Brothers in Arms by Kendall McKenna Read Free Book Online

he’d next reported in to work. The training schedule for Third Recon had been changed, and he had two days to get his affairs in order. Jonah was already gone by the time Kellan’s discharge was final.
    There had been emails and cell phone calls in the beginning. Jonah’s hours were long, and the time difference didn’t help. Kellan had drifted at first, finally seeming to find his stride when he’d gotten into a graduate program.
    The emails slowed, and the phone calls stopped. Jonah had kept up with Kellan in the vaguest of ways through Marine Corps scuttlebutt. He’d returned to Pendleton and First Recon, the days he thought of Kellan growing further and further apart.
    Jonah suspected that being back in Iraq was what had him thinking of Kellan more frequently. It had been quite a long while since he’d relived the details of their one night together. Thinking of it now had him hard and pushing against the fly of his uniform.
    Jonah pressed the heel of his hand against his cock to ease the ache. Setting aside his cleaning equipment, he holstered his Beretta and stepped off the porch into the darkness. He knew a perfect place, between two Humvees beneath a cammie net, where he could have some privacy and a quick jack.

CHAPTER TWO
    They hit the road early the next day. Grizzly wanted to do a knock-n-talk on a local sheik, and he wanted to arrive at the residence before the family had had much time to hide any contraband they might have received during the night.
    They drove to a hamlet, like all the other hamlets Jonah had kicked his way into during the last year. He, Shankman, Martinez, and Renz entered the house Grizzly indicated. They secured all of the adult males, and Trujillo ordered all the women to stay indoors with the children. Jonah could hear a toddler crying from within the house.
    Grizzly spoke quietly to Trujillo, who in turn questioned the restrained sheik in Arabic. Jonah and his men stayed vigilant on the outermost portion of the shaded yard. He had his charge in his line of sight, so Jonah could play nice. He wouldn’t try to overhear the questions Grizzly wanted Trujillo to ask. This went on for several long, hot moments before Grizzly made a frustrated sound and ordered the sheik released. He stormed off toward the Humvees, not waiting to see if any of the Marines followed. Jonah stuck close to him, scanning for threats as they moved.
    “Fucking circular talk,” Jonah heard Grizzly mutter. “Lie to my face.”
    “Welcome to Iraq, sir,” he replied.
    “Goddamn Syrian insurgents and these fucking apathetic Iraqis.”
    Grizzly’s expression didn’t encourage further discussion, so Jonah focused on getting them all oscar-mike.
    He watched his Marines slide into their Humvees and man their weapons. In seconds, they were ready to step off.
    “We’re oscar-mike,” Jonah said into the comm. The three vehicles set out at standard dispersion.
    “You figured out, yet, what the hell this is all about, Gunny?” Shankman asked.
    “Still above my pay grade, Corporal,” Jonah replied without turning from the window.
    “Grizzly does talk to you, though,” Shankman pressed. “And you’re the best Recon Marine in Iraq right now. You always figure stuff out before everyone else.”
    “What was in that package he took with him yesterday?” Garcia asked from the backseat. “Did anyone ever find out?”
    “Nah, dawg,” Shankman said. “But I heard Captain Hoegerl couriered it off to Headquarters as soon as it was in his hands.”
    “Trujillo say anything to you about what went on yesterday?” Garcia pressed.
    “Hell no,” Shankman shot back. “They read him in special, and he ain’t given up no secrets. He made it through SERE too, dawg.” All Recon Marines made it through Survival Evasion Resistance Escape school.
    “It just don’t make sense,” Garcia said distractedly. “Have you ever noticed the road going into Diyala looks the same as the road into Nasiryah?”
    “Which looks