Chapter 6
MIKEY
Not a word was spoken during the entire ride to the rendezvous point. Nor in the chopper. Rage seethed hot beneath my skin at that woman. What the hell had she been thinking? I’d had it under control. Yeah, it had been an impressive shot. Yeah, it had made it so I’d been able to engage the third approaching target much quicker than anticipated.
But I didn’t need her fucking help.
Running my teeth back and forth over each other, I jumped out of the chopper and rested my rifle against my shoulder the moment we touched down. Dom had that look in his eye that Griffin used to get, and honestly, I knew we were all feeling it.
Well, all of us except for Scottie. I wasn’t sure what the hell she was thinking.
Determined, we marched in single file from the landing pad—more like an open spot of dirt used as a makeshift pad—toward the colonel’s tent, ready to chew someone out for the shitty intel.
Fingers wrapped around my arm, spinning me around, unexpectedly stopping me. “What is going on?” Scottie asked, her eyes slits against the sun that was just rising over the horizon. Thirty-nine hours since leaving this outpost on a failed mission, and her question did nothing but fuel the frustration roaring hot like coals.
“We’re headed to the colonel. You know, for the after-action report? The debrief?” I snapped, glaring at her.
“But you report to your captain.” Her brows furrowed, either distracted or truly confused.
“But as you fucking know, he ain’t here right now. We have been assigned to work with the colonel to take down this terrorist. So, Dom, as our lieutenant commander, works with Colonel Duke to figure out the shit that leaders do and send us out on our next mission. One that I hope doesn’t get fucked up again.” I lowered the rifle from my shoulder and pulled my lips into a thin line, tugging the mask down since we were finally back at the outpost.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she hissed at me, pulling hers off.
“You know exactly what that fucking means,” I snarled.
“I didn’t fuck this mission up. Nobody communicating with me that you weren’t dead fucked shit up!”
“Oh? Did you stop and think that we were trying to stay silent so that they didn’t know where we were? If one of us had spoken while sneaking up on the buggies, do you think it would’ve ended as smoothly as it had?”
“I don’t know because you nor anyone else trusted me to do my job!”
“BECAUSE THIS ISN’T A FUCKING TRAINING EXERCISE, DAMN IT!” I threw my hands in the air.
“Is that what you think? That since I’ve never actually been involved in some combat as a sniper that I’m not capable of being effective? Is that why you got pissed I shot that guy for you?” Her fists balled up, snapping tightly next to her sides.
I didn’t know if the rest of the team had stopped to listen, if they’d continued on, if other soldiers were listening, all I knew was that I saw red—and a twinge of fear for her snapped through my stomach.
“There’s your problem, Scottie,” I said, taking a deep breath to calm the boiling anger that was not her fault.
“Excuse me? My problem?” Her gaze narrowed, eyes of amber drilling into my soul.
“You called that target a guy. You can’t humanize what we do.” I ran my teeth over my bottom lip, glancing around at our surroundings. We had a crowd—one that was slowly dissipating, but there they were. My team stood off to the side, simply watching. Shifting my gaze back to Scottie, I sighed. The pain in their eyes reflected the worry that pushed out the rage in my heart.
“What are you talking about? They’re not paper targets. You said it yourself, this isn’t training, this is actual deployment with real men, real bad guys to kill,” she replied, color slowly returning to her white knuckles.
“They’re not always men, Scottie. And yes, I know that our targets are not paper, but if you think about them as anything more than a target…or anything more than a body to drop…” My voice trailed off as her narrowed eyes widened. How was I supposed to explain to her the very thing that was going to kill her faster than any bullet would?
“You want me to become some psychopath? Like you? Remove all feelings from what we’re doing?” she snapped at me.
A defense mechanism; I recognized it because I’d done something similar to Griffin once.
“Yes, Scottie. If you don’t, you’re dead, and not by someone else’s hand out here. It’ll happen when you go home. When you have plenty of time to do absolutely nothing.”
She stared at me, wide-eyed. “I’m not afraid to die.” The innocence that danced behind her irises flickered, not as bright as before, but it was still there. For how long, I wasn’t sure, and the urge to wrap her in my arms, tell her it was alright, and that all of this was a simple nightmare washed over me.
“And you know this how?” she added quietly, snatching her sniper rifle case from the ground and pulling it to her chest.
“Because all of us have been where you are right now,” I answered gently. Her eyes flickered briefly to the team.
“And where am I right now?” Her shoulders rounded forward. The first moment of vulnerability leaking through her hardened shell.
“Once the high of this mission dies, once all the adrenaline drains, reality will hit you. And maybe that’s in the next half hour, maybe it’s not even until the tour ends, but when it does, it will hit you hard. You killed someone today.” I paused, wishing there was a gentler way to express this.
She inhaled a shaky breath, clutching the case tighter to her body.
“More than one person,” I added quietly. “The sooner you can shift that thinking into eliminating targets, carrying out orders, the easier things will be.”
A shadow fell over my back, hiding me from the heat of the sun. “And maybe when we all get home, we can start to figure out how to actually process this shit,” Dom explained, offering some comfort in his own way.
Scottie didn’t remove her eyes from me; her once strong and powerful body looked tired and scared. So small compared to the feisty girl that met us at that tent.
“How long until I forget about it?” she whispered.
My heart lurched. “I’ll let you know when I do,” I answered. Her bottom lip trembled, clearly replaying the images of what she’d seen. “It pops up in your head less and less the more that time passes, though,” I quickly added, hoping to give her a sense of support. She nodded but said nothing.
There it was, again, that thread tugging me toward her. Sharp cheekbones covered in a light layer of sand cast shadows against the sun upon her face.
“Scottie, why don’t you head to the chow hall or something. We can handle the—”
“No,” she cut Dom off, shrugging her shoulders back and lifting her chin. Shaking her head, she physically shifted her mindset back to that fiery woman who I knew was still going to chew me out some more for getting angry about her help. “I’m coming with you.”
A smile twitched at the edge of my lips. Damn… She might just do alright out here. And if she could keep up with the team, maybe she was worthy of a little more trust when it came to the missions.
Only a little.
Turning around, we resumed our walk, the rest of the team linking back up with us. Scottie remained fairly close to my side, instead of trying to put distance between us, and I didn’t fight it. I should have. I should have moved away, engaged in conversation with one of the other guys, but I didn’t.
Part of me almost wanted her to start a fight with me again. Seeing those flames in a pool of amber, roaring hot like the sun, had certainly done something to me. Stirred feelings that I was still fighting, emotions that I currently attempted to choke down.
“Mikey?” Scottie’s voice pierced the air.
I raised a brow at her as we filed around tents filled with chatter.
“You guys all have this look on your face that’s…confusing me.” Her gaze darted around the group.
“Why?”
“Because you look pissed.”
“Are you not? Mission went sideways. We could’ve been killed.”
Her mouth dropped open as she realized what we were planning on doing. “He’s the colonel.”
“Yes,” I stated, my skin turning warm as I glanced at her.
“Tell me you’re not.”
“We absolutely are. Outside of the colonel, who else knew what we were doing?”
“Okay, but—”
“But we’ll chew him out.” I grinned at her and quickly added, “Respectfully of course.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna get written up on my first tour.”
“Welcome to the team, Crow,” Bernie called out over his shoulder, clearly having heard the entire conversation.
She pursed her lips and narrowed her gaze at me. “We’re gonna have a conversation later about what happened, too. You know, about you getting pissed at me for saving your ass.”
Bernie and Duncan laughed, dropping back to either side of us. “Technically, your orders were to fire only when necessary, and Viper didn’t really need saving. Sorry girl,” Bernie said.
“He had two targets engaged with him and a third coming up behind him,” she argued.
“Wouldn’t be the first time. He’s handled more with less. You have no idea how he got his call sign, do you?” Duncan inserted himself into the conversation.
I grinned to myself, not too upset that these guys were making me look fairly badass. Gaining some points in her eyes didn’t seem too—
HOLD the fuck up, Mikey.
“How’d you get your call sign?” Scottie asked, looking up at me.
“I’ll tell you after we have our respectful conversation with Colonel Duke.” I nodded at the tent we paused in front of. Tan canvas flapped in the breeze.
“Fine, but you owe me the story,” she stated bluntly and ducked inside.
Smiling to myself, I followed her in.
Colonel Duke ran a hand over his face. “Other than a couple soldiers on the intel side, no one else knew the details of your mission.”
“Well, it was clearly compromised. They were gone long enough before we got there, long enough that not a single fucking thing was left.” Dom crossed his arms, squaring up to the colonel. “Honestly, if we hadn’t decided to change things and breach seven minutes early, those mortars would’ve hit with us inside.”
“I’m aware, Commander.”
“So, with respect, Colonel, what the hell are you going to do about it? That was supposed to be a quick in and out mission. We’re rolling with a new sniper, so I know why it wasn’t our usual complicated kind of mission, but come on.” Dom shook his head.
“I hear you. Let me run things up the chain of command, and I’ll let you know.”
“You’ll let us know,” Dom grumbled.
Colonel Duke straightened his back. “Watch your tone, Lieutenant Commander. You may be a SEAL, but I have temporary—”
“Yes, sir.” Dom quickly said. He inhaled sharply and wrapped his hands together behind his back. “Sorry, sir. It’s my responsibility to make sure my team is able to perform to the best of their abilities, and with wrong intel, it hinders things.”
“I understand, Commander Stone. And I’ll see what I can find out on that side of things as well since it was soldiers in my command that relayed the intel.” Colonel Duke stepped away from Dom and sat down in his office chair. His eyes drifted away as the fuse that burned hot fizzled out.
“I really don’t understand what went fucking wrong,” he muttered.
“That tunnel must have been how they got out so damn quickly,” Dom explained.
Colonel Duke nodded. “Yes, but you choppered out of here five minutes after the intel came in with the Black Box’s location. We got you as close as we could. There was no way they would’ve known you were coming. They couldn’t have known you were coming.” He leaned back in the chair and stared at the roof. “We know how they got out quickly, but not how they knew to leave.”
“Maybe they were already planning on evacuating the premises,” I offered.
“True, but then why did they send some men back, as if they knew you were there?” the Colonel replied in question.
“And why did they only send ten men? It was as if they knew there wouldn’t be an entire platoon of soldiers, but a small team,” I continued, and he nodded.
“Though they certainly underestimated your team, as most do,” he muttered.
More questions swirled silently in the air, but no one spoke. There was too much left unexplained. Too much that wouldn’t come with any answers.
“Well, go eat something, rest up, clean up, and wait for your next orders. You all smell like shit,” Colonel Duke said, dismissing us with a simple wave.