Page 13 of Luck Be Mine
It took supreme effort and still he struggled through the speech. He had Cait’s Valentine’s Day present in his truck – an elegant gold chain necklace. He’d noted how she frequently switched her wedding ring from finger to finger when the deadness in her hand became unbearable. He wanted to give her another option. But “here you go honey” with a terrorist chaser wasn’t the way he’d envisioned Valentine’s Day.
He should ask for advice, but he never talked with these guys about women. He’d die for all of them but couldn’t share the thoughts of a man deeply in love with his wife.
He did it again. Slid to Cait. Physical therapy three times a week was kicking her ass. But even with only her sixth appointment, her hip was better. Her shoulder was not. Her hand was not. Keeping her from despair was getting tougher. Plus, it was getting harder and harder to sleep with her and not touch. He snorted to himself.
Doogie shifted and quietly cleared his throat. “Blank stare not helping.”
“Mind wandering,” he muttered.
“Hard not to.” Doogie’s mouth barely moved at the words.
They both quieted. Setting an example sucked. Another twenty minutes passed before the briefing broke. Hunt, Doogie, and Hernandez headed for their workroom.
Doogie peeled off at operations. “I’m going to check the news feeds for anything we need aware of.”
Hernandez stayed in step with him. “New rotation coming up. You ready?”
“Yes.”
“No worries? Rachel can help if need be.” Rachel Hernandez was an old hand at deployments and missions.
Hunt went for honesty. “I’ll tell Cait, and sure I have worries. I’ve never been married before doing this. We’ll figure it out.”
“Not letting some of the talk get to you, are you?”
“What talk?”
Mateo followed him through the door of the workroom. The others were there ahead of them. He stopped in the doorway so the man could finish his information. “Deter, Team 5. All sorts of bullshit about your “shotgun” wedding, our numbers being down.”
Hunt waved it off. “Two months ago, we killed IQS. Did any of these other fuckers find him? No, we did. You all had front row seats to what happened with Cait. Let’s stay tough and quit listening. The best way to fight this is to not fight but keep our conduct top-notch.” Good speech. He should listen.
Mateo scowled. “Agreed. Not because I don’t want to smash the man’s face, but because you’re right. Only reporting what I’m hearing. We can’t get slammed by what we don’t know.”
“True. Thanks, Chief. If we have any problems, I’ll ask.”
“Her injuries have complicated things, LT. Let us help when we can.”
Had he slacked off? Started demanding less of his people? He didn’t believe so, but he had been gone for two months. One thing they’d never done was walk through their IQS mission and see where they could have improved. “Gather gear. We’re going out for some off-book training. Get our focus where it needs to be.”
Carter stopped at the center of the room. “What about bubble quarantine? Are we risking exposure?”
“We’re gonna stay in a bubble. Ours.” Hunt opened his cage with a fierce rattle. “Where we’re going, people won’t be a problem.”
“Works for me.” Carter opened his own space and prepared.
Nobody talked. Nobody grumbled. Everyone was in stir-crazy mode and needed a day out.
Hernandez came to his side. “Training? Where?”
“Let’s run through the IQS mission. Find us a training area.”
“Good plan. Keep us busy.” Hernandez went to leave and met Doogie at the door. Stopping for a quick conference, the two talked quietly.
Fighting hard against losing his cool, Hunt drew a breath, dressed for an operational day outside, and planned his weaponry in his head.
Figured the gossip would come from Deter Kirkus. He’d been in the BUD/S class after Hunt, and the two had served briefly together on Scott’s team. They had significant issues getting along because of differences in everything from planning to execution to plain thinking.
Would he kill to protect the man? Yes.
