Page 97 of Sully

To that, Bonnie gave me a small smile.

“He was a good kid. Just too inexperienced for what we were doing then.”

“So, wait,” Chris said, trying to get all the facts straight. “He was on your last operation? The one that ended with…”

“Everyone dead but me,” I said, nodding.

“Oh, shit…” Fischer said, the pieces falling together for him too.

“But… I don’t understand,” Bonnie said. “Like, I get that you were the only survivor. So, I guess maybe someone might target you because of that. But why me? I mean… I don’t mean for that to sound—“

“It’s okay. I get what you mean,” I cut her off. “That, I think, goes back to how that op ended.”

“With everyone dying,” Bonnie said.

“Yeah. But…” I sighed, not liking this part. Even if she wasn’t close with him, it was still her brother. I didn’t want to ruin whatever memories she did have of him.

“I’m not that fragile,” Bonnie reminded me. “I can take the truth.”

And, even when it sucked, I had to always give her that.

“David is the reason everyone is dead,” I told her.

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “How?”

“We were in this abandoned town, looking for this group of terrorists that our intel said was hiding out there.”

Suddenly, I was back there.

The sweat soaking through the bandana I had on under my helmet, dripping down into my eyes, feeling disoriented by theharsh, sunbaked terrain that went on endlessly, so thirsty that my tongue felt like sandpaper.

All I could think about was getting back to the patrol base, getting a halfway decent meal, and washing the sandy soil that seemed to stick to every inch of skin, even under my clothing.

We just had one more building to check out.

Then it would be over.

“Hold up,” I’d called to everyone, all of them looking just as fed up as I felt.

Something just felt… off.

If someone asked, I wouldn’t be able to explain it. It was just a gut instinct you got from being in risky-ass situations for years, from always knowing your life was one bad move away from being over.

I moved away from the wall of the building, standing in the middle of the empty street.

I just needed a minute to figure out what the feeling was, decide if there was any merit to it, then make a decision.

But then I heard David call out, voice high and a mix of fearful and excited.

“I just saw someone. We gotta go in!”

“Wait!” I called, but it was too late. He was too young, too bull-headed, too eager.

He ran forward, heading into the building.

The other guys, this group of men who’d been strangers to me once but had become good friends, had no choice but to follow.

“Goddamnit, Clewski,” I’d grumbled, hand going to my gun as I started to run toward the building.

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