All I want to do is be home, away from all this darkness. Open a bottle of Tito’s vodka and go to sleep. Maybe I should hit up Meredith again when the mission is over. I need to run away from how I crave Ari all the time. Ever since she was attacked, this protective need has only worsened, and I don’t know what to do with it but be there…as a friend.
“Get some sleep. You only have twenty-four hours. Cobra and I are staying on base to return all the children safely to their families. Tex, Bane, and Creature. Please go home. I expect you all back here after you get your beauty sleep,” Grim orders us.
We’re in a conference room for our last brief of the night. The mission was successfully carried out and there’s another one that follows. Although we still don’t know where they’re getting their information from and that’s bugging us all out.
I shrug, sighing. I take off my mask and throw it into my rucksack.
“I don’t sleep. I’m already beautiful, can’t you tell?” Creature’s wicked voice says. His bright gray eyes burn holes into Grim sarcastically.
He never takes off his black mask. We all wear the same one, but he doesn’t take his off. Not since he was a prisoner of war. No one knows what happened to his face except the doctors who worked on him.
Grim scoffs out a chuckle.
“Look, man, go home. I’ll call you if I need you guys back here early.” He rubs his beard, taking out his phone.
“Are you sure? You know I’ll stay, I don’t mind,” I ask one last time through tired eyes. It’s been almost two days without sleep and my body feels like it’s not my own anymore.
I sneak a peek across the table from where I’m standing in front of him.
That’s when I see Angel as the contact name.
I know that’s what he calls her. He’s texting Ari.
I have to take a deep breath to relax the tension, hoping it’ll erase my sullen frown.
Fire burns through me, and I have to clear my throat from the jealousy. A sting pops through my jaw when I realize I’m locking it too hard. She’s not mine. She’s my friend…a friend that I’m hopelessly in love with.
Fuck, this sucks.
“Buenas noches, ladies. You ain’t gotta tell me twice,” Texas says through a smirk while he takes off his mask. His black wavy hair is ruffled up, playing with a toothpick in his teeth. He grabs his camouflage ball cap, with the Texas flag displayed in the center of it, from his bag, placing it on his head before walking out.
“All right, Grim, just let me know if I have to come back.” I yawn, straightening my back before swinging my rucksack over my shoulders as I exit the conference room.
Then Creature follows behind, and Rooker and Grim are left alone. As soon as we leave, the Admiral walks into the building. He’s dressed casually in sweatpants and a dark navy-blue shirt.
He tilts his head, acknowledging us, as he swings the entrance door to the building open.
“Good job tonight, boys. Get some rest.”
Creature and I nod in his direction. He makes his way into the conference room with Grim and Cobra without another word. In some ways, the admiral is just like Danny, always serious and never knows when to stop working.
The December air is cold and fresh. The temperature is still manageable. My combat boots thud over frozen grass, the moon lighting up my all-black bike.
I throw on my bike helmet and start it. The engine rumbles and I race out of the parking lot.
The wind hits me like waves as I drive. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers play through the system as I speed my way home.
It’s around three in the morning and there’s hardly any traffic. I exit base, passing by the gate guards, going down the empty highway.
When I get off the highway, I stop at a red light and plant my feet back on the ground, waiting for it to turn green. I stare at the lights and feel my eyes growing heavier.
I’m so fucking tired…I hadn’t realized it when I was at work, but now it’s taking over me like a drug. I shake my head to wake myself up.
Finally, it turns green, and I shake my body as a cold shiver runs down my back.
I need to get home and rack out; my date with vodka would have to be postponed.
As soon as I accelerate, I don’t even pass the other side of the intersection.
Before I realize what’s happening, my world spins like a carnival ride at the local fair. I feel a harsh impact, and I’m off my bike, my body and bike floored, scraping and skidding on the road.
I roar in agony as I feel a burning sensation through my body, over my clothes.
Sharp pain shoots through my nerves, and I feel like I was just hit by a car. It felt like I was gutted in the stomach, making it hard to breathe, and the last thing I heard before the devastating impact was tires screeching.
There’s broken glass everywhere and my bike sits next to me.
As the adrenaline courses through my veins, I’m scared to move. I just got hit by a car and I don’t know the extent of my injuries.
I keep reminding myself to stay calm as I take off my broken helmet with trembling hands. The glass in it has shattered and I can feel one of my eyes swelling already, as if I’m about to have a black eye.
I blink three times, hoping it’ll make everything stop spinning. My vision is solid, and I’m good to fucking go.
“Holy shit,” I groan.
I’m alive…
I’m still alive.
I don’t know how, but I’m thanking God for that, but my solace is short-lived.
I throw my helmet to the side as I lie on my back, trying to catch my breath. I can hear someone walking toward me, but why aren’t they apologizing? Why aren’t they freaking out like any other average person who hits someone in an accident?
They hike over the glass and broken motorcycle parts, and I try to sit up to greet the person who just hit me with their car.
I’m halfway up before a heavy boot is pressed on my chest and I’m pinned to the ground.
“What the fuck!” I growl and grab onto their feet, ready to twist it off me.
The man’s face is covered in a white mask, and he’s tall. He looks like someone who just robbed a bank and used a beanie as a disguise. With holes cut into his eyes and nose. He wears all black and there’s something behind those troubled, dark eyes.
This was done on purpose. Another one of the terrorists hit men standing before me.
I’m fucked.
My training kicks in and I’m about to throw him to the ground, when he pulls out a gun, aiming straight at my face.
“We’re going to send your good friend, Death, a message.” His finger touches the trigger and my heart pounds. I can hear it through the ringing in my ears. He’s going to kill me.
“Fuck you,” I spit.
The man tilts his head to the side mockingly. He pushes the barrel between my brows, and I can feel the cold gun metal touch my skin.
This is the end.
“Revenge is the sweetest form of war, Bane,” he hisses. He knows my operator name. “All the executioners will pa—”
He doesn’t finish. A suppressed gunshot tweaks into my ears and I flinch, shutting my eyes tight as blood splatters all over me, sending the hitman lifeless. I watch him flop to the ground, on top of the broken glass, and I rub the blood off my eyes.
That was a close call.
The gun in his hands falls to the ground with him and I look around to see who the fuck saved my life.
Who the fuck just splattered his brains all over me?
Creature steps into my view. His gray eyes squint at me with pity and I can tell he holds a bored expression underneath his mask.
“He talked too much.” He shrugs with his pistol, which has a silencer on it. He tucks it back into his belt as we look down at the hitman. “Now the messenger is the message—how poetic.” Creature tells me, followed by a roar of laughter.
I lie on a bed on base after getting checked out by our medic assigned to the team. Creature apparently was watching me. He noticed I was being tailed outside headquarters as we both left. So instead of him going straight home, he followed and let me get hit by the fucking car.
He said it was because he wanted to make sure it was a hitman. And that he thought it was funny to see me get scared.
Asshole.
They refused to take me to the hospital. It would mean absolute chaos for us and the mission would be compromised.
After a long list of checks and tests, I’m cleared, albeit with a black eye and a few cuts on my face.
My body has been bruised good, one eye swollen, but… I’m alive.
“No word of this gets out, Kane. Not one fucking word. We don’t need to alert the public of these criminals. You know the protocol,” Admiral orders me from the door.
“But, Sir, Paul’s sister deserves to know what’s going on.”
“Excuse me?”
“I just think we should start telling our loved ones.”
“Know your fucking place, Slaughter. If we start telling civilians about what’s going on, it’ll be a shit show.”
“So we’re just going to keep fucking pretending that—”
“Do you need to be put on restricted leave, son, behind a desk so you can learn how to shut your fucking mouth when speaking to an officer?” he threatens, his green eyes darkening with condescension.
“No. No, Sir.”
“We have this under control. If we have to bring in Delta, then that’s what we’ll do, but as of right now, I believe this is a war we can win. So…after tonight, it’s back to work. Report to Grim.” Then he slams the door shut, pissed off, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I throw my head back onto the pillow, running my hand through my hair. I squeeze my swollen eyes shut tight when I think about getting a rental until I can get it back from the shop. I’m hoping I don’t have to buy another bike.
Fuck.
It was my favorite motorcycle and now it’s headed to the shop for repairs.
“I can’t wait to get out,” I mumble as the group chat buzzes repeatedly.
Another text chimes in from Meredith.
A small smile spreads across my face, but deep down inside the sick, selfish parts of me, I wish it was my favorite nurse…Ari Alvarez.
I go to her contact name and click on it…tempted.
So fucking tempted to hit the call button, desperate to hear her voice.
I can’t help it. I feel like I’m hitting a new low in my life, searching for the only comfort I fantasize about. Black hair…a girl that loves to play soccer and help heal people, and has the prettiest brown eyes I’ve ever seen. I haven’t been the same since Paul died, the recent deployment from Iraq, and now this?
I just think I need her to be the angel in my life, too.
