Page 15 of What I Should Have Done

A wicked cackle sounded in my ear, echoing through the little valley.

Bernie.

Five.

All four men inhaled deeply, their animalistic, violent stances shifting to something more relaxed.

Mikey bent and snatched a body from the ground. Tossing it over a shoulder with surprising ease, my entire figure turned warm. Terrible timing, I knew that. I shouldn’t be feeling anything like this right after what happened.

Especially considering more enemy combatants, could show up, but watching him toss another fully grown man around like he weighed nothing did something to me…

“Let’s get these targets over to the building—or what’s left of it. Bernie’s waiting for them,” Mikey casually muttered over the radio.

That same wicked cackle sounded in my ear again. “You know me too well, Viper,” Bernie replied. Despite the growing urgency that more insurgents may arrive at any moment, I rolled my eyes. Unable to stop myself considering how haughty his words came across. As if this was something that they’d done on multiple occasions.

Wait…

Everything in me swirled with confusion. A strange sensation shivered across my skin, and everything suddenly seemed to be happening without me.

I stared down at my body, lying prone on the sand, still hidden beneath a blanket.

I watched as my own self scanned the surrounding valley, sweeping across the tips of the dunes that showed nothing in the dark of the night. Night vision still alerted me to nothing. Not a speck of sand moved near the tunnel that was left wide open.

And no one spoke as the rest of the team carried the ten bodies into the rubble. The four of them laid the bodies down on top of the shards of debris before scrambling away from them.

Suddenly, a fifth figure appeared around the far corner of what was left of the building. The last member of the team.

“It’ll blow in five,” Bernie said over the comms, joining the team. They all paused in front of the buggies.

“What’s down there?” Duncan asked, glancing toward the tunnel.

“Don’t know. Don’t fucking care. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Ford answered.

“Crow, get your ass down here so we can leave before Bernie blows us up too,” Dom commanded.

“But what if the Black Box is down that tunnel?” I replied, quickly flipping the blanket off me and breaking down my rifle.

“Then we’ll fucking be sent back to these coordinates to go into the tunnel. But I’m in no hurry to die, and the orders didn’t include going down some unknown fucking tunnel. Let’s fucking go,” Dom replied as he climbed into the second buggy. Someone else joined him, while the other three jumped into the first vehicle.

Right. Orders were orders. Some of which also apparently included not telling me that they were fine after nearly getting blown up. Some of which included not actually trusting me to do my fucking job.

And they were going to get an earful of that once we hit the rendezvous point and got back to the outpost.

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.

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