Under Fire (Elite Force #3)(58)
Author: Catherine Mann

And why wouldn’t he back off? He’d gone overboard in “protecting” her. He’d made his point by ensuring they both didn’t forget the obstacles in front of them.

As if she already didn’t know how much they both had working against them once they left this place and returned to the real world.

***

Liam stepped out onto the porch alongside Cuervo. With the moonless night and thick sheet of rain pouring off the roof, there wasn’t much to see beyond the cabin. Wind howled through the trees, drowning out the bugs and bullfrogs for once.

He leaned against a post beside his teammate standing guard. “Are you through trying to make me lose my shit?”

Cuervo peeled spooned lo mein out of an MRE packet. “You shouldn’t make your vulnerability so obvious.” He looked at the closed cabin door. “Where’s Rachel?”

“She ran screaming in the other direction,” Liam snapped. “What did you expect, after your little mind game in there?”

“Quit trying to make me feel guilty for stating the obvious. Where is she? Seriously.” He shoveled in another bite.

“She’s gone back to the bedroom, trying to catch some sleep while it’s raining.” He wanted to make sure Rachel didn’t overtax herself. She’d been open about her burnout. Seeing Harris offered up a harsh reminder of just how no one was immune from a breakdown. Would this mission help her return to her old drive, or was it too much, too soon?

“Smart to rest up while she can.”

“First rule of a good warrior. Never stand when you can sit and never sit when you can sleep.”

“You know it.” Cuervo dropped the spoon into the brown plastic container, all humor fading from his lean face. “Are you really going to get out of the air force?”

Ah, so that’s where the kid had been going with all the games and chitchat in there. He’d been attempting to get a handle on what Liam had in store for the future to see if Rachel had anything to do with recent decisions.

“It’s not like I’m quitting. I’m retiring.” Liam pulled out the crackers and packet of processed cheese spread from the MRE box. “The military lets you retire at twenty years for a reason. This job is hard on a body, as my creaky knees can attest. I’ve been in for twenty years. It’s time.”

“I forget sometimes that you enlisted at eighteen. That you even went to college while on active duty. The civilian world is going to seem—”

“Alien? Quiet?” He forced down a fear that rivaled anything he’d felt on the battlefield. “Yeah.”

He squeezed the cheese out onto the cracker and stuffed it in his mouth. Tasted like crap but it was familiar. Safe to eat.

Safe.

The word tripped him up.

When had he started playing life safe?

Cuervo rolled up his empty food pouch. “We need the ones like you to stick around, the ones who put everything into the job. Too often it’s the jackasses who only look after themselves that stay in. And how bad does that suck for those of us still left?”

“Is that what this is all about? Scaring Rachel off and convincing me to stay in the service so some jackass isn’t in charge?”

“The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can have Rachel and the career.”

Liam stared the kid down. “How old are you again? Twelve? Thirteen?” Anger roiled in his gut. As if the decision to leave the service had been made lightly.

“No disrespect meant.” Cuervo stood taller, an invisible wall forming between them as surely as if the rain had started pouring through a crack in the porch roof.

Liam shook off his shitty mood. No good would come from taking it out on Cuervo. Wasn’t his fault. “Hey, kid, seriously. I’m old. It’s my time to step out of the field whether I stay in or not. Would you really be content to hang out in some war room watching the action go down live on a big screen?”

“Honestly, they’ll have to bury me before I would quit.” The darkness in the younger man’s eyes made him look decades older.

Liam angled off the porch post and clapped the junior team member on the arm. “Don’t joke around about crap like that.”

“Without the missions”—Jose shook his head—“I don’t have anything else. Don’t want anything else.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’ve read my file.” His throat moved in a hard swallow. “It’s all in there.”

And it was, the real reason no one ever saw Jose James with a drink in his hand, the sad irony behind his call sign, Cuervo. “You had a drinking problem, but you completed the rehab program. At our last feedback session, everything seemed cool. Or is there something you need to talk about?”

“I’m dry. Solid for today. One day at a time, you know?” Jose’s hand slipped into his pocket and he stared at his five-year-sober coin, flipping it between his fingers. “This job keeps me level, gives me discipline and a reason to stay that way.”

“And you’re sure you’re not having a problem I need to know about?”

“Seriously, I’m cool. If I’m ever having a rough patch, I just run another marathon.” He laughed darkly. “I’ve never been healthier.”

“In reading your file, I learned a lot more that you can be proud of. You broke a family cycle of alcoholism. It stops with you. That’s huge, man.” Liam dug up every ounce of insight he’d gained from all those marital-counseling sessions. It came in handy sometimes when leading his team. “Your nieces and nephews, your own kids someday, they can look to you as an example of how life can be.”

“Thank you. Your opinion means a lot to me.” More of that humidity-filled silence hung in the air before Cuervo continued. “Although, I still think it’s utter horseshit that you’re retiring, dude.”

Liam let the tension roll off and smiled. “That’s still ‘dude, sir’ to you for now.”

Laughing, they settled back into the routine of just hanging out. No need to talk. They’d spent hours on training ops and missions, silent, waiting, watching. He would miss this most of all, the team, mentoring.

But he couldn’t dwell on that. Cuervo’s words would have to roll right off like the rain sheeting from the roof. For now, he had his final mission to complete before he could move forward with Rachel. She was his future. And God help him if he screwed up with Rachel in what was clearly the chance of a lifetime.