They detouredto the makeshift post office. “Did I forget Jenna’s birthday or something?” Mick asked.
“Have you ever remembered it?” Rob ribbed him.
Actually, he had. Every year. November twenty-fifth.
“No,” Rob said when he didn’t answer. “It’s just some notes and stuff that I don’t have room for in my bag.”
“So you’re really not coming back?” A lead weight settled on Mick’s chest. He and Rob had beenbest friends and teammates for twelve years. They’d had each other’s backs through boot camp, pararescue training, and now at Claymore. If Rob left in two weeks like he planned, then Mick would be left here with only his friend Dan Molina and a bunch of assholes, the kind who thrived in an industry where the rules of civilization didn’t apply.
The brotherhood he’d experienced in the Air Force—puttingthe members of the team above all else—had been hard to find in the world of private security contracting. Any one of them could walk away at any time, and some of the guys were outright criminals who’d never be allowed to carry a gun in the States.
“I’m really not coming back,” Rob said, stuffing the envelope into a slot in the shipping containers that masqueraded as a post office. “And youshouldn’t either.”
It was an old argument. The constant stress, the poor management, and the barren surroundings chafed like a tight shoe. But there was no substitute for the adrenaline rush. There was something about cheating death that made him feel alive like nothing else could.
“What else can I do?” Mick asked. “Every time we go home, I’m happy for about two weeks. And then it all startsto seem so pointless, so boring.” And quiet. There was nothing worse than being left alone with his thoughts. At least here in this hellhole he knew without a doubt that he was good for something.
Rob shoved his hands in his front pockets and rubbed a heel in the mud while they waited for the others to show up. “You think I don’t feel the same way? But every time I leave, the look in Jenna’seyes nearly rips my heart out. I can’t do that to her anymore.”
Mick knew that look. Had memorized it long ago, along with everything else about the one woman who was off limits to him…and not just because Rob had threatened to permanently end his sex life if he tried anything.
He couldn’t toy with the heart of a woman who’d suffered so much already. Jenna was the kind of girl you marriedand took home to Mom. Not Mick’s usual type. She was smart and sweet, hardly a seductress. But somehow he couldn’t get her pale, almost-gray eyes and schoolgirl freckles out of his head.
“What will you do?” he asked Rob, bringing himself back to the ugly reality of Afghanistan. “I can’t see you settling down to a desk job and a white picket fence.”
Rob laughed, but the humor didn’t reach hiseyes. “Screw that. I was talking to Dan, and he knows a guy who’s a flight medic for one of those MedEvac helicopters. They also do search and rescue missions. I’ll have to go to school first, but it’ll be worth it. It will be like being in the PJs again, but without anyone shooting at you.”
“Then where’s the thrill?” Mick asked, not entirely joking. He plastered on his trademark carefree smileand tapped his rifle. He never should have left pararescue, but the money he’d been offered to join Claymore had been impossible to resist.
His friend shook his head. “Just think about it, okay?”
“Sure.” He’d think about it. In fact, he already thought about it almost daily. Jesus, why couldn’t he be normal? When he was here, he wanted to go home—drive his new Camaro, flirt with girls, partywith his friends; and when he was back in Virginia he could hardly stand it. The tedium and pettiness of Stateside life was suffocating. At least things made sense here.
His job was to survive. Simple as that.
“Hey.” Rob grabbed Mick’s arm as a large armored vehicle rumbled past, leaving deep grooves in the mud. “Promise me one thing.” He looked way too serious for Mick’s taste. Even moreserious than usual.
“What’s that?”
“If something happens to me, you’ll leave Claymore and take care of Jenna.”
Oh, hell no. They were not going to have this conversation. Not right before going outside the wire. He bounced his eyebrows at Rob and forced a smile. “Take care of her, huh?”
“Yeah, and that includes protecting her from guys like you.” Rob ran a hand through his close-croppedhair. “Come on, man. I mean it. I’ll feel better knowing that she wouldn’t be left alone.”
“We’ve been here for two years. Why are you asking me this now?” Mick wrinkled his nose as the wind shifted, bringing with it the pungent odor of the sewage treatment plant—aka The Poo Pond. “Did something happen?”
Rob glanced around and shook his head with feigned indifference that didn’t fool Mickfor a second. “No, I’m just being, you know, superstitious now that I’ve given my notice. If I don’t leave any loose ends, then nothing will happen.”
He was full of crap, but Mick let it go. “Dude, you don’t even have to ask. She’s the closest thing I have to a sister of my own.” Except for the very un-brotherly thoughts he had about her. “But you’re the one who’s going to be there for her,so it doesn’t matter. You’re going to go home, find a job, get a dog, and meet a girl. In another year, I won’t recognize you. You’ll probably even own a minivan.” Mick pulled a face, like he couldn’t imagine a worse fate.
Rob’s shoulders visibly relaxed and the line between his eyebrows softened. What the hell was going on with him? He’d never been this tightly wound before.
“Thanks. I oweyou one.”
Mick consulted his palm as if it were a notebook, and pretended to cross something out. “By my calculations, that makes us even.” He grinned. “Hell, if I’d known you were this easy to get square with, I would have offered months ago.”
Rob finally laughed, and the knot in Mick’s chest loosened.
