“It is.” She confirmed with a nod. “But ISIS was gaining power in that area of the country, so we were sent on a three-month deployment with the goal of training some of their top field soldiers, so they could then take what they learned back to their people. The hope was to give them a greater chance at holding their ground in the event of an attack.”
“I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that something happened while you and your people were over there?” Jagger Brooks spoke next.
With an elbow resting casually on Rocky’s fireplace mantel, the former Air Force CCT looked more like he should be on the cover of a men’s fashion magazine than part of a highly trained group of government killers.
Didn’t these guys already read the background check their tech buddy ran on me?
As if reading the question rolling through her mind, Rocky gave a quick but clear explanation. “The team hasn’t had a chance to look at all the intel Liam pulled on you.”
Ah, yes. Liam Cutler. That would be the man currently sitting on the opposite end of the couch from Brody with a tablet in his hands and an unreadable expression on his handsome, rugged face.
“Right. So anyway, the situation there was becoming increasingly volatile, and there was talk of the U.S. sending troops back in.”
A gruff snort came from Brody, who hadn’t spoken again since the elite group of badass protectors had arrived minutes before. “Talk about a political nightmare.”
“Exactly.” Raegan offered the man a nod. “The administration at the time devised a plan. They decided to send a covert group of M.P.s on a three-month deployment. Ninety days to pass along as much knowledge and as many skills as possible with the thought that they’d then take what they learned from us back to their own people.”
“How’d you get into the country undetected?” Jagger chimed back in.
“We arrived inside a cargo plane’s hull in the middle of the night. Shortly before landing, the members of my unit, me included, hunkered down inside several large, wooden shipping crates. We landed; they dollied us inside the small, covert base they’d set up specifically for the mission.”
“Damn.” Cade’s dark brows rose as if the man was impressed by what she’d just shared. “That’s cool. But…how did you have a base full of soldiers in training without being noticed?”
“The base was set up to look like a makeshift medical facility for the locals. The locals knew better, but since what we were doing was in their best interest, they stayed quiet and went along with the ruse.”
“How’d you train without catching the attention of the enemy?” Christian’s brown eyes remained focused on her.
“When a strong ISIS presence was reported nearby, we’d train at night. When things died down in that region of the country, we’d go back to working days.”
“So what happened?” Brody looked as if he was ready to get to the heart of the story.
I feel your pain, trust me.
“One of the soldiers we were training turned out to be an ISIS plant,” she shared. The anger that churned deep in her bellyfelt as fresh as the day it happened. “His name is Samer Nasim Ali.” God, just saying the murdering asshole’s name made her want to scream out in a fiery rage. “He was arrogant. Rude. Defiant any time I tried to teach him something new or correct something as simple as the way he was holding his weapon.” Her teeth clenched together from the memory of him being blatantly spiteful toward her. “It was clear he had an issue with my being a woman, and he made no effort to hide his disdain of Americans.”
“Dick.”
Raegan looked to Cade. “You have no idea.”
“You ever take your concerns to anyone higher up?”
“I spoke to Chief Tupper.” She nodded. “He was the Chief Warrant Officer in charge of my unit.”
“And?” Jagger asked, seemingly genuinely invested in the story.
“Chief was just as sick of the guy as the rest of us, but since Samer’s only issue was his piss-poor attitude, it wasn’t worth causing problems that could potentially affect the op.”
“So you kept your mouth shut and put up with his bullshit while you counted down the days,” Cade surmised.
“Pretty much.” A tiny smirk lifted one corner of her mouth before the heartbreaking memories stole it away. “We were exactly seven days from going home when the attack happened. Samer and his men left for the day only to return two hours later. They blew a hole in the side of the base’s concrete perimeter.” Emotion clogged her throat, but she forged on because, well…did she really have a choice at this point? “Long story short, Samer lead an attack on the base that resulted in the deaths of everyone on my team.”
“Holy shit.” Cade’s eyes grew wide. “You lost your entire unit?”
Yes. Yes, she had.
“A HESH round destroyed most of the building we used for our sleeping quarters.” She could still hear the explosions. The screams. And though she knew it was impossible, sometimes Raegan could swear she could still smell the scent of smoke and burning fuel. “I took a round in the thigh trying to get to my people but managed to take cover long enough to get a tourniquet in place. But by the time I made it across the courtyard, I realized I’d have to go around the back of the building to get inside to my people.”
“You have anyone watching your six?” Brody rumbled from his place on Rocky’s couch.