Page 19 of Walking the Bird

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Eleni watched as her husband shifted into work mode, effectively ending any chance for their much-needed conversation. She’d recently grown to hate Havoc; the foul-mouthed and cocky man Alex became when work was involved. Covertly grabbing her book and towel, she slipped into the quiet of the air-conditioned interior, as she had no interest in whatever the team had found.

Zach kepthis head down as his finger traced the design on the package, the flutter of a memory coming to life.

“Do you remember,” lifting his eyes to Ryan’s. “The piece of shit who had his momma call Chief and bitch about an order he was given?”

Aiden jerked his head in Zach’s direction, the memory of the call slamming into his mind. “Rosalita Maniguez. How could I ever forget such a sweet woman?”

Alex stopped his perusal of the trashed diver’s vest, shaking his head as he recalled how big of a bitch the woman had been. “Her son was no prize either; FNG.”

“A what?” A perplexed Kennedy questioned from his left, the dip in her brows amusing him.

“Fucking new guy,” Harper chimed in from her spot against the rail, her eyes searching the men who stared slack-jawed back at her.

“What?” She demanded, shrugging her left shoulder. “My brother was a SEAL, remember?”

Satisfied, Kennedy turned back to Zach, “You never told me this one.”

Sending Harper a wink, Zach opened his mouth to continue. “So, this guy reports in, all cocky and shit. His gear bag in one hand and his cell phone in the other, snapping selfies like he’s one of the Kardashian’s. I walk over, tell him not so politely to delete the shit on his phone. And this motherfucker—”

“Has the fucking balls to say to LT, ‘What the fuck, Butter Bars. I’m a fucking SEAL, I’ll snap you in fucking half if you don’t get out of my face’.” Ryan interrupted, standing to his full height and wrapping an arm around Zach.

“Chief here,” Ryan waved his arm in Aiden’s direction. “Crossed the room, snatching the phone out of FNG’s hands, sticking his face right up against FNG’s and says, ‘You’re in a room full of SEALs, motherfucker, and you’ve been one since breakfast. Now shut the fuck up and do what LT says’.”

Kennedy’s hand covered her mouth as Harper’s eyes grew wide.

“The next day, Ghost came into my office, slapped down a stack of screenshots, where Maniguez blasted his social media with not only the photos he’d taken the day before, but a video of him coming through a secured gate. I hauled his ass in my office, wrote him up for Walking the Bird.”

“Wait,” Kennedy grabbed Zach’s arm to stop him. “What did you just say?” Chancing a glance over her shoulder to Harper, who shook her head.

“Walking the Bird,” Zach repeated. “It’s when a SEAL posts shit he shouldn’t on social media.”

Kennedy dropped her gaze from Zach’s face, recalling the handful of arguments they’d had when she told him she was joining a family group on social media.

“That’s when I got the call from Momma Maniguez.” Aiden began, shaking his head as the tip of his thumb brushed his lower lips. “She cursed me up one side and down the other, said she was going to take me to a military court and have them lock me away in prison.”

Shoving the diver’s vest to the side, Alex crossed his arms over his chest, joining Matt and Aiden as they leaned against the rail. “What made you think of this douche?”

“Well, if you’ll remember, after he was hauled in for a second time and stood before a review board where they slapped him on the wrist and told him to knock it off, we were called to Columbia for an extraction. After sweating our balls off for more than ten hours on the runway in the middle of the jungle, they called it off, but a storm came in and the pilot was too chicken shit to fly the fucking plane. We spent the night in this ratty-ass hanger and the next day when we arrived back in the states, we were greeted by the commanding officer and a team of DEA agents. Our shit was searched and each of us forced to take a drug test. Maniguez was found with several bricks of cocaine in his gear bag. He was processed for immediate discharge.”

Alex jumped to his feet, snapping his fingers. “Maniguez was the first SEAL to never go on a mission before getting kicked out.”

Zach nodded his head, “Wanted us to call him Maverick, even after we told him it didn’t work that way. After his trial was over, he ripped his trident off his uniform, snapped it in half, and threw it at me.”

Jordan moved from her spot in the sun, her skin hot and the water looking inviting. “So, what happened to him, this Maniguez?”

“You mean before or after he went to prison?” Harper raised an inquisitive brow as she reached inside one of the coolers for a bottle of water.

“He was killed in a car accident,” Aiden snorted. “His mother called me after it happened, accused me of stealing her son's dream of being a hero.”

Silence hung in the air for the briefest of moments before Alex picked up the discarded vest. “Ever know one of these smugglers to deal in a single batch?”

“Fuck no,” Matt laughed as he tossed Alex a mesh bag filled with snorkel gear.

“Hold on,” Rayne tugged at Matt’s bag. “You can’t dive with these things. They aren’t designed for those kinds of depths.”

Alex’s heart clenched at Rayne’s tenderness, causing his eyes to scan the deck for Eleni. He could see her toes on the edge of the window, and assumed she was resting in the air-conditioned interior. He’d join her as soon as he figured this shit out, spending the ride back to shore apologizing any way she’d let him.

“Babe, it’s okay,” Matt assured his wife, motioning for Alex to give him the vest. “You see this vest?” Pointing to the pile of rotting material on the deck. “Diver’s use this as a weight to keep them submerged. Drug runners use it to keep the nets they fill with drugs far enough under the surface of the ocean so as to not be detected by boaters. Most of them use some kind of GPS, set to a customized setting, which they send to the guys whose job it is to pick them up. In this instance, the weight failed and when Kennedy snagged it with her hook, it floated to the surface.”

Alex’s mind flashed to the row boats from last night but chased it away. As impossible as it was for them to go conch fishing, reaching the area they floated in was impossible.

“So, call the cops, let them dive down and get it.” Rayne waved her hand in the direction of the water, as Alex and Matt shared a knowing look.

“Which would make sense if we were in the States, Rayne.” Zach offered as he motioned for Matt to hand him a mesh bag. “Down here, the authorities are on the payroll.”

“So, you’re going to drag every bundle onto this boat and call in one of your SEAL buddies to come handle it?” She tossed, her voice growing angrier by the second.

“Pretty much,” Aiden boasted, pulling out his cell and pressing it to his ear. “Hey, man, you busy?”

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