Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Is he joining us tonight?” Hudson asked.
Fuck no.
Was my knee-jerk response. But…
I released a breath.
Tonight’s operation would be close combat, perfect for anyone who’d come here from a position in the infantry, something Leighton had a few years of experience in already. Coach had cleared him. Quinn and Finlay seemed to like him. Hudson was impressed. The Army had promoted him to sergeant.
How had I become the crazy one for thinking he wasn’t ready?
I didn’t believe he was ready. I really fucking didn’t.
Regardless of his job in the Army, he’d never seen combat before. Not like what we expected to face tonight. According to our intel, approximately twenty people were hiding in that bunker. Twenty men who were armed and paid to protect their merchandise.
Leighton had killed a man for the first time today, and he hadn’t begun to process it.
What would happen if we added five or six more men to that tally?
“I’ll have to talk to Coach again,” I muttered.
After rehashing our plans with Shira and doing an inventory of our manpower and ammo, I finally got a moment alone with Coach. He’d just come back from making sure the immigrants had been transported out of here.
My stomach twisted with discomfort, because at this point, Leighton was well aware that I was avoiding him. I saw it in the insecurity that bled through every time he looked my way, and it fucking hurt.
He was the eager puppy who just wanted to play, and I was the douchebag owner who left to go to work.
“How did it go?” I asked.
Coach huffed and took a swig of water. “It’s a miracle they’re still alive. At least four of them. But they’re on their way now.”
Yeah, the memory of Leighton taking care of them was fresh in my mind.
He was a fighter. Fast as shit, agile, and strong. Extremely technical but not so that it hindered him from being creative. He hadn’t lost control either. He could’ve easily killed them.
“Op’s back in your control, and we have the combat unit Shira picked out yesterday, adding me and the kid to that list. But I’m assumin’ you wanna talk about Watts,” Coach said.
I nodded with a dip of my chin. “I admit I can’t make a decision without bias. I don’t think he’s ready, and I don’t want a recruit to get hurt. No matter the NDAs and papers they sign, it’s fucking reckless to send someone so green into the field. This ain’t a drill.”
He nodded too. “Under any other circumstances, I would’ve agreed with you.”
“But you don’t now,” I stated.
He sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “We got the rare opportunity to see him in action before we had to make a decision, Bo.” He nodded at me. “Lemme put it this way instead. Say he stays back here when the rest of us enter the bunker. Will knowing he’s out here distract you on the inside? Will you worry that someone else is out here and he’s a sitting duck?”
“Oh, fuck you.” I clenched my jaw and scrubbed my hands over my face. I didn’t want that scenario tumbling around in my head too.
But actually…I had no intention of putting all my eggs into the same underground basket.
Coach chuckled. “Now I gotta ask. Are you two serious?”
I shook my head, the question alone aging me ten years. “It’s way too soon to think about that, man. You know how I am with relationships. I fuck ’em up, and…” I spotted Leighton over by the backpacks. He grabbed a bottle of water. “I don’t wanna hurt him.”
That’s what it boiled down to in the end. I never wanted to hurt that guy. I never wanted to see him sad or fraught with anxiety. Since the day we’d met six years ago, his vulnerability had affected me.
I faced Coach again. “We hooked up once. Right before I left.”
He stared at me and lifted a shoulder. “That tells me nothin’. We’ve spent two months with them—and something eventually made you cave. Right? Fuck, last I heard, you were still with Kristen.”
I made a face and looked away.
Kristen didn’t exist in my life anymore. And soon, neither would Leighton. ’Cause what if he’d heard me say that shit about us only hooking up once? Talk about downplaying a night I was never gonna forget. For the first time in my sorry goddamn life, I’d slept peacefully to the point where I’d barely moved.
I didn’t wanna be done with him.
Coach clapped me on the shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’ve got some shit to figure out, my man. In the meantime, he’s earned a spot on the team. Just put him in the back or something. I’ll go grab the latest from Intel.”
He walked away, and I ran a hand through my hair, knowing he was right. Leighton had earned both credit and respect, and not just from today. There was the shooting at my apartment too—and then the support he’d been to me as I’d slowly opened up about my brother’s death.