Watching From The Shadows: Trident Security Book 5 by Samantha A. Cole

of curses came from all of them. Brody and Devon came back from the rear of the house and the now dirt covered geek ducked into the garage. Just as dirty—they’d obviously crawled under the back porch—Devon approached his brother. “All clear back there. No signs of forced entry and there’s nothing to indicate the alarm system was bypassed, but we’ll do a run through inside just in case.”
    By this point, the sweat on Marco’s forehead was rolling into his eyes and down his neck, but he didn’t dare try to wipe it away. Any movement could cause him to shift his weight and then it would be bye-bye time. “Dev, get him out. Ian, you guys have to get out of the blast range. You, too, Murdock. It’s bad enough Boomer and Knight are fucking toast with me if this thing blows.”
    “Oh, ye of little faith.” Boomer was obviously a tad insulted.
    A large black van with T.P.D. Bomb Squad in large white letters on the side pulled up to the curb in front of the house along with two more patrol cars. Tampa PD’s specialized unit also covered the smaller cities and towns in Pinellas County. Their arrival caught everyone’s attention for a moment before Ian turned back to face Marco with a frown. “Fuck you, Polo. This is no different from combat. When one of our asses was on the line, the others didn’t bail back then and it’s not fucking happening now either.”
    Marco watched as Devon also ignored his plea and headed toward the garage door while Ian just stood at the bottom of the steps and crossed his arms. Marco knew it would be like trying to move the Hoover Dam ten feet to the left, but he had to try once more. “Boss-man, please. You’ve got a fiancée now. One who, I might add, won’t be happy if I get you blown to smithereens.”
    “And you have a daughter now, so, I repeat—fuck you. Besides, no one is going to get blown to smithereens. Boomer can do this shit with his eyes closed”
    “Hey, how’d you know my eyes were closed?”
    Usually, the inane banter in stressful situations didn’t disturb Marco, but at the moment, he wanted to punch his younger teammate’s lights out for shits and giggles. Shaking his head at the bad joke, Ian eyed the detective standing next to him. “You, on the other hand, have procedures to follow, so go fill your squad in.”
    If Murdock took offense to being ordered around, he didn’t show it. In fact, Marco wasn’t surprised to see a flash of relief come over the other man’s face and didn’t blame him. As the detective proceeded down the driveway, two bomb squad members were on their way up. After a brief conversation with Murdock midway, they approached the porch with their own equipment. Thankfully, this wouldn’t turn into a pissing match, since Boomer had done some cross-training with several local, law enforcement bomb squads, including T.P.D. and the F.B.I., over the past few years. There were always advantages to having government security contracts, and this was one of them. Both men had worked with the former Naval E.O.D. expert before and respected his skills as much as the Trident teammates did.
    The two-man team, consisting of Sgt. Barry Templeton and Officer Freddie Mendoza, acknowledged Marco’s precarious position, but wisely ignored him after that. He needed all his concentration for the task at hand—remaining perfectly still—and it was getting more difficult as the seconds ticked by. After being told Boomer was under the floor boards, Templeton raised his voice to be heard. “Boomer, how you doing down there?”
    “Pretty good. I just beat Knight’s straight with a full house, but I could use another beer and some buffalo wings. How you doing up there?”
    Marco growled at the quip from under the porch and silently swore he was going to kill Boomer if they lived through this.
    “Not bad. Mendoza’s with me. You need us down there?”
    There was an extended pause before the answer came. “ Uh , yeah, actually. I can’t completely