“Our guys, yes. Ten of the Marines are alive, four didn’t make it.”
“Fuck. She won’t be happy to hear that.”
Bean shook his head. “No one ever is.”
Chase helped him with his pack while he picked up Ansley. She moaned and snuggled against him instead of lying limp in his arms. She would get better. Her last few weeks in the military would be spent with injuries, but at least she’d survived.
He hoped she would take him up on the offer to visit. They'd spent what he'd thought was a good time together. Though she was injured they’d had some good conversations. Maybe she wouldn't remember his offer for her to visit.
Before he took off, he would make sure she had his contact information. He sure as heck wanted to see what could come out of spending time with her. It was a crazy idea, but maybe one of his best.
Chapter 8
Ansley wokeup in a medical facility. She could tell it was military based on the dull color of the walls. Her head ached and her body hurt, but she was alive.
How had she survived? Her memory was Swiss cheesed, broken flashes, and half thoughts. The bits and pieces she remembered didn’t make sense. Then one face seemed to overshadow everything.
Link.
He’d gotten her into a helicopter. That had saved her. She guessed the pain, the knock to her head, and whatever else happened had taken her down into a foggy abyss.
Where was he? Not here. She sighed, knowing she would never see him again. She could just imagine driving up to Fort Bragg and asking for Link. They would laugh her off base.
Oh well, it was for the best. She didn’t need to be tied down, and she didn’t need to tie anyone to her. She wasn’t good luck, and that fact would be very apparent to him once her history was revealed.
A shiver raced through her as she thought about the last guy she dated, an image of him hanging from the end of thepier lodged in her brain. The accident had been so freakish that people still talked about it. He'd slipped and fallen, but not in a smooth way. No, he'd been walking on the railing of the pier, which had been slick because, duh, ocean. He'd fallen and ended up suspended from his hoodie string that had caught between the ends of two pieces of wood.
The whole scene had been awful. His family still blamed her. They said she'd pushed him even though there was CCTV footage showing that she was nowhere near him when he fell.
The dude she dated before him also didn't live after crashing his car into the side of a mountain. She was lucky she had an alibi for the entire few months before the crash since she'd been overseas. If the police could have pinned it on her, they would have in a heartbeat.
Then there was the guy she dated in high school who climbed the water tower and fell to his death. She'd told him not to go up, but he hadn't listened. Luck had been with her in that situation, and a camera caught her begging him not to go up, then her leaving to find a phone to call the police.
Three guys and three deaths that were all freak accidents that she had nothing to do with, but the police in all three situations originally accused her of having something to do with their deaths.
Rotten didn’t even begin to describe her luck with guys. Cursed was more like it, not that she really believed in curses. But how else could she explain all three of her boyfriends ending up dead? It would be best if Link stayed away from her.
The door opened, and though she knew it would be best for Link to disappear, hope still rose as she waited for the person to step in. It was only a nurse, not Link.
“You’re awake. That’s good. How do you feel?”
She grunted. “Like hell.”
“At least you’re feeling something. We’ll count that as a win.”
“Yeah, that is a win.”
The nurse checked the monitors hooked up to her while making notes. She worked efficiently, then turned, her lips pulling up to one side.
“I’m going to see if we can get you more pain meds. Nothing too heavy, just something to take the edge off. You need to get up to use the restroom. Your leg will probably hurt, but I’ll help you over to the bathroom and let you go in peace.”
“Thank you. Any chance of a shower today?”
The nurse shook her head. “No, not today. Maybe tomorrow. We don’t want you falling and hurting yourself.”
The lack of a shower would eventually get to her. She hated being dirty. That didn’t match well with being a Marine, but she’d put up with it because she had to.
Soon, she wouldn’t have to get dirty and stay dirty. She would never get dirty again, not like Marine dirty. It was a special type of grit that got on and stayed on all Marines. Sometimes, even showers didn’t get the stink off.
