“Allie doesn’t care about them,” Sandy continued, ignoring Jack.
Sandy was right.Allie hadn’t seemed to notice the scars that ran down the right side of his face.Scars that also covered half of the right side of his body too.He’d received many stares over the years.The most haunting had been when his then-fiancée Jenny had seen them after he’d been shipped back home from the German hospital.Half of his body had been covered in bandages.He reeked like burnt flesh and sulfur.In a word, he looked and smelled horrible.
Jenny had taken one look at him and fainted.When she’d come to, she’d said she couldn’t be with a monster and returned the ring.He had avoided relationships since then, besides the brief ones that were gone by sunrise.
Regardless of the fact that Allie hadn’t cringed at seeing him, he wasn’t looking for a relationship.Especially with someone like her.
“Sandy, please let it go.”He pleaded to her with his eyes and the tone of his voice.He didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
Sandy looked up at him in defeat.“Alright, I’ll talk to you later, Carson, but make this right.It shouldn’t be me apologizing to her, but you.Take responsibility.”That was her stern warning before walking away.
“Seriously, that was a dick move,” Barry confirmed once she’d left.
Chapter 3
Obviously, he wasn’t going to hear the end of this.He might as well set his team straight.“It was just bad timing.”
“What’s going on?Anything we can help with?”Luke offered.At least he wasn’t accusing him like Sandy.Then again, Luke always waited for all the facts before making a decision.It was one of the things that made him a great leader.He never rushed into anything.
“Yurgio Svengtsez,”
“Who’s that?”Barry asked.
“The smuggler you’ve been tracking for two years.”Jack supplied for him.“I thought you were done looking for him.”
“What’s so special about him?”Barry asked, looking between Carson and Jack.
“He’s wanted by several authorities.US and Europe.CIA, Feds, Interpol, you name it.The guy is more slippery than an eel and smarter than a fox.Anytime authorities get close to tracking him, he disappears and resurfaces a few monthslater on the other side of the world.”Luke gave the basic background.
“Why have you been tracking him, Carson?”Barry wanted to know.“He’s not on any of our target lists.”
Yurgio had become a pet project of Carson’s.“Back when I was with the SEALs, we were sent on a mission to extract Yurgio from a small coastal port in Costa Rica.”
“What happened?”
“Local police got a tip-off he was there too.It turned into a bloodbath.Several police were killed.Two of my teammates.One was so severely injured, he was forced to retire, and I got clipped in the shoulder as well.Yurgio got away, and I’ve made it a personal mission to avenge my brothers and see Yurgio behind bars paying for his crimes.”
Luke came up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.“We all understand wanting to avenge our fallen brothers, but going it alone isn’t going to help.Remember, there’s no I in team.”
“But there is in dipshit,” Jack added with a grin that got everyone to roll their eyes.“What?It’s true.There’stwo actually.”
“We work better as a team, and it sounds like it’s going to take the whole team to get this guy,” Luke said, looking at Carson earnestly.
Carson appreciated Luke willing to help him find Yurgio.He’d become obsessed with it over the years.He wouldn’t rest until the man paid for his crimes against the world and his brothers.But it was his problem, not theirs.He could never live with himself if he got more of his brothers killed over this “I can’t risk anything happening to you guys.”
“A whole team and police couldn’t take him down.What makes you think you can do it on your own?”Luke challenged him with a raised eyebrow.
He didn’t, but he wasn’t going to risk others.
“We always have each other’s backs.You know this, Carson.”He did.“I think I can speak for all of us when I say, whatever you need, we’ll help.”
“Hell yeah,” all of the guys said one after another.
Carson didn’t know what to say.“Thanks.”
“What do you know so far?”Luke asked, going into command mode.
“I got a tip from an old buddy of mine, about a large shipment being brought across the Russian border,” Carson explained to the group.
