Read BRAVE, Episode Three - the Color of Danger for Free Online Page B

explain his position, “I’ve always liked workin’ with cars. Computers—hell, no, couldn’t work one of those to save my life. Can’t even type. But cars—that’s another thing entirely. Tinkerin’ around with motors, findin’ out what makes things run—God, that’s cool stuff.” The glow of enthusiasm lit his face.
    Trouble, trouble, trouble. A poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Looking for a way out.
    “We were in Akron by then. We made money. Oh, yeah, we made plenty of money. Sent some to my mother, got Sam into a good school, but then we tried jackin’ a Mercedes. Damn. What a beauty. It purred like a woman in—well, it purred. Only problem was, it belonged to one of the city officials. And we got caught. Fast.”
    Nick’s father, a local sheriff, managed to negotiate the release of all three would-be criminals into his custody; instead of driving them to the county hoosegow, however, he drove them personally to the regional recruiting center. As an ex-military man himself, Jack Shepard felt—and probably rightly so—that boys desperately in need of discipline would fare better with rough handling. And so they did.
    “We joined the Marines,” said Logan, and extended his left forearm to show the tattoo “Semper Fidelis” running almost the length from inside elbow to wrist. “Went to Parris Island for trainin’, then got sent to Iraq.”
    Chloe shivered. “Logan.”
    He returned his attention to the tablecloth, smoothing a wrinkle with the tip of his fingers, arranging his knife and fork. “Mosul,” he said quietly. “Stupid stuff goin’ on back and forth between there and Fallujah. We got hammered with mortars from the one side and insurgent RPG’s on three others. Jesus. I still see it in my nightmares, all the blood and noise and screams and dust. So much damned dust.” Beads of sweat oozed onto his forehead, and his hand worked itself into a clenched fist.
    Silence. Chloe didn’t break it. She couldn’t.
    “That’s where Kevin bought it. I saw him hit, I tried to get to him and couldn’t pull him outa the Stryker they’d blown up. Couldn’t pull him free. Nick came to help and we realized that Kevin was already gone.”
    Tears beaded on Logan’s downcast lashes and Chloe caught her breath. There wasn’t any way she could help ten years after the fact, but god she wanted to. She wanted to wipe the pain away. Hell, she wanted to go back in time and change it. She covered his hand with hers and tried to share his pain.
    “And then Nick got wounded.” He glanced up, shook himself a little and swiped surreptitiously at his eyes. “His leg was all shot up, so I slung him over my shoulder and we hauled ass.”
    “How long,” she cleared her throat and asked carefully, “how long before you could come home?”
    “Well, Nick right away, o’course. Another six months for me. A lifetime of six months. I did my part, and I learned to keep my head down, and I made it through without gettin’ hurt. And I found out that war only breeds more war.”
    “The violence, you mean?”
    “Oh, yeah. I hate all that stuff anyway,” he admitted. Her bare hand lay over his, offering the simple comfort of human touch, and he hitched in a ragged breath. “The Marines gave me some topnotch trainin’, so I can handle myself okay in just about any situation. But I don’t like fightin’. I don’t like what happens to me, who I become, or what happens to the people I’m fightin’ with. It doesn’t solve any problems, Chloe. It only makes things worse.”
    “I think you’re probably right, Logan. And Nick? Did he recover okay?”
    He brightened. “Nick is good. Took quite a while to recuperate. But later on he went to the Academy and joined the force with his dad, and he’s doin’ well. I was his best man when he got married a year ago.”
    “A happy ending. I’m glad to hear it. No girls in your life?”
    Logan sent her a slow, significant glance from under his lashes.