”

“What’d you find instead?” Ricardo asked from behind them.

Aidan let out another laugh. “Turns out I was partially wrong too. It was a pretty commonly used place, but not for insurgents. People who traveled the area used the spot, preferring the open area because it felt safer. Something was under the ground there, and we found it alright.”

Sean frowned, what could have possibly...and then the idea stuttered, and a new one formed in his mind, ripping a laugh from him. “Oh shit.”

“Oh, shit is right. It turns out the intel boy’s ‘treasure’ was pounds and pounds of good old-fashioned human shit.

No weapon’s cache, just the spot where the people camping there shit into a hole, burying it after they went.

I guess most of them unthinkingly used the same spot, and it was this huge, solid mass. ”

“That’s fucking gross, man,” Matt complained with a laugh.

“Yeah, me and the rest of the guys sent out there to dig it up thought so too. The intel guys were pissed, and they weren’t any happier when I wouldn’t stop laughing during the report.”

Sean eyed him. “And I’m sure you were oh so tactful in your version of events.”

“Told them they were shitty at their job,” Aidan said, and though Sean couldn’t see it, he could picture the wicked grin that was probably on display under the man’s cowl.

“And how long did they put up with it?” Sean asked wryly.

“About twenty minutes until I was put on clean-up duty for the next week. Ironically, cleaning up after a whole camp was less disgusting than finding a twenty-pound turd in the ground.”

Sean groaned, pushing ahead of the others. “Thank you so much for that imagery, Aidan.”

“That thing still haunts my dreams.”

Matt let out a cackle. “Oh, god, like some nightmare phantom.”

“The poop of campers past,” Nick added.

“Oh, Jesus. Now they’re making poop jokes,” Sean muttered, shooting a glare toward Aidan.

Not wanting to stick around and listen to the juvenile humor, Sean continued his walk around the mountain.

The path wasn’t covered in as dense a layer of snow as the forest had been, but Aidan had theorized the worst of the snow cover was on the other side of the mountain.

Between the high walls of rock on one side and the thick trees that still managed to grow there, the path they were walking wasn’t as difficult to traverse as the forest floor had been.

It didn’t make it any less treacherous though, a fact Sean was reminded of when his foot came down on a loose rock buried beneath the half-foot of snow.

The rock shifted, throwing him off balance and sending him teetering toward the edge of the path.

They weren’t up terribly high yet, but Sean tried to jerk away from the edge, heart leaping with a burst of adrenaline.

A hand clamped on his wrist and yanked him back from the edge. Sean stumbled back onto the path and looked up at Aidan’s concerned frown.

“Might want to take it slow around here. The mountains have less snow cover, but they’ve got their own danger,” Aidan said, glancing toward the edge.

“Yeah, I see that,” Sean said, heart still pounding.

“You good?” Aidan asked.

Sean glanced at Aidan’s hand, still around his wrist. “Yeah, just...yeah, I’m good.”

Aidan hesitated before finally letting go of Sean’s wrist. They were still wearing heavy gear, including gloves, but Sean could swear he could feel the warm imprint of Aidan’s hand on his arm.

Before the image of Aidan’s heated skin pressed between the wall and Sean’s body could rise too high, he shoved it away.

“We’ll get ourselves to a better spot and make camp,” Sean said, grasping for control.

Aidan nodded, eyes not having left Sean’s face. “Alright. There should be places along the way that will work. We should be able to descend the other side tomorrow.”

Sean nodded his understanding, turning away before he became too distracted by Aidan’s gaze.

Sean closed his eyes, listening to the fire crackling and the wind whistling over the mountain peak above them.

They had stopped halfway between the base and the top of the mountain.

While the rest of them made camp, Aidan had gone ahead to see if their path was still clear and upon his return, swore they would be good to go when morning came.

After settling in, the rest of the team didn't take long to hunker down for the night and fall asleep. Sean had taken the first watch, keeping an eye on the camp and his sleeping teammates. They’d found a small alcove in the side of the mountain, which had given them a great deal of cover from the elements.

And with the fire flickering away happily in the middle of the almost totally enclosed space, it was even pretty warm and cozy.

Sean looked down at his sleeping teammates, eyes drifting slowly to Aidan.

He would have been lying if he said he hadn’t been more than a little impressed by Aidan’s work so far.

Despite not knowing much about the environment, he’d managed to work out a halfway decent path to the assigned rendezvous point, and with Ricardo’s help, they had managed to keep themselves in one piece.

His team’s joking and laughter earlier echoed in Sean’s head.

The truth was, even when Sean couldn’t stand the sight of Aidan, the rest of the team had been warming up to him.

Where Sean had seen insubordination and attitude, the rest of Team Maelstrom had seen someone worth knowing and laughing with.

What had he been missing?

Aidan rolled over, peering up at Sean in the light of the fire. “Doing alright?”

Sean jerked. “Jesus, Aidan, I thought you were asleep.”

Aidan sat up, chuckling softly. “No. I’m still having a hard time sleeping well nowadays.”

“Dreams?” Sean asked, knowing all about those.

Aidan shook his head, pushing up to his feet. “No. Just hard to come down from being on alert all the time. Spent weeks on my last assignment, and I was on another one before that.”

Sean looked at the tree trunk they’d dragged into the alcove, slid to one end, and motioned for Aidan to sit. “Never stayed too long then.”

“Didn’t read my file?” Aidan asked as he sat down.

Sean had, but he knew better than to tell Aidan his life story for him. He didn’t come to lead a company of trained men without knowing at least something about how to handle people and connect with them. It wasn’t like he’d given Aidan the chance to define himself.

Aidan chuckled. “Yeah, they never really stuck me anywhere and kept me there like a lot of guys on deployment. They kind of threw me around where they needed me, which shook things up a bit.”

Sean frowned. “Even if they put us all over the place to work, we almost always had the same base to go back to.”

Aidan leaned forward, eyes on the fire. “Never really appealed to me, honestly. I always liked the idea of roaming around, not being stuck in one place for too long, you know?”

“I’d be lying if I said I did,” Sean admitted.

Aidan chuckled, cocking his head toward Sean. “Fair enough. Anyone I ever told that to always gave me the most confused look. I don’t understand it myself, but I’ve always been like that.”

“But not now,” Sean said.

There had been a notable gap in Aidan’s file, namely the part about why he’d suddenly been taken from such erratic placement to being thrown onto a team. By all accounts, despite a few remarks made about Aidan’s mouth, there should have been no reason for his reassignment.

Aidan’s mouth twisted into a mockery of a smile. “Nope.”

“Not going to say why?”

“Not my choice.”

“Is that why you gave me so much shit before?”

Aidan turned to look at him, snorting. “Maybe. And maybe because you can be an asshole.”

It should have pissed him off, it would have before, but Sean found he couldn’t muster any anger at Aidan’s jab. He had no idea how it had happened, but whatever they’d done in that shadowy alley a few dozen feet from the city's crowds had taken the wind from his stubborn, angry sails.

“Yeah, tell me something I don't know,” Sean grunted.

Aidan nodded. “Okay. Well, an asshole is something you don’t have to be.”

It wasn’t said in anger or frustration, and as Sean looked up, he was amazed to find Aidan completely serious.

It was almost the same earnest expression he’d seen on the man’s face when he’d sworn up and down he would never use what happened between them against Sean.

The very same expression that had made Sean believe him then, and he supposed, he would have to believe him now.

How much of their problem before had been Sean simply fighting the inevitable?