I pressed my lips into a line and tried my best to give him a reassuring smile. Our missions weren’t usually like this. They were usually pretty boring unless we had to search ships. That was fun because we usually got to beat up the bad guys. In this case, there was only death.
Up the stairs, we went. I took two at a time, as quiet as I could be when bullets peppered us. These goat lovers didn’t have the best aim, but that didn’t matter. They weren’t afraid of death and that was the problem. They would die in the name of theirgod. My gun blazed and two men at the top of the stairs dropped. Blood dripped down the steps we walked up. We continued on. The entire floor was too open.
Something inside of me was screaming, it was a familiar intuition, one I hadn’t felt in ten years. The gun went off behind us and I knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough. I whipped around, expecting this to be the last breath I would take. But it wasn’t me laying on the ground bleeding out. Everything from that moment on happened in slow motion. The bullets left my gun and took out the man on the other side of the floor. But it didn’t matter. I fell to my knees and spoke over coms.
“Brody down.” My voice sounded foreign. Brody blinked up at me with blank eyes as I pressed my hands to his neck. “You’re going to be okay, do you hear me? You’re gonna be all right. Hold on for me. They’re gonna come get us.”
Where was back up? Was coms working? “Blackbird, come in.”
I wasn’t going to leave him behind. I wasn’t going to leave anyone behind, this was my fault to begin with. I should have never thought I was invincible enough to bring Brody along with me.
Tears streaked down Brody’s face and I don’t know what I’m saying. All I remember is yelling. Lots of yelling as the light in his eyes go out and there is blood all over my hands. His blood on my hands.
My fault.
I ripped his body from the ground and threw him over my shoulders. I didn’t know what to do but I knew we couldn’t stay and I wasn’t leaving him. No, I wasn’t going to leave him for the terrorists to piss on and defile. Bile worked its way up my throat and I knew a sob was close behind it.
I don’t know how I made it down the stairs and out the door of that building. I don’t know how I managed to survive getting him to the rendezvous point. Jace and the rest of the crew were hunkered down eating what looked to be shit.
“What happened?” Jace’s voice was muffled. Everything was muffled. I was in a daze as I laid his body on the ground. “Get a copter!”
Everything from that point on was in a daze. Jace shouted at me but it didn’t register. The team watched me with worried glances. My hands were still covered in Brody’s blood and I couldn’t bring myself to look any of them in the eye. I knew how they felt. They blamed me too. Guilt choked me and I couldn’t bring myself to eat or drink.
Three days after Brody had been killed Darren approached me slowly, like an injured animal. “We’re sending you home, Derek.”
All I could do was nod my head. Everywhere I went, death followed me. All I could see now was the look in his eyes as he died. As he died on my watch. My watch that had been too slow. Darren rested his hand on my arm and shook his head before he walked away.
Chapter Eighteen
Aiyanna
I poppedthe top on two beer bottles when I barely overheard the conversation going down at the bar. The music was too loud but thankfully the two girls were talking above it. I didn’t know if they were drunk yet or they just didn’t care. “Did you hear? A SEAL died last week in combat.”
My head jerked up.
The girl continued. “I can’t remember what his name is.”
Her companion shook her head. “Brody Malark. He was a cutie too.”
Brody?The same Brody that had lived with Derek. My entire body froze. Vince looked over at me with sad eyes. He knew too. Were there any other casualties?
How was Derek handling this? Had he been there when it had all gone down? When his brother died? Was he even a SEAL? He had to be, right?
My fingers fluttered over my phone. I dialed his number before I knew what I was doing. Before I could stop myself. The voice that answered the phone didn’t sound familiar. “Hello?”
“Uh, hi, is Derek there?” I didn’t know what I was going to say but I just needed to know he was okay.
“This is he,” His voice sounded flat and void of life.
“It’s Aiyanna,” What now?
“Oh.”
I couldn’t bring it up. I couldn’t ask him about it. The words were on the tip of my tongue and I so desperately wanted to say something to make it better but I knew words would never do that. “I heard you got home and-”
“Who told you?” Anger lit his words.
“What?” I was confused. Was he talking about Brody?
