Page 52 of Mariposa (Queens Command #1)

VIOLET

T urns out the shot to my face was a graze.

Just when they had finished retrieving every single body from the crash and placed them away from the fire, is when we took fire. Everything else was getting burned to ashes. We still have most of the gear we strapped ourselves with, but many things are missing, like my knife, pistol, and grenades.

We escaped enemy fire with the help of smoke grenades.

It’s been around two hours since we were last attacked at the crash site.

We’ve been hiking in silence, and I’ve been holding my ground with slow breaths.

I’ll allow myself to feel the shock of this aftermath later, but my team needs me right now in my best-trained version.

All of my instructors have taught me to be strong and unwavering.

We are people willing to lay down our lives for the mission and each other.

We’ve been tested time and time again for moments like this.

We don’t quit. We find a reason to keep fighting until our last breath.

Thunder vibrates the ground, and lightning cracks above the tall trees. The sky grows darker as another heavy cloud falls over us. The smell of wet dirt becomes thicker, and a second later, heavy rainfall patters down upon us. The sounds of nature helps quiet our movements.

“We were so fucking close to finding the target, fuck!” Booker hisses.

The Surgeon is still out there.

“It makes sense. When the whole world is looking for one guy, everything becomes trickier. We’re going to get him, Chaos.”

“I can’t believe you two lovebirds are by my side.” Booker breaks the tension first. Always the most unserious. “Or should I say two devils? Yeah, I saw that desk.”

“Fucking hell, Chaos,” Kade scoffs while I muster all the strength to withhold the roar of laughter in my chest. My stomach, head, and feet are still killing me.

I blink at Kade slowly, waiting for him to say something.

Fine.

“What’s your favorite movie? We’ve known each other for over a year, and I still don’t know what it is…or your favorite color.” He never answered my question when I asked him the first time in his office.

“Isla, what the fuck. You’re supposed to be getting rest,” Booker snaps as he hops over a log. He raises his rifle to his eye again, peeking through the scope. He’s got our six while Kade leads the way.

“I’m not asking you. I’m asking Master Sergeant,” I bite back.

Kade snickers and licks his teeth. Dipping his head back, he shuts his eyes tight.

“I thought I told you that if it’s unrelated to work, you don’t speak to me.”

He reminds me of my place in his world, and I don’t like it. I deflate into his chest, and my chin drops into his collarbones. We really are over.

“ Lord of the Rings , but the books are better…and yellow.”

My eyes brighten.

“Why did you join the army?”

His softened gaze sweeps my face, making heat swim into my chest. We stare at each other for a pregnant moment.

I might have struck a chord with this question.

“At first, it seemed like the best option to take care of my family at the time. I was going to get out after my first contract was up. Penny could stay home, get her degree, and care for our child, so she didn’t have to worry about the bills.

We were young, and that’s what she wanted.

I don’t come from money. It was the best decision for an eighteen-year-old with no college education or work experience.

It gave us all insurance and a little house on the army post where I was stationed. ”

He takes a breath.

“I wanted to care for them the only way I knew how. I sacrificed to give them a good life. I didn’t have much growing up.

I wore the same clothes for years because my mom couldn’t afford to get us all new ones for her growing sons and daughters.

I shared a room with four of my siblings.

My mother slept on the bed beside my two sisters while my brother and I slept on the floor with a blanket and pillow.

I wanted to give my son his own bedroom—something I never had.

I wanted him to have a bed to sleep in—his own pillow to lie his head on.

I wanted to be able to afford to give him clothes that fit him as he grew older.

And I wanted Penny to be able to finish school without worrying about working on top of studying and being a mom to our baby. ”

I can’t imagine being a teenage parent. He’s a man that way. He wanted to take care of everything so Penny and Adam could chase their dreams and not worry about how they would eat or pay for a home.

“And then what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said the plan was to get out after you finished your first contract. Why did you re-enlist?”

His eyes narrow.

“Well, you don’t see a wedding band on this finger, do you?”

Of course.

His divorce from Penny may have heavily affected that decision.

“My mother was a single mom, and to say she struggled is an understatement. She was also a teen mom. So when Penny left and took Adam with her, feeding him a narrative that I didn’t want to be a part of his life…

that wound cut deeper and bled longer. I needed my family to stick together.

This might sound fucking stupid, but I’ve always wanted to see them welcome me back home with a sign above their heads when I returned from missions or deployment.

That was a silly thing to crave, is what Penny told me, so she never did it.

The truth eventually came out…she’d been cheating on me with multiple men, then said it was my fault she cheated. She said I worked too much,” he huffs.

What?

Penny’d had affairs?

I can’t believe Penny and Adam had never greeted him when he came back home.

My heart chips further after hearing Kade’s side of things.

There are multiple sides to every story, and this is his truth.

My chest hitches as I pull myself closer to him, his cologne mixed with his cigarettes still stapled to him.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

I shake my head to clear my brain fog.

“What I meant to say was, did Booker help you through that dark time? Because you had lost your reason? Because Penny and Adam made you believe you were unworthy and guilty for choosing this career?”

Silence. He doesn’t say a word as I wait for what feels like minutes.

He keeps his focus ahead of him to the point I don’t think he’ll answer my questions anymore.

It all makes sense. The way he’s so closed off with his emotions.

The way he drowns himself in work, so he doesn’t have the option to become a family man.

I need him to know it’s not too late for him—and for us .

I want to bring up what Karen said to him, but it doesn’t matter anymore in the grand scheme.

We just lost our friends, and the enemy is on our heels.

When Kade makes up his mind and says he’s done. He’s done.

“Being alone isn’t a weakness, Kade. It means you’re standing up for what you deserve, but don’t let that experience make you feel like you can’t live the rest of your life the way you want to—with someone who chooses you every day and would wait years if they have to.”

“Stop talking, Isla.” Kade snaps, his shoulder brushing against thick tree bark.

“No.”

“Stubborn ass,” Booker hisses from behind.

Is the fucker listening to us?

“Did you still try to make it work with her after the affair?”

He nods.

“Marriage isn’t black and white, and sometimes it’s ugly.

I didn’t want history to repeat itself. I wanted him to know that he had a father and was loved.

I didn’t want my son to grow up in a broken home.

To watch his mother struggle and be a parent on her own.

My mother was lonely. She struggled so much, almost lost her sanity quite a few times because she had to raise all of us with little to no support. ”

“But in the end, you got hurt and ended up alone.” I point out.

He keeps his blazing gaze straight ahead while the muscle in his jaw flexes.

“Something like that,” he replies absently. I trace the scar against his brow and smile.

“You’re not alone anymore,” I whisper faintly.

You have me .

“And marriage isn’t always ugly,” I murmur.

He quirks his dark, scarred brow at me. His dark lashes flutter slowly. I can’t handle it when he looks at me like this. It always sends me into his personal melted prisoner. And right now? I’m scooped into his arms, and my heart is beating so hard I hear the blood pulsing in my ears.

It isn’t the best time to indulge in our dark desires. The kind that feeds both of our souls. But every time we’re around each other, our reckless attraction always prevails.

He leans in, still soldiering on, as my breath catches in my throat.

I latch on tighter, my fingers digging into his back tattoo underneath the army brown shirt.

Even through the dizziness, the air around us buzzes so explosively I feel it in my bones.

His lips ghost mine, until his beard grazes my cheek first. Closing my eyes, I prepare for his mouth to capture mine.

We don’t get to kiss.

A foreign shout blares in the distance, tearing us away from each other.

The enemy has caught up to finish or capture us.

“Let me walk,” I demand. Kade doesn’t hesitate; he drops me to my feet, causing me to lurch my entire weight on the other side of my working foot. I’m looking for Booker’s pistol when he bumps into me hard.

“Beast. I think we’re surrounded. How the fuck! Brother, I can’t die. I finally have a girl back home waiting for me. We can’t die,” Booker hisses.

Kade whirls us around hastily. His muscles tighten around my waist as we go rigid to do recon. When Booker spins toward us, he takes a bullet straight to the head. Blood and brains splatter across Kade and me.

No !

Not Booker!

Not Shane!

I reach out to catch him, but Booker’s lifeless body slips through my fingers and falls to the ground.

Crimson continues to spill out of the massive hole in his head, but the enemy doesn’t stop.

I do a quick glance as a sharp sting hits my eyes.

I don’t get a chance to process it, but Kade confirms he’s dead by grabbing his body and dragging it to the nearest cover we have.

“He’s dead. Chaos is dead.” I shake my head vehemently. I flick my gaze to Kade, pushing my emotions back down. I will not fall apart. “Master Sergeant, what do you need?” My shaky voice pleads. Adrenaline spikes my blood, and my mind is full of determination.

I don’t break.

We’ve been trained to handle the worst scenarios.

We. Can’t. Break.

Kade yanks me back with the palm of his hand until my back collides with the rock.

“We survive.” He hands me Booker’s rifle. I take it just as Kade reloads. His eyes are empty and vast, but his movements are calculated and adrenaline-filled. He’s back in Operator Beast mode, and so am I. The fierce beast inside that Kade’s taught me to embrace—The Unbreakable Soldier.

An enemy dressed in all black attempts to tackle Kade from behind and aims his pistol at him simultaneously.

Just as his fingers graze his back, I raise my rifle and put a bullet in his skull.

He drops immediately. Kade pushes him off his boots, causing the threat to fall down the side of the cliff.

“Throw the smoke grenade! It’s the last fucking one. Use it now!” Kade growls. Booker’s blood is on our faces, but it gets washed away by the rain in seconds.

“Yes, Beast!”

I stab into my pocket with trembling hands, hook my hand around the metal, and pull it. I toss it furiously in front of me to create a barrier and establish a position of defense.

“What’s the plan, Beast?” I hate calling him by his call sign at this moment, but we can’t risk them hearing our real identities.

I stare at him as we both shoot left and right, but the army is still coming. We’re pinned down at the side of this mountain. Any solution or plan we choose will end with us both getting killed.

I take another shot at a threat who has an RPG aimed straight at us. Instead of the missile hitting us, it hits his own men. His body slips, and he’s falling down the mountain, taking his weapon with him.

My rifle makes an empty clicking noise signaling an empty chamber.

“I’m out of ammo.”

Kade’s shoulder kicks back as he continues to defend, but then his rifle echoes the same dreadful sound my weapon did. We’re both out of ammo with only seconds to adapt, or we’re going to die up here, together.