Battle It Out

allowed in Special Forces, but according to Colonel Cobalt, if a person could do the job, it shouldn’t matter what was in their pants and Zane agreed.
Once settled, he stretched out his legs and crossed his booted feet at the ankles. Of course, that left nowhere for Jo to sit when she followed him. Zane could have told Jo to save the glare she aimed at Pia; it wouldn’t work on the soldier.
He uncrossed his boots, but Pia draped her legs over his lap so he couldn’t stand.
“What?” Pia gave Jo a flat stare and pointed to the patio’s back wall and the folding chairs positioned close enough to the couches so people would still feel included.
He held back his laughter and kept his eyes on Pia. He fucking loved her.
“Nothing,” Jo wisely said and flipped her white blonde hair over one shoulder before she marched toward the chairs.
Pia snorted, moved her legs, and handed him a cold bottle of beer from a nearby Styrofoam cooler.
“Good riddance.”
“She’s nice,” he defended with a grimace.
“For a viper,” Pia agreed.
He twisted off the cap of the beer, his gaze riveted on the huge sectional across from them where Isaac sat squished between Lacy and his flavor of the month.
“What’s up, Rolls.” He jerked his chin at the stodgy looking man sitting next to Isaac, making sure his voice carried the distance. With his deep baritone, it wasn’t hard to do.
Pia snorted beneath her breath. The rest of the unit either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore him except Beckett, who covered his mouth to hide a snicker.
“It’s Royce,” the guy hissed, glaring at him.
Zane narrowed his eyes to slits and snapped the bottle’s lid toward the trash can in the corner. It landed inside with a small, satisfying clang. He took several swallows of beer, hoping the alcohol might numb his irritation.
Backhanding the liquid trickling down his chin, he froze when several pairs of eyes stared at him.
Isaac glared, Lacy gave him a scolding look, and Royce stared wide eyed with his mouth open.
Zane narrowed his eyes at the punk.
Isaac caught Royce’s reaction and slugged the boyfriend hard in the arm. Pia winced, and even Lacy jumped. Royce’s face went white and then red hot in seconds. Which suited him just fine. He snorted beneath his breath and turned to Pia.
“Stirring up trouble and you’ve only been here two seconds?” Pia elbowed him when the people across from them broke out in various conversations.
“What?” He frowned.
“With Royce.”
“I didn’t ask Isaac’s boyfriend to check me out,” he muttered.
“Of course not.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re oblivious.”
“I can’t help it if everyone finds me attractive. I just,” he shut up.
“Just what?” she probed when he stopped.
“Nothing.” He shifted on the couch. Don’t go there, don’t fucking go there.
“Hmm.” Her disbelieving expression had his chest tightening.
“So, when are you coming back, Isaac?” Dillon leaned around Beckett to glance across Royce at Isaac.
Isaac’s grin popped. “As soon as Doc signs off, but I think -.”
The rest of the words were lost in the noisy conversation. Damn it, when was Isaac coming back? Was the delay because of his injury? But that had been months ago. If not that, what could be the hold up? He wracked his brain, but nothing came up.
What about the safe house? Nah, it couldn’t be the safe house.
They’d been doing so good, joking around, eating fast food, spending days and nights watching movies and talking about almost everything under the sun. When he’d woken up a few days later, Isaac had left. There’d been a short note pinned to the refrigerator. See you around. See you fucking around? Even now he had to clench his teeth at the callousness of that damned note. To top it all off, Isaac had avoided him ever since.
All in all, though, that shit didn’t really matter. All that mattered now was getting Isaac back in the saddle again. The unit doc couldn’t sign off quick enough for him, he missed his partner. He wanted things to get back to the way they were. Do you? He shut that niggling voice down fucking quick and turned his attention to the beer and its destroyed label in his hands.
“So, how’s the addition going?” Pia asked.
Pia picked the one thing that could snap him out of his funk, and by the smug look on her face, she knew it.
He huffed out a laugh and rolled the bottle between his hands.
“It’s going pretty good, when I can get my ass back up there.”
He turned sideways toward Pia. “Oregon’s under heavy rain right now.” Now that it was January, the state might be looking at some snow.
“Tell me anyway.”
Stretching his arm along the back of the couch, he launched into the setback he’d gone through with the design for the kitchen in his home. An avid restoration dabbler herself, Pia laughed, understanding his challenges.
Casually glancing toward the sectional, he found Isaac staring daggers at him.
Well, shit.
What have I done now?

Isaac
After the backhanded swipe to his mouth, white frosting from the cake still clung to the very edge of Zane’s mustache.
At least the slug to Royce’s arm seemed to do the trick to keep Royce from ogling, but Isaac couldn’t take his eyes from Zane cozied up to Pia on the old, cracked leather couch.
That was his damned spot, he sighed. It wasn’t Pia’s fault she sat squished up against Zane. She was just being nice by scooting over, he reasoned. Thankfully, Pia had warded off Zane’s ex-girlfriend. That had at least made him feel better and the leg drape had been funny as hell.
Zane and Pia shared a laugh.
The wet nose nuzzling his hand kept him from popping wood and making a fool of himself. Damnit, all he’d wanted was a nice quiet day with no pressure.
He curled fingers into the furry neck of Bear, his ten-year-old Chow mix. Other than the gray on his ears and muzzle, a person couldn’t really tell he