Page 42 of Finally Mine
“If you die on me, buddy, I will never fucking forgive your ass!” Luke’s face wavered in front of him. His jaw was tight, and there was blood on his face.
“You hit?” Aldo rasped, the words ripping his throat open.
“No, you stupid son of a bitch, and don’t even think about dying.”
“Oluo?”
“I don’t know, man.”
“Gloria.”
Someone moved his hand over his chest pocket where he kept the picture of the woman he was pretty sure he loved.
If it was too late, he was pissed enough that he was coming back to haunt someone.
There were more hands moving over his body, more commands.
Stay down.
Hurry up.
It’s bad.
IED.
His leg. Jesus, his leg.
Don’t you fucking let him die.
Return fire.
I love you, man. You’re my best friend…
But Aldo was separate from it all, drifting away in the dust that would never settle. It didn’t hurt anymore.
22
“Look who’s awake,” croaked a voice that sounded vaguely familiar in a world of strange. It was coming from far away and Aldo realized he was wearing a headset.
“Oluo?” It felt like razor blades slicing open his throat. Everything was too bright here as if they were on the surface of the sun.
“Yeah, man.”
“Everyone else okay?” he rasped.
“Dunno,” Oluo responded. She sounded weak.
With heroic effort, Aldo managed to open one eye. A chopper. They were in the air.
“Don’t move, Lieutenant.” A different voice. This one attached to a grim-looking woman in blood-stained camo scrubs and blue surgical gloves.
“FST?” he read on her uniform.
“Forward surgical team,” she said briskly in his ears as she sank a needle the size of a canoe oar into his arm. “You and the second lieutenant are being airlifted to a combat support hospital.”
“Bagram?” he coughed. Goddammit. He needed to stop talking. Every word was slicing his dust-packed throat to ribbons.
“You’re saving me the trouble of asking you what day of the week it is,” she said calmly. Everything about her was all business. The sleek bun, the set of her jaw, the line carved between her eyebrows. The woman was a professional. A stunningly beautiful one. “I can’t give you any water because, as soon as we land, you’re going straight into surgery.”
