Semper Fidelis by Morticia Knight Kendall McKenna Sara York LE Franks Devon Rhodes T.A. Chase S.A. McAuley Read Free Book Online

within sight, as they got closer to the fake village.
    “You think he’s playing off your instincts, sir?”
    “Knowing your opponents’ strengths can be more useful sometimes than knowing your own.”
    Galen paid attention to the grid pattern the drone wove over the city, maintaining a search pattern that allowed him to keep tabs on the drone’s movement. Both of them were on the hunt, eliminating sections piece by piece, and Galen could see the search area narrowing. If for some reason the IED wasn’t placed here, then they would both be sure of it.
    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the drone tilt toward the ground and into an area of the city that had street after street of dead ends. From his ride-alongs with Casey as he was planning his live-fire exercises, Galen was much more prepared for the maze of streets than his driver would be. And if he didn’t take control now, then that drone was going to home in on the location of the last device.
    “Out of the vehicle, Private!” he ordered, jumping into the driver’s seat as soon as it was clear and slamming his foot onto the accelerator. He was so concentrated on the path of the drone that he clipped the side of a storage container building and watched it sway in his rearview mirror. But his eyes had been off the road too long and he crashed into the side of another faux building. He looked up just in time to see the second story wobble, then begin a slow, inevitable rotation toward the sand.
    The drone looked like it was going to course correct and head out of the path of the falling building, but at the last second Zach’s pride must have gotten the best of him because he ducked the drone down, attempting to fly it under and get to the last IED. For a split second Galen thought it was going to make it, that he was going to lose, then he heard the screeching of metal on metal and the ignition of a gigantic fireball.
     
    * * * *
     
    Galen texted Zach and met up with him on the roof of a building clear of the chaos, sitting down with him to watch the fire.
    “I probably shouldn’t have used the chlorine trifluoridein the fuel mixture.” He sniffed, took off his glasses and itched at his nose. “It’ll burn itself out eventually.”
    “You sure about that?”
    “Yeah, why not.”
    “Well this was a fuckup of catastrophic proportions.”
    Zach chuckled. “It really was.”
    “You know what else I fucked up?”
    “Not calling me after that night in the hotel?”
    “You really are a rocket scientist. So smart.” He played with the binoculars in his hands, his nerves getting the best of him. But he had to know. “That night, then… It wasn’t just an anomaly?”
    “You tell me. I hear you’re the one with the mystical sense for those type of things.”
    He surveyed Zach’s features—the way Zach leaned toward him, the playful tip of his generous lips, those stunning golden brown eyes that shone like a doctored Photoshop pic—and answered with complete honesty, “Yeah, I think it was an anomaly.”
    Zach swallowed, an abrupt frown making his chiseled cheekbones stand out even more.
    How the hell could any man be so beautiful?
    Galen shook his head. “We’re obviously combustible when we interact. That’s not common—or safe.”
    Zach twirled his glasses in his hand and gave Galen a smile that melted him, like the chemical reaction of chlorine trifluoridemixed with metal and desert sand.
    “And?” Zach asked.
    Galen smiled. “It’s all I’ve been looking for.”
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    ALWAYS READY
     
     
    T.A. Chase
     
     

Dedication
     
     
    To all the rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard and the other military services. Thank you for your bravery and willingness to dive into the oceans and seas to save those who need it. To the crab fishermen of the Bering Sea, I couldn’t do your job for all the money in the world.

 
     
    Trademarks Acknowledgement
     
     
    The author acknowledges the trademarked