Page 29 of What I Should Have Done

“So, that had nothing to do with him or his buddies?” She narrowed her gaze.

Offering her a subdued grin, I shook my head. “Nope. Nothing to do with him or them.”

“Then…” One word, only one, left her lips. I knew what she was asking, or was going to ask, but I didn’t want to talk about it. My head had still been unable to process last night, so at this moment, it was merely…something that happened.

I quickly redirected the conversation. “Just frustrated that we’re sitting on our asses, waiting. I don’t get why we can’t be off doing something else in between orders for this specific terrorist.”

She pulled her lips between her teeth, studying me as suspicion flitted across her face. “You guys don’t normally wait? The Army motto is: Hurry up and wait. What about the Navy?”

“I mean, we SEALs wait, but something about this just feels…different.”

“You think there’s more going on.”

Blowing out some air slowly, I nodded. “I’m worried shit’s gonna blow up in our faces if we’re not more proactive.”

She scoffed. “Damn. Bernie said you were untrusting, but I didn’t realize it bled into every aspect of your life.”

“Oh, ha. Ha.” Being untrusting had nothing to do with this. “Don’t believe everything he has to say, this is Bernie we’re talking about.” I gave her a crooked grin and looked over her head. An unusual whirlwind of sand rose toward the sky. Not like a dust devil, but as if several vehicles were barreling across the dunes and quickly.

“What the…?” I muttered, pulling my brows together, immediately distracted from the conversation.

Scottie turned around, following my gaze, and then froze. “Is that patrol?” she asked.

“If it is, why are they coming back in such a frenzy? Did something happen?”

She didn’t say anything in response as the cloud continued to grow in size and close the distance between our combat outpost and its vicinity. And we weren’t the only ones whose attention was being drawn toward it. Slowly, the chatter around us faded as every soldier turned and froze, staring at the incoming swirl of sand.

Scottie took a step back, bumping into my torso. And she didn’t move away as every muscle in my body turned to stone. My hands clamped down to my sides, and my attention tore away from whatever impending doom was rocketing toward us. Her back, flush against my frame, slick and warm, smelled sweet like honey and vanilla, and something a little gentler and more savory.

Sirens erupted, wailing around the outpost. Alerting us that whatever that was, held death at its hand.

Snapping into action, my feet blazed across the scorching sand, leaving little time to be frustrated that things had so rapidly changed and I was no longer standing with Scottie against my body.

I followed her as we sprinted out of the gym, darting off to gear up.

“Mikey! Scottie!” Someone shouted as we raced around a corner. But neither of us stopped. Someone was coming, targets that needed to be neutralized and quickly.

“Viper! Squib!” They called out above the sirens again. Skidding on my heels, annoyed and ready to ram my fist into the face of whoever called Scottie that name, I spun around to meet the steely glare of Reyes.

Of course it was Reyes, but he spoke before I lost my cool. “Colonel Duke needs you both.”

“What about the incoming attack?” Scottie asked, obviously ignoring the waves of anger and nerves that rolled from my shoulders.

Reyes tossed a thumb over his shoulder. “This is more urgent, apparently.”

They knew. He knew. He saw me grab her hand last night. I’d fucked things up royally by an involuntary response that would never happen again. A week into deployment and this specific mission detail.

“Let’s go,” Scottie said, slapping my arm with her hand as she jogged on by. Cautiously, I followed her, keeping an eye on Reyes, and as we ran past, Scottie didn’t notice me briefly pause.

“Don’t fucking call her that,” I quickly snarled and then sprinted off, watching that he didn’t make a move to follow.

Sirens continued to blare around us as we raced past soldiers geared up and heading toward the ready racks near defensive posts and guard positions. My instincts told me to follow, to go help, but instead, I fought through those desires and followed Scottie into the colonel’s tent.

Where the rest of our team was already waiting.

Colonel Duke immediately began speaking. “Bad timing, obviously, or maybe the best because now you can slip out of the outpost mostly undetected. We received word that one of our men inside has the Black Box. So, gear up because you’re going to go get it out. Now.”

Fuck yeah. Finally.

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