Free Double Cross (Hard Target Book 1) by Silver James Page A

breath.
    “Takes more than that little misadventure to kill us, dude.”
    He could suddenly breathe again, but now he wanted to know everything. His nerve endings were all but buzzing in the bubble of silence surrounding the three of them as they continued down the sidewalk. They continued in a slow amble, but now the traffic noise was louder.
    “We figured you were dead too, Duke. You and your princess.” Tank’s low voice rumbled like the delivery truck passing by.
    “Then you know she’s real.”
    “Roger that, but we couldn’t say anything. Not in your room. It’s bugged.”
    “Are you shittin’ me?”
    “Not about serious crap, boss. The boy found the microphones and the camera in less than five. Impressed even me.”
    Dalton took up the tale. “That night, at the river. By the time we realized the UVAs were there, it was too late. The first missile had already hit. Tank and I ducked, but I saw you with the doc headed toward water. We hit the water not far behind you. Tank saw you go under when the second Griffin hit.”
    “Yeah. Figured you’d float the doc out of the way and come back. We snagged a submerged log and waited. Took awhile before the drones left. When we came out of the water, we found out why.” Tank’s voice turned to gravel. “They were all dead. Except Wilco. We couldn’t find him. Still haven’t.”
    “I had his dog tags. In my pocket. What happened to my clothes?”
    “We’ll find them, boss. What happened to Wilco?”
    “Don’t know for sure. The prince—Cory…she found him. He was dead, legs blown off. She collected his tags and shoved him back into the water.”
    “Fuck, Duke. Why the hell did she do that?” Dalton’s anger heated the words to scorching.
    “I was wounded, Dalton. Blind. She got me under cover, went back to the river to get water. She couldn’t bury him. She couldn’t leave him in plain sight. She did the best she could.”
    Duke heard the man rub his head. “She took off. Just left you.”
    “No. She didn’t.” Duke might have holes in his memory, but he was positive of that. They continued to walk around the perimeter of the hospital while he told them his side of the story. “I remember Boomer’s call. I remember being on the helo. I remember her kissing me goodbye. She’s out there, but she didn’t leave me. I’d be dead without her.” He finished to stunned silence.
    A few minutes later, Tank spoke. “We looked downstream a mile or so, but found no sign of you. The drones came back so we went under and headed upstream. Found a UN Aid convoy and caught a ride to Khartoum. Walked up to the marines on the gate, introduced ourselves, and we were back in the US a few days later. We reported to a very surprised Commander Allen.”
    Dalton interrupted. “Yeah, dude had been told we’d all died. Interesting that.”
    “Yeah. Interesting.” Duke’s energy was flagging, but his brain was humming. “Nothing is adding up.”
    “We’ve noticed.” Tank stopped pushing Duke’s chair. “Those were American UVAs.”
    Dropping to his haunches beside the chair, Dalton added, “And it wasn’t a friendly fire fuck-up.”
    “What now, Duke?” Tank sounded lost, odd for the big man.
    “I wish to hell I knew.”

Chapter 8
     
    TEN MONTHS. It took him ten months to finally park his ass at the bar in Mother Goose’s. The first three of those months he barely remembered. The other seven were spent dealing with blood, sweat, and finally tears. By a long and circuitous route, Duke had found his way back to Key West.
    “Here. Have a glass of self-pity.” Mother herself slid a glass of scotch in front of Duke. He knew what she was doing by the sound of glass scraping on wood and the smoky scent of the alcohol.
    “Not what I’m drinking.” He couldn’t even work up the energy to reach for the sweating beer bottle at his elbow. The jukebox added to his pissy mood by playing Cole Swindell’s “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey.” And wasn’t that