Page 37 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

Katie broke my gaze, turned toward Austin, glared at him, and quickly shifted her eyes to meet mine.

“So, you were in the war?” she asked.

“Bug, don’t be rude,” I heard Ripp’s father say.

I turned toward Mr. Ripton. “It’s alright, Sir. No offense taken.”

“I was over there for roughly ten years, yes,” I said.

With her eyes still locked on mine, she blinked a few times. “Did you kill anyone?”

“Bug!” Ripp’s father complained.

His mother repeated the complaint. “Bug!”

“It’s quite alright, Ma’am,” I said as I nodded my head toward Mrs. Ripton. “And, Sir,” I said as I shifted my eyes toward Mr. Ripton.

“I’m not ashamed. Yes, I killed people. It was my job. In a perfect world, a Marine mission is complete without anyone dying. My battalion was reconnaissance, like Navy SEALS on land. We gathered intelligence through interrogation. In that war? Well, it was different. There was nothing to gather and no one wanted to talk. So, we killed most of the people we encountered before they killed us,” I explained.

“How many?” Katie promptly asked.

The sound of Mr. Ripton clearing his throat was followed by his complaint of what I expected was his opinion of her inconsiderate nature. “Bug. Damn it,”

“Again, Sir, no concerns here. I have no shame,” I said over my shoulder.

It seemed I had become incapable of prying my eyes from Ripp’s sister. I told myself as I sat and admired her throughout the conversation that I had no business doing so, as she was not only the sister of a friend, but young, and, above all things, a woman.

My eyes and mind, however, argued.

She was a beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that.

“I don’t know how many. I never counted. More than most, I’d guess. I was either in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the right time. I was wounded several times, and each time it seems death followed. I don’t know,” I said, although I did know exactly how many.

“We had to rescue some trapped Army Rangers on hill 571 in late 2005. I remember on that night there were eight. I didn’t think it would ever end. I got shot as soon as my boots hit the dirt. Took a round in the thigh. I knew it happened, I just don’t really think I cared. I’d been shot in the leg twice already, and I knew immediately this was superficial. I had a job to do, and there were Rangers that were pinned down. We were all they had. Well, it was us and a hand full of SEALS. We got them out of there. That, I suppose, is what was important. But a count? Like a total number? It’d be a guess,” I said.

I broke her stare. As I glanced around the table, everyone sat quietly and stared.

I shifted my eyes back to Katie and continued. “But every one of them? Every one? They had one thing in common. They were trying to kill me, I just got to them before they got to me.”

Still staring directly into my eyes Katie grinned and batted her eyelashes. “I like Marines.”

“You don’t know any fuckin’ Marines, Bug. Leave the man alone,” Ripp growled.

“Michael Allen Ripton!” Mrs. Ripton snapped.

Mr. Ripton scowled at Ripp, turned his head in my direction, and nodded his head. “I like ‘em, too, Bug. Thanks for your service, Son.”

“Shut up, Ripp. I do too know Marines. Well, I did.”

“Bug,” Mrs. Ripton said.

“Just stop, Bug. You don’t know any Marines. Leave it alone. I’m sorry Alec,” Ripp said.

“He was a senior when I was a freshman. I’ll never forget him,” Katie explained. “You knew him too, Ripp. He came here for dinner once. He joined the Marines and went to Iraq. He was some special Marine. Like Special Forces. He got killed, I remember reading it in the paper and they talked about it in church and at school. If you ever went to church, you’d remember.”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about,” Ripp said.

A Marine dying in the line of service was something I was compassionate about, and I was willing to listen to whatever she had to say about it.