brother
Chapter 166: Asher
She asks the importible,
hold her tahter
Not because I’m relieved, or because I want is answer rurything. But became 1 k « shar’s coming seat. And if the arks–really asks–fo
to her. Lent. Not if she’s going to be mine. Not if I want this to bet
She’s pressed to my chest, quiet, warm, steading. Then Berheath bitches, host a small, broken inhale. And the whispers” ild me..only fout people made it out.”
I mod, my thin brushing the top of her head
“Me, Rooster. A guy named Night. And Smoke,”
She shifts in my arms, just slighth, and I wonder if she’s picturing it–four men out of thetern. The silence in the room. I don’t fill it. It wait.
Eventually, she asks, voice barely audible, “Which one made it out without injuries?”
I almost smile. Not at the question. At the fact that she’s sharp, Smart. She listens. She connects thing
“Smoke,” I say. “He was one of our snipers. So was Night. They were posted far–south ridge, behind tree cover, Standard overwatch for this kind of op. They hit from fat, move when you blink, disappear when you breathe. Hence their nicknamEL”
Irun a hand down her back. She’s shivering a little.
“That’s how they made it out. They weren’t in the blast radius. Night was an idiot and ran back in when he saw what was happening. Got three fingers torn off and part of his ear. But without him, Rooster and I would’ve bed out before medevac got there.”
She’s quiet. Then, gently: “Are you… resentful? That Smoke didn’t get hurt?”
1 take a long breath. One 1 didn’t even know I was holding
“No,” I sp. “I thought I would be. When I first woke up when I found out how bad
the rest o
I look down at her, the way her hands clutch the edge of my shirt. The way she looks at me like I’m not broken glasa.
“Hat we all knew the risks,” I continue. “Snipers are vulnerable, Penny. They’re alone. They’re silent. If someone flanks them, they’re done. It’s not about who’s the most danger. It’s about trusting each other to held the line. That time… Smoke did what he was supposed to do. And it saved lives.”
“But he’s not okay. He’s got it worse than any of us”
shifts again, glancing up at me.
“He stopped talking to Night, to Rooster, to me. Last time I saw him, he couldn’t get a full sentence out without throwing up. The flashbacks, the guilt.. it’s all eating him alive. So no, I’m not resentful. I’m fucking devastated. 1 with more of us made it out. That’s all.”
She doesn’t speak. But she holds me. And I think that’s better.
Because the only person outside that unit who knows all of this now is her.
And for the first time in a long time, it doesn’t feel like I’m carrying it alone.
She’s still against me, her cheek now pressed to my stern, fingers tracing slow, uncertain lines over the fabric of my thirt like through
thinking something
Then softly, almost altid to ask
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Chapter 166: Asher
met het lauft. It’s a fair igestion. But I feel my entire body tighten under lice, and she must notice, because she immediately its up a little,
“Sorry. You don’t have to–if it’s classified, n. 1dn’t mean to –
I reach up, slide my hand behind her neck, and kiss the top of her forehead,
Technically. I signed papers that said
bla’t talk about it. Ever.”
She nods, eyes dropping. That I don’t stop there.
“That said,
“I can tell you some of it. In a roundabout way?
Her eyes flick back to mine. Curious. Quiet. So damn trusting
exhale. Look toward the window. Son’s still coming down, soft and slow now, like the storm spent itself overnight
“We were there to extract someone,” I say. “Someone very high–profile. Not American. Not military. Someone who had information that, if it got out…could shift the balance of a whole region.”
Het huwa kil
“A diplomat?” she asks. “A spy?”
I smirk faintly
“I can’t say. But let’s just say this person had a target the size of a country on their back. And a clock ticking over their head.”
She’s watching me like I’m telling her a ghost story.
No–like she knows I am
phost.
“We went in clean. Night and Smoke took ridge. Rooster and i the team in from the valley floor. Vie were supposed to be ghosts. No detection. No disruption”
My voire drops
“Something went wrong.
Her fingers cunt in the fabric of my shirt.
“We don’t know how they knew, Maybe intel was leaked. Maybe someone was followed. But before we made it to the extraction point
I shake my head.
“We were surrounded. Outnumbered. Caught in a crossfire with zero cover.”
She swallows.
“And the last?”
“A trap”
“Tressate triggered device. Buried under the surface where we set to hold formation. If Night hadn’t come down from the ridge… If Rooster hadn’t grabbed
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Chapter 166: Asher
me when he did…”
I stop. Blink once,
Then I look back at her.
“What I can tell it. It mattered. The person we got out? They’re safe. And a lot of people who didn’t even know they were at risk, till have the timer because of it”
Penny’s eyes are full again. But she doesn’t cry. She just reaches up, as her hand through my hair, and whispers:
“I’m glad you made it out.”
I pull her into me. Bury my face in her neck.
Because to am I
But I never expected to have a reason to be glad….. until ber.
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