Page 112 of What I Should Have Done

“This is what you decide to do with some free time?” Bernie’s grating voice interrupted my particularly relaxing and casual moment with Scottie just outside our tent.

Rolling my eyes, I let go of her hand and glanced over my shoulder. “The fuck you want?”

Bernie chuckled. “I thought you’d be having sex right now or doing something more entertaining than a thumb war.”

“You’re an absolutely disgusting human being, you know that? There’s more to a relationship than sex,” I grumbled in response, pushing upright and dusting sand from my chest.

“Besides, we already did that like twenty minutes ago,” Scottie nonchalantly added, an innocent smirk lifting on her lips as her eyes sparkled, and she rose from her prone position.

I threw my hands in the air in defeat. “I don’t even know why I try to be semi-appropriate.”

Bernie laughed. “I love you guys. Anyway, Dom wants us at the colonel’s tent.”

Scottie stilled, her hands paused halfway down, smoothing out the front of her uniform. “Did they finally crack it?”

His grin widened, excitement twinkling in his gaze. “Some of it. Enough that we finally get to go in and fuck shit up. So come on! I wanna suggest exploding shit! BOMBS!”

Bounding to my feet, Scottie leapt up beside me and we jogged after Bernie. I honestly couldn’t protest his idea. Raiding and blowing Karim up sounded exactly like the therapy I needed. Also, Reyes. Though, I was determined to find Alex Reyes myself and make him suffer. He didn’t deserve an easy out. Not this time.

Not after all of the hell he put my girl through.

With that thought, I glanced at Scottie grinning beside me. Though, she might beat me to the punch when it comes to Reyes. And I knew, if in the end, she wanted to take him out, I’d let her. She didn’t need me for that. She could have at Rachel too. That would be fun to watch…

Rounding a corner, Duncan and Ford ducked into the colonel’s tent just as we approached the exterior. Buzzing from faint conversation rose from inside. More than just my team was in there.

Slicing like ice through my veins, anticipation raced to my heart. Adrenaline pumped fuel to the very tips of my toes and my skin prickled. This was going to be one hell of a fight and one I was going to absolutely enjoy.

As soon as the tent closed behind Scottie, the room silenced. A few extra soldiers waited with the rest of my team. Colonel Duke stood at the front of the same white table we had crowded around for our first mission brief during this portion of our deployment.

“Today’s the day,” he began with a grin. “Now, we haven’t been able to get into everything on the Black Box. There’s something external we believe to be blocking our full entry, but we’ll get that sorted out in time. What we do have is a map and location of Karim al-Jabari’s compound.”

“Can we fucking blow that shit up?” Bernie blurted out. I chuckled, ducking my chin against my chest and crossing my arms as Dom shook his head.

“Yes. An airstrike should be just what we’re looking for,” the colonel replied.

“That explains our guests,” Ford muttered, nodding toward the men not a part of our team.

Colonel Duke nodded. “Your job is to go in and confirm two things. One, that Karim al-Jabari is actually at the compound before we drop a bomb on his ass. And two, we want confirmation of what’s in the armory.”

“An armory?” Duncan asked, stepping forward. I tipped my head toward the table and briefly scanned the map.

“Yes.” The colonel leaned forward, resting his palms on either end of the paper. “It’s a simple design. One single breach point. One way in or out that takes you directly into the main area of the compound. Off to the left there’s six bedrooms. To the right is the chow hall, latrines. and something they have labeled as a laboratory.”

His finger slid to the middle of the page. “But here,” he traced it to the back, directly opposite the entrance. “Here is the armory. And with the size of that, if it’s full, they could have enough weapon power to outfit an army two times over. I just want a quick report on how much is in there for when we break through the rest of the Black Box, and then we’ll destroy it all in one fell swoop.”

Dom scanned us as my stomach swirled with excitement. Finally. We were here with a game plan that couldn’t go wrong.

“Questions?” the colonel asked.

“No, sir,” came the simultaneous answer.

It was time to destroy Reyes and Karim al-Jabari.

The devil inside was coming out to play.

Chapter 38

MIKEY

---