Page 50 of What I Should Have Done

Trust was not what had me concerned.

I worried for her. She was more exposed, easily caught and identified if she stayed down here with me. I worried I wouldn’t be able to entirely focus on doing what was necessary if she was in danger.

“I just wanted to double check,” I replied, not voicing all of my real concerns.

“Then shut up and let me do my job, Blondie.” Instead of backing away, she bumped up against my left shoulder, playfully.

And stayed there.

For only a few seconds, but it was enough.

“The moment I’m in—”

“I’ll disappear. And in case you’re wondering, that’s something I’m really good at. One of my highest scores,” she finished, offering me reassurance. Knotting my jaw, I nodded once and tightened my grip on the buggy’s wheel.

Ford waited behind us, posted at the gatling gun so the moment we barricaded them in from behind, he could use it against their mounted weapon, hopefully providing us with enough cover so Scottie and I could make it to our target.

My belly swam as the squad we accompanied scattered amongst the rocks bordering the wall. In position, just as the other half of my team was. Everything was ready to go.

And a faint rumble vibrated beneath the floorboards of the buggy.

The first sign that our targets were approaching drove adrenaline thick through my veins. Every sense of mine woke with a start, lapping up the drug I craved.

“Hey, Blondie?” Scottie’s quiet voice, muffled even more by the balaclava over her face, slipped through the distant drums.

“Hmm?” I stared at the corner of the pass that the convoy was approaching from.

“Gonna bite another ear off?” she asked, through the radio this time.

My eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as I whipped my head toward her. She briefly pulled down her mask and grinned, then covered her mouth back up. She’d said that on purpose, and it wasn’t just to our team, but to the squad as well.

“Who’s biting an ear off?” a random soldier responded.

“Another fucking ear?” someone else asked through the comms. “As in, someone’s done it more than once?”

“Ten bucks says he bites something else this time,” Bernie’s familiar voice answered, egging it on. What I’d give to see his face right now.

“I say twenty for a nose?” Duncan replied.

“Someone tell me who the hell is biting shit off people?!” another soldier’s voice butted in, and I chuckled to myself.

“I’ve got twenty on someone’s fingers,” Ford growled lowly over the comms.

“You fuckers realize that I’m going to do my damnedest to not bite any of that shit,” I replied with a chuckle. “Because I can’t let you shitheads win a bet.”

“Well, that’s fucking dumb. The colonel already asked me if you’re gonna do something unhinged like that again,” Dom answered.

“WHO!? Someone tell me who the fuck is biting people!” one of the soldiers from the squad inserted himself into the conversation again.

Scottie glanced at me briefly and rolled her eyes. But there was a twinkle behind her safety glasses, reflecting her pride in starting this conversation.

“I never said I wasn’t going to not bite someone; I just said I wasn’t going to go for the nose or fingers,” I replied with a grin.

She shook her head and returned to staring down her scope as the rumble drew nearer and nearer. “How about ripping someone’s throat out again?” she radioed. She had to be smiling behind the metal of her rifle.

“IF SOMEONE DOESN’T TELL ME WHO THE FUCK LIKES TO RIP THROATS OUT AND BITE PEOPLE, I WILL GO INSANE!” the same soldier curious from the beginning asked again.

“Everyone quiet! I can hear the engines of the convoy,” Dom instructed, leaving the soldier’s question unanswered. I could only imagine the horrified looks on the other soldiers’ faces, wondering what kind of psychopath did that. But everything out here was kill or be killed, and I wasn’t going to ever go down without trying everything in my power to do the killing before the other guy could get to me first.

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