Marcus

Chapter Thirty

Marcus ~

Marcus sat nervously in one of the conference rooms with Lainey, waiting for Nate's signal to go live. Caroline had negotiated her way into having Nate contracted for surveillance and comms, which meant Nate was able to accompany her to Syria and would set up his tech at the nearest base.

It was almost 10:00pm where Caroline was, but it was early afternoon in California and Marcus was practically coming out of his skin as Lainey monitored the feed until Caroline's camera and comms were activated and streaming.

"You doin okay, Mac?" Caleb asked, leaning against the door frame as he passed.

"Nah. It's like waiting for some kind of fucked up movie that I have no desire to watch." Marcus grumbled.

Caleb nodded his head, giving Marcus a sympathetic look before he spoke.

"She's good at what she does, Man. Hold on to that." Caleb reassured him.

Marcus knew Caleb was right, but that's not what he wanted to hear. He wasn't interested in being rational at the moment and wanted someone to commiserate with him.

Like an answered prayer, Pierce's large body came through the door, brushing past Caleb as he slumped down onto one of the chairs with an irritated thud.

"Well this fucking sucks." Pierce huffed.

Yes. That's exactly what I needed Hollywood.

"You're tellin me" Marcus said, leaning forward with his elbows resting on the table.

"We should fucking be there." Pierce continued as if he could read Marcus' mind.

"It's a solo mission - one that Caroline is the most qualified for." Declan said as he entered the room, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Yeah well there's a reason why we don't do solo missions here...they're fucking dangerous." Marcus bit out.

"She's not alone Marcus, we're all right here. Not to mention Hunter briefed Viper and the rest of Charlie team who are on standby." Lainey said, giving Marcus a smile over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the computer in front of her.

Marcus let out a sigh and gave Lainey as much of a smile as he could muster, hearing Hunter's deep voice echo from the hallway followed by a very small one.

"Is Kenzie here?" Caleb asked.

"Brought Hunter lunch." Declan said with a grin that was shared by every person in the room.

Everyone went silent as they all eavesdropped on the conversation that was happening out in the hallway, leaning toward the open door as a group with smiles on their faces. 

"You didn't have to bring me lunch, Kenzie. When I told you I was swamped today I didn't mean I couldn't feed myself." Hunter said sternly.

"Don't be such a dick, Hunter." Pierce muttered under his breath.

"I know I didn't have to, but we were in the area on our way back from the dog park." Kenzie said, seeming completely unfazed by Hunter's coldness.

"Well uh, thanks. I appreciate it."

"Everybody seems really stressed around here today." Kenzie observed, causing Marcus to raise his brows at how intuitive she was.

"Yeah well we've got a team member that's got some big things going on today, so everyone's a little tense." Hunter said, staying as vague as possible.

"Oh well here, let me give you this." Kenzie must have been rummaging in her bag from something.

"It's a worry stone and it's made of amethyst." Kenzie's sweet voice matched her sweet gesture.