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ChapterOne
“Doyou have an explanation I can give the general?” Colonel Graham Holmstrom addressed Captain John Bryson.
“I do. But you aren’t going to like it.” Bryson lowered his oversized frame into the chair across from Graham’s desk.
“I didn’t expect I would. Does it involve Mateo?”
Bryson nodded. “It hasn’t been a seamless transition. He’s openly questioning the reason you moved him to my team and made comments that border on insubordination. That’s what led to today’s altercation with Cruz during our lunch break.”
It wasn’t uncommon for Graham’s Green Berets to occasionally butt heads with their teammates, but it took place on the training compound. General McKittrick witnessed it. Not a good look.
“Elaborate,” he ordered.
Bryson shifted his gaze and rested his forearms on his thighs before resuming eye contact. “Mateo thinks you moved him so he’d deploy earlier—because you’re interested in his wife.”
“What?” That was absurd. Orshouldbe. However, with the history of the unit’s prior two commanders, trust issues still lingered in 3rdGroup. Graham had picked up on some hostility from Mateo towards him but thought it was due to transferring him to a different team.
“Someone said they’d seen you with Michelle and buying her dinner. Rumors got back to Mateo.”
Let no good deed go unpunished. Graham sighed. “I was at the grill on post waiting for my food. She was there with their son and had forgotten her debit card. I recognized her, and, since she didn’t have enough cash to pay for her order, I gave her ten dollars to cover it.” He would have done the same for the wife of any man under his command. Except Michelle wasn’tanywife. On Mateo’s last deployment, she’d been sleeping with Colonel Thomsen, the commander of 3rdGroup, whom Graham had replaced.
It didn’t matter if Mateo confronted his wife about this rumor. He wasn’t likely to believe it was an innocent encounter. And Graham trying to explain would only make them both look guilty.
“Cruz told him he had it all wrong, but with the situation being what it is and Cruz being single, it didn’t carry much weight,” Bryson continued. “Mateo claimed there are others in the unit who are concerned there could be a three-peat of conduct unbecoming.”
“Withmethis time.” This was worse than Graham feared. Men under his command needed to trust their leader had their backs. “Any thoughts on what would set their minds at ease?”
“Maybe if you got remarried,” Bryson cracked—except, for once, he wasn’t grinning.
Graham waited for the punch line. “Are you serious?”
Bryson shrugged. “Traditionally, the Army expects their officers to be married. I used to get that Why-aren’t-you-married-yet-Bryson? question all the time. Especially from McKittrick.”
Graham had gotten some of those remarks from the general recently as well. Not quite as direct, but the general had dropped hints regarding his wife pulling double duty with the unit’s Family Readiness Group after Bethann’s passing. And in discussing plans for the unit’s upcoming military ball, McKittrick mentioned Graham needing a date, not once, but twice.
“Send Mateo and Cruz to see me.”
By addressing both, maybe he could squelch any rumors and doubts about his leadership.
* * *
“The captain saidyou wanted to see us, sir.” Cruz stood in Graham’s doorway, projecting a calm demeanor despite being ordered to report to his commanding officer. In comparison, Mateo’s expression resembled a man awaiting sentencing.
“I’d like an explanation of what happened between you two today, ” Graham ordered.
“I said something out of line and provoked him,” Cruz immediately offered up. “We’re all good now.”
The way Mateo’s eyes flicked in Cruz’s direction told Graham that his teammate just covered for him, or at least he had his back. That was a good thing. “Is that all that happened?” He focused on Mateo.
“Yes, sir. We’re good.” A hint of hostility lingered in Mateo’s tone.
“Your team deploys in seven months. I need you all to operate like a cohesive machine well before then. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir!” The pair said in unison.
“Cruz, you’re dismissed.”
Cruz cut his gaze toward Mateo ever so slightly. “It won’t happen again, sir.”
