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“Will!” Layla called from the doorway behind us, Shelby and Lyndi flanking her on either side. “Are you going to give us our friend back or crash our girls’ night?”
Aria backed up with a laugh, and I glared at her friends. “Neither.”
“Neither?” Shelby asked.
I picked up Aria’s helmet from my bike and held it out to her before looking back at the house. “I’m stealing your friend away. I’ve got some lost time to make up for.”
* * *
“You know how serious this is, right?” Staff Sergeant Jordan asked, his stern gaze holding mine.
“I do.”
“I’m going to have to launch an investigation into Sergeant Roberts.”
Swallowing hard and standing straighter, I nodded. “I think that would be appropriate under the circumstances.”
Even with everything going on in my life, even though it felt like I’d lost something as important as what I’d gained, I hadn’t wasted any time in reporting the hazing to my superiors. I’d gone straight to my staff sergeant as soon as I got into work this morning. Chase didn’t deserve the way Roberts treated him, and I felt like it was my duty to do something about it. After all, witnessing a crime and not reporting it was just as bad as committing it. I knew that better than anyone.
“Okay. That’s what I’ll do then,” he said after a moment. “But in the meantime, don’t get in the middle of this. Even if your intentions are honorable, I won’t tolerate fighting in this shop.”
“Understood, Staff Sergeant.”
“Good. Now head out and get those jets loaded. We have a full flight schedule for today.”
“Rah,” I replied, using the shortened version of oorah to let him know we were good to go.
When I stepped out of the shop, Chase stood outside, worry creasing his brow. “You talked to Staff Sergeant Jordan about this?”
I sighed heavily, patting his arm. “Yes. It had to be done.”
Chase didn’t look so sure, looking over his shoulder with anxious eyes. “I don’t want anyone to think I tattled on him or something.”
“You didn’t. I reported a situation that I observed to my higher up because it’s unacceptable. If anything,younot tellingmehow long he had you carrying that rack around for is the opposite of tattling. You need to be able to stand up for yourself when someone is abusing their power over you.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
My throat constricted and I looked away. “Man, trust me. I know it’s not. But this is your first shop. You want to make a career out of the military, right? Stay in for at least twenty years?”
A flicker of uncertainty appeared in his gaze. “I planned to.”
“Right. Well, I don’t want that jerk ruining the whole Marine Corps for you. We’re not all like him.”
“I know.”
He didn’t look like he knew, but I nodded all the same. “It’s being taken care of. They’re going to do an investigation. So keep your chin up, and make sure you let me know if anything else happens in the meantime.”
Again, his eyes wandered over his shoulder. “A couple of the other guys said to just shut up and get through it. It’s all part of being a boot.”
“Wrong,” I said, my lip curling in disgust. “Being a boot doesn’t mean getting hazed like this. Sometimes it means being treated like a gopher. It’s having to do the little, annoying stuff—and we all had to do it when we were the new guys. It’s mopping the floor and taking out the trash, or it’s turning wrenches on the jets while your NCOs hang back and supervise. But it’snotgetting treated like crap and being pushed to a point where you could get hurt.”
He was shaking his head before I was even done speaking. “Fine, but if everyone else had to go through this and it’s just the way it is, then I don’t want to be the guy who can’t handle it.”
“Chase, you’re not listening. This is well beyond a reasonable amount of picking on the new boot. And anyone who tries to tell you that it’s just the way it is and you need to just survive it, is just as bad as the person doing it.”
The anger coursing through me had a lot to do with my own scars, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to let Chase feel hopeless and alone like I had. Sure, Roberts wasn’t using his fists or a belt or a frying pan like my dad had, but he was abusing him all the same. If his goal was to break his spirit, he was succeeding, one small incident at a time. And I wasn’t going to let it continue.
Something in my words must have finally clicked for Chase because his shoulders dipped forward in surrender. “Fine.”
“Good. Now come on, we need to load those jets before we get blasted for something that actually would be our fault. That’s still a thing, don’t get it twisted.”
He chuckled slightly and ran a hand over his face. “Rah.”
