My eyes burned so damn bad. I’d been staring at a screen and not getting any fucking sleep for the last hundred or so hours, which was a great fucking cover story. But I couldn’t deny that some of the bleary vision, gritty feeling, and redness were due to my emotions getting the better of me. Tears had plagued me off and on over the last week, especially when I’d been idle. That was why I was here. When I was front-sight focused, I could keep shit at bay for the most part.
I zeroed in, laser-focused on finding Adam. I scoured every second of the footage, going over some bits and pieces ten or more times.
The lack of progress was killing me. I needed a target to hit. Since my fuse was short enough as it was, the longer this dragged out, the more my mood deteriorated and the shorter my fuse got. I glanced at the BS going on over at the coffee pot and reached for my headphones to drown out the chatter going on around me.
Maree had suggested I’d put on my headphones yesterday when I’d almost taken the head off an Ensign for cracking a joke.
Don’t these assholes realize Adam is on borrowed fucking time?
I glared at the two Chatty Cathys and turned up the volume on my headset. The playlist that blared in my ears was the one I used to zone out. I was a diehard grunge fan. I’d even partially converted Adam from his beloved country to the edgier, grungier side of music.
As the song flipped to something raw, the bass line fucking filthy just the way I liked it, I caught sight of something we’d all been searching for for days.
I clicked some buttons, and there on the screen, big as the hole in my fucking heart, was a sign. Adam’s call sign patch was in the back glass of the SUV I’d just come across. I sank into my chair. It would’ve been so easy to miss.
“I FOUND HIM!” I yelled, jumping up from my chair as I yanked my headphones from my head.
Daniel and Maree came running. When they stopped behind my chair, I pointed out the patch. Maree shoved me aside, did some of her voodoo magic computer shit, and hugged me.
“That’s him. You did it, you big-ass lummox! We might make you something other than a knuckle-dragging door kicker yet.” Her voice rose at least an octave as excitement and relief took over.
I dropped back into the chair I’d spent most of the last week in. My head fell into my hands as I tried to curb the emotions slowly bubbling up inside me. It wasn’t much. I knew that. I also knew we were still days behind, but at least we now knew the direction Adam had been transported.
“Okay. You need to shower, grab some grub, and rack out for a bit,” Maree said softly.
I looked at her and noticed everyone else had shuffled off to their respective stations. I opened my mouth, and she steeled her spine and gaze, the officer showing up instead of my friend.
Maree crossed her arms, arched her brow, and said, “Do not argue with me, Brock. When we find a target, you need to be ready, because we will send everything we’ve got after Adam.”
I nodded. She was right. I couldn’t risk being seen as undeployable when the time came, and if I continued down this path, I would be. Commander Mercer and Foster Holt would not hesitate to order me to sit my ass at home if either of them thought I wasn’t ready to spin up when the call came.
Standing from the chair, I straightened to my full height. Maree wasn’t a tiny woman, but I towered nearly a foot taller than her.
She was around five and a half feet tall but built like a straight boy’s wet dream. Her arms were cut, and I knew for a fact she was hiding a six-pack underneath that uniform shirt. She liked to run with the team, and she did so in a pair of leggings and a sports bra, even though we ragged her for it since we ran in full gear. She would laugh and say she didn’t have to do asinine shit like that unless she wanted to, and she wasn’t that stupid.
“Aye, aye, Lieutenant,” I smarted off, giving her a two-finger salute as I strode out of the command center.
I strode down the hall to the showers and cages. I stripped down and slipped under the scalding hot water. I still couldn’tbelieve how long it’d been since I’d last seen Adam’s gorgeous face. I could remember the first time I admitted I was attracted to him.
SPRING 2004
Fucking sand every-damn-where. I mean, yeah, we were in the fucking desert. I expected it to be everywhere when you were outside, but motherfucker, it was inside, outside, floating in the air, in the sheets on your bed. Just everywhere. And to make it even worse, I fucking swore I ate more sand than I did chow.
One of the new guys on the team that had rotated home when we had rotated in told me it was fucking awful, but Jesus Christ. It was overwhelming how you couldn’t get away from the sand. Not even a shower worked. As soon as you washed it off, the second you stepped out of the shower, you were covered in the fucking irritating shit immediately.
If we were doing something other than settling in and getting our shit sorted, maybe that would have helped take my mind off shit, but we’d only been here two days.
After two fucking years of training and a two-year deployment rotation in Coronado, Adam and I were finally headed to Vah Beach. We were fucking Navy SEALs, and we were only a step away from getting our shot.
Adam and I both had one more goal we wanted to achieve, but we were trained and deployed with our team. Only onemore deployment after this, and we would get recommended to Green Team, the training team for DevGru. At least, that was the hope.
They were the tip of the spear. The elite of the elite. They were our ultimate goal.
We’d settled into Adam’s apartment when we’d gotten to Vah Beach from Coronado. We’d found a couple of units in the same building. Adam’s unit had been ready when we’d arrived, but mine would be a few weeks. The sailor who lived there was still deployed because the ship’s orders had changed.
We hadn’t been so lucky when we’d gotten assigned our SEAL Team because the team was up for almost immediate deployment when we got to Vah Beach. With deployment looming over our heads, we’d decided to share the unit until we got back from where-the-fuck-ever.
With all the upheaval, I knew Adam was stressed. It was his default setting when unknown shit popped up. He could handle anything thrown at him, but he liked having a plan in place.
