He waits until I’m done before he starts talking. As he sets the cup back on the table, he takes a deep breath. “The whole fucking job was compromised, from before the SEALs even went in. It’s a fuck-up that goes pretty high, so high that I can’t get straight answers.”
I start to respond, but when I take a breath, my lungs seize up and I start a coughing fit that lasts almost a full minute. Waving my hand at the box of tissues on the table, Luke sets them next to me on the bed, and I spit the shit that looks like soot I’m coughing up out of my lungs into a handful of tissues.
Clearing my throat, I glare at him. “Are you telling me that two teams were sent unknowingly into a goddamn tactical deception? By who?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t know. I was told to stand down when I started asking questions.”
When I try to pull my eyebrows down in anger, it hurts so bad that I have to pause. “That doesn’t make any fucking sense, Luke. No one sends Teams in, especially not two, knowing the whole fucking thing is compromised.”
He nods his head as he looks at me like I just told him the sky is blue. He obviously doesn’t have the answers I want, or hewould have already given me a sitrep, so I turn my eyes toward the damn hooks and pulleys suspending my leg over the bed.
Moving on to the next thing I need to know about, I look back at him. “What about my leg? How bad is it?”
He takes an at-ease position with his fingers tucked under his arms, a smirk on his face. “Your leg was barely hanging on. The doctor wanted to take it off, but you nearly came up off the gurney when you grabbed his neck and told him you would hunt him down and kill him if he took it off.”
I don’t remember that. It doesn’t escape my attention that he avoided part of the question, and I grind my teeth together. “How bad is it, Luke?”
The smirk leaves his face, and his eyes narrow with a grimace. “You’re on limited duty for now. The doctor doesn’t believe you’ll ever return to duty, even after you heal and go through physical therapy, but I convinced them to hold off on discharge for now until we see the extent of your injury.” He takes a deep breath as he cups the back of his neck with his palm. “It’s pretty bad, Tuck. There’s a laundry list of things that could be wrong; we just have to wait.”
Fuck!
As I let that information sink in, my thoughts shift to Mathews. “What about Mathews? When is the funeral?”
He winces. “Mathews was sent home last week, his funeral was yesterday.”
My heart sinks. Mathews was my best friend, and I couldn’t even pay my respects at his funeral. My gaze moves back to the ceiling. “How long have I been in here?”
“It’s been ten days since they brought you in. You’ve already had a couple of surgeries on your leg, there will be more, and they had to put some rods into the bone in your arm under your elbow. At first, they kept you sedated because of the pain in your leg, but you’ve been in and out for a few days.”
He doesn’t have to tell me it’s going to be a long road, I already fucking know that. I’ve seen soldiers discharged from injuries before; I just never thought I would be one of them.
Fuck me.
He continues as I’m staring into space, wondering what the fuck I’ll do with my life if I’m not in the military. “I called your family, and your sister, Kinley, and her husband are here.”
My head jerks back in his direction, sending pain slicing through my skull. “What? Kinley’s here?”
He nods. “They’re in a hotel close by; she’s been here every day. That little spitfire has a temper on her. Her husband had to carry her out one day as she yelled and pointed her finger at the doctor over his shoulder.” He chuckles. “She was not happy, made some threats, caused quite a scene, and I think the doctor has been avoiding her.”
A small smile tugs at one side of my mouth. “That’s Kins. She’s never been afraid to speak her mind.”
He chuckles again. “Yeah, well, they called security on her, but her husband told them all to stand down, and he took her out.” His eyebrows move up his forehead. “It made me laugh. If she weren’t already married, I’d ask you if I could ask her out.”
My smile falls, and I glare at him. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
He holds his hands up in surrender with a laugh. “No disrespect, she’s gorgeous and obviously not afraid to fight for her family; her husband’s a lucky guy.”
I’ve only met Rhys a few times over the past couple of years when I was home on leave. Since Kins and I are so close, I was determined to watch him like a hawk for any flaws, but after watching them together, I knew he would do anything for her, and he grew on me.
With a sniff, I nod. “I think he knows it.” Changing the subject, I ask, “What about the job? We need to figure out what happened.”
He sucks in another deep breath and rolls his head from one shoulder to the other. “Don’t worry about that, I’m not done asking questions. I’ll keep you updated.”
2
SIX MONTHS AGO
Washington, D.C.
