“You still jealous I stole that girl from you? I'm telling you, she climbed in my lap, not the other way around.”
“Jealous? You're crazy. I practically gave her to you,” Aaron said.
Ethan might not want to go back to his wild partying days, but he had no intention of missing the opportunity to rib his best friend. “That why you pouted like a girl for the whole week?”
Riser snorted and said, “More like a wittle baby.”
“Like you did when Cheri told you she just wanted to be friends?” Aaron said.
Riser's laughter stopped and he glared across the table. “That was just a minor speed bump. We still talk.”
Riser's attempt to date the waitress back at The Wharf had hit an abrupt dead end, leaving his buddy scratching his head. Riser normally kept to himself, but Cheri had hurt him, and that wasn't what Ethan wanted Riser stuck on all night. “I thought ya'll said the rest of the team was meeting us here.”
“Awww, you boys miss me already?” Ranger, assistant team leader, stuck his head over Ethan's shoulder and batted his eyelashes.
“About time. Where's the rest of the guys?” Aaron said.
Ranger pulled a couple of extra chairs from a nearby table and took a seat. “Just me and Colonel Grey tonight. The rest ofthe guys are getting some personal time with their women before our next assignment.”
Colonel Mack Grey, TF-Scorpion's commander, in his typical navy pullover and khaki shorts slid into the open seat on Ethan's right. “And I'm not here to stay, just to give you an update.”
“Merc?” Riser leaned forward and placed his forearms on the table, Aaron following suit.
Merc was the ghost member of TF-S and he’d left immediately after the attack to go overseas and track down Mr. J. The rest of TF-S had to stay stateside and finish cleaning up the mess before they could go. Ethan’s entire being itched to be in Afghanistan right now, but he’d have to wait, just like the rest of them, until they got new intel.
Grey nodded. “He may have a lead on Mr. J. He's tracking him to a village in the Indus Valley and thinks J is possibly holed up in a fortress supplied by the Islamic State of Afghanistan, ISA. He’ll be expecting us to counter after we took out the whole mercenary team he sent to attack us.”
Ethan’s hands fisted in his lap. TF-S was his family. His only family, and J had nearly succeeded in taking them out. “I want to go now.”
Death was the only solution to the traitor and Ethan had every intention of being the one to take the bastard out, even if it meant spending the rest of his life hunting him down. He had nothing to lose, not like most of the others. They had families who needed them and he had no one – just the way he liked it.
He didn’t want or need anyone in his life to take care of other than himself and his team. The Special Forces didn’t exactly lend itself to the family life anyway. “I need to grab a few supplies. My boots and Camelbak ate it in the explosion at headquarters. Ranger, think your dad will let me store my bike in his barn?”
Ranger signaled for a beer and tipped back in his chair,running a hand through his rangy blonde hair with a grin. “You know Hank’s all about it man. You don’t even need to ask.”
“You're not going anywhere. I got a call from Joint Special Operations Command, JSOC, today. You've already gone over the number of sequential days on duty overseas.” Grey turned to Aaron. “You too.”
“What?” Aaron pushed back in his chair.
“I'm volunteering,” Ethan said.
“Right after you take two weeks of leave. Sorry boys, but we’re all stateside. Only reason Merc got out is because he hopped a flight before they logged him at the base.”
“Fuck that.” The last thing Ethan wanted or needed right now was two weeks of nothing to do and nowhere to go while his brothers risked their lives going after a monster.
Until last week when Mr. J tried to have TF-S and their families murdered, everyone thought J had died in the same ambush that had resulted in TF-S’s sniper, Shane Carter’s capture and ultimately his death.
Grey sat up straight, his spine stiff as a damn metal pole. “Watch it, Slade. You’ve been walking the edge of my patience and it’s about to run out.”
“We can’t stay over here now, not when we’re so close.” Ethan slammed his fist on the table. “Don’t you want to get the man who betrayed you?”
“What the hell do you think? He tried to killmyteam.I’mresponsible for each of you.” Grey’s voice came out so quiet Ethan had to lean in to catch his words. “We don’t have a choice.”
Ethan grabbed his beer and downed it in one gulp, attempting to quench his thirst for revenge. Ethan knew Grey wouldn’t risk losing J if there was any chance of his capture, but he wasn’t thinking with his brain now.
His last trip to Afghanistan had morphed from a recon mission to the damn American Horror Story. A few months in,Ethan had unintentionally stumbled over a big ass rock of information and discovered that Mr. J, who had been long thought dead, was actually alive and kicking. And the fucker had not only betrayed his country, but he'd been hired by the very terrorist TF-S had been tracking for the past few years. Even worse, Mr. J had put out a hit on TF-S and their families, sending assassins out to have them all murdered.
Grey carefully placed his arms on the table and threaded his fingers together. His lips pulled tight, forming little lines at the corners. “That’s not all.”
