AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The fight spilled out into the streets, chaos swirling around us.
Gunshots echoed through the hurricane-ravaged city as I pursued Omar relentlessly. With each step, determination fueled my movements. I couldn't let him escape, not after what he had done.
He'd taken my best friend from me. And he'd tried to hurt my family.
In the final moments, as the rain poured down, I lined up my shot. The bullet found its mark.
I stood in the middle of a deserted street, flanked by my boys, as Omar Wazir lay dead on the ground. Cooper seemed to be the most prepared among us, although he hadn't packed like Miguel.
He set up a portable canopy with Asher's help, offering us temporary shelter.
I knew Wazir'swhynow. Once a man of glory, now reduced to nothing.
"Why didn't you tell us you worked with him?" Asher asked Miguel.
Miguel's reply was subdued. "I didn't feel like I could share that I knew the man as anyone different from who he became. That he was human too, once, and a good human at that."
"He chose this," I finally said. "He chose this over his country, over the sacrifices that each one of us makes when we become SEALs. Remember how Neptune used to tell us it's never personal? Only, I think it always is. Laying yourself down again and again, no matter how hard the bullets and insults come. Opening yourself up to being called ruthless. Chasing death.
“We choose this life because we know we're doing it so our people can sleep safely at home. Our home. If that isn't fuel enough to do the right thing, nothing will be."
I was crumbling inside. The memory of that blade sinking into Cole's flesh—the way it cut into him—would stay with me forever.
As would that last second of remorse in his brown eyes.
My brother. My brother.
"Dad?"
Leia's soft hand on my shoulder made me turn. She was standing there, as drenched as I, tears running down her face.
"I thought I... I thought you wouldn't come back," she cried out, launching herself into my arms. "I thought I'd lost you, Dad!"
"Hush." I ran my hands through her wet hair and kissed her forehead repeatedly.
It was the sweetest of things—feeling her, knowing she was safe and alive, and having one person to thank for it. "I'm here, Leia. I'm never leaving."
After a while, I finally mustered the courage to look into the emerald abyss of the woman who stood beside Leia, a gentle, resigned smile on her lips.
"Thank you for ... for Leia, for you, for everything," I said, my voice breaking as I spoke.
"Juniper, I'm going to be honest with you. This, what you saw just now, is all I've known almost my entire life. People leaving. People hurting. And my being responsible for all of it. I don't know if I can ever fix myself. But for you and my daughter, I would try a thousand sunsets over."
Juniper pulled me into her arms and kissed me softly.
"You don't need to heal alone, Reed. None of you do. I'll be here to help with the fixing. I'm no handywoman, but hey, there's nothing I can't learn."
And there, in the middle of so much destruction, I felt it. An ember in my heart, growing steadily brighter like it had been reignited.
A tremor of laughter escaped my throat, building into a low chuckle. "To days of fixing, then."
"I'm thinking years," she replied, smiling.
Miguel, Asher, and Leia bundled into us, and we were locked in a clumsy group hug that felt warmer than the most beautiful of summer days.
We remained under the portable canopy, and Leia told us what she and Juniper had done while we had gone chasing Hunter.
As Leia got busy animatedly explaining how the glass in Juniper's home had shattered to Miguel and Asher, Juniper took me to the side.
