Page 74 of Over the Edge

Cal notedthe rest of the Reapers sitting in adjoining departure lounges for two flights, one to New York and one to Philadelphia. Lily and Axe sat separately in the New York lounge, not acknowledging each other’s existence.

Jojo and Leo did the same, but in the Philly lounge. The team wouldn’t assemble until New Delhi, India. They would take different international flights, traveling under fake passports. There would be no trail—the fake personas would evaporate, the passports burned as soon as they hit the ground in India.

He had one last thing to take care of before the Reapers went to ground, and now was as good a time as any. Moving into the lounge, he flopped down beside Leo.

“Hey, Leo.”

“We know each other, now?” Lipinsiki responded under his breath.

“You and I need to talk before we go downrange.”

“About what?”

Yup, there went Leo’s shoulders up around his ears. Dude looked like a damned turtle.

Cal sighed. “You know I don’t like to pry into my guy’s personal lives. But we’re about to go on a hot op and I need to know everyone is operating at peak efficiency.”

“Why wouldn’t I be at peak form?” Leo retorted defensively.

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

Stony silence was all he got back. Fuck. He hated having to rip the scabs off his guys’ wounds.

“C’mon, Leo. Don’t make me do this.”

More silence, accompanied by a cold, closed stare.

Cal continued, “You’ve been off your game ever since you got back from the Swat Valley. Do you need to talk to someone about it?”

“I did talk to someone about it. Mandatory counseling in Germany before I was cleared to return to Coronado.”

“How’d that go?”

“Same old shit.” Leo shifted into a mocking, falsetto voice. “Can we talk about your feelings, Petty Officer Lipinski? How did itfeelto watch your brother die? How did itfeelto leave your brother behind? How did itfeelto watch it all go to shit around you while you were helpless to save your teammates? We can’t release you to your family until we know you’re stable, Petty Officer Lipinski.”

Those counseling sessions were also assessments to make sure guys weren’t suicidal or homicidal before they returned to civilian life. But this conversation was not about explaining that. It was about getting Leo to spill whatever was eating at him.

Cal got that it hadn’t been a picnic for Leo that night, either. He’d been on the hillside when several hundred of Haddad’s fighters emerged from hidey holes and attacked without warning. It had been a hell of a firefight up on the hills where the breaching teams were providing overwatch for the compound below. The way Cal heard it, Leo had run out of ammo twice and had to resort to hand-to-hand combat to rip a weapon from the dead hands of a terrorist to continue shooting.

“How’s Janine?” Cal threw out.

Leo all but came out of his seat, he went so violently tense.

Ahh. This was personal shit.

“Problems on the home front?” he floated mildly. Janine had been none too pleased when Leo deployed only a few weeks after their wedding. She wanted him to quit going downrange and get a job instructing at BUD/S where he could come home for dinner every night and play house with her. Which was to say, she was young and naïve. She had a rude awakening in store being married to a SEAL.

Spin-ups for missions happened without warning, and without any regard to birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or the needs of wives and kids. Just a text or a call on the work phone, and the men were gone with time only for a quick kiss goodbye, maybe never to return.

His own marriage hadn’t survived it. He and Sheila had divorced after his first tour on the teams. Hell, his own daughter barely spoke to him, even now.

Leo leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and burying his head in his hands. He mumbled. “I didn’t tell her about this trip.”

“I should hope not. This is classified to the Moon and back. None of us are leaving North Carolina as far as anyone knows.”

“She said she’d divorce me the next time I deploy.”

“You want to talk about a reassignment when we get back home?”

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