Lean on Me (25 page)

“
Samantha,” John said. “She
wanted to know what was going on.”

“
What’s happening in the
photo?” Alex asked.

“
Raz is crying, weeping
more like, tears down his face. His eyes are closed and he’s
holding onto you,” John said. “You’re holding his head against your
shoulder. It’s very sweet.”

“
Sami’s not going to think
so,” Alex said.

“
I didn’t say she thought
it was sweet,” he said. “I thought it was sweet.”

“
It’s funny because Raz has
texted and talked to Sami,” Alex said. “She hasn’t said
anything.”

“
You know what she’s like,”
John said. “She’s waiting to spring it on him so she’ll get a more
honest response.”

“
I wonder when that’s ever
worked,” Alex said.

“
You can’t blame the girl
for trying,” John said. “I think she genuinely fancies
him.”

“
That’s good because the
feeling is mutual,” Alex said.

“
I know,” he
smiled.

He fell silent, and for a moment, they
looked at each other.

“
This is not going to be
very fun, is it?” John asked.

Alex shook her head in a “no.”

“
I’ll be here when you get
back,” he said.

“
Thanks.”

“
Will I talk to you again?”
he asked.

“
Most of this trip is plane
flight,” Alex said. “I’ll call every night. You can call me
too.”

“
And you’ll answer the
phone?”

Alex nodded.

“
Well, that’s it then,” he
said. “I should sleep. You should sleep. I miss you, my love. Come
home.”

“
I love you,” she
said.

He waved his hand and was gone. They’d
agreed to only say their vows when they left in person. Somehow,
having not said them, she felt more lonely. She looked for the
Twitter pictures and requested their immediate withdrawal. She was
about to close her laptop when John called.

“
Can’t do it,” he
said.

“
Doesn’t feel right,” she
said.

He held his left hand up as they always did.
When she covered the image with her left hand, he repeated the vows
they’d confirmed a few years ago. She said hers. He kissed his
index and middle finger and held it up. She kissed him goodnight as
well. With a nod, the screen went black.

“
Sam has a picture of us?”
Raz asked. “From last night?”

Alex nodded. He gave a slight shake of his
head.

“
I hope it doesn’t cause
you trouble,” Alex said.

“
We can practice our
working it out skills,” Raz said. He held out his arm. “Get some
rest, my Fey. This trip is going to suck.”

Smiling, she nestled into him and fell
asleep.

F

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Four days later

Saturday afternoon

October 31 – 2:34 p.m. MDT

Somewhere over the continent of Asia

Alex completed her fifth circuit of Burpees,
jumping jacks, and squat thrusts. She hopped up from the plane’s
floor and Vince took her spot. She walked toward the pilot end of
the plane, where she took Colin’s spot and started running in
place. Raz joined her in the jog.

As the plane flew back and forth across time
zones, the team had spent the last four days on this C-130. They
only left the plane to pick up lost soldiers. So far, they’d
“rescued” lost soldiers from the beaches of Borneo, a luxurious
palace in Libya, and a plush pleasure resort in Thailand. After
interviewing the lost soldiers, the team dropped them at whatever
base or hospital ship was close. So far, none of the soldiers were
injured. A few of them weren’t thrilled with their “rescue.” Still,
it was good to find the men healthy and accounted for.

Overall, the Fey Team was doing well. They
were lucky, because everyone genuinely liked each other. Even when
tempers flared, someone was able to cool things down. They spent
most of their flying time cataloguing what they had learned from
the lost soldiers. The rest of the time they worked out, slept, and
ate. They were tired and smelled like dirty gym socks, but for
better or worse, they were hanging in there.

They had two more lost-soldier teams to
pick-up before they returned to Washington DC. They would finally
shower and change into dress uniforms. Half of the team would help
Troy bring Dahlia home. The other half would help Leena get her
mother installed in a quality nursing home in Denver. The plan
assumed that everything came off without a hitch.

In the end, they were soldiers. They did
what they were told to do, no matter what the sacrifice. Hearing
the Skype phone bell, Alex looked up to see Leena take a call from
her princess-costume-clad daughter. Satellite Internet, good humor,
and patience had eased the pain of this journey.

Hearing Raz say something, Alex raised her
eyebrows.

“
Lost in thought?” he
asked.

“
Counting.”

“
Counting?” Raz
asked.

“
That’s what’s making this
mission work,” Alex said.

“
Do you have decent food on
the list?” Raz asked.

“
No, but I will add that,”
Alex said. “Sending Margaret along with Trece and White Boy was
brilliant.”

“
She has a eye for decent
snacks,” Raz said. “Otherwise, we’d only have fruit and
veg.”

Alex nodded.

“
It’s not like you couldn’t
stand to lose a percentage or two of body fat,” White Boy said as
he moved past them to change stations. “All of you.”

The team groaned.

“
Can I ask you something?”
Raz asked.

“
You have to say the magic
word,” Alex said.

“
Trick or treat,” Raz
said.

Because it was Halloween, Matthew had
decided they would be playing “trick or treat.” If someone said
“trick or treat” to another, they could ask a question, for a
favor, or a possession.

“
Of course,” Alex said.
“Anything.”

“
Why the oranges?” Raz
asked. “You’ve always had them. It never occurred to me that it was
weird until we were dropping off the Spanish team.”

“
Those oranges were
amazing,” Alex said.

“
I’ve never had better,”
Raz said. “How many cases did they give us?”

“
Five,” Alex said. “They
said they’re sending some to Buckley for us to bring
home.”

“
They would have given you
anything, Alex,” Joseph said. He started jogging next to Raz. “They
were grateful we found their men. They should be. Libya’s going to
erupt into war any day now.”

“
If Joiner hadn’t screwed
us so badly in Libya, we wouldn’t have made such good friends
there,” Alex said. “I think we owe Cee Cee Joiner a thank
you.”

“
Dear Cee Cee,” Joseph
started. “Thanks for screwing us over in Libya. Those six days in
the desert without water or food weren’t fun. But all’s well that
ends well. Love, Alex.”

“
The Fey,” Raz
laughed.

“
I’ll get right on it,”
Sergeant Dusty started jogging next to Joseph.

Alex laughed and went to do squat jumps onto
a wooden crate.

“
I want to know about the
oranges,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
Now that you mention it,”
Joseph said. “I wouldn’t mind knowing that bit of information
myself. You’ve always had them.”

“
You know why I carried the
oranges,” Alex said.

“
Never asked,” Joseph
said.

Vince took Raz’s spot and Raz moved to do
squat jumps onto a crate next to Alex.

“
I’m happy to talk about
oranges,” Alex said. “This is my last set of this horrible torture.
I can’t talk and writhe at the same time.”

“
Writhe? Horrible torture?”
Trece went to White Boy’s side jogging. “I bet the Mooch likes the
nice round
butt
you have from doing bench squat jumps! Sheez.”

“
Yes, thank you Trece for
my butt,” Alex said. “It’s a treat with no trick.”

“
You’re welcome, Alex,”
Trece said. “And Alex’s butt.”

“
While I suffer – I mean
stretch – would you like to tell them about the oranges?” Alex
asked. “You were there when it all started.”

Joseph moved to do squat jumps on the
seat.

“
Indeed I was,” Trece said.
Unlike the rest of the team, Trece wasn’t breaking a sweat or
breathing hard. “Let’s see… Set the way back time machine to when
Alex had just finished her training and had just married a certain
Englishman…”

“
In secret,” Zack said. He
took Sergeant Dusty’s place jogging; Sergeant Dusty shifted to
doing squat jumps next to Joseph. “No one knew. And when I say no
one, I mean Alex, John and the priest knew.”

“
Max knew by the time Trece
knew,” Alex said. “You didn’t know.”

“
That’s right,” Zack said.
“
I
didn’t know.
Trece knew because he’d just made super secret black
ops.”

“
And is related to every
contractor in the Venice Beach and Santa Monica area,” Alex said.
“We’d just bought our apartment and it needed some
work.”

“
I feel so cheap,” Trece
said.

“
Because you are,” White
Boy said. Also unaffected by this workout, he nudged
Trece.

“
That’s right, I am,” Trece
laughed.

“
Oranges?” Joseph dropped
down to stretch.

“
Yes sir, oranges,” Trece
said. “Alex’s mother was pissed. I mean you’ve all seen how she
gets?”

The team members nodded their heads.

“
Multiply what you’ve seen
by a thousand,” Alex said.

“
Like I said, she was
really pissed off that…” Trece voice shifted into an imitation of
Rebecca Hargreaves. “… After more than a
year
of no contact, that’s more than
three hundred and sixty-five days, my own
daughter
cannot be bothered to come
see her own mother.”

“
I went to see Max
instead,” Alex moved to do assisted stretches with Raz.

“
Of course, she had no idea
that Alex had got married.” Warming to his story, and relishing the
team’s attention, Trece moved into storytelling mode. “I could go
into what happened when she found out…”

Trece’s face contorted into exaggerated
shock and horror. The team laughed.

“
But some trauma is…
private
,” Trece’s voice
rose as if he was weeping. He fanned his chest with his hand. Vince
took his place jogging and Trece went to do squat jumps. Too heavy
for the crate, Trece and White Boy made their own high bench on a
set of cargo boxes.

“
Oranges, Trece, oranges,”
Joseph dropped down next to Raz to stretch.

“
Oranges,” Trece cleared
his throat. “Yes, oranges.”

“
After Special Forces
training, most people take a month or more leave,” Alex said.
“Jesse and I wanted to work with Charlie and Joseph. They were
starting right away, so we only had a week off. Jesse went to see
Maria. I was going to go see Mom, but you guys remember how thin
you were after training? Imagine being me after
training?”

“
She was a skeleton,” Trece
said.

“
I wasn’t that thin,” Alex
said. Trece and Joseph shared a look and Alex groaned. “Anyway, Mom
would have lost it. So I went to see Max.”

“
Alex was off playing with
her twin and marrying the Mooch while Mommy was worried,” Trece
said. “Rebecca decided that Alex was going to get
scurvy.”

“
Scurvy?” Vince burst out
laughing.

“
Scurvy,” Alex said. “You
know, you can lose your teeth.”

“
Alex was going to leave
them, but her mom called on the way to the airport,” Trece
said.

“
She insisted that I take
the oranges so I wouldn’t get scurvy,” Alex said. “I didn’t have
time to unload them.”

“
Plus, Alex was really
freaked out about her first assignment,” Trece said. “She stuffed
her backpack full of oranges and left.”

“
I flew in to Fort Carson,”
Alex said. “I was on the ground less than ten minutes before we
took off for the jungle. You know what it’s like to leave for a
mission. Controlled chaos. I found Jesse and we got on the plane. I
didn’t realize I had the oranges until after we landed.”

“
Oh,” Joseph sat up from
stretching. “That’s what happened.”

“
That’s what happened,”
Alex said.

“
What happened?” Trece
asked.

“
We were a mile from
target,” Joseph said. “Someone was looking for
something…”

“
Bug spray,” Alex
said.

“
DEET,” Joseph said. “We
used everything we’d brought. Jax asked everyone to check and Alex
said she thought she had some in her backpack. She peers in and
looks surprised.”

“
I played it off because I
was terrified these older, more experienced
men
would make fun of me,” Alex
smiled at the memory. “But I was shocked. I had no idea they were
there.”