Barricade

by Lindsey Black

  ‘I’m happy to do some recon.’

  ‘Not alone,’ Sasha stipulated, meeting Enzo’s gaze and waiting for him to nod in agreement. He hesitated but he would still do his job.

  ‘Honestly, I’d prefer to take Pavlova, when he’s up to it again. He’s freaky quiet, keeps up with me real well and he’s a damn good shot.’

  All things Enzo had complained about when going out with anyone, Ines included. Startled by the praise, Sasha thought about it and shrugged. He didn’t mind who went with Enzo, just that someone did. He suspected Enzo wanted to keep Jett in his sights, to make sure he didn’t get hurt again, but that was fine as well. Whatever he needed to move on.

  ‘When he’s better, if he wants to go, I’ve got no problems with it.’ But he sipped his coffee and contemplated what he’d seen as well. ‘He did get clocked on the head. And stabbed.’ Neither of which were ideal.

  ‘Both of which could have killed him, but didn’t,’ Enzo argued. ‘You shoulda seen the headlock he had the guy in who stabbed him. One twist and that guy was down. For good.’ Praise from Enzo was rare and it made Sasha suspicious.

  ‘Where was he trained, do you think?’

  ‘Matti thinks a camp,’ Enzo shrugged, clearly not caring.

  ‘POW camps are training little reconnaissance soldiers now?’ Sasha snickered at the very idea. No, the camps weren’t doing anything but housing people the regime couldn’t be bothered offering rights to. If you could consider being part of the regime as having rights. Everyone was equal, but that didn’t afford you more than a guaranteed position to go and get yourself killed performing your duties. Sasha would die for his country, mostly because there was no other option.

  ‘All I know is I think they did a good job. Kid needs field experience, and a suit that’s not tripping him over all the time, but I like him as a partner. It’s gonna work.’ Enzo’s sigh was heavy as he stared down at the blanket fort Ines had made in the lighthouse. ‘I didn’t think it was gonna work.’

  Ines was irreplaceable, Sasha knew, but if Enzo thought he could make a solid partnership with Ioane that could only work in their favour. It was more than any of them had hoped for and he certainly wasn’t going to make it any harder than it needed to be.

  Forcing himself to get up, Sasha untangled himself from the blankets and let Enzo settle in for his shift.

  ‘Wake me up if you see anything,’ he ordered. Enzo nodded and drank the rest of his coffee, handing the empty mug to Sasha to take with him.

  It was always a shock, leaving the cold and dark and returning to the warmth of the tower. He hurriedly took his coat off and hung it on the rack before heading down to his room. His bed looked as comfortable and alluring as always but he couldn’t bring himself to lie in it. Sighing heavily, he grabbed his blanket and took it down to the infirmary.

  The lights were off and the door seemed to make far too much noise closing, but Jett lay still on the bed, his breathing quiet and even. Sasha settled back into the chair and wasn’t even comfortable when his head lolled to the side and he fell asleep.

  He woke to a finger idly stroking down his nose. When he opened his eyes he found Jett pulling his hand back as if stung, eyes wide, caught in the act. He looked comically cute, hair a complete riot, lips pressed hard to one side as if he’d sucked on something tart.

  ‘You look better,’ Sasha realised immediately. No fever, colour back in his cheeks, eyes shrewd.

  ‘I feel better,’ Jett acknowledged, still nervous, tucking his hands into the blanket and settling his head back on the pillow. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘I could ask you the same thing,’ Sasha teased. ‘I thought it was pretty obvious I was sleeping.’

  ‘Yeah, but …’ He fiddled with the edge of the blanket and looked up at him through his lashes, almost painfully shy.

  ‘I was worried about you.’

  ‘Oh.’ He seemed at a loss, as if no one had ever worried about him.

  ‘I’m glad you’re feeling better. Do you want some water?’ He reached for it and offered a glass without waiting for an answer. Jett sat up and took it, drinking faster than Sasha had expected. He refilled the cup and Jett drank it just as quickly but when Sasha made to refill it a third time Jett shook his head and lay back down.

  ‘Can I get you anything else?’

  ‘No, I’m fine.’ He hesitated a moment, voice dropping low. ‘Thank you.’

  Warmed through by two simple words, Sasha reached out and stroked a hand through Jett’s hair, pushing it back off his face and enjoying the way it fell in all directions. It was thicker than he had expected, and softer. He forced himself to pull away before he got carried away, settling back in his chair and once again trying to find a way to get comfortable.

  ‘Are you really gonna sleep there?’

  ‘I already did.’ Sasha frowned, shifting the chair legs so he could twist to his left and still see Jett clearly. He had no idea why that should matter, it just did.

  ‘Seems stupid when there’s enough room on the bed,’ Jett mumbled, so hushed Sasha barely heard it. The words were so unexpected he was certain for a moment he hadn’t heard them, that it was simply the vain wishes of a small mind. But Jett was watching him, a hint of vulnerability in his expression, waiting to see what he would do.

  Figuring Jett would say something if it wasn’t what he’d meant, Sasha shifted around to the other side of the bed and hoisted himself up onto the small space. There was enough room, but only because Jett didn’t take up that much space, and only if they were wedged together. Shifting until he was sure he wasn’t going to tumble off the side, Sasha reached over and slid one arm over and one arm under Jett, pulling him in against his chest, careful not to touch his wound, keeping his hold high.

  It was like holding a stiff plank of wood for a minute before Jett let out a shuddering sigh, curled into the curve of Sasha’s body and stilled.

  Sasha inhaled the scent of antiseptic and soap, nuzzling the back of Jett’s neck and trying not to jump to conclusions. Just because he was letting him sleep with him did not mean Jett Ioane wanted to sleep with him. That didn’t stop him from dreaming about it.

  ‘Well now. This is different.’ Sasha opened one eye and glared at Matti, holding Jett still when he jerked awake and struggled to free himself.

  ‘Shh, it’s just the Jekyll.’

  ‘Hmm, I would have considered myself more a Moreau,’ Matti drawled. ‘Now let my patient go so I can check him over.’

  Sasha grumbled as he released Jett and rolled off the side of the bed. He stalked back to the uncomfortable chair, sitting with a loud huff. Jett hesitantly sat up, looking between the two of them as if waiting for a reprimand.

  Matti did his tests, frowning at Jett the entire time. It was starting to make Sasha uncomfortable, so he imagined Jett was feeling completely out of sorts. A thought confirmed when Jett looked around Matti and glared at Sasha.

  ‘Okay,’ he agreed, standing up and moving to lean against the bed, pinning Matti with a heated glare. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘For me to know, you would have to tell me,’ Matti snapped, startling Sasha. Matti turned and faced him, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head the way he usually did when he was studying something that made no sense.

  ‘Nothing’s going on.’ Yet. He really, really wanted something to be going on.

  ‘That’s strange, because do you know that in all the years I’ve been with you here, I’ve never seen you crawl into anyone’s bed.’

  Sasha knew Matti wasn’t jealous. Matti had left the love of his life on a reindeer farm near the northern Swedish border. He wrote to her every day and sent a pile of letters out with every resupply truck. So it was odd for him to have a problem with anything Sasha might have been doing, unless it was because he was supposed to be in command and suspected he was taking advantage. That idea didn’t sit well with Sasha and he scowled.

  ‘Can you honestly say you can be objective here?’ Matti dem
anded. ‘If he gets exposed again, say in a few months, and this goes where I know it’s going, are you going to keep him in that cage like you’re supposed to?’

  ‘I won’t get sick,’ Jett grumbled, his expression dark. It pleased Sasha, because the problem Jett had was with the assumption he would end up in the cage again, not with the idea they might become something more than friends or colleagues.

  ‘I know my job,’ Sasha replied sternly.

  ‘You do know fraternising with colleagues is against protocol.’

  ‘So’s having coffee on duty in the lighthouse,’ Sasha reasoned. ‘I don’t see any of us stopping. What’s this really about?’ Because they both knew Matti had no problem with breaking the rules. He built bombs in his spare time and enjoyed playing with chemical warfare. That was definitely against the rules, and he knew Sasha had no problem with it.

  ‘Hurt my friend, and I will torture you for the rest of your miserable life.’ Matti glared down at Jett, looking like a vengeful ice giant.

  ‘Seriously?’ Sasha arched a brow and rubbed the back of his neck.

  ‘Seriously,’ Matti snapped at him and stormed from the room, slamming the door. Sasha stared at it, trying to keep his laughter on the inside but it bubbled out and he collapsed back into the chair in a boneless heap.

  ‘I don’t think it’s funny,’ Jett grouched.

  ‘I don’t think you were supposed to,’ Sasha couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. Matti being over-protective was new, but he didn’t dislike it. He was the closest thing Sasha had to a brother and he knew he would have done the same, had their positions been reversed. He would have threatened a bullet to the head over a lifetime of torture, but Matti was sadistic so it wasn’t surprising.

  ‘So …’

  Sasha leaned forward and wrapped his hand behind Jett’s neck, pulling him forward and pressing their lips together. He kept it chaste, just feeling the heat and warmth of it, enjoying the simplicity of that first intimacy. He pulled back only far enough to study Jett’s face, wondering at the large pupils and the rich pink flush that infused his skin. He rested his forehead against Jett’s and smiled, enjoying the feeling of someone else’s warm breath ghosting his lips.

  ‘Oh.’

  He would have laughed at the response had Jett not looked completely shell-shocked.

  ‘Had you never?’

  ‘Don’t be daft, of course I have, but …’ Jett closed his eyes and licked his lips before taking a deep breath and meeting his gaze again. ‘It wasn’t like that, before.’

  There were a lot of ways to interpret that and all of them made Sasha frown.

  ‘It wasn’t bad!’ Jett cut in, clearly concerned about the conclusions Sasha was rushing to. ‘I mean, it was fine, but not … like that. You … I …’ His fingers pressed against his lips, his eyes wandering to Sasha’s mouth. ‘Ah, fuck it,’ he snapped and his hands cupped Sasha’s face and pulled him back in.

  There was nothing chaste about the kiss. Sasha was startled by the strength in the hands that held him still, aware suddenly that he couldn’t break the hold and strangely he recalled Enzo’s remark about headlocks. Jett’s lips pushed his open and his tongue thrust inside, scraping against Sasha’s teeth before he could taste him, an unfamiliar breath of warm sweetness that made him shiver and clutch at the hands holding him still.

  Jett pulled back, dark eyes searching for any sign of distress but Sasha just shook his head and hauled him from the bed into his lap and pulled him in for more. Jett’s hands wound around the back of his head, fingers sliding into the short back of his hair, scrambling for purchase. Sasha loved the way his whole body shifted closer, revelling in the hard press of muscle and heat. He closed his arms around Jett’s middle, his hand running up the ridges of his spine and holding him close while he mapped Jett’s mouth with his tongue and tried to memorise the taste.

  ‘Oh, dammit. Stupid.’ Jett pulled back and leant his forehead against Sasha’s, breathing heavy.

  ‘Sorry, I thought…’ There was no way that had been a one-way thing.

  ‘No, I pulled the stupid thing open,’ Jett complained, pulling back and staring down at the red stain spreading across his bandages.

  ‘Oh! Shit!’ Sasha stood easily, lifting Jett in his arms and placing him on the bed, amused when Jett scowled at him. ‘Suck it up, Pavlova, I’ve got a good forty kilos on you, now sit still.’ He grabbed the scissors and cut away the bloodied gauze. The sullied pad fell away, revealing broken tape and a slow ooze of blood coming from the wound. Thankfully the reddening had settled around the cut, far less angry than the last time Sasha had seen it.

  ‘Pass me the alcohol,’ Jett pointed to the small bottle on the table but Sasha pushed his hand away and got the supplies himself, carefully wiping away the new blood and cleaning it thoroughly before packing it with saline again.

  ‘I can do it myself,’ Jett grouched.

  ‘I’ve seen you,’ Sasha reminded him. ‘It’s like watching a damn butcher.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  Sasha very carefully taped the wound closed and then stood up, staring down at the grumpy face looking up at him. His lips were swollen and there was a vague rash on his jaw. Sasha felt ridiculously pleased with himself.

  ‘If I ever get hurt, please let Matti patch me up, okay?’

  ‘Are you fucking serious?’ Jett was seething, but Sasha just grinned and put a new absorbent pad over the wound before wrapping him in fresh gauze. ‘Stepanova!’

  Sasha placed a hand on either side of Jett, pinning him in place on the side of the bed, amused that his toes barely touched the floor because the bed was jacked up so that Matti could easily access it.

  ‘That’s the last time you call me Stepanova,’ he said firmly.

  ‘What if we’re in the field?’ He was deliberately being a smart-arse and Sasha arched a brow at him and waited. ‘Whatever.’

  Sasha stroked his fingertips up Jett’s throat, watching his Adam’s apple bob nervously, then clasped Jett’s chin and tugged his face around so they were eye to eye again. He doubted he would ever tire of kissing him, the same swell of pleasure rising in his chest and then pooling in his groin.

  ‘Sasha,’ Jett moaned around his tongue.

  ‘That’s better.’ He kissed Jett on the forehead and pushing him back down onto the bed. ‘Now rest.’

  ‘But I’m starving!’ The protest was so immediate that Sasha paused a few steps from the bed and looked at him askance. ‘For food, you idiot!’

  Jett shuffled off the bed and tentatively moved to stand beside him, wincing at the pull in his side but otherwise seeming none the worse for wear.

  ‘Your recuperative powers are remarkable,’ he muttered, looking him up and down. ‘But you may want to put some more clothes on.’

  Startled, Jett looked down at himself and the blush that crept up his chest to his face was a rich, stunning scarlet against his bronze skin. He shoved Sasha out the door and slammed the door.

  Sasha pushed it open again, enjoying the dark flush on Jett’s skin and the wide eyes that frantically looked him up and down. He knew then and there that the thing he was starting was not going to be fleeting.

  ‘Just to be clear,’ Sasha pointed between them. ‘I want you. If you say yes, right now, you’re mine.’

  ‘What is wrong with you?’ Jett hissed, hands flailing. He looked completely flustered, standing half-naked and hopping from foot to foot on the cold floor.

  ‘I’m kind of possessive. You need to say yes. Right now.’ He couldn’t begin to explain how desperately he needed to hear it. He’d never been possessive of his lovers before, mostly because he’d never really cared about them. They had been a convenience. He’d run for a few days, get as far away from his district as he could, sleep with whoever was willing and leave. Sometimes the old driver, before Kirkov, but Sasha couldn’t even remember his name. There had been a few other recruits, back at the academy. Nothing that really intrigued him.

  Jett was diff
erent. He needed to know the man was his, and he needed to know now. Jett’s shoulders slumped as he gave in. He looked like he’d lost an intense battle and Sasha suspected Jett had been struggling with his own attraction, desperate to maintain distance. Had he been the subordinate he likely would have done the same. Should have been doing the same now, but didn’t see the point.

  ‘Yes,’ he sighed. ‘Whatever you want, yes.’ He slammed the door in Sasha’s face again.

  ‘There’s a set of your cams on the table,’ Sasha called through the heavy wood. He grinned all the way upstairs to the living space, contemplated making Jett something to eat but deciding against it. He wouldn’t appreciate the effort and would likely think it controlling in some way, so instead Sasha went upstairs and pulled on his coat before expelling himself into the midday sun.

  It was strangely still, considering. The sun was up and showing through the clouds, vague patches of blue showing through the shifting grey sky. Several trees on the edge of the north forest had been felled in the storm, buried in the drying muddy surrounds. All that stretched between was wet puddles in dead grass and open dirty plains of filth with a broken bitumen road running parallel to the Barricade. It looked like a wasteland, but the town looked worse. The decrepit ruin sat in shattered silence broken only by the random squawking of a crow that idled along a rooftop in search of lunch.

  Matti was lying on the dry stones, staring up at the clouds as they slid lazily across the sky and consumed one another. Sasha wandered over and leaned down so he blocked the view, amused by his friend’s snort of disgust.

  Checking the stones were in fact dry before he gave himself an unwanted wet arse, Sasha lay down beside him to soak up the light while it lasted. Winters on the Barricade were harsh and the sun rare.

  ‘He’s not at all what I would have pictured for you,’ Matti finally grumbled.