Shadow Men – 3 – Rafe and Steele

"Job well done," the Colonel said as he studied the two men standing at attention in front of his desk.

Rafe smirked. "It always is when you use us."

"Careful, boy. Thinking like that can get you in trouble. Nothing wrong with confidence, but you overdo it sometimes."

Rafe shot a look at Steele who was fighting not to grin, and then nodded. The smirk still touched his lips as he apologized.

"Two days R&R, then I want to see you back here. I'll have a new assignment for you, both of you," the Colonel told them. "You're dismissed."

Once they were outside the office Rafe snorted. "He still thinks he's in the Army."

"In his head he probably is," Steele agreed. "So what are you planning to do with two whole days off?"

"The same thing you are, I expect—spend it in bed."

Steele chuckled as he pressed the elevator button. "Yours or mine?"

"That depends. You have food and beer stocked in?"

"Don't I always? Do you?"

Rafe grinned. "Do I ever? So your place it is."

* * * *

The two days passed in a whirl of hot sex, cold beer and occasional time off to sleep.

Rafe had hooked up with Steele during their first assignment together ten years previously. Since then, neither man had the least problem with letting anyone who asked know they were a team in and out of bed. As Rafe had put it early on, "At least no one can threaten to blackmail us over our sexuality."

They'd had their fair share of disagreements, some severe enough that the Colonel had partnered them with other people until they'd settled things between them. No matter how bad the fights were though, in the end they had always reconciled, physically and emotionally.

Now they stood outside the closed office door as they waited for the Colonel's order to enter. Rafe looked at Steele with a small grin on his face, which immediately made Steele mutter, "Behave."

"Always do, mostly," Rafe replied. "But damn, he's so easy to rile at times."

"Yeah, well, one day you're going to push it too far and end up in Upper Mongolia tending sheep, or yaks, or whatever, as penance."

At that moment, the Colonel called out, "You may come in now."

Rafe winked, gave Steele a quick hug, put on his serious look and opened the door. Once they were inside the Colonel indicated they should sit. When they had, he tapped his fingers together as he studied them.

"Jensen is missing," he said finally.

"Details?" Rafe replied, all business now.

"The last contact we had from him was from England. Great Yarmouth to be specific. He was to meet with an informant that evening."

"Do we know if he did?" Steele asked.

"We don't even know who it was. He was very closed-mouthed about that, just indicated that the person—male or female, he didn't say—had come in via a fishing boat. He hinted they were central-European and had information that would make a huge difference in our plans but that was it."

"Plans?" Rafe cocked one eyebrow in question.

"Need to know, and you don't need to know," the Colonel replied shortly.

Rafe shrugged. He and Steele were used to working in the dark when it came to things like that. "You have a location for his last communication?"

"We do, more or less. Somewhere in the vicinity of St Nicholas Church."

"Oh, that narrows it down a lot," Rafe muttered.

"If it were easy, I wouldn't be sending the two of you in," the Colonel told him acerbically.

Steele could tell Rafe was about to say something he probably shouldn't and gave his ankle a sharp kick, the one thing he knew would shut his lover up. Rafe winced and kept quiet.

"Your plane leaves in two hours," the Colonel told them as he slid a file across the desk.

Steele opened it, scanned the contents then handed it to Rafe who did the same. He made a few quick notes and extracted Jensen's updated photo before he slid the file back to the Colonel. Then the two men stood, shook hands with the Colonel, and left. When they had, a satisfied smile briefly crossed the Colonel's face before he picked up the phone receiver and placed a call.