“It was supposed to be a simple operation for our SEAL team. I was in charge. A quick in and out was all it would take. We were to gather intel at an insurgent’s camp, then bring proof of smuggling routes back to our captain. I was told that the target site would be empty for a small window of time: another team would be keeping the tangoes engaged a few miles up the coast while we did our job.”
Vince shuddered. “It was bad intel. The minute we approached the camp, I felt that something was off. Instead of walking right in as we’d been ordered, I sent in scouts. It only took a few minutes for them to ascertain that a large group of militants were still there,” he spat.
“We’d spent days in the planning. All of it based on what our captain had told me. And all of it was total bullshit,” Vince bit out. “Hewanted that intel in his hands to further his career, and he didn’t care who was collateral damage.” Vince gave a bitter laugh. “He had no backup plan for us. There was no other SEAL team engaging the enemy off site. That bastard figured once we were there, we’d just get the job done, regardless.”
Vince drew a hand frustratedly over his wet head. “If I’d given that order; if we’d gone in, my team would have been decimated. I’m sure of it. But I called it off, instead.”
“And that was bad, why?” Lace asked quietly.
“Because that asshole captain…” he snorted, segueing for a moment. “It seems we have athingabout rogue captains, don’t we?” he posed rhetorically before continuing. “Anyway, the prick had destroyed the original orders he’d given, and made it look like I was grandstanding; going in of my own volition to gain some fucked-up kind of glory. He also managed to skew what had happened in the aftermath, making it appear likehewas the one who ordered our team to retreat when he ‘found out’ what I was up to.”
Lace reared back, anger bubbling up inside her. “That’s total bullshit. Didn’t it all come out in an inquiry?”
“Non-definitive,” Vince grunted. “Even though my guys backed me up, they’d never heard our orders directly from the captain, which meant they were going on what I had told them. They believed me, but in the end, it came down to my word against the captain’s.”
Vince took a moment to regroup. “When all was said and done, since nothing could be proven against me one-hundred percent because of the support I got from my men, I wasn’t court-martialed. But Iwaswritten up, and stripped of my command.”
Argh.Lace’s blood boiled.
“What happened to the captain?” she questioned with hardness in her voice.
Vince growled. “He went to some cocktail party that night that was being thrown for the local brass. As far as I know, he told his story over and over to a bunch of bureaucratic pricks, and got the kudos he’d wanted. Because he’s still fucking in charge of the teams.”
Lace was intensely angry on Vince’s behalf.
“So you…?” Lace led, having trouble forming words.
“So I left,” he stated baldly. “After some well-placed words in a few ears I trusted, so the captain couldn’t fuck anyone over again,” he breathed. “My reenlistment papers came up a little over a month after the incident, and I didn’t sign. I got out.”
“And your guys?” she asked gently. “Your team?”
“They were all pretty disillusioned at that point. Not with me. Thank Christ they still believed me. But they were jaded with the chain of command. I heard from one of them just last week. They’re all transitioning out when their time is up.”
“Oh, Vince. I’m so sorry,” Lace cried. “None of you deserved that. Especially not you, after twenty years in.”
Vince leaned down and kissed her. Deeply.
“You know what, Lace? I’m working to get over it. There are a lot of things in life we don’t deserve,” he continued raspily.
His eyes darted to her port.
“But we learn how to deal with them. Then we move on.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
It was somewhat surreal how life went back to…almost normal after Lace’s disastrous brush with death. She’d been able, if not to forget the whole thing, at least to put it aside.Farbetter than Vince had been able to. Who knew he’d be having flashbacks about it for days afterward.
When Vince had finally asked Lace what her secret was for letting the whole thing go, there’d been no hesitation. She told him that ever since her cancer diagnosis—with the thoughts of how that could turn out—she looked at everything that happened as an adventure; a sometimes bad, sometimesgood, adventure, butbothwere affirmations of life.
Vince admired her more and more with every word she uttered.
A week had passed since the ocean rescue, and the chain of events accompanying it were still unfolding.
First, Lace had been given a leave of absence from her job.
With pay.
Her bosses wanted her to fully recover from her ordeal before she decided whether or not to switch from her ocean detail to sailing a desk, as was the way she was leaning. The jury was still out on how that would end up. Vince knew how much Lace lovedbeing at sea. But she was simply and rightfully concerned that she might be thrown into another contentious situation where the crew saw her as an impediment and didn’t make her feel welcome aboard. She didn’t need a renewal ofthatkind of stress while trying to navigate her treatments.