Chapter 61
Chapter Sixty-One
Noah
I lay in my bunk holding the photos of my girls between my calloused fingers.
It’s been months since I saw Tori, since I held her, since I saw and felt our daughter growing.
The only thing keeping me going is knowing this is my last operational tour, and they will be waiting for me at the end of this.
“Jones,” Mason yells into my room. He was in the Marines with us and is a recent joiner in the special forces and D-unit. “West, needs us to go through the plans.”
I sigh. “I’ll be right there.”
I swing my legs over the side of my bed and press a kiss to the photo of my girls, before carefully tucking them into the inside my pocket that covers my heart, and then head to our meeting point to go through today’s mission.
I never used to get nervous, never really thought about what I was doing.
We went in, and we got out. Snatch and grab.
That’s what I did. Kick some doors down, take out who needed to be taken care of, and save who needed to be saved.
The idea of never coming home never really played on my mind because I didn’t have a place to call home, until Tori. She is home.
So now, every time I lace up my boots and put on my armor, I hope I make it back to base in one piece.
The only thing that ever gave me a buzz and a sense of belonging was the military, and I never felt more alive than when I was staring the possibility of death straight in the face.
But now, it’s different. My need for that adrenaline rush, the desperate need to feel wanted and useful like I belonged somewhere has vanished because of her.
She gives me everything I’ve craved and the very thing I’ve spent my entire life trying to find.
So now the desire to stay alive and get back home is stronger than ever.
I enter the tent, the members of D-unit are surrounded by the maps of the compound we are going to enter.
I see West, the daddy of the team, older, wiser, and stronger than probably all of us combined.
“Jones, you’re going to enter here, and Dean, you follow.
Mason, I need you to stay around this area.
..” West continues instructing us, pointing to pins on the map that symbolize each member of the team.
We have gone over these many times. Studied every corner and possible exit that the enemy could hide or escape in.
But this is what we do to make sure our plan is executed perfectly, and we all make it out alive and back home.