Chapter 3
Obviously, he wasn’t going to hear the end of this. He might as well set his team straight. “It was just bad timing.”
“What’s going on? Anything we can help with?” Luke offered. At least he wasn’t accusing him like Sandy. Then again, Luke always waited for all the facts before making a decision. It was one of the things that made him a great leader. He never rushed into anything.
“Yurgio Svengtsez,”
“Who’s that?” Barry asked.
“The smuggler you’ve been tracking for two years.” Jack supplied for him. “I thought you were done looking for him.”
“What’s so special about him?” Barry asked, looking between Carson and Jack.
“He’s wanted by several authorities. US and Europe.
CIA, Feds, Interpol, you name it. The guy is more slippery than an eel and smarter than a fox.
Anytime authorities get close to tracking him, he disappears and resurfaces a few months later on the other side of the world. ” Luke gave the basic background.
“Why have you been tracking him, Carson?” Barry wanted to know. “He’s not on any of our target lists.”
Yurgio had become a pet project of Carson’s. “Back when I was with the SEALs, we were sent on a mission to extract Yurgio from a small coastal port in Costa Rica.”
“What happened?”
“Local police got a tip-off he was there too. It turned into a bloodbath. Several police were killed. Two of my teammates. One was so severely injured, he was forced to retire, and I got clipped in the shoulder as well. Yurgio got away, and I’ve made it a personal mission to avenge my brothers and see Yurgio behind bars paying for his crimes. ”
Luke came up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We all understand wanting to avenge our fallen brothers, but going it alone isn’t going to help. Remember, there’s no I in team.”
“But there is in dipshit,” Jack added with a grin that got everyone to roll their eyes. “What? It’s true. There’s two actually.”
“We work better as a team, and it sounds like it’s going to take the whole team to get this guy,” Luke said, looking at Carson earnestly.
Carson appreciated Luke willing to help him find Yurgio.
He’d become obsessed with it over the years.
He wouldn’t rest until the man paid for his crimes against the world and his brothers.
But it was his problem, not theirs. He could never live with himself if he got more of his brothers killed over this “I can’t risk anything happening to you guys. ”
“A whole team and police couldn’t take him down. What makes you think you can do it on your own?” Luke challenged him with a raised eyebrow.
He didn’t, but he wasn’t going to risk others.
“We always have each other’s backs. You know this, Carson.” He did. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say, whatever you need, we’ll help.”
“Hell yeah,” all of the guys said one after another.
Carson didn’t know what to say. “Thanks.”
“What do you know so far?” Luke asked, going into command mode.
“I got a tip from an old buddy of mine, about a large shipment being brought across the Russian border,” Carson explained to the group.
“You think it’s Yurgio?” Greg asked, sounding skeptical.
“I do. I’ve tracked its origin, and the shipment came from Niger from one of Yurgio’s contacts. It was delivered to the town Yurgio is from. It can’t be a coincidence.” He didn’t believe in them, not when it came to Yurgio.
The guys looked at each other, not at all convinced. “It sounds too easy. Yurgio wouldn’t make a simple mistake like that.”
“It wasn’t simple,” Carson argued. It had taken a lot of favors called in and research to get the info he had. “Look, I know you all think it’s foolish of me to keep looking for him, but I’m close. Not only that, I found out the container doesn’t have weapons on it like I thought, but women.”
“Fuck,” Jack swore.
His sentiments exactly. “I was trying to figure out what was in the shipment and its final destination. That’s why I was on my phone so much last night.
I wasn’t trying to be a dick, but this is rather important.
More than some woman’s feelings.” What was one woman’s feelings when he could save hundreds, if not thousands of people from Yurgio?
“All women’s feelings are important. You should have postponed the date, or better yet, you could have called one of us. We would have looked into it instead of bailing on your date.”
Carson shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.
Like I told Sandy, she’s not my type. It’s probably good that things ended the way they did.
I don’t have time to date right now.” His life was consumed with work.
He didn’t have time for a relationship. Each mission was critical to him.
He didn’t want to be distracted on a mission thinking about a woman and her wondering if and when he’d come home.
Jenny had hated it. What woman wanted to sit at home always wondering and knowing the stack of lies and secrets he had to keep? It ate away at relationships. It was better to just avoid getting involved.
Luke disagreed. “Greg and I have done just fine managing dating and working. It’s not like we do missions like we used to. We have plenty of notice before we are sent out, and we aren’t gone for months at a time.”
“But it’s no less dangerous. We are a group that doesn’t exist. If we were captured or, God forbid, killed, no one would notice or come looking for us. I don’t want the added stress of a girlfriend or significant other to mourn a ghost.”
If he died in combat, no one would ever tell her. She would always just have to assume he’d died overseas. Could he do that to someone he cared about? Obviously, Barry and Luke didn’t mind. But he wasn’t like them.
“We were all lucky to be given a second chance to do what we love and serve our country. In some ways, what we do now is more dangerous, but it’s no less important than before.
We all come from different backgrounds. You’re a SEAL.
I’m a Ranger. Jack was Special Forces We all bring something different to the table.
” Luke stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“After meeting Shay, I realized there are more important things than the next mission.”
“And what’s that?”
“Living a life. You can’t live your life by maybes and what ifs.
Life is too short for that. There will always be another mission, Carson.
Some excuse or barrier to keep you from having someone in your life.
A life filled with someone to share it with, makes me fight even harder now to make sure I come home to her.
It gives me a bigger purpose. I’m not saying date the girl and I’m not saying don’t.
All I’m saying is be open to allowing someone into your life.
“There will always be missions or the next thing until we actually retire. You can’t use that as an excuse. I still make time for Shay just as I’m sure Barry makes time for Zoe.”
“Damn straight, I do,” Barry concurred.
“It’s all about finding balance.”
Carson didn’t want balance. He liked his life the way it was. He was happy still being able to serve his country. He didn’t need a relationship tossed in the mix to throw him out of sync.
Luke was right though. But that didn’t mean he wanted to date someone like Annie, Allie, whatever her name was.
Honestly, he couldn’t think of a certain type that he had.
He’d never been picky about certain body types or hair color, but he liked women who looked relaxed at least and knew how to have a good time.
Someone who let their hair down at the very least. He knew he was being unfair to this woman, but he didn’t feel anything when he met her.
“I’ll take your advice under advisement. ”
“I still don’t mind taking her out,” Jack offered.
Everyone just ignored him. Jack was easy when it came to women. He didn’t care what they looked like. He loved all women.