Page 66 of Stone

I took a swig of beer, eyes glued to my wife. “Nothin’ to forgive, darlin’. What happened wasn’t personal. You know as well as the next man that I can’t have anyone come in here and throw a shit fit. Disrespect isn’t tolerated, or we’ll have anarchy on our hands. These men are seasoned vets. They fought in wars and killed men with their bare hands. If anybody, includin’ ol’ ladies, swan in here, mouthin’ off, I need to deal, or else I’ll lose face. You know that.”

“You should’ve stopped Seth,” she argued.

“He wouldn’t have shot her. The asshole had his safety on the whole time. You know we have each other’s backs here. No loyalty, no club. It is what it is.” I reached forward and took mywife’s hand in mine. “If it’s any consolation, I just gave Seth a few home truths. He’s currently fillin’ the back end of his drawers at the prospect of John comin’ home and beatin’ his ass.”

Connie’s lips twitched. “Good.”

“It’s probably better for Elise to stay away for now, though,” I stated. “I can’t trust the brothers to have her back after today. She’s John’s ol’ lady. When he comes home on leave, he can bring her back around again and make a stand. They’ll all settle down when they see she’s got his protection.”

Connie closed her eyes with a soft sigh. “You’re probably right. I’ll take her to that new fan-dangled coffee shop place after Sunday Service this week.” She went to open her mouth to say something else but stopped herself.

I cocked my head curiously. “Spit it out, Connie.”

Her eyes lowered, seemingly deep in thought. “You told me what happened. When I asked, you told me you’d laid everything out for John, good and bad. Except he blamed you in his letter. Not exactly, but he did imply you’d influenced his decision.”

“Gathered that, Queenie. The girl said as much.” I put my beer bottle to my mouth and tipped it up.

“She’s angry at you, though,” she insisted. “When really, it’s all on John. I’m disappointed in him. If he’s man enough to make the decision, he should be man enough to deal with the fallout.”

“I’ll talk to him when he gets back,” I assured her.

“He hasn’t told her about his role, either, Donny,” my Queenie whispered. “He just said ‘Rifleman’ like it explains everything. He’ll start off that way, but we both know what the Military’s got planned for him.”

My chest squeezed tight as I studied her forlorn expression. “You know the boy’s had orders to keep it on the down low, darlin’. And he probably doesn’t want her any more worried than she needs to be. He’s got a long way to go yet. He has a lot oftests to pass and promotions to get before they give him a long-range scope.”

A shadow moved behind her eyes. “They’re going to train our son to be a sniper. If they invest time and resources in John, they’ll want a bigger commitment from him. There’s no way he’ll be home in three years. Elise needs to know the truth. You know as well as I do that the minute he starts keeping secrets from her, he’ll screw everything up.”

“It’s his lesson to learn, darlin’,” I said huskily. “We can’t interfere.”

“He’ll lose her,” Connie insisted. “And when he does, he’ll lose himself. We’re both aware of how hard Stone men love their women. You’ve been proving it to me every day for the last thirty years.”

Mentally, I cursed my boy for his shitty decision-making. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him when he’s next home on leave and tell him to come clean to Elise. He’ll listen to me.”

“But in the meantime, she’ll blame you for everything,” Connie protested. “You’ll be the bad guy in all this. It’s not fair.”

A slow grin stole across my face, and I sat back languidly. “Don’t fret, Queenie. I’m Bandit Stone. You know I was born to be the bad guy. It’s what I do best.”

Chapter Seventeen

Stone

My time at the School of Infantry finally came to an end, and I became a fully-fledged Marine. I was now part of the 3rd Battalion, 1stMarines, based at Camp Pendleton in Cali.

Sniper School was on the horizon, but first, I had to gain two promotions and learn about comms. Because of my talent on the Range, I was getting fast-tracked, so a lot of my spare time was spent studying for tests.

My everyday duties included practicing maneuvers, PT, spending time in the classroom, and shooting at the Range. We also did mundane shit like guard duty and cleaning our already clean rooms and our already clean weapons.

Needless to say, spending hours of my day falling half-asleep from boredom wasn’t what I expected from the U.S. Marine Corps.

I’d been assigned a four-man room, which to anybody else would seem dire. Still, after sharing a dorm with eighty other recruits in boot camp and twenty in the SOI, it was akin to living in luxury.

My roommates were cool. Two of the guys, Gordy and Denton, had been part of the unit since they graduated boot camp the year before. The other guy, Spence, moved in at the same time as me.

I’d seen Spence at the Range before; he practiced a lot. We’d spoken in passing, but we seemed to gravitate toward each other more now because we joined the Unit at the same time.

Spence was a good guy, quiet but easy-going. He had a real dark—and when I say dark, I mean pitch-black—sense of humor, which I appreciated, seeing as I was the same way. It was the norm when you grew up around a whole lot of ex-military bikers. Spence was also a hotshot on the Range, not as good as me, but close.

Military life became a lot more relaxed overnight. We were permitted to leave the base, and suddenly, the world opened for me after the last months had been so insular. The problem was that I usually had to study, so I seldom got to go out.

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