“Miller is a Navy SEAL, like us,” said Maddox. “Special ops. Really covert shit.”
“So?”
“So he’s involved in things we wouldn’t know about. Only maybe Connor knew.” He looked uncomfortable. “Because…”
“Because he and Connor bunked together,” Kane said coldly. “When they were stationed out in New Orleans.”
My throat constricted a little. The thought of Connor being betrayed by a friend… much less a fellow soldier? It just wasn’t something that had ever crossed my mind.
“Do you remember when Connor was in New Orleans?”
“Yes,” I said numbly.
Austin scratched at his chin. “It was an unknown assignment, a few years ago. He was there six months I think.”
“Eight,” I corrected him.
“It was one of the few times he’d been stationed apart from us,” Kane added. “Maybe the only time.”
“I— I don’t know what he was doing there,” I offered. “If you’re asking me what his duties were, he never told me.” I paused. “And I never really asked.”
I’d learned not to ask, actually. The one time Connor told me an operations story I’d been scared shitless of the things he’d done. Not scared of the people he’d hurt or killed either; I assumed they were all enemies, and the enemy naturally had it coming.
No. Instead I’d been scared of the danger he was in.
It drove me mad with worry, knowing how close I’d come to losing him. Knowing that my brother was a bullet or a grenade or one terrible move away from being taken from me forever, like everyone else. As a Navy SEAL, I was always aware of the possibility he could get hurt. But this was stark, detailed reality…
It had kept me up for nights on end, that single story. And even though he’d emerged victorious, I’d asked him not to tell me stuff like that again. True to his word, he hadn’t.
And now it was going to bite me in the ass.
“FUCK.”
Maddox’s hand closed over mine. “What?”
“I don’t know!” I exclaimed. “Shit, I don’t anything about what he did, or where he went, or what the fuck happened to him!” I was growing angry now. I could feel a familiar resentment welling up from that empty place inside me. A resentment I hadn’t felt since Connor’s death.
“I’m useless,” I growled. “He never told me anything. He never told me—”
I stopped cold, mid-sentence. My head cocked to one side.
“What?” asked Austin. “What is it?”
“I— I think I remember…”
Maddox opened his mouth to speak, but Kane’s gaze halted him. He remained silent, while I searched my the big messy file drawer of my brain.
“Connor swit
ched apartments twice,” I said, “while he was stationed out there. He said it was because he was following his roommate.”
Austin squinted. “Following?”
“Yes.”
“Is that the word he used?”
“I… I think so. I remember thinking it was weird at the time. But I just assumed he met a guy he got along with. Someone he liked enough to switch apartments with,” I shrugged. “Maybe to grab a bigger place, or they had a landlord problem, or—”