A Soldier's Heart (2 page)

Finally, he spotted Nick. The dumbass had broken every damn protocol he’d practically beaten into every man under his command. He was at least two blocks ahead of his nearest backup armed with just his rifle and a sidearm. It looked as if there was at least one man down near a smoldering truck, but it was hard to pick out many details from this distance. To complicate things, there had to be half a dozen or more shooters on the rooftops between Spence and where Nick was pinned down.

Leif stopped and looked back up at Spence. Using hand signals, he made it clear what he needed Spence to do. God help them both. The distance between this building and the next was within jumping distance, but just barely. And for the time Spence was in the air, he’d make a damn fine target.

He took off running, hitting the next roof in a controlled roll and came up firing. He kept shooting until he had to reload. Leif had taken cover inside a doorway, but once Spence started shooting again, he charged down the street running full out. He skidded to a halt behind an upturned cart to reload. By the time he came up firing, a handful of the enemy had emerged on the far side of where Nick was pinned down.

Leif screamed in rage and took off running, firing in short bursts. Two of the enemy fell to the ground, while the other three immediately retreated. Only one made it to cover.

More men poured out onto the rooftop, spreading out along the street side of the roof. Spence paused only long enough to catch them up on the situation.

“Sergeant Jenkins is pinned down with at least one wounded man two blocks down the street. Corporal Brevik is moving in to assist. The rest of you provide cover so I can go help him.”

That was the most positive spin he could put on things for now. The good news was that a sniper and his spotter were among the newcomers. They immediately picked the best position and set about evening up the odds.

“Kelly, you and Kowalski on my six.”

By the time Spence got back down on the street, the sniper and his buddies were lighting the place up, drawing the enemy’s attention in their direction. Spence and his companions took off running after Leif and Nick, using what little cover they could find. Before he’d gone more than ten feet, a spray of bullets hit the wall just over his head. He dove for cover, breathing hard and counting all of his body parts.

“Son of a bitch!”

Another burst of fire from the rooftop above ended with a scream.

“Spence, you’re clear!”

He was about to go forward, when he heard Leif shouting.

“Hold your positions! We’re coming back your way!”

Spence and the others took advantage of the scant protection offered by a low wall, focusing on keeping the last of the enemy resistance pinned down while Leif and Nick half-carried, half-dragged a wounded man between them. Spence zeroed in on the blood dripping from Leif’s left arm.

“How bad is it?”

Leif actually looked surprised to realize he’d even been hit. He pulled up his shirtsleeve far enough to check. He had a shallow groove running along the outside of his upper arm, the kind of wound that bled like crazy, painful but not life threatening.

“Is anyone else trapped up there?”

Nick shook his head. “He’s the last one. The two of us hung back to provide additional cover while the others withdrew to safety. We’d almost gotten clear when Alden here took a hit.”

Spence took Leif’s place in supporting the wounded man as they carried him back to safety. The other men played rearguard until they reached the entrance to an alley that provided enough cover for them all to run full out for the next street over.

As they ran, Leif called in their location and asked for a medic for the wounded man and himself. Reinforcements were waiting for them. After making sure the wounded were seen to, Spence rejoined the mop-up efforts, relieved he had a target for his anger other than Nick. The stupid bastard had almost gotten himself killed, not to mention Leif as well.

Later, when Spence had had time to cool down, they were going to have words. And if that didn’t get his message across, his fists would.

Spence waited outside while Leif got his arm patched up. He’d be off duty for a few days, but otherwise was expected to make a quick recovery. The other poor bastard wasn’t quite so lucky. Rumor was Alden was in store for some big-time surgery but that he was expected to make it. The wound would be his ticket home, most likely after being evacuated to a hospital in Germany first.

The good news was that the rest of the convoy had made it back without any other major injuries. With that happy thought, Spence started to take another lap around the building to walk off the last of his adrenaline rush. By the time he and Leif got back to their quarters, he should be ready to crash for the night.

Nick was busy reporting in on what had gone down, for which Spence could only be grateful. As agitated as he was right now, the sergeant was the last person he needed to be around. Tomorrow would be time enough to have a little discussion about what the hell was going on inside Nick’s thick skull.

Spence kept walking, trying to focus on something other than how close he’d come to losing both of his friends. He pulled out his keys and fingered the small silver orca that he carried as a good luck charm. Callie had bought it for him right before he had deployed the first time. He’d teased her about it at the time, but he’d come home from Iraq in one piece. So far, his luck had held in Afghanistan.

The charm was a reminder of the whale-watching tour she’d dragged him on while he’d been home on leave. He’d groused about going, telling her that if he’d wanted to spend time on a damn boat he would’ve joined the Navy instead of the Army. As it turned out, he’d had a great time. The day had been sunny and warm as the boat made its way up Puget Sound through the San Juan Islands where the local pods of orcas made their home.

He could still hear Callie’s joyous laughter when one of the big males had flipped onto its back to swim directly under where they stood on the boat. Then the enormous animal had breached, sending up a huge spray of water, clearly enjoying the day as much as the people clustered along the railing of the boat. Spence would never forget the amazing sight or the way Callie had hugged him afterward.

Yeah, watching the orcas frolic and play in the water had been a great way to spend his last day before leaving to rejoin his unit, but it wouldn’t have mattered what they’d done that day. The real reason those precious hours had been special was that he’d spent them with Callie.

She’d been his best friend since grade school, and they’d remained close despite bouncing all over the place with their jobs. He’d enlisted in the Army after two years at the community college while Callie had earned a degree in computer technology. Since graduating, she’d taken jobs with various companies working to beef up their computer security. Right now she was living in Portland, Oregon. Before that, she’d been in Spokane. By the time his deployment ended, there was no telling where she’d be.

But no matter where she was living, he planned to spend his next leave with her and see what happened. He’d yet to decide whether to reenlist again although his original plan had been to make the Army his career. A lot would depend on what Callie thought about the idea and if she was willing to take their relationship beyond a casual friendship.

He turned the last corner just in time to see Leif walk out the front door. Spence broke into a run.

“Yo, Leif! Wait up!”

Falling into step with the man, Spence asked, “How’s the arm? What did the medic say?”

His friend grimaced as he gingerly flexed his biceps. “It hurts like a bitch, but I’m holding off taking a pain pill until we get back to our quarters where I can pass out in the comfort of my own rack. The doc says to keep an eye out for infection, but otherwise I should be fine in a few days.”

Then he frowned and looked around. “No Nick?”

Yeah, it pissed Spence off that the sergeant wasn’t there to check on Leif, too. “Uh, he had to stay behind to report in. I’m guessing he’ll be waiting for us back at our quarters.”

Leif cut loose with a string of curse words that ended with: “That bastard is lucky that my arm is too sore to punch him. It’s only pure damn luck he’s alive right now.”

He wasn’t saying anything Spence hadn’t thought himself. “Well, I’ve got two good hands, so I can do any punching that needs to be done. Right now, all I want to do is stuff some of those pills down your throat and grab some shut-eye myself. Tomorrow will be soon enough to confront Nick.”

Leif nodded. “Sounds good, but I can tell you one thing—either he straightens out or I’m going over his head. At the rate he’s going, he’s going to get himself killed and us right along with him.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, my man.”

When they got back to their quarters, there was no sign of Nick. Spence couldn’t muster up enough energy to worry about what was taking him so long. If there was a problem, someone would’ve said something. Eventually the jerk would turn up.

Until then, Spence helped Leif get settled and then sought out his own bunk. With one last thought about Callie’s smile, he drifted off to sleep.

•   •   •

“He’s still gone.”

Spence sat up and looked around. He was about to agree with Leif’s assessment, but then he noticed a pile of dirty clothes on the floor by Nick’s bunk that hadn’t been there when they’d turned in.

“No, it looks like he’s been here and gone again.”

Leif sat upon the side of his bed. “I’m surprised you slept through it.”

“Me, too.”

But on second thought, maybe he wasn’t. After an adrenaline rush burned off, he usually crashed big time and slept like the dead. He crawled out of bed and stretched.

“How’s the arm?”

Leif shrugged. “I’ll live.”

“Good thing because I’m not putting up with Nick by myself. Now haul your ass out of your rack and get dressed. I want breakfast.”

Spence waited long enough to make sure Leif was up and moving before he got dressed himself. While he straightened his bed, he kept an eye on Leif in case he needed help and was too proud to ask for it. Other than a few choice words when he bent down to lace up his boots, Leif managed by himself.

They stepped outside into the bright sunshine and headed for the mess. As they filled their plates and took a seat, Spence mulled over the best way to handle their current situation.

Leif sipped his coffee and gave Spence a pointed look. “Wheels, it’s way too early to be thinking that hard. You need to be careful before you short out the last few functioning brain cells you have.”

“Screw you,” Spence said with no real heat. After a few bites of his meal, he explained, “I’m trying to think back to when our boy went off the tracks. Seems to me he was fine one moment and then nuts the next.”

Leif nodded. “If I remember, it was a couple of weeks ago right after our mail was delivered. I remember it because he was giving you such a bad time for not sharing enough of the cookies even though he’d gotten a package from his mom at the same time. Everything seemed fine, but then a minute later, he got up and walked out without a word. He’s been a pain in the ass ever since.”

That sounded right. “So he got a letter with bad news in it.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant. Spence was sure that if it was a problem with Nick’s parents, he would have said something. His mom was good about sending food for Nick to share with his friends. Just a few days ago, he’d gotten a box crammed full of packs of hard candies and trail mix. Check family problems off the list.

That left girl trouble. It was damn hard to maintain a long distance relationship for the duration of a deployment. Text messages, phone calls, and e-mails helped but weren’t the same as a warm body held close at night. Add in multiple deployments, and the problems only escalated.

He met Leif’s gaze across the table. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“As scary as that idea is, yeah, I am. But there’s no use in jumping to conclusions. When we get back, we’ll toss his bunk and see if we can find any answers. Failing that, we’ll corner him about what happened yesterday and see what he says.”

Spence finished the last of his coffee. “You know he won’t much like us shoving our noses in the middle of his business.”

Leif snorted. “So what? He’s never been shy about butting into ours.”

True, but this was different somehow. Yet what choice did they have? Their buddy was in a downward spiral, one that could end badly for Nick, not to mention them.

His decision made, Spence shoved his tray back. “Let’s go. Maybe we’ll be lucky, and he’ll stay gone long enough for us to get some answers.”

Leif followed him back outside rubbing his arm again. “Lucky or not, the son of a bitch owes us an explanation even if we have to beat it out of him.”

Spence grinned for the first time all day. “I’ll hold him while you get in the first few punches.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

•   •   •

Their luck held long enough for Spence to find a well-worn piece of mail tucked under Nick’s mattress. There was nothing special about the envelope other than it was one of those security kind designed to prevent anyone from being able to read through it. Spence knew that for certain after holding it up to the light to see what he could make out about the contents. Otherwise, the handwriting looked decidedly feminine, another clue that they were on the right trail. There was no return address, but the postmark was from Nick’s hometown.

“Should we read it?”

The hesitation in Leif’s voice echoed Spence’s own feelings on the subject. Worrying about their friend was one thing, but somehow opening that envelope smacked more of betrayal. He wanted to help Nick to snap out of his funk; he didn’t want to ruin their friendship in the process.

“No, not unless you think we should. Here, you do it.”

Spence held it out to Leif, who held his hands up in the air and danced back a few steps, refusing to touch it. “No way. This was your idea.”

“Okay, fine. We’ll put it back and resort to Plan B.”

Leif lowered his hands and moved closer again. “Which is?”

Spence’s answered with a grin that had little to do with happiness. “We beat the truth out of him.”

His friend smiled back. “I definitely like Plan B.”

But just as Spence was about to shove the letter back where he’d found it, the door opened and Nick walked in. It didn’t take him long to assess the situation.

“What the fuck are you two doing?”