A Few Good Men by Cat Johnson Read Free Book Online

importantly, that not one of them would live up to the ideal that had been set by the military guys she had been corresponding with. Even Tiffany was smart enough to see that, and that was saying something.
     
    Jazzy had been alive when the medevac helicopter took him away, but now that John knew he would be fine, he was pretty sure he wanted to kill him.
    John ran his hands over his face. “Why can’t you wait to email her when you get out of here?”
    “Because the docs say I can’t leave this hospital bed for almost a week, and then I have to go straight to my bunk and not move for another week except to go to the head. So you have to do it. I can’t be wandering around the MWR. I might collapse and injure myself.” He held a hand to his ribcage and looked pitiful.
    “Look. I have no problem calling your wife for you. Hell, I’ll even contact your grandmother and dear old aunt if you want, but I am not emailing your sex-writer pen pal, Summer Winters.” John was sticking to this resolution even though Jazzy was giving him the hurt puppy eyes.
    He watched the man in the bed before him shrug and then wince in spite of the large number of painkillers John knew was coursing through his veins. The areas covered with white gauze bandages outnumbered those without, making the concussion and contusions seem worse. But John was well aware that with explosions it was the internal injuries that could kill you, no matter how good or bad the exterior looked.
    “That’s okay, sir. It’s not like I got injured following an order you, my superior officer, gave me or anything—oh wait. It is exactly that.” Jazzy couldn’t suppress the grin that crossed his lips.
    He was trying guilt now? Dammit, though, it was the truth. Jazzy had been out of that tank and in harm’s way following his order.
    John growled, a low rumbling sound of frustration and defeat. “I really hate you right about now. You do know that, don’t you?”
    Jazzy smiled wider. “Yes, sir. And might I add you’re not the first superior officer I’ve had say that. So her email address is summer at summer winters dot com. Do you want me to write that down?” Jazzy picked up the pad of paper and pen he kept on his bed so he could write his wife daily.
    “No, thank you. I believe I can remember that very complicated address.” John scowled until his lips formed one tight line.
    “What are you going to say in the email to her?”
    Now Jazzy was going to try and tell him what to say too? Although, what exactly did one say to a granny sex novelist? He desperately did not want to do this.
    John sighed, defeated. “What would you like me to say?”
    “You should probably thank her for the coffee since you liked drinking it as much as the rest of us. But I think first you should introduce yourself. She knows who you are because I talk about you.”
    “You talk about me? To her?” John frowned. “Why?”
    “Because I love and respect you so much, sir. Of course.” Jazzy smirked and John seriously considered smacking him and adding more damage to what the car bomb had accomplished. “And if you could email her today I would appreciate it. I’ve been in here for three days already, and she tends to get worried when I don’t respond to her for a while. She always assumes I got blown up.”
    The guy never did know when to leave well enough alone.
    “Yeah, well, this time you did get blown up,” John reminded him, feeling mean.
    Jazzy hung his head dramatically. “Yes, sir, I did. But I got blown up happy in the knowledge that my fellow crew members and my commander were safely inside the tank.”
    Another growl followed that comment. “Damn you, Jazzy.”
    He had the nerve to laugh, and John decided he would have far rather been the one blown up than the one having to email Jazzy’s do-gooder porn-penning pal.
    Damn. He’d give anything for a good stiff drink right about now.
    A knock on the room’s doorframe caused him to raise his head to find