Page 110 of Lucky Charm

The man shoved off the wall in slow movements. “Shower and change, talk to Scott. Carter is at the hospital standing watch.”

“No news?”

“No, not yet. Still in surgery.”

“Talk to Scott about what?”

“Well, we did kill a terrorist this morning.”

Hunt shrugged. The paperwork could remain a niggling to-do at the back of his mind. He didn’t care. “Is that all?”

“No, I asked him to draw up thirty days of leave for you so you can go to Germany with Cait.”

He froze in place. “I assumed.” And assumptions were the mother of all fuckups.

“You were planning on hopping on that transport with her, no problems and no permission? I got your back. This way, we’ll have all the ducks in a row to make it happen. Scott’s running point on that.”

Hunt’s stomach dropped. “There’s four weeks left of deployment. They aren’t going to let me go.” The anxiety he was barely keeping in check crashed through him. What if she had to go and he had to stay? Everything in him rebelled.

“He said he’d go to bat for you, and he doesn’t have answers yet as to whether they’re shipping us home or leaving us here for cleanup operations. I vote for the former, but nobody ever asks me these things.”

“Can you handle the team if I leave?”

Doogie snorted. “God, you’re insulting.”

“I don’t mean can you. Will you?”

Doogie grimaced at him. “If you put it that way, I have to say yes. Can’t ruin a good friendship. Good thing the mission is over. The Army found six bolt holes with weapons and a dug-out cavern with stolen vehicles, thirty RPGs, sixty plus mines, and a shit ton load of weapons. That’s an official number. Plus, the rest of the country is sane and settling in for winter.”

He reached the vehicle and put Cait’s things in the back. Doogie beat him around the truck and got in behind the wheel. For the best. He was in no shape to drive. He shouldn’t have left camp without Doogie. “How’d you catch up to me?”

“You are not that hard to track, my friend.”

Hunt faced forward and followed their route to the hospital. “I have to go, Doog.”

“I know, and I want you to. She’s poised to be the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“They might say no.”

“Nah, I think it’s going to be Scott’s decision, and he didn’t take much convincing.”

Hunt relaxed against his seat. “I hope you’re right.”

“I am. Did you eat?”

“No. Don’t want anything.”

“Uh-uh. That’s not going to work. You have to keep it together, Big Hunt – for Lucky Charm. Let’s swing by the mess and get you something. You can eat in the waiting room.”

Agreeing, he let Doog manage him.

∞∞∞∞∞

Parked outside the emergency room, Hunt hoped he would never see this building again. Over a lot of years, he’d sat with men who were injured, including Baxter most recently. He stayed close for men who died. He’d even been treated himself, but Cait struck hard and churned up a whole backwash of memories that needed to stay buried.

Doogie followed him in with the food in his hands, and Hunt’s hope that the waiting room would be empty was dashed when he saw a crowd of men. Nothing he wanted less than to sit in a room of strangers…

Except K-Rock, Carter, Hernandez, and Tommy stood to greet him.