Parker, after glancing at Foster and Commander Turner, said, “Not much other than we’re being dropped into a shit show with no place to call home.”
Turner sighed, “Lieutenant Holt…Parker…we’re the advance team. That makes it our job to scout out the locations we’re told, find the U.S. Military a safe haven to set up shop, clear out the riff raff. Do you have a problem with that?”
“So that means our teams are sleeping in shifts on the ground, eating MREs, all with no backup?”
“Welcome to war, son. Ask your daddy about it.”
Ouch!
Parker laughed, “I didn’t know you loved us, sir. It’s like you rolled Christmas and all our birthdays into one big ass present.”
I laughed along with Turner and others in the circle. When everyone settled down, I asked, “Multiple recon missions along with some site explorations before we turn the exterminators loose to clean house.”
“Ding ding ding! Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Give the spook a cookie.” Dom Vinetti said and I shook my head.
A few hours later, I sat in my seat in the back with the rest of the straps, all of us masked up. Team 3 stood in a stick, jocked up in the red glow of the cargo ramp jump lights. I watched Parker do this any number of times, both before we hooked up and after. But my heart never lodged in my throat like it did now, watching Xander and the rest of Echo Team check each other’s gear as they waited for the light to go from red to green.
The light changed.
I sucked in a deep breath as the team went through the pre-jump ritual.
The door opened.
The stick of operators moved forward, one by one they fell forward into the abyss. When Xander tumbled into the darkness, my stomach went with him.
CHAPTER 17
ALEX
My feet touched the ground.I bundled up the chute, my eyes scanning for the other guys. The jump and landing, my first with the team, were picture-perfect. The weightlessness, the wind in my face, damn, it dotted the I and crossed the T on everything I dreamed of when I dreamed of becoming a team guy.
“You hit the ground like a pro, kid,” Parker stated as he walked up to me.
I smiled.
Sand.
Growing up in Southern California, sand was a part of life. Especially living as close to the beach as I did. Or so I thought. It was different here. Everything about this place is different. Even though I spent time in the desert—hiking, running, camping—this was unreal.
Everything here got covered in sand. There’s no getting away from it. It was insidious. It crept into your bedding, your socks,your underwear, your fucking crack. I’m pretty certain that it’s in my piss hole.
But the sand wasn’t the worst of it. The dust—fuck me. The dust from pulverized sand, that shit sucked. And never-fucking-ending.
We’d been here for a couple of weeks, turning and burning, op after op, pulling in intel, delivering it to Daniel, who looked worse each time I laid eyes on him. It worried me. He looked like he hadn’t slept since we touched down, and he looked thinner.
I missed…
Everything.
Our banter.
The quiet moments.
The feel of his arms around me.
His kisses.
His cock.
