Ignite (Explosive) by Tessa Teevan Read Free Book Online Page A

can be, and then he left town and you never talked to him again. I’ve always wondered why that was,” she remarks, and I know she’s going to start fishing for answers.
    “You’ve never asked.”
    “Would you have told me?”
    “Umm…no, but bring over a bottle of wine for this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries and maybe, just maybe, Elijah and you can convince me to spill,” I offer, knowing that there’s no way in hell I’m telling her about it on Thursday. Yes, Sierra and I get together every week to catch the latest on Damon, Stefan, and Elena. Ty and Jeremy used to go to a different room and watch whatever ballgame was on. Since his passing, Jeremy stays home with Ava while we watch our show.
    “Yeah, right. You’ve waited ten years, so I have a feeling getting anything out of you will be damn near impossible. Guess I better bring two bottles to get those lips loose,” she laughs.
    We chat for a few more minutes before hanging up, and I’m thankful that she didn’t use this opportunity to push me like she was doing yesterday. I think on what Sierra said, knowing that she’s right. When I heard Jace’s voice on the other line, I felt a twinge of excitement and a quickening of my heartbeat. How could one phone interaction make me feel this way after ten years of silence?
    Getting up from the couch, I glance at the photos the line the hall and feel a pang of guilt. Seven years’ worth of memories hangs on the walls, and I’m suddenly overwhelmed with the thought that we’ll never be able to add to them.

The next couple of days fly by in a blur. It’s always crazy and stressful trying to prepare for a deployment. This is my fourth in the nine years I’ve served in the Army, so you’d think I’d be used to this. Now that I’m a sergeant, though, I have to make sure that the soldiers who report to me are fully prepared to leave the States for the next nine months. I spend a lot of time scrambling, meeting with families, and ensuring that all paperwork is completed. It’s a nerve-racking situation, ensuring that living wills and powers of attorney are signed. It’s times like these that I’m glad I’m unattached. Witnessing these guys saying goodbye to their young wives and kids is depressing enough to watch without actually having to deal with it myself.
    The truth is that we do one of the most dangerous jobs in the military. Defusing bombs is no joke, and there’s no shortage of them in Afghanistan. It’s quite possible that one or two of these guys won’t come home. For some, this is their first deployment, so the older, more experienced soldiers try to prepare them as much as possible, but its war. You can’t really prepare yourself for the scorching heat, the foul smell, and the unforeseen dangers that can be lurking along every road, inside every building, and within every person you meet.
    The Taliban is notorious for their use of improvised explosive devices—IEDs—because they’re relatively easy to create and almost impossible to detect. More than half of the deaths of military members in Afghanistan have come from IED attacks, so any time my team can find and defuse one, I get a sense of fulfillment I’ve never felt with anything else. It’s a combination of ultimate terror and an adrenaline rush every time I put on the inflammable advanced bomb suit that protects us from heat, debris, and blast pressure. Getting up close and personal with a bomb that could explode in your face at any moment is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. But someone’s gotta do it, and I don’t want to brag, but I have a pretty damn good track record.
    I take a look around the bus that’s hauling us across post to board the plane that’ll be delivering us to Kandahar Air Base late tonight. I’ve deployed with most of these guys before, which is always nice. Working with the same team makes things much easier when it comes to cohesiveness and morale. There are three new additions to