Sanctuary 02 - The Only Easy Day (CMS) (MM) (14 page)

To be fair, he didn't look much like a doctor.

Kayden glanced over at Robert, unconscious in the bed and Dale saw the disdain on Kayden's face as he announced the next in no uncertain terms.

"A few bruises and a flesh wound," the Sanctuary doc summarized. "I've seen worse at company picnics."

Dale held back the laugh. The ER attending went nearly purple, but Kayden ignored him and turned back to his patient. He was actually playing down Robert's injuries, which included bruised ribs, a splintered bone in his arm, and eyes swollen so bad he couldn't have opened them even if he weren't unconscious. He hadn't woken up properly since being admitted. Dale knew this for sure, as he hadn't left the hospital since Robert had been admitted in the early hours of the previous day. He was assisting Kayden in transport to eighteen, but he was also providing close protection until Robert was safely hidden away. Nik had been right about the press release from the senator.

According to the release, apparently there had been a tragic accidental death while his brother had been cleaning his guns, for which he had permits. The FBI and the local police had been hovering, waiting for Robert to wake up, but it seemed Sanctuary Ops had dealt with them too.

Seemingly Jake Callahan, not only the founder of Sanctuary, but the money and driving force behind it, had way more sway than anyway in the various law enforcement offices had given credence to.

The nurses scattered, the attending ER doctor with them. That left the unconscious Robert, Dale, and Kayden alone in the room.

"Tell me…" Dale wasn't entirely sure how he should be wording this, but what he wanted to know was if it was really okay for Kayden to be moving Robert at this moment in time. Kayden crossed his arms over his chest.

"He'll be fine. He's bruised all over, and whoever did this did one hell of a good job on him. He has plenty of injuries. A broken bone in his left arm, extensive bruising, and the facial injuries. Nothing life threatening though now that I have him."

"Don't forget there's the bullet wound," Dale added.

"That was nothing," Kayden said absently. "Just a through shot in a fleshy part of his arm. To be honest, it's his eyes that worry me the most. The CAT scan doesn't show anything, but the swelling is bad, and he has two really deep cuts along the forehead and down to his eyes sockets."

"What the hell did his dad and uncle do to him?"

"Let's say it was a good thing you interrupted them when you did," Kayden offered calmly. He wasn't being dramatic; he was just stating facts. "We'll keep our eyes on him."

"Ready to go?" Nik asked from behind. Dale cursed himself for his momentary lack of attention.

"He's ready," Kayden answered.

Kayden guided the trolley with Robert lying still under sheets. The drip was attached to the side, and the absence of the beeping monitors was the strangest thing.

"Manny is trying to retrieve information from that letter, but it's soaked in blood, and the ink is old," Nik said conversationally. They waited for the stretcher to be guided into the large black van parked across the no parking area outside the back doors. This was Kayden's baby. It was not an ambulance in terms of being white and visible with sirens, but once the unassuming doors opened, the inside could well have been used to perform surgery. It was that technical and immaculate. Medical equipment lined the racks on the side, and the security around the doors was the best Kayden could come up with. Safe inside, it was Kayden who climbed in after him. Dale and Nik sat in the front. Nik chose to drive, and Dale pulled his gun to lay it carefully on his lap.

They had heard nothing from the brothers, neither the senator or Alastair, but it didn't hurt to take precautions.

It seemed to Dale like the policing world, all the alphabets, knew Robert was in the hospital, although to be fair, no journalists had even mentioned Robert's name in their reports on the death of Gregory Bullen.

"Do you think he'll retrieve anything useful?"

"You know Manny; his team isn't just good with computers but with forensics. Speaking of good, did you dump Joseph or is he due back in our lives at some point?"

Nik was just making conversation, but there was a teasing tone to his question.

"He split when we had Robert safe in the room, said he had stuff to do."

"Interesting." Nik frowned and looked in his mirror as he said this. Dale knew that expression very well. They had a tail. Fuck.

"How many?"

"Two. Sedans. Silver. And a third… can't make it out… some kind of red…a Ferrari? A Lamborghini?"

"Shit." Dale twisted in his seat and adjusted his mirror so he could see what Nik had observed. Two silver sedans with blacked out windows, being aggressively driven, were making their way down the freeway and weaving around obstacles until they flanked the van. That took some balls to be this overt on a main road. It had to be guys sent by Alastair Bullen. And jeez, was that Joseph in the sports car? The stolen sports car.

"We need to get off the freeway," Nik announced.

Dale switched the intercom.

"Incoming, Kayden. Strap yourself down. We're going off main road." 

"Done."

As soon as Nik heard this, he was moving to the right lane and ready for the next off-ramp. They had planned for this. The security in the hospital had been too tight, but if someone wanted Robert dead, then during transport was the best time to do it. On the road here they'd had Sanctuary Ops watching their back as well as possibly every single Alphabet on their asses. Just… it wasn't supposed to happen until way closer to eighteen. The turn-off they had taken took them to the edge of forest and onto a lesser road where there wasn't much runoff. Didn't matter; Nik was the best behind the wheel and… wait.

"Lambo pushed the rear sedan in a one-eighty," Nik announced with no small amount of glee in his voice.

"What the fuck?" They watched in the mirrors as the silver car skewed sideways smashing into a tree and then twisting to end up broken in the middle of the road.

Defying logic or physics, the Lamborghini made it past just before the sedan settled in a heap of split and burning metal, effectively blocking the road behind them.

They rounded a bend, the remaining sedan close behind, and the red sports car—Joseph—on his tail. All Dale could do was watch helplessly as once, twice, a third time, Joseph shunted the sedan from behind, shuffling for road position. Finally, after the next bend, the red and silver cars came together in a shrieking crash of metal, and both cars flipped end over end, the sedan landing on its roof and the Lamborghini, thank God, listing to the right but at least on four wheels. Nik pulled the van to an immediate stop, and Dale was out and down with gun drawn, running the short distance between van and Lambo.

A very disgruntled looking Joseph grabbed his arm and used the help to clamber out of three hundred thousand dollars' worth of scarlet car.

"What took you so long?" Joseph muttered and stretched tall to unkink his back. They didn't waste time on any more talking, and in under a minute, they were back in the van and away, the three men squeezed into the area built for two.

"Did you cloak the van?" Nik asked.

"It's not the freaking
Enterprise
," Dale muttered as he pushed a hand past Joseph and pressed a series of buttons. "Done."

"Cloak?" Joseph was settled back against the seat rest with a shit-eating grin on his face. God, it was good to see his face again.

"Stops us being tracked and interferes with technology," Nik explained. "Something that Manny came up with. With that and the forest, it will be difficult for the alphabets and the bad guys to follow us."

Dale had forgotten he had decided he wasn't talking to Joseph and wriggled sideways more to escape the insistent press of the other man's muscled thigh. It was damn distracting. As if he could read Dale's mind, Joseph was doing some wriggling of his own, but it was Nik who stopped him with a firm hand on his leg and a stern "quit it". Joseph sighed, then in a scrambled move that had Nik laughing loudly and Dale cursing, Joseph was sitting astride Dale with his knees firmly on either side of Dale and his hands braced against the back of the seat.

Dale considered pushing him off. He considered pulling him in and kissing the smirk off his face. They hadn't actually kissed yet. Dale had actually accepted that what had happened on the mountain was a one time thing, and no kissing would be visited in any way. He decided talking was the best thing. Of course it started badly.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he asked.

"Taking up less space. SEALs are good at that."

Joseph was teasing him, Dale could see that. He wasn't rising to the bait.

"Where have you been?" Now that was the question that needed answering. 

"Had things to do."

"Like what? Lucky I had Nik at the hospital."

"I don't do nursing; I extract." It appeared what Joseph was saying made perfect sense to him, but Dale wasn't ready to take this at face value.

"So what did you do?" he repeated irritably. He was highly aware of the look of the man sitting literally on his lap, of his scent, of the exhaustion bracketing his eyes and mouth.

"Visited Elisabeth's grave, spoke to her dad."

Joseph shrugged and leaned back away from Dale. He moved his hands to rest his elbows on the dash. "My mom."

"Oh."

"They needed to know the man who ordered it all was dead."

"Oh." Dale wished he could actually string better words together. It was his own fault for pushing Joseph to answer. Embarrassed, he cast a look sideways at Nik, who looked suspiciously like he was trying not to watch or listen. "Sorry."

"Don't be. Do we have Robert in the back here?"

"Yeah. With the doc."

"And where're we going?" 

"Sanctuary eighteen," Nik said. "Sixty clicks out."

"A safe house?"

"More like a mini hospital. Sanctuary has a few dotted around the country."

"He'll be looked after?" Joseph seemed way past concerned and moved again in an effort to get comfortable.

"Stop the freaking van," Dale demanded. Nik pulled onto the grass and looked at him expectantly.

"What's up?" Joseph asked with an evil glint in his eye.

"Get in the back, sailor. There's no room here," Dale snapped and pushed open the door. Joseph clambered out in what, it seemed to Dale, the most awkward way possible.

By the time the SEAL stood next to the van, Dale was as hard as iron, and he gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Joseph—"

"I'm going." Joseph held up his hands in defeat and, with a grin, went to the rear of the van and clambered in.

When the door was shut and they had set off, Nik looked over at Dale and opened his mouth to say something. Dale glared, and Nik smirked.

"You want to—"

"No, I don't," Dale interrupted. "Let's get a fucking move on." 

The latest inrush of pain relief had taken the edge off Robert's pain, and when Dale left the room, Kayden had everything under control. The young man was still unconscious, but the doc didn't seem overly worried. This was day two at eighteen, and the itch under his skin was getting worse.

Joseph had arbitrarily decided that A, he was staying at eighteen until he was needed back at Oceana, and B, that he needed a room in this vast labyrinthine complex of rooms that formed the safe house a really long way away from everyone else. Dale was down with that. The last thing either of them needed was a connection of any kind.

Well, that is what he was telling himself, but to be fair, it was taking a lot of convincing. Dale was back on the Sanctuary rota, and Joseph was due in Virginia in a few weeks for active deployment to wherever the fuck he was being sent.

They had eaten together, always with Kayden, had spent time talking and watching sports, always with Kayden. But nothing more than that. No more blowjobs.

No more sex thoughts. No more tension.

Yeah right. 

"Just go down there, rip his clothes off, and fuck him" was Kayden's advice. This was handed to him because Kayden had found Dale moping, as he called it, into his cornflakes that morning.

"I don't want to fuck him," he snapped at the doctor.

All Kayden did was smile softly.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Make love with him." Dale said the words before he'd even thought about them. Damn Doc and his mind control ways.

"Then go do that."

"He's leaving. Hell, Jake said Ops has another case for me and I'm gone in a few days."

"And that stops you from being with Joseph how?"

"I don't need a relationship based on whether we happen to be available or not."

"So what do you want? A picket fence? You doing security for Wal-Mart? Joseph retraining as a teacher? A lawyer? You want to adopt kids and start a Kinnon-MacIntyre dynasty?"

"Hell no." The thoughts of leaving Sanctuary, of Joseph not being in action… that wasn't them. Joseph wouldn't be Joseph unless he went out and fought for his country. Dale wouldn't be Dale if he had to stop watching over those that needed his help. Still, there was a lot more than just simple affection and lust spinning inside him where Joseph was concerned.

"So you sitting here angsting like some chick is achieving what exactly?"

"Not a lot."

Kayden turned his back and concentrated on setting a complicated coffee combination on the huge coffee machine.

"I promise not to listen to the hot and heavy sex," he finally said.

And with that promise from Kayden, Dale left.

* * * *

The gym was half fitness half rehabilitation, a huge room filled with machines and weights and cupboards full of supplies. It was where Dale found Joseph pounding mile after mile on the running machine. He had his ear buds in and was in a beautiful rhythm. Muscles bunched and released as he ran, and Dale just watched. Joseph knew he was there. Their eyes had met in the mirror when Dale opened the door into the gym, but he didn't stop. He just ran and ran. It was insanely hot to see the man of his lustful imaginings slick with sweat and powering up an incline in six-minute miles. Deliberately, Dale reached into his pants and adjusted his swollen dick. Only a slight stutter in the smooth running gave any indication Joseph had seen him.