Come To Me | Jerrie

Chapter 29

Jade

~Seven days later: Afghanistan~

"Fuck. I didn't miss this shithole!" I glance over at Jesy, who's looking out at the village on the left, checking for anything out of the norm.

"Need to clean the sand out of your vag, Muff? Does Chicky know you're this big of a pussy?" Jesy taunts like the bitch she is.

I scoff at her sorry attempt at a jab. "Kiss my ass. Try not to follow wisps while we're here. You might draw some hijab attention." I give her the finger and she starts laughing. "Also, don't talk about Perrie."

"Touchy. Have you told her yet?"

"No," I say with no room for further discussion. She's already told me I need to tell her about my past, but I wasn't going to drop that shit on her lap and rush off to deal with the mess here.

Jesy and I didn't speak for the first leg of the trip, both of us dealing with the loss of yet another member of our team. This shit is fucking with both of us. We started with six—and then there were two. When you're active duty, you know your time is numbered. Once you're out, though, that's not how you think anymore.

I look to the left, take a deep breath, and regret doing that immediately. The Humvee smells like shit, but we've been traveling for five long ass days, so we aren't any better. We flew into Spain and waited there for two days. Rota reminded me of the trouble we got in during the last deployment here. It was a fucking joke. We drank, ate, drank some more, and worked out. Made bank and went home.

Then we flew into Dubai for another two days. At least in Dubai there's a ton of shit to do. Of course, it was only supposed to be a five-hour layover, but when you're flying on Navy equipment, you expect the unexpected. Which is a nice way of saying prepare for that shit to break.

Since we've hit the sandbox, it's been nothing but constant bullshit. Our convoy never met us at the base we flew into. I had to call a bunch of old friends to get someone to come get us, then take us to Camp Victory so we could claim Aaron's body. Normally that's not how it works, but I don't give a fuck. He's our brother and we weren't leaving him to fly alone. Jesy had to pull a few strings to get it done, but she felt the same way. We owed Natalie that much.

Now we're heading to the IED site. Another favor I cashed in. Whatever. At this rate, I just want to get some damn answers on how they fucked this up.

"By the way, asshat, this doesn't count as my vacation," Jesy lets me know through the mics on our helmets.

I adjust my Kevlar so I can breathe. This shit didn't get any lighter. We're fully loaded and tacked out. "You said you wanted the sun and the sand. I delivered."

"Funny." She laughs.

We approach the site and my guard instantly goes up. I slip right back into battle mode.

I get out first.

"Hey, Muff, watch your six," Jesy says seriously. We've done enough missions together to know when the tone changes, it means something's not right. "I have a bad feeling about the mountains up on the left," Jesy says, pointing to the rocky terrain.

"Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this whole fucking place. Cover me."

I hear the door close behind me. The debris is cleared for the most part. Considering we're a week behind, a lot of the intel I could've gotten is pretty much gone, but you never know. I've seen insurgents sing like canaries for a soda. Everyone has a price and today, I'm the banker.

I scan the area. So far there's a few kids playing soccer and a woman standing by the fence, talking to another child. Ahead of me I see what looks like some pieces of the explosion. I lean down right as a ball comes flying in front of my face. The kids are laughing at the almost collision. I grab the ball and smile—I've just found my bargaining chip.