Page 6 of Luck Be Mine
“How is Doc?”
“Tired. But holding on.”
“Good. I wanted this to wait until you come back to work next month, but I don’t think it should. I don’t want you to hear it anywhere else.”
“Hold, Commander.” He stopped at the bottom of his stairs and nodded at a neighbor entering her apartment. He moved quickly across the freshly paved parking lot to his truck and slid into the seat, closing himself in the quiet, private space. “Neighbors, sir. I’m in my truck.”
“Not staying home?”
“A couple errands to run. Doogie’s staying with Cait. What happened?”
Scott didn’t waste words. “The explosion that killed the service member and injured Doc at the Bagram health center was IQS connected. Not enough left of either suicide bomber, but there’s info tracing to his group. There’s other tendrils intelligence is still tracking.”
IQS. Ibrahim Qurban Sadozai.A terrorist famous for attacks across Asia into the Middle East. The activities had pushed the man to the top of the Department of Defense most wanted. His favorite target – U.S. military.
Hunt’s team had found him. Ordered the drone strike that killed him a few weeks ago. Right before Cait had been injured in a bombing. She’d looked IQS in the face during a medical mission.
Hunt took the punch and ground his teeth against strong emotion. “Do we know who executed it? Have they connected the action to our presence in the mountains? To Cait seeing him?”
“Undetermined. The drone killed many of his upper people. The Afghans are checking their sources, but so far investigators are sticking with the idea it was planned prior to the drone strike.”
Hunt straightened in his seat. His thoughts rolled one over the other. “Results classified?” He went silent for a second, at war with his conscience. “Never mind. I’m not going to tell Cait anyway. It serves no purpose, and she’s got other things to worry about.”
Scott’s tone stayed neutral. “I agree. The results don’t change things.”
Hunt wrestled strong emotions bubbling to the surface. He killed people for a living and lived in gray areas where some died and others would not.
Cait’s injury twisted his gut.
The weeks he’d sat by her bed, willing her to survive, still tore through his fragile emotions.
He wasn’t currently some invincible SEAL.
He was a man trying to be a good husband with no clue how to handle the wreckage.
If he saw the bastard again, he might go at him and ignore the consequences.
But that would get him killed, and Cait would be hurtandalone.
“Thanks for the info, Harrison. I appreciate it.”
“See you at work soon?”
“Yes, I’ll be in within a couple weeks to update paperwork and get oriented. We have a lot to work out.”
“Let me know if I can help. Talk soon.” Scott disconnected.
Hunt needed a minute in the silence of his truck to argue with his need to be an honest partner in his relationship with his wife and his protective reaction that said shield Cait.
She didn’t need this information. It would not help.
She didn’t talk about IQS.
But she dreamed pretty bad stuff. PTSD and TBI headaches leveled her.
Hell, he dreamed fucked up stuff, too.
So far, he’d been there to wake her, talk with her, and hold her. Conversely, her hand on him could spring him from his brand of bad.
