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“So anything good on the docket this afternoon?” Ryker asked Kostya.
“I was going to have you work with Landon on some of the tracking techniques you learned with Zed and Jase. I remembered the gauze on your boots in Turkey. Seems to me you picked up on things.”
“Yep, my time was not wasted.” Ryker grinned.
“But now that I see you need to take a deadly lifeform home that is single-handedly taking down a member of my team, I think I had better drive these roses home for you.”
“Have you read the card?” Gideon asked again.
“I’ll read it when I get home, you nosy bastard.” Ryker got up from his chair and then paused. “Speaking of nosy bastards, I want to poke my nose in where it doesn’t belong. There are a lot of rumors flying around about Commander Clark. I know you and Max can’t stomp them out as officers, but I sure would like to put a stranglehold on the goddamned bullshit flying around. Hell, there’s even something about how he got away on a manslaughter conviction for killing his brother. It’s all over the place.”
Ryker turned to Gideon. “And what the hell, Gideon? I know you know down to a gnat’s ass what the real story is, why aren’t you squashing all of these fucking rumors? And don’t tell me something like that brother-killing thing is true. I know better.”
“You saw in the debrief with Captain Hale that some higher-ups were looking to oust the commander for crossing a line, that was pretty clear, right?” Kostya asked.
“Yeah, that came across crystal clear. It was also crystal clear that both you and Captain Hale had the commander’s six, one hundred percent.”
Kostya nodded.
“Simon didn’t always play by the rules, and he sometimes stepped on some toes. He could play politics well if he felt so inclined, but sometimes he just didn’t give a shit.”
“Okay….”
“He had a baby sister, eight years younger than him. He helped his mom raise her. Five months ago, she was killed in a murder/suicide deal with her husband. His sister never once called the cops on her husband—no restraining order, no sick days with bruises, no nothing. But Simon lost it. He’s positive he should have seen it.”
“Any kids?” Ryker asked.
“No kids,” Kostya answered.
“That’s a blessing.”
“So Commander Clark just tried to quit the Navy, wanted to blow up his entire career, his pension, he didn’t give a shit if he got dishonorably discharged or anything. Some folks that he’d crossed paths with were taking this as an opportunity to make things worse for him, maybe say that he didn’t play by the rules, and needed charges pressed against him.”
“Motherfucker! Who? I can shut that shit down,” Gideon bit out.
“Whoa, there. Anyway, Captain Hale had one of the really good Navy docs evaluate Simon’s file after he left town. Turned out that our Commander was discharged due to a PTSD disability.”
Ryker relaxed. He looked over at Gideon and saw that he had too.
“It’s nice when the right thing actually happens, isn’t it?” Kostya asked.
“Bet Simon is pissed as fuck,” Ryker chuckled.
Gideon sneezed.
“That would be my take,” Kostya agreed.
“Where is he?” Gideon asked.
“Mason Gault, the lieutenant of Midnight Delta, told him about Jasper Creek, Tennessee. Somebody found him a place to rent for a little bit. It’s in the back end of nowhere,” Kostya explained.
“Sounds perfect,” Ryker said as Gideon sneezed again.
Kostya stood up. Now, let’s get you and your roses out of here before I have to send Gideon home for medical reasons.
After Ryker got home and put his roses on the coffee table in the middle of his living room, he took a picture of them and then sent a text to Carmen with the pic attached. He grabbed a beer, settled down on his leather sofa, and called Amy.
He was disappointed when it went to voicemail. But he left a message thanking her for the roses and for her to please call him. Then he picked up the book by Carl Hiaasen that his brother had sent him. He liked it because it was laugh-out-loud funny.
