Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 93284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
His muscles were almost obnoxious there were so many of them. He had short hair that was cut close to his scalp. A nose that was a little crooked and a wide smiling mouth. He came up to me and gave me a bear hug then placed me back on my feet.
"How ya doin' Chey?"
"I'm doing ok. Mom's leaving for a month long contract tonight. So ask me again in a couple days. Janie is an energy drainer; you might need to come check on me to make sure she hasn't sucked all the life out of me."
"Oh, she's not that bad! Call me if you need a break, I'll help any time you need it."
I smiled huge and said, "You better bet your ass I’ll take you up on that."
He laughed and rounded the end of the truck to grab the humongous part out of the bed of the truck. He lifted it with an easy flick of his wrist and placed it next to the bike that was being worked on in the first stall of the garage.
I waved goodbye then got into the truck. I was about to start it when I remembered the note. I got out again and walked back over to him and opened my mouth to say something and promptly shut it. I wasn't sure if it was even anything, but the note did get into my truck even when it was locked so I decided to ask anyway. Max looked at me expectantly.
"I got a note today. It was placed on the seat of my truck. The note itself was kind of weird, but nothing was written on it that was alarming. I just wanted to see if you had any ideas what it meant.” I explained.
He looked at me expectantly and raised his eyebrow as if to say, "And?"
I huffed out a breath and told him what the note said.
Immediately after he heard the word sniper he stiffened. His body was vibrating with tension by the end of the short description of what the note said.
He looked over his shoulder and made eye contact with someone, and I slowly turned around to find myself face to chest with Sam. My hands instantly turned clammy and I closed them in an effort not to reach out and touch him.
"Where were you when you got this note?" His deep gravelly voice asked.
"I was at school. Why?"
"Have you talked to James lately?"
"No, not for over a week. Again, why?" I answered huffily. I started getting annoyed with the questions and no answers. Honestly I was getting a little scared too.
Why was he asking about James?
"Do you have this note with you?"
"Yes it's in my purse. Hold on." I said as I bent into the open truck window and retrieved the note from my bag. Handing it to him, he flipped it open and read it, his eyes flickering over the page then coming back to rest on me.
"James is a sniper, Cheyenne. Has been since he joined the army. He was the sniper for our unit, and hasn't relinquished that position, even after I left.” He finally answered.
I looked over my shoulder at max and he nodded confirming Sam's answer as correct. It’s not that I don’t trust Sam’s answer, it was just that I wasn’t sure what to make of this.
"Ok, but what does this have to do with me. Why was it in my truck?"
"I don't know, but I intend to find out." he said. "Be careful and keep your eyes open. Let me know if something doesn't feel right to you, or if you need anything. Here's my number in case you lost it the last time." As he handed over a card and silently walking away back to wherever he came from.
I put the card into my pocket and turned to Max. He didn't have much more to say than Sam, but did say Janie and I could stay with him if we wanted to. I declined his offer, but told him I would call if I experienced anything else weird, and drove back to work.
What was that all about? They both acted like something really dangerous was written in the note. Unless they knew a whole lot more than they were telling me, which meant I needed to do some digging.
SAM
As she pulled out of the driveway I glanced at Max and said, “I’ll be in the office.”
He nodded gravely, and I walked at a fast clip into the office. I reached for the phone in my pocket and dialed James. He didn’t answer, so I left him a voicemail to call me back immediately. Hopefully he didn’t take as long as he did last time. A couple of weeks ago I called to confirm some last minute information with this new business, and it took him nearly a week to get back to me. I was used to this though. When I was active, we could possibly be black for months. I was lucky he got back to me that fast. Now, I was just hoping he got to me much faster that was normal.
This was bad. No one outside of our old unit, and James’ new unit knew that he was the team’s sniper. The higher ups didn’t even know. Our unit didn’t officially exist. The secretary of defense had his first officer form this unit, and only select few knew who and what we were.
When I was drafted for this unit, I was an officer with the Rangers. I graduated top of my class in Airborne, RIP, and then Ranger school. Luckily I had already taken over ninety college hours before I graduated from high school, so I was able to get my college degree, then apply for OCS, and was accepted. I rose through the ranks after OCS, and had just made first lieutenant with my old unit when I was noticed by Warren Kelley, the SecDef’s first officer.
We held off an attack at a post that was imperative to the Afghan government for over three weeks. Our Captain and four other members of the unit died before additional help arrived. Jack and I were able to hold the post, but only just barely. Our belief in the cause was shattered however. When Kelley offered us the chance to join this unit, we did deciding that we had nothing left to lose. Jack and I had joined right out of high school, and neither of us had much family. He had his dad, and I had my mom, but both had moved on with their lives, and had other people besides us.