Page 3 of Strangers in Love

Eoin

One of thereasons Leo and I never liked to get drunk when we had only one night off base was because we’d learned quickly that there was nothing worse than having to work while hung over. Some civilian jobs might’ve sucked when a person had been drinking the night before, but being a soldier was a whole other story. No matter what we were doing, no one wanted to do it feeling like shit. Some of those fresh out of boot camp teenagers might pull it off, but Leo and I weren’tthatyoung anymore.

“I think she broke my dick,” Leo shouted over the roar of the Humvee. “Seriously, man. She rode me like I was a fucking bull at a rodeo.”

Bart and Doto were in our vehicle, and they both started laughing at Leo’s complaint. I didn’t know what’d happened between the two of them after Leo and I had left Bart in the mess hall yesterday, but whatever it was, it’d gotten Doto a follower. As long as the kid didn’t start picking up Doto’s bad habits, it was a good thing. Bart was the sort of person who’d need looking out for when he was fifty.

If he lived that long.

Kids like him had no business enlisting. Yeah, Leo and I had signed up right out of high school, but we hadn’t been kids. Not like that fresh-faced farm boy from Nebraska. Most people would think someone raised with the kind of money my family had would’ve been the sheltered one, but not me. My da believed in hard work and consequences. Hell, the last time I’d gotten in trouble, he’d told me that if I didn’t straighten up, he’d cut me off from everything, including the trust I had for college – or for whatever else I wanted once I turned twenty-five – and the shares of the family company.

It wasn’t just that, either. Like Leo, I’d lost my mother young. I didn’t really remember her much, but sometimes, I wondered if that made it worse for me than for my older brothers, who had at least some memories of her. Da talked about her, but it wasn’t the same. Just like my stepmother was a great person, but it wasn’t the same. Someone that important dying when you’re a kid changed the way you saw the world. Took away some of that innocence.

Bart still had that, and if he couldn’t handle losing it, he’d be better off in another job. Maybe I was being too cynical, but that was another thing I’d lost when Ma died. The ability to believe in good.

I shook off all that shit. No point in dwelling on the past. It couldn’t change.

“You’re saying that thick dick you’re always bragging about couldn’t take a little rough riding?” I smirked at Leo. “I did just fine with the one I had.”

“You had the tame one.” Leo shifted and grimaced with the movement. “I got nail marks on my balls.”

That set off another round of laughter, and Leo flipped us all off.

“It couldn’t have been that bad,” Doto said without taking his eyes off the road. “Maybe you’re just not man enough to handle a real woman.”

“I’d like to see what you’d do if a woman kept on you for five minutes after you’d come,” Leo shot back. “And I’m not talking a little rocking back and forth. She was bouncing all over the place.” He shook his head. “Great tits, but I don’t know if they were worth it.”

He joined us when we all started laughing again, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed that hard. My damn face would–

The world exploded.

I blinked and realized I was upside down, my head ringing as I attempted to process what’d just happened. I didn’t know how much time I’d lost, but it didn’t matter. Muffled shouts competed with the sound of gunfire, and I knew we were under attack. I needed to get out of there. For a few awful seconds, I was frozen in place, but then my training kicked in, and I pushed everything back except what I needed to do my job.

I took a quick self-assessment. I was bruised, but nothing felt broken. I could move all my limbs. The explosion had messed with my hearing, but I could hear a little, which made me think my eardrums hadn’t ruptured. The worst seemed to be a sharp, hot pain on the left side of my face. I couldn’t see it, but the blood running over my lips made me think it was cut rather than a burn. Not that it really mattered that much right now. Taking stock of my injuries had taken less than ten seconds, but it’d helped clear my head enough to know what I had to do next. Still, I felt like my brain was working in slow motion.

Once I got myself free and right-side-up, I turned my attention to the others, and all the air went out of me.

Bart was dead. I didn’t need to check his pulse. His neck was twisted at an angle that made me hope that it’d been quick for him. Not that the speed made any difference in the end. He was nineteen, and now, he’d never be any older.

A sound from the driver’s seat pulled my gaze to Doto. I didn’t have to be a medic to know he wouldn’t make it. Something had gone right through him. He was coughing up blood, and even though I couldn’t hear it clearly, I could tell he had that gurgling sound that came when a man choked on his own blood. The guy was an ass, but he didn’t deserve to go out that way.

I couldn’t help him though, and there was one more person I needed to find before deciding what to do.

Leo was half out of the passenger’s side door, like it’d been ripped open in the blast. I couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead from where I was, and I was starting to hear well enough to know that we were still taking fire. Bracing myself as best I could, I kicked at my door until it was open enough for me to crawl through.

I kept low and prayed that’d be enough. I’d been in firefights before, but this was my first major ambush. Using my elbows and knees, I crawled over to Leo. A rush of relief went through me when I saw he was alive. Then I saw his leg and let out a string of curses that would’ve earned me a slap upside the head from Leo’s grandma.

“Guess you’ll need a new partner for next week’s two-on-two.” Leo’s voice was full of pain, but he was joking, which gave me hope that he didn’t have any other injuries.

Not that the multiple pieces of bone sticking out of his leg weren’t bad enough.

“We need to get somewhere safe.” I looked around, wincing as bullets kicked up dust only a couple feet away. The insurgents were getting closer. I peered through the Humvee and tried to ignore Bart’s body. That side wasn’t safe, either.

“The kid?” I said nothing, and that was enough for Leo to understand. He looked away, the muscle popping in his jaw. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

I spotted a chunk of concrete a few yards away. Leo wasn’t getting anywhere by himself, but I could drag him that far. Once he was safe, I’d see what I could do for Doto. I didn’t plan on leaving him or Bart behind, but unless we got a fucking miracle, Doto was going to be in a body bag right next to the kid.

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