Page 11 of Sequoia Flames
A slow smile creeps over his taut face. “They were having so much fun. Kicking a ball around and laughing…” He gulps a swallow and closes his eyes.
“It was so weird. I didn’t hear a damn thing. All of a sudden one of the kids screams and hits the dirt and then I see puffs around them.”
My eyes widen. “What was it?”
His eyes slew to me and they’re full of so much pain that it hurts to look at him. “He was shot. He was only… I don’t know maybe eight or so. I froze. All I could see was the blank stare in his eyes and the surprise.” He closes his eyes again and tears blur my eyes, burning so much that I close them. Opening them when his hoarse voice starts talking again.
“By the time I stopped staring like an idiot the whole town was overrun with soldiers and they were shooting everyone they found. Kids were running and screaming. There was so much blood.”
“I ducked behind a vehicle and grabbed my gun and started shooting back. I got a few of them and then got our Humvee going, taking off to find my men.”
His hands clench on his thighs and I fight to keep from wiping the tears off my cheeks. I don’t want to interrupt him. I think he needs to talk.
“I got to where the guys were working on the other vehicle and…” He drags in a deep breath. “They were already dead. They… oh God, what they did to them. I took off and made it back to base. Had to get help to bring them home. Had to see if we could help any of them.”
“Did anybody make it?”
He shakes his head. “I went back with them. I wanted to make sure. Needed to make sure that they came home.” He stands up and paces back and forth, his movements stiff and disjointed. “They burned them. Burned the whole damn place except for some of the women. What happened to them was… well, it was the most sadistic thing I ever saw.”
I hold up my hand when he opens his mouth again. “You don’t need to tell me more than that.”
“I helped carry out our people and I helped bury all the villagers. They killed them all. Even the kids. It was our fault.”
Shaking my head, I stand up, my legs barely holding me. I step to him and touch his arm gently, staring up into his dark features. “That was absolutely not your fault.”
“It was.” His blank eyes stare down at my hand holding his arm gently. “They destroyed that village because we stopped there. They assumed that they were working with the Americans so they killed all of them.”
Stomach sinking, I fight the nausea crawling up my throat. I clear it, groaning softly. “You can’t take responsibility for what some crazy people did in the name of their country. That’s their truth. That’s on them. Not you.”
He just sighs and his fingers come up to play with my fingers absently. “I wish that was true. But I came home and I had PTSD. My fiancé got sick of listening to me scream when I was asleep and she walked out. Said she couldn’t take the stress of living with a guy who was so messed up that he acted like a girl having a nightmare”
Fury rips through me. “What a cu?—… ”
“I’d like to say she wasn’t but yeah, she was.” He chuckles softly.
“I think we should get both of them up here and toss them off a lost cliff where nobody else can find them.”
He grins and shoots me a look that makes my belly clench. “You’re something else, Firefly. Thanks for listening to me.”
“You don’t need to thank me for being human, Lassiter.”
His pale blue eyes stare at my face and I back away, clearing my throat. “We should try and get some sleep. It’s gonna be an early morning.”
“I need to keep watch. You go ahead and go to bed.”
“You need sleep too,” I argue.
“I’ll come in in a little bit. But I just need a minute or two.” He nods his dark head to the tent. “Go to bed, Verity. Get some sleep.”
“Alright. Goodnight, Lassiter.”
“Goodnight, Verity.”
EIGHT
LASSITER
I can’t stop lookingat the tent and wondering what she looks like when she’s asleep. Her blonde curls spread out on the sleeping bag and her soft curves barely covered by the blanket.
