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Zane’s voice crackled through their comms, “The back dock is locked down tight. You can’t get out that way.”
“Goddammit,” Ryland snarled as they all skid to a halt. “What the fuck? How do we get out of here?”
“You’re not going to like my answer,” Zane replied, “but from what River and I can see, there’s only one way out.”
“Are you going to tell us, Banshee?” Inda asked. “Or are we supposed to guess?”
“The sewer system.”
“Fuck my life,” Saint said, dropping his head back.
“Don’t worry, Saint,” Zane said, a smile in his voice. “It’s only about a half mile. You’ve been through worseshitthan that.”
Saint growled something in what Lucas decided must be Russian. But, hey, as long as they weren’t going to be Novickok’d to death like Selma, he didn’t mind wading through some floating turds.
Almost forty minutes later, Lucas changed his mind. Well, almost. He, Inda and the guys had made their way back down to the basement, pried up the sewer lid and climbed down into the biggest bunch of filth and scum he’d ever encountered. The stench was nearly overwhelming. Saint bitched the entire way, and by the time they reached the end of the tunnel, Lucas was covered in black, gooey muck and smelled like death warmed over.
Braxton and Gray already had the lid off at the exit point and were waiting for them. Lucas boosted Inda out of the tunnel of shit and death first, and then Saint and Ryland gave Lucas a lift out. Ryland climbed out followed by Saint, who was cursing up a storm, half in English, half in Russian.
“Holy fucking stench, Batman!” Braxton exclaimed, covering his nose and mouth.
“Oh, shit, you guys reek,” Gray said with a grimace, stepping away.
“Yeah, but at least we’re alive,” Inda said. “Selma wasn’t so lucky.”
“If we don’t get cleaned off soon, I’m gonna puke,” Ryland stated. “And who knows what kind of bacteria crawled up my—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Saint snapped. “No bacteria crawled up anywhere.”
As they started walking to the Suburban, Zane came through on their comms. “Did you hear that story about the guy who went swimming in the parasite-infested water? Particularly parasites from feces.”
“Shut your hole, Banshee,” Saint warned in a low growl, not amused in the least.
“Oh, yeah! It was on the Discovery Channel,” Lucas chimed in, remembering the episode.
“Yeah, his man bits started burning and the doctor discovered it was a microscopic worm that crawled up his…” Zane’s voice trailed off and Saint visibly flinched. “Well, he called them testicular parasites.”
Brax and Gray stifled their laughter, while Ryland made a face and Saint turned so pale, Lucas thought he might hurl. Inda just shook her head and smirked.
“I’d worry less about a bug swimming up your peen and more about how filthy the SUV is going to be by the time we get back to San Francisco,” she said.
Of course, she was right. Saint had his head out the window like a dog the whole trip back and they made fun of him the entire time. When they finally pulled up in front of the warehouse, the Suburban stunk to high heaven and the seats were covered with God only knew what.
“We’ll debrief at oh-nine-hundred,” Brax said and tossed the keys to Ryland. “You and Saint can take it to get detailed.”
“Sure thing. But right now I need to soak in a tub of Lysol. Harper is going to kill me,” he muttered.
Lucas laughed. Damn, he was happy to be back. While he was debating what to do, stay or go, Inda grabbed his hand.
“Let’s go clean up,” she said, leading the way to her apartment.
???
Overall, the day had been a success. They’d survived, Selma hadn’t, and Inda was counting it as a win for Ex Nihilo. Now all she wanted to do was wash off and slide into her bed with Lucas.
They entered her apartment and she didn’t want to touch anything. “Straight to the bathroom,” she said, leading the way. Without pause, they began stripping off their filthy clothes and tossing them in a pile Inda planned to burn later.
She flipped on the water then stepped beneath the spray, Lucas moving inside with her and pulling the curtain closed. Before she could even think anything sexy, she had to get clean. Grabbing the shower gel, she squirted a generous amount into her hand and then his. They washed themselves thoroughly, lathering up three more times, and then finally turned to face each other. Lucas wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close and kissed her passionately.
