He was considering whether or not to confront them when Ka emerged from the room closest to his. She took one look at the waiting Marines and started toward them, her morning ablutions forgotten if the towel draped over her arm was anything to go by.
“Right!” she started. “I’ve had about enough of—”
Quickly, he intervened, stepped alongside her, and caught the arm. “Corporal! Don’t you and me have an appointment with the mats?”
She stopped short and jerked him to a halt as she laughed. “Hoo, boy, Sarge! You sure know how to make a girl’s morning a whole lot brighter, but what’ll your girlfriend say?”
He let go of her arm like he’d been burned. “What?”
“You, me, mats…” she imitated in caveman-like tones before she reverted to her normal voice. “I mean, sure, Sergeant, but Steph will have both our asses!”
Todd finally grasped the joke and blushed red to his hairline. “That’s not what I meant,” he sputtered and Dru stepped in.
It didn’t help that she was laughing fit to burst. “Sure it wasn’t, boss. Why don’t you stay and stop the guys starting a disturbance? I’m sure they’re as sick of seeing these asshats every time they turn around as I am.”
“Sure. Fine. Good suggestion.” He could have kicked himself. Flustered was not how he wanted to sound in front of their constant companions. Or henpecked. He definitely didn’t want to sound as henpecked as he just had.
When he glanced across at their nearest pair of stalkers, he caught a swiftly suppressed smile as it disappeared from the Marine’s face. These are the weirdest assed Marines I’ve ever come across, he thought. It’s like they think they’re different than the rest of us.
He managed to intercept Gary, Reggie, and Jimmy before they could cause any trouble but he would have been too late to stop Angus. As it was, Piet only caught the youngster’s arm in time to stop him from landing a punch on one of those nearest his door.
Darren emerged and saw it, wasted no time in securing his teammate’s other arm, and helped the demolitions expert turn and steer him toward the shower block. Todd wandered toward them as his team moved away.
“It would be nice if you boys weren’t here when we got back.”
The Marine lifted his head and curled his lip. “Trust us. There are a hundred other things we’d rather do but we have our orders and they say we have to keep your obnoxious asses secure.”
“Well, it sucks to be you then, doesn’t it?” Todd snarled and pivoted to follow his team. He could feel their gazes on him all the way down the hall.
Walking away wasn’t what he wanted to do, but he needed to work out what his next move would be. It sure as shit wouldn’t be having these guys hang around for the rest of his career. There was something indefinably “wrong” about them and he needed to know exactly what it was.
He wasn’t happy to see Captain Smith stroll into the shower block ahead of him. The towel over the man’s arm didn’t convince him even slightly.
“Good morning, Sergeant,” the man greeted him. “My men tell me you slept well.”
“With all due respect, your men had better not have had a clue how I slept, sir. They’re not authorized to be in my quarters.”
“I think you’ll find they’re authorized to be wherever you choose to go,” the captain informed him, his tone bland.
Despite the almost overwhelming temptation to react, he forced himself to keep moving, slid into a shower stall, and set his clothing aside. “If I find them in my room, they’ll wish I hadn’t.”
The man’s snort revealed that he’d taken the shower next door. Todd clenched his jaw and washed as quickly as he could. He didn’t try to lose the captain but he kept an eye on his squad as they emerged from their ablutions and directed them hastily to the mess before any of them took it into their heads to challenge the other Marines.
“We have to get rid of those guys,” Ka told him as they settled at the table with their plates in hand.
He followed the flicker of her gaze and nodded. “I think they’ve been assigned as bodyguards,” he told them, “but I’m still trying to work out if they’re here to watch out for us or simply watch us.”
“We need another night out,” Piet muttered. “A really big night out.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Piet.” Angus spoke quietly, his gaze on their watchers. “If they’re here to find an excuse to throw us in the brig, we don’t want to hand it to them.”
“What makes you think they’re looking for an excuse to throw us in the brig?” Drusilla asked, and he leaned conspiratorially towards her.
“Because the last time I was shadowed like this, that’s exactly what they were looking for.”
“Why? What made you so special?”
“Well, the guys set me up with this girl, see? The only thing was, they didn’t tell me she was the commandant’s daughter and she didn’t let on until her daddy’s goon squad kicked the hotel door in. It was a double suite, so I took a header off the balcony and made it into a local park before they got back downstairs. The problem was, the guys had put the suite in my name and when I wasn’t there in the round-up, there was only so much smoke they could blow.”
“When was this?” Todd asked, but Jimmy and Reggie looked at their teammate in wide-eyed disbelief.
“You were that guy?” Reggie asked, and Gary shook his head.
“Man, I knew there had to be a reason you were lumped in with the rest of us, but that one takes the cake.”
Jimmy leaned over and patted Angus’ shoulder. “If it helps, she was broken up about not getting to see you again.”
Angus’ face brightened. “Really?” he asked. “Because I liked her.”
“Pfft.” Ka sputtered and rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You junked your career for a girl?”
“I thought she was special,” he muttered, his voice sullen.
“How long did the two of you go out before…you know…” Drusilla made a diving motion with her hand.
“A couple of months.”
“So how come you never discovered who she was?”
“She gave me a bogus name and life story,” he admitted and blushed even redder than before.
“And you believed her?”
“He was in looooove,” Gary explained.
“I didn’t think she’d lie!” he protested.
“So, not so ‘special’ then,” Ka concluded, and he sighed.
He finished his breakfast and picked his plate up. “Well, now I’m never gonna know,” he told them. “She got married just before the Telorans threw those rocks at us.”
The team stilled, then Reggie picked his plate up and moved alongside the youngster. “Sorry, mate. That’s girls for ya. Fickle monsters.”
“Hey!” Ka protested. “I resemble that remark.”
That brought a smirk to Angus’ face and Todd relaxed.
When he realized the others had finished eating, he hurried to follow suit. It took him until the end of his plate to realize that he hadn’t managed to get the commandant’s name, but it wasn’t until Jimmy stood beside him that he noticed the big Scotsman had stayed.