Chapter 39

GABRIEL

^TWO YEARS AGO^

^Yemen^

The little off-time Gabe had, he liked to spend it in the local markets, buying trinkets for Grandma that he added to the letters he sent her once a week. Early on in his deployment, he had learned to play backgammon with a group of men who sat outside one of the tea rooms. He had learned to speak their language and learn their way of life, while they had asked him questions about his life in America. Gabe had also gotten to know Mustifah’s family very well, and even joined his son’s soccer games as they played in the market square.

It was young Katiya that had caught Gabe’s attention. She was seventeen, smart, well-read, and extremely naive. Gabe had enjoyed having conversations with her when she brought her father and his friends tea and treats. Mustifah was very proud of her and wanted to send her to university in England, an unusual event in the Middle Eastern country, and Gabe admired the man for his decision.

It was with such pride that Katiya had shown Gabe her acceptance letter from St. Andrews, and he had been so excited for her. Her heart-shaped face was radiant with happiness and her long ebony waves had floated behind her as she had run through the market, waving her letter. There had been a trail of preschoolers running and dancing behind her as usual. The kids loved her because she would often play with them, and she was determined to get a degree in child psychology so that she could help the children in their war-torn country. Gabe couldn’t have been prouder of her if she was his own sister. And that’s how he thought about her. His team even called her his adopted sister.

She spent quite a bit of her free time during that summer with a boy that Gabe didn’t fully trust. He had been a few years older than Katiya and Gabe had worried about his influence on her. But she was so in love with him that Gabe didn’t want to spoil her first romance.

Gabe could clearly remember the day she ran up to the Humvee’s window as the team was rolling out for an assignment.

“Gabe!” He opened the door, and she jumped up onto the running board so that she was level with him. She held out her hand for him to see the diamond solitaire on her ring finger. “Khalid proposed this morning! We’re going to get married when I get back from St. Andrews!”

“I’m…happy for you, Katiya.” Gabe swallowed the unease as he gave her a hug, “He better treat you good or he’ll have me to answer to.”

She giggled like an eight-year-old. “Oh, Gabe! He is already afraid of you. Why do you think he hasn’t come to meet you yet?”

Gabe allowed the small grin to replace the scowl he was struggling to hide. “Good. He should be afraid of me.”

She kissed his cheek before jumping from the running board. “Be safe!”

Gabe watched her run back through the dusty road to the square where her father and his friends were sitting. He didn’t know the kid, but his instincts told him not to trust this Khalid. He was disappointed that he couldn’t get Mustifah’s opinion of the boy, but if he agreed to the engagement then he probably thought that Khalid was good enough.

With great effort, Gabe pulled his attention back to their assignment. Early summer in the Middle East was a bitch and it took all of his power to concentrate on his team to stay hydrated. Returning from a recon mission of an insurgent camp, all Gabe wanted to do had a shave, shower, and a warm meal. They had just pulled into the camp and disembarked from their Humvee when the gate crashed open behind them.

“How the fucking hell did that shitting motherfucker get through?” Gabe demanded as he turned to the four-wheel drive vehicle parked in the middle of their compound, the gates lying in pieces where they had driven through. Besides the driver, Gabe counted twelve assailants streaming out of the car, finding cover behind their crates of provisions. This meant that when Gabe’s team returned fire, they would be desecrating their own food stores.

“The man that shoots the water crate will get latrine duty for the rest of this tour!” Gabe instructed as he put his rifle to his shoulder and shot the driver through the windshield. He turned to look at the newest member of his team, a young boy of nineteen, fresh out of training. He put his hand on the kid’s shoulder and pulled him behind another lot of crates. “Drop down. We need to get to the armory before they do.”

With wide brown eyes, the kid looked at Gabe, and then at the bullets flying overhead. He nervously licked his lips, and glanced at the armory to their right, gulping at the huge space that had no cover for them to duck behind when they moved. “Mas-Master Sergeant—”

He tucked the kid’s head beneath their cover as a grenade came over their heads. Without hesitation, Gabe picked it up and tossed it back to the vehicle, grabbed the boy’s shirt, and pulled him to his feet. “Move! Now!”

With quick steps they moved to the middle of the open area, the rest of the team returning fire to give them the opportunity. With a curse, Gabe dropped to his knee, lifted his rifle to his shoulder and pulled the trigger at an insurgent, who fell back when the bullet struck his head. He shot at another assailant when the kid pushed him over with a heavy grunt. Gabe fell to his back, flicked his rifle to automatic fire and directed a spray of bullets toward their assailants as he used his legs to push himself and the kid across the remaining distance on his back toward the sandbags surrounding the armory. It was only when he was behind the bags and the gunfire had become silent, that he realized that he was in pain.

“Hey, kid, you’ve gotta move. I think I’ve been hit,” Gabe muttered as he shook the young recruit. “Tanner?”

Gabe pushed the large weight of Phillip Tanner from his chest and saw that both their vests were soaked with blood. Turning, he looked down at the unseeing eyes of the young private and he saw that a heavy caliber bullet had penetrated his vest. Gabe realized that the young man had saved his life, because his vest had diverted the bullet from Gabe’s heart and sent it through his shoulder instead.

“Gunny!” Gabe heard the voice of his sergeant, but it sounded so far away.

“Here,” he gasped, trying to roll to his knees to help the recruit. “Tanner…,” he gasped as O’Ryan got to him.

“Hot shit damn, Gunny, he’s gone,” Sergeant O’Ryan confirmed. Gabe felt the strength drain from his body as he absorbed that news. A kid. So much life to live and he had given it to save Gabe’s sorry ass. O’Ryan knelt beside Gabe and helped him sit up. “Looks like you took a graze. Let’s get you seen to.”

With a great effort, Gabe allowed the sergeant to pull him to his feet while another of their team took care of Tanner. “He saved…my life…”

“He launched himself in front of you, Gunny. It was damn brave.”

“Damned stupid,” Gabe argued. He looked around the compound yard and shook his head at the destruction and bodies lying everywhere, the only casualty on Gabe’s team being Tanner. He sighed as he thought about the notification letter he had to write. O’Ryan helped him into the medical tent, and Gabe gratefully sank onto the cot. Corporal Michelle Garner was already preparing the items she would need to help him, placing a large piece of gauze across the deep graze as he tried to help O’Ryan remove his Kevlar.

“Sit still,” Mickey instructed as she removed the gauze.

“What the fuck, Mick?” Gabe expelled as he felt a sharp sting taking his breath away.

“Sorry, Gunny. Not enough alcohol swabs to clean this up, so I am using lemon juice.”

“Geez!” he hissed as the sting subsided. “Do I look like tequila?”

“If you were the kind of drink I was interested in, I would definitely shoot you straight.”

Gabe glared at the medic as she cleaned up the juice and placed another piece of gauze over the wound before securing it.

“All set. I’ll look at it again when we get to base,” she said.

Gabe was moody as they entered the small town, not sure if he would call their mission a success. They had found some of the information they were looking for, but with thirteen bodies secured on their goods transporter, Gabe didn’t feel victorious. When they had left for the mission five days ago, he had been ambivalent about Katiya’s engagement. Five days later, he had forgotten all about it, and only seeing her playing with the children in the square as they passed reminded him of it.

“Master Sergeant Von Ashner, the major wants to speak to you,” a corporal informed him just as he had changed into a fresh uniform.

“Thanks, Marcus.” He picked up the report he had prepared before leaving their camp and went to meet with his commanding officer.

“Gabe!” He looked up at Katiya’s voice.

“What are you doing here?” He immediately looked around for her male escorts. As an engaged woman, she was no longer allowed to walk around unescorted, especially to a place with a large male complement.

“I needed to speak to you,” she pleaded.

He frowned at her urgent tone and shortened his long strides to accommodate her shorter pace. She looked over her shoulder to where he could see her younger brother waiting at the gate of their quarters, and he pulled her into a quiet passage where she wouldn’t be seen from the street but allowed them to remain in public. He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Khalid…,” she said.

“What about him?” Gabe almost growled with impatience.

“We met some of his friends when he took me to lunch yesterday afternoon,” she whispered quickly. “They were talking about a train and how to get ~the goods~ out of the city.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What goods, Katiya?”

She shook her head, her thick braid falling over her shoulders. “I don’t know. He told me it was not my business and told me if I questioned him again I’d regret it.”

“Did he hurt you?” Gabe asked softly and breathed a sigh of relief when she quickly shook her head.

“No, but I saw something when they went into another room, before the door closed.” She glanced around again before looking up at Gabe. “There were crates. Like your people have in the trucks when they come back from the airport. Those long wooden ones. There was a stamp on one, but the door closed before I could see what it was.”

Gabe took his phone out of his pocket, scrolled through his emails till he found the one he was searching for, opened the attachment and showed her. “Did it look like this?”

“Yes! That is it!” she gasped as Gabe swallowed the litany of curses on his tongue.

He kissed her forehead. “Thank you, Katiya. But now I need you to leave here and to stay away from Khalid. This is worse than bad business.”

Gabe watched her leave before continuing to his CO’s quarters. This new information added to what they had learned in the desert was only going to end badly.