Page 73 of Crashing Waves

He never took his eyes from his binoculars. “Whatever you say, Sergeant.”

I forced the thought of my second best friend in life dating my other sister out of my head—God, what the hell were the chances?

I eyed the neighboring rooftops and saw nothing. There was nobody around. My jaw shifted from side to side, and I itched to swing my gaze downward to the troops on the ground, my intuition nagging relentlessly. I was wasting my time up here. Something was going to happen—I couldfeelit—and I—

“Tailor, look. The woman with the baby.”

“Where?”

“Heading south down the road.”

Disobeying the orders given by my supervising officer, I swung my attention downward, following Sid’s line of sight, and saw her immediately. A beautiful young woman—veryyoung—dressed in long, flowing clothes. A bundle of cloth was in her arms, a swaddled baby perhaps. But something was off about the way she carried it. Sloppy. Haphazard.

Sid was already following my train of thought as he spoke into the walkie. “Lieutenant, eyes on the woman heading south. Coming straight toward you.”

The speaker crackled, and the lieutenant spoke. “What did I say about keeping eyes off the ground? Sergeant, you let us worry about what’s happening down here. Do you hear me? Don’t forget your place.”

I ignored his warning and watched as the woman walked, quickening her pace as she approached. “Sir, I mean this with the utmost respect—"

“Sergeant!”

Sid stiffened at my side. “Max,” he said with warning.

The woman dropped the bundle from her arms. She uncovered the assault rifle she had concealed beneath the blanket and aimed the gun at Lizzie.

“Max, are you seeing this?Max.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I swung my rifle toward the woman and readied my finger on the trigger, but I was too slow. I was the fastest shot in our base, and I wastoo fucking slow.

In the blink of an eye, before anyone on the ground could react, my friend was pumped full of bullets, and one second later, I fired a single round directly between the woman’s eyes.

My heart pounded in my eardrums as I ripped my sunglasses off and threw them on the roof, covering my eyes with the gloved palm of my hand.

No, no, no. Grief flooded my heart.God,Lizzie…her husband, her kids…

There wasn’t more time.

“Fucking hell,” Sid groaned, his voice tight with emotion. “God, Lizzie. Fuck.”

“Yeah,” I croaked, dropping my hand to squint toward her lifeless body on the ground, beside the crumpled body of her killer.

How quickly it could all change in just the faintest sliver of time. Two lives, snuffed out, just like that.

I thought about Dumass and his widow. Their daughters. How were they now? Who would tell Lizzie’s husband? Would anyone personally deliver her tags to him?

I heard someone say through the walkie, “All clear.”

An unsettling churned in my gut. Again, intuition raised the hair on the back of my neck. Something wasn’t right. That couldn’t be it.

I looked at Sid, who was already packing his ruck. He glanced at me, noticed I hadn’t started breaking down my gear.

“What?” he asked, his voice holding an edge that only came from losing one of our own.

I poked my tongue at the inside of my cheek and shook my head. “I dunno. I have a bad feeling.”

“Yeah, well, Lizzie’s fucking dead.”

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