Page 65 of True Valor
“Okay.”Still he didn’t look at her.Hemerely pushed back from the table and stood.“The Jeep’s outfront.”
Nic drove to his favorite spot in Yosemite, aplace Joey used to swear had more brookies, or whatever the hellthey were, than any place on Earth.A place where you could turnnearly three hundred sixty degrees and never lose sight of toweringpeaks.
The last time he was here they were theamigos, three of them, out killing a perfectly good day doingabsolutely nothing.Together, with a twelve pack of beer.
Joey drowned worms.Hollywood lay out in thesun, perfecting his tan, and Nic leafed through a stack of tacticalgear catalogs.
And right here, right now, Nic could almosthear Joey laugh.“Fine,” he’d say, “you guys waste time doingnothing.I’ll catch us some supper.”
Nic’s throat jerked shut on the thought.Thepast weeks shoved against his chest.Hunched over, he swiped a rockfrom near his feet and, straightening, hurled it into thedistance.
Hell had opened up and swallowed him—the verymoment Yoda and Mac had pulled him aside to tell him Amonte wasdead.Brimstone had licked at him all through the trip to Germanyto pick up the flag-draped casket.But he’d been too numb to feelit.
In Boston, he’d been strong for everyone.Joey’s folks had spoken of true valor.The words echoed withhollowness.Joey’s loss was a waste.Nothing more, nothing less.What the hell good did it do to give your life for your country?The whole point was to make the other poor bastard give his lifefor his country.And PJs?They were supposed to rescue people, notdie in some stupid training accident.
And finally, after what seemed months inBoston, Nic had been free.Time to move on, to forget.Visions ofskiing all day and partying all night had taken him to Tahoe.Buthell had followed him.
And then he’d seen her.An angel sent to pullhimfrom the fire.And she’d done just that.Helping her hadhealed him.Hadn’t it?Yet here he stood, staring at El Cap, thepain so overwhelming he couldn’t breathe.And it all crashed in onhim, sucker punching him in the gut, doubling him over.
The flight may have been about the samelength of time as the last one, but it took an eternity.Cruz saidlittle.
Who could blame him?There was no questionwhere his loyalty lay.Nor should there be.He and Nic werefriends, teammates, closer than family.Betraying Nic was betrayingthem all.
Before leaving her at the airport inSusanville, though, he took her hand and closed it around two crisphundred-dollar bills and a business card.Was it strange that PJshad business cards?It had the unit insignia embossed in silver andcontained the office number as well as Eric’s cell phone and pagernumbers.
“Call if you need help.”
Cash in hand, Julie hailed a cab to herfolks’ house.How she’d have gotten there without Cruz’s donationto the cause, she didn’t know.And she said she’d pay him when theygot there.Who was she kidding?
As the taxi lurched away from the curb, Juliehad an insane desire to jump from the moving vehicle and run to theclosest friend she had, provided his plane hadn’t left already.Butthat would have only delayed the inevitable.Besides, there waswork to be done.
A plan began forming in her brain even as thetaxi hummed down the road.Once she had access to her savingsaccount, she’d find her folks’ car and get it home.Then, therewere funeral arrangements to be made.She’d also have to findsomeone to come in and clean the bedrooms.Thatshedefinitely wasn’t up to.Through it all, no doubt, she’d be underthe watchful eyes of the man who would sooner kill her than look ather.The only thing to do about that was to face it head on.
Actually, facing a murderer held less fearthan facing Nic had.And she’d gotten through that somehow.Havingher thoughts take that direction so suddenly brought tears thatblurred her vision.When they pulled up in front of her folks’house, she could barely see to get out of the cab.
With sheer force of will, she took hold ofher plastic bags, walked up to the front door, found the spare keyshe’d only remembered while in jail, and opened the door.
Once inside, she closed the door behind herand locked it.Then, after cleaning up her mom’s broken vase, sheproceeded to come undone.
With snowflakes falling faster by the minute,Nic needed to either move or freeze to death.Crappy options.But,with a gut deep sigh, he got to his feet.
His truck nearly drove itself to the Section.It was late afternoon when he wandered into the office.He followedthe sound of voices to the day room, where the majority of BravoSquad lounged in front of the TV watching volleyball on ESPN.
Gabe and Will stretched out in the tworecliners.Will was asleep.DQ sprawled on the couch with his legspropped on the coffee table.Beside him was a kid Nic hadn’t met.Right now he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
Gabe looked over when Nic walked into theroom.“What’s up, D?”
“Nothin’.”
Quillen pushed off the couch.“Nic.How’s itgoing?”
“Fine, LT.”
“Feeling particularly chatty, I see.”Gabelaughed.
DQ pointed to the kid.“Nic D’Onofrio.MattWiley.”
The kid stood and reached to shake Nic’shand.“Nice to meet you, Nic.”
