Complicated Past (Bad Karma Special Ops #5)

Chapter 1

ONE

Poland

Watching the Ukrainian team’s sniper trip and fall to his hands and knees, Staff Sergeant Linc Porter’s entire body clenched. In combat, that mistake could be fatal. What happened next, though, made him interrupt the exercise.

“You never leave a man behind,” he barked at his squad of soldiers.

“He can’t keep up. He’ll get us all killed,” one of the young Ukrainian trainees complained.

“He’s the best marksman on your team. You need him. Would you want your team leaving you behind if you twisted an ankle and were the slowest man?”

Two of the younger soldiers glanced from each other to their older teammate. “No,” they admitted.

“Right. We’re going to run this exercise again and then again.” Until they understood this was a team and each man had worth.

If they didn’t gel as a team, they would all end up dead.

“I can’t believe we’ll be sending these troops into the field in two weeks,” Dev said.

He voiced the thought that also went through Linc’s head as the men regrouped to practice today’s infantry tactics training exercise.

The men on Linc’s Bad Karma team each had over a decade of experience and highly specialized training. That’s how they’d earned their spots on one of the most elite units in the US Army. However, his team only had two months to impart what they could to improve these men’s chances. Few of these men had any military experience, but they stepped up to serve because they were motivated to protect their homeland. However, they didn’t have the skills or equipment needed to adequately defend their country or their lives.

Half the men were in their mid-thirties or older. Two hadn’t managed to complete the ten-mile ruck. Several of the men still couldn’t make it over the five-foot wall on their own. And now they were willing to sacrifice their own team members.

The grim reality was that many wouldn’t come home to their families.

Linc signaled for them to begin again. “It sucks we can’t do more.” Except it wasn’t their war. At least not yet.

It took the US nearly two decades to withdraw from the Middle East, and watching the Taliban sweep right back in and negate so much of what they’d done there didn’t sit well with any of the men on the Bad Karma team. The US sent troops over to train the Ukrainian military, but Washington wouldn’t risk committing to another war where they weren’t assured a victory. That limited his team’s involvement.

Chief Lundgren dismissed the men after a ten-hour day turned into nearly twelve hours. No point exhausting everyone to the point they wouldn’t retain what they learned. Linc and Dev joined the rest of the team and headed to their temporary quarters at the Polish military base. Accommodations were not quite on par with the barracks when Linc had gone through basic training at Fort Jackson twelve years ago but were still a step up from his numerous Middle East deployments in the past decade.

Once inside the cramped bunkroom, half his teammates called their wives and significant others. Linc saw he had a missed call and message notification from Brianne and did a double take. He’d managed to tick off his sister again before he left for this deployment, so they’d only talked when he initiated calls. Maybe this was a good thing. He could hope.

“Linc, I did something stupid and don’t know what to do. I’m?—”

A woman spoke over Bri, drowning her out before the call ended abruptly.

Shit. Something stupid? What this time? His gut constricted as his mind immediately went to the obvious. He replayed the message. Bri didn’t sound strung out, but her low tone wasn’t normal. The best he could make out, the other woman asked who she was talking to. While Bri might not want her co-workers overhearing, something about the other woman’s tone pinged Linc’s radar.

Though it’d been nearly two hours since she left the message, Bri hadn’t called back or texted. Maybe she’d figured out how to handle whatever it was. He couldn’t count on that, so he hit the call button. Seconds later, the call connected but went directly to voicemail. “I got your message and wanted to check in. Call me back. Tell J-man Uncle Linc says hi. Love you both.”

He drummed his fingers on his leg. Maybe Bri emailed him. He checked. Nothing from her there either. She was a grown woman. Since completing rehab, she’d gotten her life together with some help from him and a lot of motivation from Jalen. In that way, she was different from their mother.

Please don’t let her backslide. There wasn’t much he could do from halfway around the world. His limbs hung like weights, and swallowing didn’t dislodge the lump in his throat.

“Everything okay?” Dev asked as the team headed to the mess hall for dinner.

“Not sure. I got a message from Bri saying she’d done something stupid,” Linc confided.

“You thinking she relapsed?”

Dev knew his sister’s history. Hell, the whole team knew. “I’m hoping not. I didn’t reach her when I called, but I’ll try again later.”

“If you need, Stephanie can check on her.” Chief Lundgren’s gaze fixed on Linc.

The chief’s wife headed up the Family Readiness group, but that might be beyond the scope of her responsibilities. Though they’d met, having Stephanie show up at Bri’s door when she had already accused Linc of being overprotective wouldn’t go over well. He was trying to trust her, but with their past, it was damn hard to let go of the need to protect her. “Thanks, Chief. I’m sure that won’t be necessary.”

His calls after dinner and an hour later went straight to Bri’s voicemail. It wasn’t like his sister to have her phone off for an extended period. Along with what she’d said and the other woman’s voice, Linc couldn’t let this go, especially when each unsuccessful attempt sent his thoughts to darker and darker places. He tried a fourth time, then pulled up the website for the dealership and connected to the number for the service department before they closed for the day.

“Can I speak to Bri Porter?” he asked the man who answered.

“She’s not in. Do you need to schedule service?”

“Has she left for the day or . . .?”

“I think she’s out this week.”

“I needed to talk with her.” It’s not like she had to run plans past him, especially with him being deployed, but her being out for a week didn’t sound like Bri, even if she had been on better financial footing since starting this job. Combine it with her saying she’d done something stupid, and the unease tickling the back of his neck sunk its claws in to hold on tight. “Put me through to her voicemail.”

Bri had updated her message to say she’d be out of the office for the week. The message sounded normal, which eased his mind that Jalen was all right. But Bri reaching out if she was in trouble, despite him not being there for her in the past, left Linc with few options. He left her a message on her work line, then set an alarm, hoping to get hold of her in the morning.

Linc managed to get some sleep but woke in the night twice due to nightmares. He hadn’t had a nightmare this bad since before their mom and Bri’s dad died. Still no texts, calls, or emails from her. He didn’t care if he woke her calling at nearly eleven her time. Better to piss her off and know she was okay so he could focus on his mission here.

The call went to voicemail again. She wouldn’t have blocked him. Not after that initial call. Unless she’d really screwed up and wanted to get her head on straight before talking to him.

He waited until the rest of the team woke before tapping Devin. “Can I borrow your phone? I want to make sure she hasn’t blocked me.” His buddy handed over his phone without hesitation. Linc tapped in the number, hoping for different results.

Voicemail.

“Shit.” He hung up and handed the phone back rather than listen to the message.

“Still haven’t connected with your sister?” the chief asked.

“Not yet.”

“Play the message for me,” Lundgren requested.

Linc pulled out his phone. Getting non-biased feedback could give him some peace of mind and direction. The team crowded around in the kind of support he needed. He hit play, closed his eyes, and listened to Bri’s voice rather than study his friends’ faces. He clung to the hope that he was overreacting. Though replaying Bri’s message still made his muscles tense, knowing his team had his back helped him breathe.

“Play it again,” Tony Vincenti requested. Vincenti did most of the team’s undercover work and excelled at reading people and situations. “She’s speaking low like she doesn’t want to be heard, and I don’t know her, but the distress in her voice is real. Do you know the other woman talking?”

“No clue who she is.” The woman sounded young, maybe mid-twenties. Despite the southern accent, her harsh, unprofessional tone didn’t sound like a co-worker or Bri’s boss, who Linc recalled being male.

“Does she sound under the influence to you?” Vincenti asked.

“No. Just scared.” If she were high, she wouldn’t have called him to confess when he was deployed.

“I agree,” Dev said.

The heads bobbing in agreement lessened his fears about her using drugs but didn’t banish his gut instinct that Bri was in trouble.

“Let me know if you need anything .” Chief Lundgren held eye contact until Linc gave an affirmative nod.

“If Stephanie can call the preschool and make sure Jalen’s there and go by Bri’s apartment, I’d appreciate it.” He hadn’t anticipated this with how well Bri had been doing.

After breakfast and four hours of training, where Linc struggled to concentrate, the men broke for lunch. Linc waited for Chief Lundgren to finish a conversation with a Ukrainian officer before he approached. “Any word from Stephanie yet?”

“She called the school and managed to get confirmation that Jalen’s in class. Then she went by Bri’s apartment. No one was there, and nothing seemed off.”

Between the message Bri had left Linc and not being able to reach her, this news wasn’t enough to reassure him. What’s going on, Bri? “Would Stephanie mind going by again tonight?”

“I can ask. There’s also a flight back to Fort Liberty leaving at fourteen hundred hours. I’ll sign off on emergency family leave.”

“I’d hate to leave the team short-handed, but?—”

“No buts. It’s family. You’re all she’s got.”

That wasn’t entirely true. She had Jalen, the reason she’d turned her life around. But addiction was a powerful thing. What would happen to Jalen if Bri backslid? Linc knew—and he wouldn’t let that happen to his nephew. “I’ll be back as soon as I get things straight at home.”

“I’ll let them know you’ll be on the flight. Keep me updated. Dismissed.”

“Thanks, Chief.” Emotion choked Linc that Lundgren had already checked on flights. He breathed easier, though he had no idea what he’d be walking into once he returned to Fayetteville, North Carolina. However, the chief letting him go so easily reminded him that while he was an integral part of the team—which was as much like family to him as his sister and nephew—he wasn’t replaceable. There were dozens of men who trained and worked equally hard who would love to take his place. Regardless, he needed to be there for Bri—he owed her that.