The Charlotte Chronicles (Jackson Boys 1)

Lieutenant Daniel Sykes, the CO of my SEAL Team Nine, must notice my agitation because he gets up from his cozy bed of wood, metal, and rough cloth to come sit next to me. “When I was a Petty Officer Second Class, my girlfriend who I’d dated since the ninth grade broke up with me because she was in love with her lab partner, Darryl. Maybe his name was Dennis. I decided that Dennis could go to hell and that Alyson was missing me. So I fly home after a two month mission and head straight for her apartment. Alyson was entertaining the asshole. There was some shouting. Some tears. I punched him out. And if it wasn’t for the fact that she had some feeling left for me, old Dennis might have called the police and then my CO would be called and I’d have gotten kicked off the teams.”

“LT, you know I’m not going to do anything that would dishonor the teams,” I assure him. I knew how to play this game. We’d gotten into plenty of trouble off base in the past, but so long as no local law enforcement had to be called, it was all good. My destruction of Reese would be silent and deadly. The law enforcement wouldn’t even know I was in town.

“I’m merely saying I recognize that look on your face. Probably every one of us has worn it at one time or another. Don’t let your heart lead you into trouble. I’d hate for you to end up having a black mark on what has otherwise been a stellar career. You given any thought to OTS? You’d be a good mustang.”

Mustangs were guys who went to Officer Training School and made the jump from enlisted to officer. As an officer you got paid more and you had more responsibility. I don’t really care for either. I like being enlisted. It’s where work gets done, not that I don’t admire the shit out of LT Sykes, but I don’t want to deal with his headaches either.

Plus, enlisted men are more fun to hang around, and even though rank is pretty fluid on the teams, when we’re out of the theatre and back at base, there are definite lines of separation.

“I’ll think about it, sir,” I hedge, but LT has known me long enough and is smart enough to read my hesitation.

“You do that.” He stands. “And get some sleep. That’s an order.”

I force myself to sleep by mentally assembling and reassembling my gun and then pointing it. I wake up to Petty Officer Second Class Tom Cheung describing his next door neighbor. “Girl is so stacked I don’t know how she is able to walk upright.”

“You offer to help her like a gentleman, right?” laughs Senior Chief Michael “Cabby” Hale.

“Course I do. I say, ‘Miss Emily, why don’t you take my arm and press your precious titties against my biceps while I walk you to your car?’”

“That’s real courtly of you, Bride.” Everyone calls Cheung Bride because one night, he somehow got his sheet tucked into his shorts, and it trailed behind him like a goddamned train on a wedding gown.

“She let you stick your face in those tatas?” Ensign Ryan Elison pipes up. Elison’s so new he squeaks when he walks. He’s eager to please and desperately wants to fit in, but he’s replacing a guy that we all really liked who’d bitten it on a fucked-up training mission. None of us hold it against Elison, but even he knows that immediate acceptance isn’t going to come.

“Ensign Elison, this is a delicate mission. A man only gets a few chances in his life to see a rack this spectacular. I’m not going to rush it.”

“You’ve been gone for two months,” Cab interjects. “She’s probably moved.”

“Am I a SEAL?” Bride asks. It’s a rhetorical question. “Do I not know how to plan, execute said plan, and then achieve my objective?”

“I thought I was in charge of planning,” LT says wryly, and we all laugh when Bride flicks him off.

“What’re you doing when you get back, Cab?” Bride asks

“I’m going to see if the sweet honey over in Oceanside still has room in her bed for me. Her going away blow job was stellar. I need to measure it against her welcome home one.”

“And if the going away one is better?” Ensign Elison asks.

“Shit, sir, then I’ll get a going away one, which I’ve already told you was spec-fucking-tacular. I’ll get gone with a smile on my face. Even a bad blow job is just fine.”

“What about you, Jackson?” Elison asks.

“I’m going to propose,” I say. It pops out, but it sounds right. To everyone else, it’s so surprising there’s silence for once. Everyone gapes at me as the thump of the engine beats loudly against the metal sides.