“I want a goddamned clear line to make a skype call, and I want it yesterday, private,” I seethed at the trembling idiot unfortunate enough to be on duty tonight.
“Yes, sir, I will do my best, sir.”
“You will do it period, or so help me I will —”
“2nd lieutenant,” Gabe yelled, his hand coming down hard on my shoulder. “Compartmentalise, disconnect the personal shit and stand down,” Gabe warned, going back into commanding officer mode.
Balling my fists at my legs, I hissed through clenched teeth.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, now private, we need a line directly to our computers, think you can manage that?” Gabe asked calmly. Something I should have done but failed.
“It will take some time, captain, but I will do my best.”
“You will find us in our hut, double-quick on this private, understand?”
“Copy that, captain,” the poor bugger stammered, avoiding eye contact with me.
Snivelling shit.
“Cole, with me now,” Gabe ordered, giving me a chin lift and a stare that would make a lesser man piss his pants.
“You’re fucking lucky we don’t have a ring set up out here,” I muttered but followed him as ordered.
“And you are lucky I don’t rip you a new one and send you home on a stretcher,” Gabe tossed back at me.
“Fucking serious shit here, Ghost, what is going on? This isn’t you, you don’t let anything get to you, mate. Normally, we leave that to Bastian.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed, giving Gabe a semblance of a smile, “it’s a strange day when Ammo is the calm one, not me.”
“It makes me nervous, Ghost,” Gabe admitted, sitting down next to me on the rickety bunk. “You and the dark go hand in hand brother, quiet is your strong suit, your thing. It’s why you have that name.”
Ashamed and embarrassed for being called out for losing my cool, here and on our last recon, I shook my head and dropped it into my hands.
“I used to welcome the dark, preferred to be alone. Now it’s different, that … need, isn’t there as much.”
“Because of Oaklee?” Gabe asked, but he already knew that it was her changing me.
Dragging a hand down my face, I let out a frustrated growl. Over half the world away from my girl, not knowing if she was okay, was messing with my head. I lost all control of disconnecting, and that was nothing short of dangerous. Deke’s dead body suddenly came to mind; he lost his life because he had a mind-numbing idea that his team … us, would judge him for being gay. What a crock of shit! He decided that for us. Didn’t trust us to be there for him or see him the way we always had. A fucking good man, friend and soldier.
And here I was doing the same fucking thing he had. Acting reckless and not using my brain or my training.
“I don’t understand why she isn’t picking up, Tank. Not a word from her in two weeks.” My gut was telling me something very bad was going on back home, something I should be there to fix. Even communicating with Dad was a no-go. I had the option of sending him a message through the base at Queenscliff, but announcing my private life through god knew how many hands before it got to my father appealed as much as eating my dinner out of Rafe’s boots after a fifteen-hour trek through rivers animals pissed in.
“Oaklee has brought a light that I never had before. I fucking need that light, brother.” Pouring out my heart this way was foreign, especially when on deployment, yet here I was practically sobbing like a pussy.
“Fuck,” Gabe clipped, his tone pricking my spidey senses.
“What? What do you know?”
“Not a lot,” Gabe sighed, shaking his head.
“Last time I managed to get more than a few minutes on the phone with Devon, she mentioned that Oaklee wasn’t working for your mum anymore.”
The words were barely out of Gabe’s mouth before I was pouncing on him, fisting his filthy sweat-dripping shirt in my fists.
“What the actual fuck, Tank!” I bellowed in his face. “How long have you known this?” Dread and panic fired in my belly like acid rising.
Wrenching his shirt out of my hold, Gabe jumped to his feet, getting some distance. He knew what I was capable of when my temper showed, which wasn’t all that often. Control was one of my weapons, and I was a master at it, but unleash it and fucking pity the poor prick in my way.
Just ask Bastian. Not too long ago, he’d pushed me and felt my fist in his face.
“Just a couple of days. She said there was some kind of conflict with Oaklee and the Flock. Dev didn’t know all the details, but Memphis came back to the compound that day pretty upset. Rainn told Pixie that Oaklee lost her shit and raged at them.”
My mind spun with what Gabe just told me. Oaklee yelling at my mother didn’t make sense, nor did it sound like something my Temptress would ever do. She fucking adored my mother, and her job was important to her. She was proud of being a personal assistant and revelled in being the manager of the book store.
“Two days you have known this?” I spat, getting to my feet. “and you are just telling me this now?”
“I made a decision that was best for the mission, and I stand by it.” Gabe’s chin jutting out in that stubborn way he’d inherited from his old man.
“The mission? Fuck the mission, Gabe, Oaklee is there all alone, and who fucking knows what they said to her to make her go off. Jesus Christ, Tank, two fucking days!”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference telling you, Ghost, had you known and no outside coms,
