Page 2 of We Thought We Knew It All
I hadn’t been sent on a mission since. Nerve damage.Shit.
The dream replayed in my mind as I tried to shut my eyes. It was my fault Jess was dead. Two years together and I got her killed. I let her come with us. We all did.
“Hell,” I grumbled, sitting up and swinging my legs out of bed.
Passing Manner’s room, I headed out into the common room where I found my platoon leader, Barrette.
His cropped black hair was pushed to the side, and his eyes were glazed. I blamed the bottle of tequila in front of him for that. He turned down the TV and looked at me.
“Couldn’t sleep, Daniels?” he asked.
I sunk into a chair across from him and ran a hand over the top of my head. I’d never told the guys about my dreams. We all had our demons. It came with the territory.
“A lot on my mind.”
“There’s a cure for that.” He gestured to the bottle.
I chuckled with a forced smile. “What the hell? Tomorrow is an off day.”
“Exactly.”
Zane Barrette was hard as nails when it came to training and missions, but he was also a good buddy. Our entire platoon was close, but Zane was the best friend I’d had since… I shook my head. I stopped thinking about that years ago.
Taking the shot Zane was offering me, I threw it back and set the glass down for another. He smiled and poured. We’d spent many nights like this since our Somalia mission. Even though neither of us would admit it, we both blamed ourselves. He thought he should have been there sooner.
“My enlistment is almost up,” I said as if he didn’t know.
“Yeah?” He waited for me, and when I didn’t say anything, he asked, “what are you thinking?”
I raised my arm, flexing my fingers as best I could. “It’s only been six months.”
“But?”
Pain shot through my arm. Asshole knew me too well.
I sighed. “It should be better than it is. Doc doesn’t think it will be. Too much damage.”
“Hmm…” He turned to the TV, his mouth suddenly going slack.
I followed his gaze, my eyes landing on my father’s face for the first time in ten years. Zane turned the volume up.
“Senator Daniels’ service will be held in Washington D.C. for close friends and family before a second service in his home town of Gulf City, Florida,” the reporter said.
“Service,” I croaked. “What the…?”
The broadcaster explained about the car accident that took Senator Daniels’ life the day before.
Barrette held out another shot, and I accepted it with shaking hands. It slid down my throat, the warmth keeping the ice out of my veins.
Feel something, dammit,I told myself.Be a normal human being.But I wasn’t normal. I was one messed up dude with daddy issues the size of Texas.
My father was dead, and I couldn’t seem to care.
* * *
Sergeant Carlson satbehind his desk with a face of stone. His eyes flicked up toward me, then to the empty chair nearby. A command.
I was a different man than I used to be. There weren’t many things that made me nervous. That office, that man, did.
