“The house is gone! Repeat. The house is gone,” came the report.
Addison’s breath stuttered in her lungs, and she sank to her knees. Chaos erupted around her. The commander shouted orders at someone next to her. Someone entered her field of vision. She could see his mouth moving, but it was as if he was speaking to her underwater. Pushing at him, she stared at the wall of monitors, watching the men still alive run toward the bright flames of the target building. Watched while they got as close as they could. Watched the insurgents racing toward the survivors. Watched the tracer rounds from the close air support strafe the enemy forces. Watched the remaining team sprint for the helicopters that landed to retrieve them.
And she saw none of it.
Her twin—the other half of her whole—was gone.
* * *
Addison sat in the center of her bed with her legs crossed, picking at her nails. The mission had ended hours ago. She wasn’t even sure how she’d made it to her room, vaguely recalling someone leading her. It might have been Elise.
She should feel something. Hollow, maybe? There should be an emptiness yawning wide in place of her heart, but that wasn’t what she felt.
There was a knock at the door, then it swung open before she responded. She glanced up as her commander entered. He moved the camp chair from the foot of her bed to in front of her and sat down, resting his arms on his knees and clasping his hands together.
He was an attractive older man, but he looked tired. Older. As a full-bird colonel, he was probably less than ten years older than her. Rank came with its own worries and tonight it showed in the deep lines of his face.
“Major Foster—Addison. We haven’t confirmed all the team members or contacted all the family members yet, but I wanted to tell you personally. Your brother was on the mission. He was with the first team that entered the building.” He paused. “There were no survivors.” He rubbed one hand over his close-cropped hair.
“I understand, sir,” she whispered.
“I’ve got the front office working on getting you on the first transport back to the U.S. You should be home with your family within the next forty-eight hours.”
He stood, and she felt the weight of his gaze. He had questions—the same questions everyone always had. How had she known? Had she always had a connection to her brother? Had it ever happened before? Did he have the same thing?
“We’ll do our best to retrieve your brother’s remains, but insurgents have overrun the area. It may be some time before we can get back in there and when we do…”
She swallowed hard and nodded. When they did, there would be nothing to find.
“I’m truly sorry, Addison.” He left, closing the door softly behind him.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the feeling deep inside her. It didn’t matter if they sent the entire 101stAirborne Division to look for the bodies of the team—her brother wouldn’t be there.
He was hurt, but he was alive. Now she needed to figure out how to convince someone to believe her.
