Simon leaned close to hear Johnny’s words, the ringing in his own ears making it difficult.
“What’s in your pocket?” Simon asked. “And don’t tell me it’s a banana,” he tried to joke, but the laughter wasn’t in him.
“Ha,” Johnny coughed. “Take it.”
“Take what?”
“Get it,” he said and coughed again.
Simon patted Johnny’s pants pocket on the left and didn’t feel anything. He did the same on the right pocket. Something was in there. Shoving his hand into the pocket, something soft brushed against his fingertip. In that moment, he knew what it was. He closed his hand around it and pulled it free.
The hand Johnny had on his arm slid down to where Simon held Johnny’s lucky rabbit’s foot. The idiot had carried it everywhere since he’d joined the Army.
“Keep it,” Johnny said. “It’s lucky.”
Simon shook his head, glad the darkness kept his friend from seeing the movement. How could his rabbit’s foot be lucky when it had allowed Johnny to be hit? The man was losing blood faster than Simon could staunch the flow.
“Yours now,” Johnny’s voice faded off. He drew in a rattling breath and let it out.
“Johnny, you need to keep it. It’s your lucky charm,” Simon said, pushing air past the knot in his throat.
Johnny’s fingers wrapped around Simon’s and the rabbit’s foot. “You need it...more,” he wheezed in a breath and let it out. “Lucky in battle.” His fingers tightened. “Lucky in...love.”
Though Simon could argue the luck in battle, he couldn’t argue Johnny’s luck in love. The man had found a woman strong enough to handle his many absences whenever he was deployed. A woman who’d stayed loyal and true to their love and union. A woman who’d given him a son, managed their home and worked a fulltime job, never complaining that he wasn’t there every step of the way. She loved him, and he loved her with all his heart.
Johnny’s body tensed, his hand on Simon’s tightening. “Keep it,” he said, his voice barely more than a raspy whisper.
“I’ll give it to Lacy,” Simon offered.
“No.” Johnny’s fingers tightened on Simon’s. “Yours... Keep...”
“Okay,” Simon said. “I’ll keep it.”
“Promise,” Johnny whispered, the sound swirling with the dust still floating in the air.
“I promise.” Simon maintained pressure on the wound with one hand while holding the rabbit’s foot in the other.
Several seconds ticked by. The silence was deafening.
“Johnny?” Simon’s fist curled around the lucky rabbit’s foot, his chest tightening painfully. “Don’t you leave me. You’re my wingman. I need you. Lacy and Tyler need you.”
“Tell Lacy...love her... love Ty...” Johnny’s voice faded with each word. His hand loosened and slipped off Simon’s.
Simon leaned close to his friend. “Johnny, stay with me, buddy.” This couldn’t be happening. They should be on their way back to their pickup point.
Fuck. He was losing his best friend.
Simon shook with the force of his emotions. He shook so violently he thought the explosion might have set off an earthquake.
“Simon?” A voice called to him as if from far away. A hand rested on his shoulder and shook him. “Hey, man, are you okay?”
Simon blinked his eyes open. Bright light surrounded him, not the dark haze of that Syrian night. Instead of being surrounded by rubble and choked by dust, he knelt on clean concrete, with bright sheets of aluminum stacked nearby.
The hand on his shoulder gently shook him again. “Simon, are you with me now?”
He looked into Rafael Romero’s dark brown eyes.
His brows formed a wedge over his nose as his gaze locked with Simon’s. “There you are.” His lips twisted in a wry grimace. “For a moment there, I thought I’d somehow hurt you when I lost my grip on the hull.” His frown eased.
