Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Rumor has it he’s smuggling firearms. It’s our job to confirm it or find out what he’s really doing.
The job Carter hired us to do is easy. We don’t do anything but stand there with our M16s protecting the limestone from being stolen.
Because, you know, limestone is worth commandeering a bulk carrier and so easy to move.
It takes about twelve hours to get to Ensenada, and on the day shift, where we leave at midday and reach the port at night, the boat is loaded up immediately.
This time, when we arrive, we’re told to go to a nearby hotel and come back to work at midnight for the shipment of limestone that’s conveniently “on its way.”
We follow orders because it’s what Carter is paying us to do, but I’m confused. I thought for sure the nighttime crew was exporting something else. But if I do the math, that means that the boats are always loaded at nighttime no matter which shift we’re on.
The three guys with me—the entirety of the Mike Bravo company so far—and I get two rooms at the hotel under Jason Carter’s account, but I spend the whole day looking out the window where I can still see the port.
“What’re you thinking, boss?” Domino asks.
I turn to him and slash at my throat. If Jason Carter is the type of guy I think he is, I wouldn’t put it past him to have these rooms bugged. It was his company who booked the rooms, and he might have a section of the hotel blocked off specifically for his employees.
I might be paranoid, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
“Nothin’,” I mumble.
“Girl problems?”
It takes everything in me not to snort at that. “Yeah.” Girl problems, women troubles, ball-and-chain jokes about the wife, they’re all code word for “So you think someone is listening in and you can’t talk?” The only time it doesn’t work is when one of us is talking to Domino because he might actually have chick problems.
When I started Mike Bravo, it was because I could see the issues LGBTQ soldiers still faced even though DADT had been repealed. I served while it was still in effect, and after the change, shit was still the same. It’s why I went private. I want to build a company that is LGBTQ-friendly, and I mainly plan on hiring LGBTQ team members, but there’s no one else in this world I trust to have my back more than Domino. He’s my right-hand man, my second-in-command.
“Let’s go for a walk and find a bar to drown your sorrows,” Domino says.
“As long as we’re sober to work tonight.”
“Done.”
We leave the room and knock next door, telling the others we’re going to find a bar to talk about my problems with my girlfriend.
Alphabet and Kevlar both smile.
As soon as we’ve walked a block toward the touristy section past the cruise terminal of the port, Alphabet laughs. “No wonder you’re having problems with your girlfriend when you were too busy fucking a guy last night to even call her.”
“Ha. Soooo funny.”
“That guy was hot,” Alphabet says.
He sure was. And the entire way down here, all I could do was relive our hot and sweaty bathroom hookup. Twelve hours standing on a shipping carrier doesn’t give us much else to do other than think.
I regret not telling Dylan I’d see him again, but I’m not really a see you again kind of guy. I never have been because being a Ranger meant I had no stability in my location. I’d be gone for months at a time. I’ve never settled down because I don’t think it’s possible while leading this kind of lifestyle.
Mike Bravo is my baby, and I’m married to the job. There’s no room for “See you again” when I don’t even know when I could make it back to that bar.
Plus, I’m thirty-four. Dylan looked midtwenties at most.
I can’t believe I’m still thinking about him when we barely said two words to each other.
“What are these ‘girl troubles’?” Kevlar asks, using air quotes and all.
“I thought taking the night shift, we’d arrive here during the day and load whatever else Carter is importing that’s not limestone, endure a longer loading time, and then return in darkness. But that’s not the case. We’re here, wasting time, waiting on more limestone.”
“But it makes sense why the night shift pays more and why he’d have his favorite guys on that run. Because instead of working constantly, you’re getting paid to fuck around,” Domino says.
“And if he is only importing limestone, that means whatever they’re smuggling in, we’ve been helping them this whole time,” I say.
“But we’ve checked our cargo,” Kevlar says. “It’s only limestone.”
“We’re missing something,” I murmur. But what? “Keep an extra eye out tonight.”
We go to a bar, have a couple of drinks but not enough to impair our abilities, and then go back to the hotel for a nap before our shift tonight.