Just talking this time. We’d gone out for dinner once or twice, but we still hadn’t gotten around to that official date I’d asked her out on.
For some reason, I didn’t want to ask her before I knew what my fate in the Navy was going to be. It had nothing to do with Charles and everything to do with me.
It didn’t feel right to take her out on something like that when I didn’t know where I’d be this time next month. Not that I wanted to be with her long term or anything, but it would be a shitty thing to start dating her as a summer fling and end up leaving soon after.
Rolling onto my side, all lingering traces of exhaustion disappeared when I saw my lieutenant’s name on my screen. He hadn’t called me since we’d gotten home from Iran, so I assumed he was about to let me know what the decision was that had been made.
Boulders cropped up in my stomach, but I forced myself to ignore them and sat up to answer the call instead. “Dobbs.”
“Glad I caught you,” he said in his grating voice. “You’re needed at the base, Dobbs. Urgently.”
I swallowed hard, but my tone remained even. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
When I climbed out of bed, it felt like my limbs had been petrified. None of them wanted to move properly, yet before I knew it, I was dressed and ready to go.
On my way out of the room, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror above the dresser. The call had shocked me out of any semblance of sleep, so at least that was something.
Externally, I looked every inch the cocky, stone-faced bastard I was known to be. Hopefully, no one would be able to guess that I was a wreck on the inside.
Years of my life had been spent working to get to the point where I had been when we’d gone to Tehran little over a month ago. In the blink of an eye, all that work could be ripped away from me. All because of a vendetta of a man who happened to be the father of the girl I was sort of about to date.
Well, that, and a reputation for being the guy who made the calls everyone knew had to be made but no one had the balls to make themselves. It was bullshit, yet I was staring down the barrel of the gun because of it.
Thrusting my chin into the air, I narrowed my eyes at myself. Fuck them.
I wouldn’t back down. I’d stood my ground before, and I’d keep doing it. Nothing they could say or do would convince me I’d been in the wrong when we’d gone into the terrorists’ safehouse. They wouldn’t get me turned around or doubting myself.
Confidence restored, I marched out of my room and let the door slam behind me. All the way to the base, I replayed my last mission in my head. If I was about to face the firing squad, I at least wanted to remember every detail of the last time I’d gotten to do what I loved doing.
When I got to the lieutenant’s office, Eden was already waiting outside the room. One look at my best friend was enough to know he was starting to freak out. His eyes were wild and wide, his hair standing up in every direction. Blotches of red mottled his pale skin and his shoulders were practically dragging on the floor.
“Hey, buddy,” I said as I walked up to him.
He spun on his heels, his eyes somehow managing to open even wider. “Linc. Thank God. I was wondering if they’d called both of us or only me. What do you think they’re going to do?”
I lifted my steely gaze to his and brought my hands down on his shoulders. “Whatever it is, we’ll take it as it comes. Pull it together, man. You can’t go in there looking like you’re about to piss yourself.”
Eden groaned. “How can you be so confident at a time like this?”
“Easy.” I shrugged. “I looked myself in the fucking eyes and told myself to man the hell up. What we did was the right thing to do. Whatever happens, we’ll have that to hang onto.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but the lieutenant’s door banged open, and he motioned us in. The man was built like a Mack truck, and his jaw was set hard enough to cut fucking diamonds on it, yet his skin was almost as pale as Eden’s.
“We need you boys on a mission,” he barked. “You’ll leave as soon as we’re done here.”
Eden’s head jerked back in surprise while I raised a brow at him. “Has the decision been made, then? We’re back on active duty?”
“No decision yet.” Ice flashed in his eyes as he glared at me. “But you two have a duty, and we need you.”
I hesitated for only a moment before I gave him my answer. “Of course, sir. Happy to help.”
“Same here,” my friend said at my side. His entire posture had changed, his spine straight and his shoulders broad again.
As for me, I suddenly felt like someone had handed my life back to me. Every nerve in my body sparked, and my senses seemed to sharpen. It was like things had been fuzzy after our last mission, and now that we were being sent on another, everything was coming back into sharp focus.
My heartbeat even slowed despite the adrenaline coursing through my system. There was nothing like receiving these orders, but in the back of my mind, I knew it was irregular to be sent out when we’d been specifically told we’d been grounded.
Nothing in the lieutenant’s hard
