Free Operation Family by Marissa Dobson Page B

mission that changed the team forever.
    The minute they stepped out of their Humvee and headed to the door of what they were told was an informant’s house, the gunfire erupted all around them. There had been no safe place to take cover and the vehicle was too far. They hunkered down the best they could and returned fire. Every time they took out an insurgent, two more took its place. A fucking setup, and they were on their own. No backup was coming to get them out of the ambush they’d walked into. After twenty years in the military, he should have known better. Faulty intelligence got two of his men killed, another disabled, but it could have got them all killed.
    “Commander…” The urgency in Bad Billy’s tone cut through the gunfire.
    Mac had turned his head enough to glance at Bad Billy from the corner of his eye, and what he saw sent a new rush of anger through him. “Fuck!” He grabbed James’s ballistic vest and tugged him closer to the wall. Blood stained the ground around them red. “Rebel!”
    “I got him, Sir.” The team’s medic, Rebel, pulled his pack out and reached for the tourniquet first. “Stay with us, James, you hear me? Stay with us.” His tone held insistence; it was a demand, as if to tell James he had no other choice but to live. He hurriedly tied off the arteries to cut the blood flow.
    “Goddamn it, don’t you fucking die on me.” Mac looked around to assess the damage to his team. Two were missing. “Where’s—” He didn’t finish his sentence before Bad Billy pointed farther down the line.
    “Britt is in a bad place, but Rebel did what he could.”
    He glanced at Britt’s pale face. “Ace, Boom, get a smoke screen ready. We’ve got to get back to the Humvee. Rebel, can you move him?”
    “Don’t see a choice, Commander.” Rebel threw his equipment back in his pack.
    “Whiskey and I will get the others.” Bad Billy grabbed the fallen member of the team, leaving Whiskey to grab Britt.
    “Let’s go.” Mac nodded to Ace and Boom who had the smoke grenades ready.
    “Mac?” A soft female voice called through his thoughts. “Hey, are you okay?” She laid a hand on his shoulder and it took him a moment to realize it was Nicole.
    “Fine.” He closed his eyes and forced the memories back in the bottle he kept them in, stored away where they didn’t haunt him every second of the day.
    “I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you, I just didn’t know.” She leaned against the pillar, her gaze on the ground instead of looking at him.
    “Don’t worry about it.” He slid his thumb over the screen and brought the picture back up. “I failed my men, but I won’t fail you or the girls. That you have to believe.”
    “I don’t believe you failed them. Just in the few days you’ve been here I know you’re not the type of man who would be careless. You did everything you could to bring everyone home safe and in one piece.” She brushed against his shoulder with her fingertips, rubbing along the collarbone. “No one understands the cost of war better than the troops, but you have to remember what we’re fighting for. What your men died for.”
    “What’s that? Honestly, some days I wonder if I even know what we’re fighting for anymore. Even when the country isn’t at war, there’s always some mission. It should be to keep our country safe, but it seems like every time we make our land a little safer, another threat pops up. Will we ever have a safe world for Gabriella and Sophia to be raised in?” He tipped his head, pressing the side of his face against the back of her hand. “Even after losing my men, I didn’t doubt we were fighting for a better future. Now I look at those two little girls and think of how many children have lost their parents because of war.” What if I’m the next casualty?
    “No one understands the losses more than you and the others who serve, but in the end, isn’t our country worth it? Nine-eleven started this