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Maddening Marine

“If you’re a lover, you gotta be a fighter … because if you don’t fight for your love, what kind of love do you have?”

— Keanu Reeves

Prologue

The wheels of the bus go round and round …

The song looped in her head like a scratched record.

Round and round.

Round and round.

The bus hummed beneath her, the engine vibrating through the thin seat. Around her, other recruits slept or stared into their phones, heads tipped against windows, unaware of the quiet unraveling happening two seats from the back.

Outside the window, the night slid past in long ribbons of black highway and distant lights. Inside, a reflection stared back at her.

A stranger.

No. Not a stranger.

Felicity Graham.

She whispered it silently, shaping the name with her lips.

Felicity Graham.

She kept repeating the name.

Like she was trying to stitch herself into it.

Floodlights appeared in the distance. High orbs blazing white against the dark. The bus slowed. Gravel crunched beneath the tires as it turned off the highway. A sign flashed past the window.

U.S. ARMY TRAINING CENTER

FORT JACKSON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Someone near the front muttered, “Holy shit. We’re here.”

The bus slowed at the gate.

There was a brief delay as the guard checked a clipboard and lifted the barrier. The bus rolled forward, tires clattering over the security grid before picking up speed again.

Round and round. Round and round.

Minutes later the bus pulled up outside a long, low building blazing under floodlights.

The engine cut out.

For a moment, nothing happened. It was as if the bus held its breath along with its passengers.

Then the doors hissed open. Heavy boots hit the steps.

A burly man climbed aboard. “Listen up!”

Every head jerked forward.