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“Ferrera’s here because he knows someone on the team took these stones,” said Cole. “But no one in the squad even knew about them. Except for me.”
“He’s been looking for them for years then,” I murmured.
“Yes.”
A pained look suddenly crossed Cole’s face. He stared at the ground for a moment, and then back at me.
“I didn’t take them to be greedy,” he explained. “I didn’t even take them for the three ofus. I took them because I intended on doing good with them. I took them for… for the families of…”
His voice cracked. He looked incredibly angry, but also somewhat broken.
“Evan and Joshua left the service on their own terms,” said Cole. “But I was never granted that privilege. On my last combat mission, more than half my unit was killed in an ambush. All because my superior officer had stupid fucking political ambitions.”
All of a sudden he was shaking uncontrollably. I had to bring him back.
“Hey…” I called gently. “What happened?”
“I took the fall for it, that’s what happened,” Cole spat. “Conditional to my silence, my fallen brothers were supposed to be hailed as heroes. Their families, well-taken care of.” His top lip curled back in grim disgust. “Only that’s not how it went. Instead they were given bare minimum compensation, their loved ones totally undecorated and forgotten. All because the mission had been rogue, and the optics of such a raid would be devastating to my now-famous, now-politician ex-CO.”
Cole’s nostrils flared. He shook his head.
“If I told you who the man was right now, you wouldn’t believe me. But yeah, I took a general discharge — rather than an honorable one — to protect him. All for nothing.”
He stared down at the emeralds like they were poison.
“I thought maybe I could do some good with those,” he nodded. “Instead, even more men got killed over them. Dawson. Beckett…”
“You didn’t kill those men,” I jumped in. “Ferrera did.”
“Only because he was looking forthose,” Cole grunted, pointing at my hands.
I glanced down again, and the emeralds had somehow lost their luster. They looked different now. Like jagged, green-black chunks of glass.
“Cole,” I tried to reason. “These aren’t—”
“I don’t even care anymore,” he cut me off. “They’ve caused so much trouble, so much death. I should’ve left them back in the jungle. I no longer want any part of them.”
“Yes but theyarehere,” I pleaded. “And maybe wecanuse them.”
Cole eyed me suspiciously for a long moment. “Selling them is a lot harder than you might think,” he said. “These stones aren’t exactly—”
“No, no, not to sell,” I corrected him. “Not for the money they’d bring. But maybe we can use them… another way.”
My mind raced with a dozen half-coalescing ideas. Before any of them could solidify, Cole looked down at the jewels and spat.
“So why not just return them, then?” I asked. “Get these people off your back once and for all?”
The Navy SEAL’s eye twitched. He leaned in closer.
“You’ve encountered these people,” he growled. “What do you think they’d say, Quinn? Thank you? No hard feelings?”
“I… I—”
“Think they’d shake your hand and say ‘okay, we’re all good now?’” Cole pressed. “No. There’s nothing these people won’t do to kill us. They’ve already spent so much in the way of time and resources to track us down. They’re never going to stop, Quinn. Not until we make them.”
His hands were balled into fists now. My hands, still holding the emeralds, were starting to shake.
“I’ll tell you this, though,” Cole growled viciously. The look in his eyes was deadly serious as he stormed away.
