Until There Was You (Coming Home, #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

while.
    Ever since Claire had gone over to the dark side and earned her commission, she spent more of her life in the tactical operations center, or TOC, where commanders controlled their troops on the ground. Reza harassed her incessantly about leaving enlisted life behind. From anyone else, it would have gotten old, but Reza was family in every way that counted.
    “You’re just as much of a TOC roach as I am these days. The master gunner spends all of his time planning ranges and gunneries instead of shooting them.”
    “Ha ha fuck you, ha ha.” Reza stuffed his cell phone into his pocket. “Look, Engle isn’t as bad as you think she is,” he said.
    “I knew this was coming,” she grumbled. “You’re going to ruin your career over this girl. That or your drinking.”
    The sheer magnitude of her hypocrisy did not escape her. Her own relationship with Reza bordered on a violation of army policy, after all. Then again, she wasn’t sleeping with him and while it might be splitting hairs, there was a distinct difference.
    “No, I’m not, because it’s not like that. But you very well could if you don’t let it go and leave her alone. It’s not like you don’t have a track record there. Engle was looking for a friend downrange. I’d think you could understand that.”
    “Yeah, well, Engle is and always has been an officer. She needs to be looking for friendship in the officer ranks.”
    “Pot, meet kettle. Did it never occur to you that you and I are not supposed to be friends because you’re an officer now?”
    “Did it never occur to you that as a former enlisted soldier, I could give a shit about that rule? I’m not turning my back on my friends just because of my rank. It’s different, dammit.”
    When they’d gone through combat together the first time back in ’03, she’d developed a strong appreciation for what this man was capable of, despite his best efforts at ruining his career every single time he came back from the war.
    They walked into the pavilion, where the bonfire licked the night sky with brilliant oranges and golds and reds. “Stay out of trouble tonight, will you? All the combat awards in the world won’t help if you get caught with your pants down,” she said lightly. But Reza was already moving off, zeroing in on a cute blonde who looked positively miniature next to him.
    Personally, Claire hated these kinds of military social events. Attendance was strongly encouraged, but that was just a nice way of saying mandatory. Hail and farewells. Right-arm night, where commanders typically bought their first sergeants a drink. None of those things appealed to Claire in the slightest. But she was an officer, and mandatory fun was in her duty description—or so she’d been told.
    She refused to listen to the nagging voice in the back of her mind that said it wasn’t so different for her to hang out with Reza than it was for Engle. In truth, being friends with him
was
a risk to her rank. Officers and enlisted weren’t supposed to have close personal relationships. And Reza was one of her best friends—which was why she was so worried about him. Considering the sheer amount of alcohol he drank on a regular basis, she couldn’t help it.
    But no matter what, she could not—would not—report her friend to the army’s drug and alcohol program. She knew the seductive pull of addiction and she knew she could never compete with the sweet relief at the bottom of a bottle. And it terrified her to think she might lose Reza the way she’d lost her father.
    Reza would kick her ass if he knew she worried about him as much as she did. She hated the way he chased his demons away with women and alcohol. But for Reza, it was always one or the other. Tonight, she hoped it would be a woman. Because if it was alcohol, she might not be able to find him in the morning.
    Claire spotted Evan near the bar at the edge of the pavilion, nursing a drink. He sat with his back to the bonfire, but every so