“All right,” I said as I settled him down away from Davie’s body, “now, Private, if you can look at me?—”
When my eyes finally caught his, I froze. Another bomb. Another shake. Another tremor. Another round of screams. But it had nothing on the way that nineteen-year-old private looked up at me with death in his eyes.
With sorrow on his face.
Apologizing for something that was my fault.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered as my fingers urged his eyes closed.
Stepping outside was like unleashing the hounds. I blacked out. I heard screaming, and I charged for it, discharging my weapons and plucking others off the dead bodies that littered the ground around me. Bodies that I was responsible for. I needed to be out there. I needed to see what my laziness had done.
It was the only punishment that fit my crime.
“Lieutenant!”
“Ghost!”
“Someone, help me!”
“I can’t feel my legs!”
“Mommy! Mommy, help meeee!”
“HEEEEEEEELP!”
Wait a second, that wasn’t?—
“SOMEBODY HELP ME! THEY’RE COMING FOR MEEEEEE!”
I whipped my head up from the sink where I splashed my face with some cold ass water. One of the few times I ever chanced a glance at my face without my mask. I hated the taste of sand. The taste of dirt. I also hated showing my face.
Someone like me didn’t deserve to show their face.
“Just a flashback,” I whispered breathlessly to my reflection in the mirror. “Just a?—"
“PLEASE! THEY’RE COMING! THEY’RE GOING TO KILL MEEEEE!”
That wasn’t a flashback, however.
And before I knew it, my legs carried me as quickly as they could run as I put my mask back on my face.
Dear Reader,
Ghost’s story moves further into the darker edges of the Iron Battalion MC world.
This book contains themes of combat trauma, survivor’s guilt, visible burn scarring, trauma induced insomnia, surveillance, morally gray behavior, stalking-adjacent actions, violence, and an ongoing investigation into a sex trafficking ring.
While this is a work of fiction, the topics explored are real and may be triggering for some readers.
Please check the full content notes on my website before continuing. They can be found here. Your safety always comes first.
If you or someone you know needs support related to sexual exploitation or trafficking, resources are available through the National Human Trafficking Hotline (U.S.) at 1-888-373-7888 or humantraffickinghotline.org.
Thank you for trusting me with this story.
XOXO,
Savannah
