Exclusive Excerpt

“HEY, CULVER, COME on. There’s a Thanksgiving show over at the main chow hall,” Beau Gardner drawled, grabbing his best friend by the upper arm. “Get your sorry ass up and let’s go.”

Matt gave him a cranky look. He sat on a bench in the locker room of CAG/Delta Force HQ at Bagram, pulling his scarred, dusty boots off his aching feet. “You go,” he muttered, “I’m not up for it.”

They’d just come off a bitch of a three-day mission chasing down Taliban near the Af-Pak border. The rest of Matt’s five-man team was now cleaning their weapons, then storing them in their lockers in the building’s cramped quarters.

“All I want is a hot shower, food, and a bunk,” Matt groaned. “I’m wiped.”

Beau, who was naked and getting ready to shower, said, “It’s three days to Thanksgiving here at Bagram, and none of us are goin’ home for the holiday, bro. The charity girls are joining the USO folks and are putting on a talent show over at the chow hall for all of us.” He punched Matt in the arm. “Hey, it’s women! At least we can sit and slobber, even if we can’t touch ’em.”

Matt pushed his dark brown hair streaked with gold off his brow and grumpily looked up at his tall, lanky buddy. He and Beau had been in Delta Force now for five years and had forged a solid friendship. “I’m done in,” he said. “All I want is to shower and get about three days’ worth of sleep.”

But Beau wasn’t about to give up. “Hey, I’ve heard there’s a lot of good-lookin’ women over there. Come on, grab a shower and let’s go to the chow hall, eat, and take in the show.”

Growling, Matt shoved off his boot and tipped it over, sand spilling out onto the concrete floor. “Jesus, Beau. You are a total pain in the ass. Now get off my back, damn it, so I can take my shower.”

Chuckling, Beau said, “Hey, you’re our team leader. You gotta be there to represent us.”

Like hell, Matt thought. His back was stiff from a twenty-foot fall he’d taken off a cliff in the middle of the night. He’d been wearing NVGs, night-vision goggles, but was running after a fleeing Taliban group and hadn’t seen that the hill they were on suddenly dropped off. He wasn’t alone in taking a tumble, either. But right now, his hips, knee joints, and elbows were so stiff that all he wanted was to feel some steaming shower water massage the pain away.