Page 3 of Home Coming

How many confirmed kills do you have? What’s your longest shot? Is being a SEAL really like on television? Are you on SEAL Team Six?

As if Team Seven wasn’t good enough?

He hated all that shit. The dread he felt just thinking about it had him reaching for the bottle of Rolaids on the nightstand, which he realized he’d better shove into his duffel for the transport.

But what he really hated—what was likely the underlying reason for his needing to stock up on antacids—was the battle that continuously raged within him just below the surface. A war between what he owed his family versus the responsibilities of his military career.

Somewhere lost in the middle was what he owed to himself. Some semblance of a personal life. Friends who weren’t part of his team. Maybe a wife and kids of his own.

He’d get around to all that…one day.

That day was not today.

CHAPTERTWO

“Come with me as I get ready for my big date…” Bailey Knowles smiled at the camera.

Her cell phone was currently attached to the clip on the ring light, angled so it would show her move to the teeny tiny closet in her bedroom. Given city apartments, she was happy to have any closet at all.

She flipped quickly through about a dozen hangers, each filled with designer clothing, all of which she’d been given for free as part of her endorsement deals.

She wasn’t really looking to choose an outfit. She knew exactly what she had to wear. It was the dress that the national retail chain had shipped to her. The one she’d contractually agreed to wear in exchange for the ten-thousand dollars they’d deposited into her account.

Pulling the November-appropriate wool dress out, she spun to face the camera, held it up against herself and said, “Perfect.”

A click of the tiny remote control hidden in her hand and she ended the recording.

Dropping the fake smile, she tossed the outfit onto a nearby chair to be donned later and popped her cell out of its holder.

She typed out the appropriate hashtags, added a catchy caption and then tapped the screen to post the short video to her account.

That done she moved back to the ring light. A few quick adjustments and she had the light and the cell phone set up to capture her, close-up, at her dressing table.

With the clothing endorsement complete she could move on to pimping the makeup line for which she was a brand ambassador.

The job of an influencer was never done…

She hit the button to go live on her TikTok account.

“I’m Bailey Knowles and it’s time for Makeup with Bailey!” she said with exuberance. “Today, I’m going to show you how I take my natural daytime look and kick it up a notch for a night out on the town with my man. I’m going to do that by playing up my eyes and lips. And I can’t wait to show you the new lipstick I discovered…”

The lipstick she’d been well-paid to apply and mention during her next five make-up focused live broadcasts.

She stared into the mirror, but because of how she positioned the cell phone, it appeared to her viewers as if she looked at them as she talked directly to them like a friend. “What I like about this lipstick, besides the fact it’s organic and made by a small woman-owned BIPOC company, is the color selection they offer—”

Motion caught her attention, momentarily drawing her focus away from the two hundred viewers—and growing—who’d already joined the live broadcast in the past minute.

“Um, the selection of colors ranges from light to dark and all the shades in between. I chose for tonight a—”

This time what she saw in the mirror wasn’t just a flash of motion she could write off to her imagination. It was definitely a person.

A scream tore from her throat as she spun to face the black clad, masked intruder.

Man. Woman. She couldn’t tell and it didn’t matter. Someone was in her apartment. With her. While she was alone and defenseless.

Flight versus fight wasn’t even a choice. She had nothing with which to defend herself unless she wanted to pelt the intruder with tubes of lipstick.

Still screaming, she grabbed her cell phone from where it leaned against her mirror and ran.

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