Semper Mine (Sons of War #1)(27)

With a frustrated growl, I stop struggling and rest my head back on his shoulder, craning my neck to look up at him. His chiseled jaw is clenched, his brown gaze on Brianna as she walks away.

“Jenna needs a hug, and Marines don’t do that shit,” he adds, nodding his head towards the little girl.

Jenna’s eyes are watering, her chin trembling.

Seeing her like that crushes me. I can’t stand to see someone hurting. I sigh. “Let me go.”

He complies, and I leave him to kneel on the floor beside Jenna. I’m too wet to sit on her bed, so I take her hands. She crawls into my lap, not caring that I’m cold and drenched. She’s warm and smells like a child, her soft hair tickling my nose.

“You’re doing good, sweetie,” I whisper. “Okay? Trust me.”

“Ms. Khav, do you think this will dry before bedtime?” Rory asks, tapping me on the shoulder.

I manage to stand with Jenna in my arms and turn. His cot is the one beside hers, and he’s stretched out the sleeping bag.

It’s completely soaked. There’s no way that thing will be dry in time. It’d take a few cycles in a dryer, which I’m guessing isn’t an option.

This is why camping sucks. “Probably not. You can use mine,” I say without hesitation. “Can you grab it? I left it in the aisle.”

He nods and goes to fetch it.

“If you want to change, I can take care of Jenna.”

Of all the kids on the team, I’m not expecting the tall but skinny Tanner to volunteer.

“I’ve got a little sister,” he adds. He’s staring at me in mild awe, like a teen with a crush.

Amused despite my condition, I decide I’d rather duck out and change socks at least before going to dinner.

“Sure.” I hand off Jenna to him. “You all get ready for dinner, okay?”

He nods and hefts Jenna onto one hip.

“You’re not holding her right,” Lexi complains and takes Jenna from him.

I turn away, content to let them figure out what to do while I find some dry socks. Rory is spreading out my sleeping bag on his cot.

“Ms. Khav, I need someplace to put them.” Jacob appears before me, holding out a huge spider.

“You scared that hell out of me, Jacob! Don’t dangle that thing in front of my face,” I shriek and push his hand aside gently. “Why don’t you let it go? Be free?”

His face falls. “He’s a friend.” He sets the arachnid in his palm and gazes at it.

I have no idea what some of these kids have been through but I’m not about to take away the friend of someone who lost a parent recently, even if that friend horrifies me.

“I’ll go find you a … box. Or something,” I say. “Hang onto him until I get back. Is that cool?”

Jacob smiles and nods.

Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not sleeping in here tonight after all. I’m not sure how many little friends he has hanging around.

With an involuntary shudder, I step out of the tent into the cold, rainy night, intent on locating a container for a damn spider. Assuming the kitchen staff will likely be the only people to have one in the middle of the forest, I head there first.

“Hey, Katya.”

I’m not in the mood for Harris. I face him, hoping the rain keeps this quick.

“Hi, Harris. What’s up?”

He draws near, and I’m irked to see he, too, has a raincoat. I hug myself, shivering.

“Thought you might be up for a chat,” he replies.

“Um, not in the rain. Maybe tomorrow when we get back,” I say and start away.

He snags my arm. “You always do this, Katya.” He sighs.

I tug loose from him and look up at him again.

“You always say later. I thought we were friends.”

“We are, Harris,” I say with some impatience. “The past few months have been really rough.”

“You couldn’t make the time for one phone call?”

I groan. “Is now the best time to do this?”

“I can’t get your attention any other time.”

There are days when I adore Harris and days when he’s so damn moody, I can’t stand him. He’s in a mood now, one I don’t want to deal with. It’s times like these when he makes me uneasy, and I start to humor Petr’s insistence that there’s something off about Harris.

“Look, Harris, let’s just talk tomorrow. We’ll both be at camp. Okay?” I say.

“We’ve got time now.”

“Fine. What do you want to say?” I ask through clenched teeth. “Make it quick, because I’m soaked.”

“It’s always about you, isn’t it?”

Oh, god, not one of these kinds of conversations … I’d rather be arguing with Captain Mathis than dealing with Harris.





Chapter Eleven: Sawyer


I’m finding it hard not to pity Katya. She’s clearly miserable, though I warned her about the rain. If she were one of my Marines, I’d call this a lesson. But she’s not. She’s a clueless civilian who gave up her sleeping bag to one kid after almost taking out a fellow counselor for hurting the feelings of another kid.

She really is a contradiction. So oblivious in some ways, worse than a child, yet capable of purposely needling me to try to piss me off. There’s an instinct that’s been building whenever I’m around her, one I wasn’t able to define until this evening. I’m beginning to think her problem is that she doesn’t have someone who takes care of her the way she tries to everyone else. Petr watches over her from a distance but even he won’t get too close, knowing she’ll give him hell if he does.