The power of the blast blew Brett and child completely out of the room into the common area. Landing on his back, weapon still in hand, Brett rolled over on his side and coughed up blood.
“Son of a bitch,” Brett muttered, trying to get his breath. His ears rang as he tried to get his bearings.
Stumbling to his feet, Brett found the boy in the corner of the room, bleeding badly from his head from an obvious skull fracture and unconscious. He quickly checked the boy’s pulse and then ran into the burning computer room to get Rusty.
Throwing his team member over his aching possibly dislocated shoulder and at the same time dragging Nabi’s broken body out of the rubble by his arm, Brett headed in the direction of the front door toward the boy when suddenly another explosion happened. The second bomb was on a relay, designed to detonate right behind the first one.
This explosion was bigger and more powerful. It rocked the entire house, causing the second floor to partially collapse.
The men outside turned in dismay, but quickly sprang to action.
“What the hell?” Hound asked, getting on his radio to let the Command Center know that they had additional trouble.
“Get eyes on him,” Joe said, seconds after the smoke cleared from the rubble. “Black!” Joe screamed. “Black!” Joe threw debris, drywall and furniture out his way, frantically looking for his friend.
“Here,” Brett said, pushing his hand out from under the pile of rubble that covered him.
“We’ve got company! We’re either going to stay and play or get the fuck out of here,” Joe screamed, grabbing Brett’s hand and at the same time, pulling the debris off of him as he yanked him out with all of his strength. Rusty lay beside him, completely out. They were a mangled pair, covered in blood, heads covered in white drywall.
“Help him,” Brett said, pointing at Rusty. His chest wheezed like he had possible broken his ribs.
Joe picked up Rusty and threw him over his shoulder. “Can you walk?” Joe asked Brett, helping him through the ruins.
“I’ll be fine.” Pulling a long shard of wood out of his neck, Brett spit blood. “I’ve lost my ears,” he said of his earpiece. “I’m running blind. You’ll have to lead me.”
“Got your back,” Joe said, helping him still, even though his friend insisted that he was okay.
Brett forced himself to perk up. “I can make it.” He picked up his weapon and scanned through the rubble. “Where is the boy?” he asked, wincing in pain. His eyes were blanketed in a sheet of blood.
Joe shook his head. Now was not the time. “We have to move.”
“Get the boy!” Brett ordered, looking frantically around the destroyed house for any sign of the child. However, due to the explosion and the collapse of the parts of the second floor, any hope of finding him was lost. His heart sank.
“Move Marine,” Captain Lawless said into Joe’s earpiece. “That’s an order. You have the payload, and you have company coming your way.” He knew that Brett couldn’t hear him and while he admired his heroics, the boy was not the Marine Corps priority.
“Where is that fucking drone?” David screamed, leaning against the desk.
“Coming now, sir,” the Specialist answered.
“Now! Damn it!” Captain Lawless screamed as his fists hit the table. “I want some cover for my men right fucking now!”
As Bulldog Team exited the home, they heard enemy gunfire on the horizon. Evidently, the signal from Nabi’s necklace had transmitted to a nearby faction of insurgents and the cavalry was on the way.
The other two men on the team, Hound and Geek, were posted up, returning fire when Bear pulled up in Nabi’s Land Rover. The steering wheel had been jimmied and hotwired.
“Let’s move! They are hot on our asses, Marines!” Bear screamed.
“Drone approaching,” the Specialist relayed to Captain Lawless at the Command Center.
Captain Lawless raised his attention back to the monitors. “Give me a count. How many inbound enemy hostiles do we have approaching and in what position?”
“Four vehicles, sir. Present count is 16 men, headed north bound,” the specialist answered.
Captain Lawless was quick to relay. “Nest to Bulldog. You have 16 armed enemy hostiles are approaching in four vehicles. They will be pulling up on you shortly. Engage enemy hostiles as they appear.”
“Copy that,” Hound answered.
“Shot gun,” Geek called, diving into the passenger seat of the SUV. Quickly, he checked his magazine and popped it back inside of his weapon. There was a little smirk on his face, having never been able to show nervousness even under duress, even as the enemy approached. Holding his rifle at the ready, he winked at Bear. “Holy shit! It’s about to get real, huh?” He rolled his neck. “Motherfuckers getting ready to wet their shorts!”
“Boy, you stuck on stupid,” Bear said, knitting his bushy brows into a frown.
In a calm, almost soothing voice, the Command Center radioed over to the men. “Be advised. Air support is on the way,” Captain Lawless said, pacing the room. “ETA five mikes. Move your asses,” he enunciated with a little more urgency.
The General kept quiet but smirked. He liked the way that this Captain did business.
“Five mikes is a long fucking time, man,” Joe said sweating his ass off and helping Brett into the back of the SUV.
“Get my fucking ass in this damn car!” Brett yelled, throwing his weapon over his shoulder. He hated himself for being injured. Now was not the time to be the weak link in the chain. His men needed him.
A single bullet flew from over the hill and tore straight through Brett’s leg. He dropped to the ground, but was quickly caught by Joe, who returned fire while shoving Brett on top of Nabi inside the SUV.
“Move faster! We’re taking fire!” someone yelled.
“No shit!” Joe said, slamming the door behind him.
Now packed liked sardines inside of the rundown SUV, the six men pulled off, headed as fast as they could toward the riverbank.
The night sky lit up with gunfire. The sound of bullets whizzing past the vehicle sounded like snaps and firecrackers in the wind.
“Bulldog Four is hit!” Geek sounded off to the Command Center as Joe checked Brett’s wound. “I repeat. Bulldog Four is hit.”
“The shot is bad. We have to get to the extraction point before you bleed out.” Pulling out his medic pack, Joe prepared to dress the gaping wound. “Can you shoot?” Joe asked Brett while he propped up his leg and pulled out the quick clot.
“Argh!! I hate that shit!” Brett said, screaming out in pain.
“Focus on something else then,” Joe said calmly.
“Break out that back window. Let’s return some of this fucking gun fire!” Brett ordered, angling his body where he could shoot his weapon, despite his blurred vision and aching leg. “Joe, I need you to work on me, while I work on them.”
“Gotcha,” Joe said, glad that Brett could focus. They couldn’t afford to be down three men, counting him as he worked on his best friend.
Dirt billowed up in the air as Bear burned rubber and tore pass the house, away from the oncoming convoy of trucks, toward the river. The low-lying ditches, trees and rock made the midnight drive even more chaotic with sudden jolts and bumps as he mowed down sparse undergrowth and rocky terrain. “Hold on to your asses, gentlemen!”
The pain of the bumps in the road shot through Brett’s body, but he continued to send back rounds at the incoming convoy.
A barrage of loud blaring shots rang through the vehicle while each man dedicated himself to doing his part in securing their safety, but only muzzle fire could be seen from afar lighting up the atmosphere.
Letting back the sunroof, Geek popped out, adjusted his feet into the leather seats and started to return fire with his rifle. “They are gaining on us!” he screamed down to Bear.
Frustrated but maintaining his cool, Bear drove faster. Dirt and grime flew up against the windshield and the shitty wipers
weren’t doing a thing to clean them. “I’m going as fast as I can in this broke down piece of shit! Just pray, it doesn’t stop all together. You gotta get us some distance!” he yelled. “Get in the game. Slow their asses down!”
“On it,” Geek said, pulling a M67 grenade from his chest pocket. The wind beat against his face as he glared down at the incoming fire. “Come just a little closer,” he begged, measuring their distance from the insurgents. When he was certain that they were within 40 feet, he pulled the pin and deployed the grenade, launching it toward the Jeep full of men behind them.
A new transmission came in. “Bulldog Team, ETA is three mikes on that air support. Repeat, three mikes,” Captain Lawless said over the radio. “Paint your targets now!”
“Copy that,” Hound said, lighting up the trucks behind him with his red tracer laser. “Be advised, these motherfuckers are painted.”
“Grenade out!” Geek shouted, getting back on target at the lead vehicle.
The leading Jeep, gaining with every second, exploded behind them, illuminating the night sky as it tilted over and erupted in fire.
“One down, three to go,” Geek confirmed to both the Command Center and Bear.
“No fucking shit! Tell me when they’re all dead!” Bear screamed sarcastically, accelerating down the bend, splashing through the dirty, sand and water. He prayed quietly for the car not to give out, even though he could feel the engine lagging.
“Everybody, pass all of your grenades to Geek!” Brett screamed, shooting out of the back window and taking cover as bullets whizzed past them. “Geek, you keep lighting their asses up! Men, give him cover!” He wiped blood from his cut brow and slipped his sticky finger back over the trigger after he passed his team all of his grenades.
“Be advised. We have got a visual on you, Bulldog. Eagle Six is inbound.” Captain Lawless said as air support arrived on the scene.
Geek threw another grenade toward the three jeeps still following. In the distance, he saw air support release a strike on the house.
“They’re finally fucking here,” Geek screamed as the fighter jet advanced from the house toward them.
“Adios, motherfuckers,” Brett said, watching from the back seat as the fighter jet descended just below the back of the convoy of jeeps.
The fighter jet deployed heavy guns, plowing through the jeeps like paper. The vehicles exploded behind them as bodies blew out of the top of the jeeps and into the shallow river bend.
Bulldog Team moved as fast as they could out of the way. Bear pushed down on the gas until he reached max speed with Geek still wedged in the sunroof with his weapon, screaming to the top of his lungs.
“I can’t understand shit you’re saying!” Bear screamed to Geek.
“Bulldog, this is Eagle Six. We have finished our gun run. Threat neutralized. Helo inbound to extraction point. Confirm with command on ETA. Eagle Six out,” the pilot said, flying over them.
“God bless America!” Geek screamed out as he saluted the fighter jet.
The elation in the SUV was unmatched until Nabi came to. As he groggily gazed over at Brett, clueless as to what had just happened, Brett reached back with his last bit of his strength and punched him right in the mouth, breaking Nabi’s nose and knocking out his tooth. He grinned confidently. “Like I said, you’re coming with me, motherfucker.” With that last word, Brett fainted and fell into his friend.
Joe caught him and looked down at the pool of blood between them. Quickly, he got on the radio. “Bulldog to Nest! Bulldog Four is bleeding out! Expedite that extraction over! I’ve got a man seriously injured.”
David swallowed down his own personal concern as best he could, but suddenly, he felt a little nauseous. “Copy that,” he said over the radio. “We’re headed to you. ETA two minutes.” He got off the radio and wiped his face. “Get that fucking chopper there, right now,” he said, snatching off his earpiece.
Chapter 4
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
-2 Corinthians 4: 17-18 (NLT)
Nestled under an oversized beach umbrella, Courtney Black relaxed and basked in the mid-day sun with her brand new little baby, Bella. The cool wind coming in off the Atlantic Ocean felt sublime, and the tranquility of watching breathtaking emerald green waves roll into the sandy white beach below clear blue skies was both therapeutic and hypnotizing. Such colors, such life. She could have sat and took in God’s beauty for hours…just drifting off to a place where she didn’t have to think.
Think…think….All she did was think. The pursuit had become utterly exhausting.
Since Courtney had not heard from Brett in two days, she had to do something to take her mind off what could have been happening to him half way across the world. Sure, he had gone under the wire before and not been able to call her for a few days after an operation, and nothing about this time was any less routine than the times before. Still, for the last two days, she had not been able to sleep, and when she did, she had visions of him crying and alone.
In her dream, she would always reach out and try to help him, but she could never reach him, never touch him, and never make him hear her voice. Every night, the same dream. Every time, she’d wake up frantic, heart beating fast and sweating through her nightclothes. It was not a positive image to fixate on; and this beach was the only place in the world that seemed to drive away all of her bad thoughts.
So, she stayed here as much as possible, instead of lingering in her house, where she seemed to stalk her own phone, waiting for it to ring or staring at her computer praying for a Skype call.
With her small portable radio playing “Imagine Dragons”, she slowly read the latest edition of The Medlov Crime Family: Gabriel’s Revenge, while the baby sipped on her juice bottle and fell off into a peaceful sleep.
A sigh escaped her involuntarily. Mmm. This was pleasant enough.
True, she really wished she could catch some waves on her surfboard, but she’d get some surfing time in when her mother watched the baby tomorrow. For now, she was in a place of Zen.
Courtney had made coming down to Emerald Isle Beach as part of their daily adventures. She’d always packed them lunch, books, sun block and music to past the time away until her stepson, Cameron, got out of pre-school. To get a workout in, she’d strap Bella in a harness when the sun was hidden behind the clouds and get a brisk walk in to cut back on the baby fat she’d acquired with Bella’s birth.
She really wanted to be in top shape when Brett got home, considering he had never seen her so “chunky.” When he left, she was cut like a diamond with sinewy muscle and marble curves. Now, after nine months and a nine-pound baby, she was more water weight than anything. Plus, she had stretch marks. But that was another thought for another time.
There were other good points of Emerald Isle. The beach was also good for her mini-me. Bella didn’t seem to mind the sun or the waves. Courtney occasionally took her out in the water to introduce her to aquatic life. She would always giggle and wade in the water trying to pounce on the foam. Considering Courtney had been raised on beaches, she wanted her daughter to have the same empowering and exhilarating experiences. There was nothing like hunting for shells and building sand castles for little people. It was a place where children could let their imaginations soar – for that matter; it was a place that big people could enjoy as well.
The golden soft sand snuggled between her toes while she rocked Bella in her bouncy swing with one hand and held on to her book with the other.
They were nearly alone today. Off in the distance a few couples hung out under umbrellas or caught some sun, but for a mid-afternoon in the middle of the week, most people were at work, which was perfect for Courtney. She hated crowd
s almost as much as Brett and she didn’t have PTSD.
Just as she was about to set down her book and dig into the cooler for a Gatorade, she noticed a familiar figure coming her way. It was in his cool, confident stride and the way that his body angled dominantly in the sun’s glow that caught her attention. Linen shorts and a white cotton shirt clung to his meaty body. The formidable figure in the distance, with the shiny ball head, the six-foot four stature of muscle and brawn was her father.
Straining, she sat straight up and pulled off her shades. The sun made her eyes squint and water, but she was 99 percent sure that it was him.
“Daddy,” she said, loud enough for him to hear her. His head popped up at the sound of her voice. As soon as she spoke, Bella’s eyes shot open and she was fully awake. Giving a little cry, she threw down her bottle in the sand below.
Courtney’s heart sank down in her chest. Her heart began to beat rapidly. For as long as she had been coming to this beach, which far exceeded the time that she had been with Brett, her father had never shown his face here, and he lived right down the street in one of the posh luxury homes behind the infamous private gate.
She picked up the baby and cupped her in her arms as she walked toward him, unable to take another moment of the anticipation of why he was there.
“Do my eyes deceive me,” she said, bouncing Bella. “Are you finally deciding that fresh air and sun will do you some good or did Mom kick you out?” She tried to smile despite her worries.
Her father, retired Colonel Jeffery Lynn Lawless, was not one for theatrics. He raised his cell phone in his large right hand. “Found you on the Find My Phone App,” he explained, reaching for Bella. The baby instinctively cuddled herself in her grandfather’s warm embrace, melting his heart as she did so. “There’s my girl.” He kissed his granddaughter on her fat little rosy cheeks. “There’s my princess.”
Courtney frowned. “Daddy, how long have you been tracking me on that thing?”
The Lonely Hearts 06 The Grunt 2 Page 4