Chapter 2
It wasn't my first taste of how Lauren worked.
Last summer, I rode a bus for three days and two nights to get to the Southwest Military District to see Charles.
I stood on the training field at the Special Forces Base with a cooler of food I had cooked at home, and I was happy about it.
Charles did not come out to meet me.
Lauren did.
She was in a tactical vest, and she looked me over.
She said, "If you're here to visit, you follow our rules.
"We don't babysit princesses. You want to see Charles, you run six miles around this field with a weighted pack first."
It was July, and it was brutal.
The ground temperature was over a hundred.
Lauren threw me a forty-pound rucksack.
I wanted to see Charles, so I got the pack on and started running in the sun.
By the third mile, the blisters on my feet had opened.
By the fifth mile, my vision went black. I went down hard on the track and did not get up.
When I came into the infirmary, Charles was sitting beside the bed with a hard look on his face.
He never asked how I was. The first thing out of his mouth was blame.
"Emily, how are you this out of shape? You go for a run and you drop from heat exhaustion?
"Lauren wanted you to see what life is like out here, and instead you passed out and made trouble for her.
"Do you have any idea what you started? Every doctor on this base got pulled in because of you. Where does that leave me?"
I was still hooked to an IV, crying, asking him why he always took her side.
Charles looked at me with nothing on his face.
He said, "Lauren didn't mean anything by it. She's blunt. That's who she is.
"You set our training schedule back. You were in the wrong first."
From that moment on, I should've known.
Lauren had passed me in Charles' head a long time ago.
I was jolted back to reality.
Lauren heard Charles defend her, and her grin widened.
She bent down and pulled a tactical knife out of her boot.
The edge caught the light.
She put the blade against her own forehead.
She said, "If that stamp bothers you so much, I'll cut my own face up and we can match.
"I would give my life for Charles. What's one face?"
She was loud about it, and there was no weight behind her hand at all.
The point sat on the surface of her skin without so much as scraping it.
I watched her perform and answered flat.
"Then do it."
Lauren's hand stopped.
I took a step closer.
"Go on. You'd give your life for him, right? So where's the nerve to open up your own face?"
Lauren set her jaw, and the hand on the knife was shaking.
"I'm doing this for my team. Fine, I'll do it."
She pushed the point forward half a millimeter and still did not break the skin.
At that moment, Charles suddenly rushed forward.
He kicked the coffee table over and put the glass across the floor.
He tore the knife out of Lauren's hand and threw it down.
Charles spun around, his eyes blazing red as he glared at me.
"That's enough. Emily, you're absolutely vicious!" he shouted.
I just stood there, watching Charles lose it.
Charles put a finger in my face and was almost shouting.
"Lauren is my teammate. She is the person I put my back to when the rounds are coming in.
"Why are you always pushing at her? She has bled in front of cartel guns more than you have sweated in your entire life.
"You meet a woman who is better than you and you decide she's the enemy.
"Lauren carries this country in her head. What do you carry? Some sad little jealousy and your vanity."
Lauren put a hand on Charles' arm.
"Charles, let it go. She's your wife tomorrow. Don't let me come between you," she said.
Charles caught her wrist instead, and his eyes got sharper.
He said, "So what if she is? A woman who can't stand my own team has no business being a military wife.
"Lauren played a joke on you with an inkpad. That's the oldest prank we have.
"And you won't let it go, and now you want her to cut up her face over it.
"Do you understand what it means to serve with someone? Do you understand what the bigger picture is?"
I listened to Charles roar at me like it was coming from a long way off.
The blood on my forehead had dried, and it pulled at the skin.
Something in my chest went out and stayed out.
I stared at Charles' furious face.
I hated him.