Phoenix (The Bellator Saga Book 4)

by Cecilia London

  “Jonesie’s been taking all their money,” Crunch said.

  Jones leaned back in his seat, folding his hands behind his head. “Can’t help it if I have a good poker face.”

  “Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t tell them I was friends with you,” Caroline said.

  He smiled. “Nah, I already told them. Folks around here know we’re your posse.”

  She threw a napkin at him. “Is that how we’re gonna roll once training is over?”

  Jones shrugged and packed up his tray. “Seems like a solid idea to me. I gotta get going. Collect my winnings. Boone owes me a few bucks. Had a great hand last night.” He nudged Caroline. “Keep up the good work. That pie was fucking awesome.”

  Caroline sighed as the other men stood up and said their goodbyes. Jones got to pick up a wad of cash and go back to his apartment and rest. Gig and Gabe would probably hang out and watch some TV with Crunch. Meanwhile she was stuck peeling another round of potatoes for breakfast. “Later,” she said.

  * * * * *

  “Major?” Jones said. “They made you a fucking major?”

  He sounded as incredulous as she felt. Caroline stared down at the paper. “This has to be a mistake.” She turned to Gabe. “What’d you get?”

  “Lieutenant,” he said.

  “And the rest of you?” she asked.

  “Corporal,” Jones said.

  Crunch glanced at his paper again. “Corporal.”

  Gig grinned at her. “Sergeant.”

  At least one person got what he wanted. It wasn’t the most sophisticated system but the rebellion assigned ranks via memo after the completion of basic training. While Caroline had enjoyed her time with Boone in the cafeteria, being granted an unreasonably high rank after eight weeks seemed like a huge stretch.

  “This can’t be right,” she said. “It has to be an administrative error.”

  Gabe waved his paper at her. “I doubt it. You were way ahead of me in everything so it makes sense.”

  There was only one explanation for this. “I need to talk to the commander,” she said.

  “We were gonna get lunch,” Gabe said. “Maybe celebrate.”

  Caroline shook her head, already turning in the direction of the main building. “I have to take care of something first.”

  She managed to keep her tone neutral when she arrived at the commander’s office, and after a bit of resistance Schroeder allowed her inside. And there Jack was, sitting in a tall leather chair, his back to the window, smiling at her as she walked through his office door. Damn him.

  Caroline told herself to keep her temper. Told herself that any rational person would be thrilled, wouldn’t see the conspiracies in everything. Told herself to start the conversation with a false pleasantry instead of jumping in like a hothead. And she failed. “I told you I didn’t want any special treatment,” she said.

  Jack leaned back in his chair, the smile still plastered to his face. “You think I had something to do with the results of your training assessment.”

  Yes. “Didn’t you?”

  “I don’t do anything other than sign off on recommendations.”

  She found that extremely hard to believe. “You didn’t have a hand in it at all?”

  He rocked back and forth. The rat bastard was enjoying himself a little too much. “No.”

  “Then how-”

  “Your instructors had much more contact with you than I did,” Jack said. “Not that I’m particularly happy about that fact. But all of them said the same thing.”

  “And what was that?”

  His smile grew wider. “I am not at liberty to say.”

  Her husband’s diffident attitude bordered on unbearable. “You rigged this, Jack. Don’t deny it.”

  “I didn’t rig anything, Major,” he said, and this time he sounded a little angry. “You’re complaining about a position you earned. I can’t believe this.”

  She’d spent half of her officer candidate school doing glorified KP duty in the cafeteria. “I didn’t earn anything.”

  “You did,” Jack said.

  “There are maybe a handful of majors here.”

  “There are five, including you.”

  And four of them were his fucking advisors. That was some seriously shady math. “So I get to waltz into that rank without any further requirements?”

  “You went through the same training everyone else did.”

  Sure. “Has anyone else ever been assigned such a high rank straight out of training?”

  Jack busied himself with some papers on his desk. “No.”

  “Let me make sure I have this correct. You come here and they automatically make you their commander. I get here and they put me almost as high up as you on the food chain, no questions asked.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” he said. “Your instructors analyzed your progress every step of the way. If you wanted to be in charge and partnered with me, all you had to do was say the word when you first arrived.” He paused. “But you didn’t. So this is what you get instead.”

  She didn’t want to be in charge. She didn’t want to be partnered with him. But she wasn’t sure what she wanted instead. “And you had no part in the decision making at all?”

  “No.” He smirked. “I still outrank you, if it makes you feel any better.”

  If he hoped for deference he wasn’t going to get it. Not any more than she owed him out of respect for his supposed position. “So, realistically, being a major is almost the same as being enlisted.”

  Jack sighed. “No, it’s not. Ranks are relatively arbitrary. This is a reflection of the respect your trainers think you deserve. This isn’t the actual military. But we do have ways of telling people how we feel about their potential and abilities. Your trainers and I agree that you should be leading other soldiers, not following behind someone else.”

  Caroline folded her arms across her chest. The rumor mills. The assumptions about the few women on the base. The assignments the rest of her classmates received. It didn’t take a genius to see how this would play out, and it seemed like a crapfest for her. “People are going to think I got ranked this highly because of my relationship with you.”

  “What relationship? The one where you regard me with cool detachment or the one where you barely speak to me unless you’re biting my head off?”

  He was bitter. She didn’t much care. “You know what I mean.”

  Jack cracked his knuckles. “No matter what I say, you’re not going to believe me. So what’s the point? I don’t know why you aren’t happy about this. Do you want me to make you a grunt instead?”

  It did have its appeal. She wouldn’t have to think as much. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re worthy of an officer position and you know it.”

  Well, that was a little insulting to the rest of the troops. “You think those enlisted men are a bunch of losers, don’t you?”

  “I didn’t say that. If you truly feel that way, your opinion of me must be much lower than I assumed. You know what I meant.”

  “Those lower level positions are important. And they need to be filled by someone.”

  He cocked his head at her. “That’s true. But they don’t have to be filled by someone who was a keynote speaker at a national political convention, who served three terms in Congress, who has chaired committees and served with distinction for a number of nonprofits. You excelled in your military training over the last few weeks. Your skills are wasted on anything other than a leadership position.”

  “What about other people who deserve leadership positions, who’ve been left in the dust? What about them?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  If he was going to pander to her with some bullshit rank she didn’t deserve, she was going to call him out on his hypocrisy. “Boone runs the entire cafeteria,” she said. “He’s in charge of at least thirty different men. Do you know his rank?”

  She’d caught him by surprise. He sh
ifted in his chair. “No.”

  Caroline found his feigned ignorance laughable. “He’s a sergeant,” she said. “A sergeant. And I can’t imagine why he’s not an officer. He’s not even a higher ranking NCO. Can you imagine why?”

  Jack stood up so quickly it almost scared her. “Are you accusing me of being racist?”

  “No,” she said. “Just misguided. You promote the people who look like you. Every single officer on this base is a white male with only a handful of exceptions.”

  “Dr. Haddad is a captain,” he said.

  “Oh, good for you,” Caroline said. “You’ve got three or four female officers, one of whom happens to be of Middle Eastern descent. What a rainbow coalition we are.”

  He sat back down, probably because he was about to start yelling at her. “What would you like me to do?”

  “I don’t want you to do anything,” she said. “I want you to think about why things are the way they are here. Why the enlisted ranks are heavily minority and they have absolutely no officers who look like them. Maybe ponder that for a while.”

  He wrote something down on a legal pad. “I will.”

  Jack sounded like he was going to listen to her. She had no idea if that was good or bad, so she stayed silent.

  “Do you still want me to demote you?” he asked. “You stormed your way through training, your fellow officers and trainees respect you, the cafeteria staff adores you, and you get along well with the other troops. Enjoy it.”

  Oh, yeah. Because she enjoyed so many things. Being a major sounded as decadent as chocolate cake. “I don’t want people to think I got this because of who I am.”

  Jack shoved the legal pad into a drawer. “I assure you, no one is thinking that. Take this and run with it. Don’t worry about what anyone thinks. It hasn’t driven any of your behavior before now.”

  “This has nothing to do with who I am?”

  “No.”

  “Nothing to do with anything I’ve done prior to arriving here.”

  He smiled. “Maybe a little. You did start this whole thing.”

  “Nothing to do with my relationships with any of the other people I came here with.”

  The smile faded. “Of course not, but I should point out that you and Lieutenant Morton are in separate units. Although our rules about fraternization are pretty loose, it would be in poor taste for you to run around with a man whose rank is significantly lower than yours.”

  The fog cleared. “That’s what this is about? Trying to keep me away from Gabe?”

  “No. But it’s a nice ancillary benefit.”

  Caroline bit her tongue. Conceited, arrogant, infuriating asshole. She knew if she said what she wanted to say to him, she’d end up in the cafeteria peeling potatoes all the damn time, high rank or not.

  “Fine,” she said. “Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. It’s been enlightening.”

  Jack resumed shuffling the papers on his desk. Smug bastard. He sat there for a minute before standing up and crossing his arms. “Good day, Major.”

  Oh, that was how he was going to play it. He dictated the conversation and he decided when it was over. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t asked for it, but fuck him anyway. It seemed a little unnecessary to render a salute but what the hell. If he wanted her to defer to him, she’d play his little game. Maybe it would mess with his head a little. Sure enough, his expression led her to believe that her physical acknowledgment of his authority caught him off guard.

  “Commander,” she nodded, turning around and leaving before he could return the gesture.

  Chapter Eleven

  Just as Jack had pointed out during their conversation, Gabe and Caroline led separate units made up mostly of their fellow trainees. Despite her time in the cafeteria, Caroline led a combat unit, which was fine with her. Units were small and everyday duties proved rather boring. Most of the more stimulating activities had been demonstrated during their eight week initiation, and after that everyone sat around twiddling their fingers hoping something exciting would happen. When they were ordered to report to a meeting room after lunch one afternoon, Jones told Caroline he was convinced their time had come.

  “Heard a rumor they’re planning some shit,” he said. “When that happens they hunt for volunteers.”

  Well, that sounded obscure. “What kind of shit?”

  He grinned. “Super secret squirrel shit, Princess. The kind we’ve been waiting for.”

  She’d heard about the rebellion’s occasional forays into enemy territory to do little disruptive things here and there. Maybe they were planning something bigger. Being proactive did sound appealing. “Guerrilla warfare?”

  Gig twirled his fork. Their days might have been slow but he always enjoyed when they got to blow stuff up and strategize. It was good to have him as her right hand man. “Is there any other kind?” he asked.

  “Shit,” Caroline said. “What the fuck are we waiting for?” She grinned at Gabe and Crunch. It would be fun to see the show. “Let’s get our asses over there.”

  * * * * *

  It hadn’t taken long. The pushing and shoving as eager soldiers filtered into the room. The authoritative voice of a major followed by a smooth speech from a silver haired man. The call to action. Not too many details were given, but a rescue mission was described. One that was vitally important to the continuation of the rebellion. The mention of an operative in need of assistance. The possibility of a journey across the border. The request for a brave unit to undertake a risky venture without any real explanation of the danger.

  Caroline had expected all of that. But she hadn’t expected Lieutenant Gabriel Morton to immediately raise his hand and offer his team to the task. And for the commander to accept said offer with only the briefest of hesitations. Gabe’s unit cheered and clapped each other on the back. The room let out a collective whoop.

  Caroline remained silent, sitting in a chair in the corner until the other soldiers filtered out. Gabe said his goodbyes to the well-wishers and came over to her when he was finished.

  “Walk you back to your place?” he asked.

  She nodded and he followed her lead, not speaking again until she opened the door to her apartment.

  “Go ahead,” he said. “I know you’re itching to say something.”

  Where should she start? “Gabe, you don’t have to do this. We just got here.”

  “I have to,” he said. “When that door opens you gotta walk through it. I’ve fooled around my entire life and now I can make up for it.”

  “You could have waited a little longer.” A few weeks. Months. Years, even. Why did it have to be him?

  “How many times have you risked your neck for something that was important to you?” he demanded. “This is my time now.”

  She shook off that statement. She’d done a very good job of blocking things out lately and was determined to keep it that way. “This is a bad idea, Gabe. You’re not – this is dangerous.”

  “When has anything any of us has done lately been something other than dangerous?”

  Point taken. “It’s so soon. We’ve only been here a few months. We’re barely out of training.”

  “You can’t train for guts, Caroline. There’s no real timetable for these things. When decisions need to be made and shit goes down, you have to be ready. Right?”

  He wanted to go. She saw it in his eyes. He hadn’t felt obligated, hadn’t felt he needed to prove anything. He was willing to take whatever came his way and she had the sinking feeling it would be nothing good. Missions that came with few details were usually high risk. Caroline squeezed his hand. “I don’t want you to do this.”

  “I know. But if you were in my shoes, you’d do the same thing.”

  Without question. But she wasn’t nearly as rational as he was. “Probably.”

  Gabe kissed the back of her hand. “It’ll be fine. I promise.”

  He’d never done that before, initiate affection. Not aside from that one misguided attemp
t at a kiss. She must have done a shitty job of hiding her fear. Caroline pulled away from him. “I’m not naïve enough to listen to promises that can’t be kept.”

  Gabe took her hand again. “But you’re smart enough to realize that whatever life gives you, you take it. Whether you want it or not. You’ll be fine, Caroline. All of us will. No matter how this turns out.”

  He made it sound like there was no way he was coming back. Did he know something she didn’t? Unwelcome tears poked at her eyes. “Gabe, I-”

  “Don’t,” he said quietly.

  “I have to,” she said. “I’d be dead if it weren’t for you. And I don’t-”

  “Stop. You don’t have to tell me the things you think I want to hear. I just want to spend time with you before I leave. Is that okay?”

  Caroline smiled unsteadily. She’d give him every spare minute she had for as long as she could. She owed him that much. “Okay.”

  * * * * *

  Jack liked to see the troops off before every mission. It was hard to think of them as his. He never thought he’d be in a position to command soldiers. The Pennsylvania National Guard didn’t count, for that position was purely ceremonial. He was no military man; he had no background in strategy or troop formation or anything else that mattered in the armed forces. He knew what he was and accepted his limitations. The men and women who served below him had far more courage than he and enough tact not to say it out loud.

  He didn’t like Gabe Morton but the man had courage. Or stupidity, depending on perspective. And he knew how to lead if the feedback from Jack’s advisors was any indication. Though Morton never could keep eye contact with him, like he was keeping a secret he was dying to tell. Jack wasn’t surprised that the lieutenant was the first to raise his hand when he called for volunteers. Truth be told, he was mostly glad the man did it before his wife got the same idea.

  Morton’s unit was small like most of the others. Six troops. Half a dozen. A handful of men being sent off on an assignment that was as quick as it was hazardous. In and out, as they said. Jack hoped to hell they made it out.