Page 17 of The Art of You

Enough said.Wouldn’t stop me from worrying about Isabella, though.

“I’ve got it covered, don’t worry. Alessandro, too, now that he’s back in town. We’ll keep her in line.”

“From the sounds of it, you’re both failing.” I straightened in my chair when a new email on my AOL account popped up. A message from my father. “I should probably get going.”

“Yeah, of course. Well, thanks for checking in. Want me to tell Izzy anything for you?”

“Yeah, tell her if she doesn’t straighten out, both Constantine and I will wind up in trouble for going AWOL when we come home to talk some sense into her.”

“Copy that. Talk soon. Be safe.”

“No,yoube safe. I’ll be dangerous.” That was probably from a movie. Or maybe a book. I read a lot, too.

I ended the call, then let the mouse hover over the email, not quite prepared to open it up. My father only reached out when he needed a favor. He was a senator now, and I knew he had his political sights on something even bigger, but why’d bigger always seem to come with a cost?

Just do it. Get this over with. I clicked open the email after my pathetic pep talk.

Hey son, I didn’t know how to tell you this when we last talked, so I’m doing it now. Your mom is keeping something from you.She doesn’t want you to know while you’re deployed, but I don’t think that’s the right move, so I’m telling you.

The cancer came back. Stage 4. The doctor said she has four to six months left.

Before you sign your papers, I thought you should know that.

Call me when you have a chance.

I reread my father’s email, gripping the arms of my chair, my vision going blurry. Shock kept the tears at bay, but I barely had time to reach for the wastebasket before I threw up my dinner.

“We finally got the orders. We’re spinning up now. Get your . . .”

I lifted my head from the trash to look at my team leader staring at me from the doorway. “Bad sushi.”

“We don’t have sushi on base.” Matt lifted his hands up onto the doorframe, bracing against it as if trying to hold himself back from storming in. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.” I set down the trash basket.

“So, what you’re saying is you’re the opposite of okay?” He lifted a brow, calling my bluff. Quite easy to do with the stench of vomit in the room.

Eight long days, and even longer nights, of waiting for our marching orders to go after a Taliban leader, and now of all times they came down.This can’t be happening.I faced my desk and closed my laptop. “We’re rolling out right now?” I spun around in the chair and stood.

“Yeah, as of five minutes ago, and we needyou. We’re already down a man since Golf Team borrowed our EOD guy, and ISR detected a cache of weapons and explosives scattered all over the place at the target location.”

I tried to slide back into operator mode and focus, but my father’s words pounded into my skull. The reason for me to stand down tonight and not re-enlist was just emailed to me three minutes ago.

“Listen, we have that new guy now,” Matt went on when I’d yet to answer. “He hasn’t spun up with us yet, but from what I’ve heard, he’s damn good. I think he should fill in for you as our lead sniper. Devon was first in his class, like you. He can be on the long gun on overwatch tonight instead. But I still can’t do this without you, and if we don’t move in tonight, we lose our HVT.”

I hung my head, my stomach squeezing, on the verge of being sick again. “I’m not sure my, uh, head will?—”

“It’ll be where it needs to be.” He was leaving me no option. He had Command up his ass, and they had all of Congress up theirs, so I didn’t blame him.

“Yeah, okay, just give me a second.”

“To remember you’re an elite operator? One of the Navy’s best?” Matt lowered his arms to his sides, crossed into the room, and slapped a hand over my shoulder. “Don’t forget it. Got it?”

“Roger that.” I closed my eyes, waiting for him to leave. The second he was gone, I clawed at my hair and took a knee. Memories scraped through my mind of the last time Mom was sick. I’d just completed Hell Week at BUD/S when the call came from my father. My parents were divorced, but like today, my mother always tried to protect me from any kind of pain, while my father was the one to rip the Band-Aid off and cut me with the truth.

I took another minute or two to pull myself together,splashed some water on my face and rinsed out my mouth, then found the team prepping for the mission.

New Guy was doing a weapons check, and he was the first to look at me when I entered the room. I went over to him, ignoring the stares of the rest of Echo Team, knowing they could read my fucked-up state from a mile away. As for Devon, we’d barely spoken two words since he’d joined us on base, so he wouldn’t realize I was off.

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