Page 93 of No Regrets

“That’s a long time for them to be out.” It had been four weeks. Not long for a SEAL team, but very long for Onyx.

“Yeah, it’s unusual circumstances, not the norm. But as I mentioned, they had some down time. The op’s greenlit now, so won’t be much longer.”

Sam paused, looking at him. He must look like shit because Sam said. “You don’t need to be here Dex. It’s not even been two weeks since Matt died, and you barely took any time. And with these threats on top of that, I can let you know if we find anything. Take a couple of days.”

Onyx was so different from SEALs. This informality and concern were taking some getting used to. But the last thing he needed right now was to be alone at home. His family was here, his team.

“Thanks Sam, but I’d rather be here. I don’t do well left to my own devices. Gets me into trouble.”

Sam grinned. “Good to know.”

“Do you need my guys for anything right now?”

Sam stopped, just short of the kitchen.

“No, why?”

“I need to blow off some steam. Think we need to run one of your drills.”

Sam smiled and nodded.

Dex opened the door. “Good morning, guys. Drink up. Gear up. Be out back in twenty.” He didn’t wait for a response. He turned on his heel and headed to his locker to get changed. Running a drill, shooting some bad guys, getting focused on something other than Pops and the threats before he went to see Kelly sounded like the perfect way to keep busy.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Dex waited for Kelly outside the base’s main entrance. The team had run a couple of drills, acing them. It felt good to do active training, get back in the groove. He’d had enough of this downtime shit. So had the team. While it was mandatory to have R&R between ops, be cleared by psych and do physical training, the ops with Onyx were not as long as what they had been used to in SEALs. Sometimes R&R might be days, other times weeks. It had been three weeks since they captured Khalini, and they were all cleared hot, and ready.

“Hey, gorgeous.” Dex smiled as Kelly walked towards him. Damn the woman still took his breath away, even dressed in camo.

“Hey yourself.”

“How long you got?”

“About half hour. Can we take a walk? I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Love to.”

They started walking towards the quay, where a trail ran along the water’s edge. Sailors often took a run there.

“You still doing recon and research?” he asked as they fell in step.

“Yes. Joe said I can be assigned to a team. Just not sure I’m ready yet.”

Dex’s gut tightened at the mere thought of her deploying with a team. “Is that really what you want to go back to?”

She shrugged. “I miss working with a team but not sure about the whole deployment thing.”

Fuck, he would go insane if she deployed, especially with Lazir still out there. He kept his thoughts to himself though, not wanting to sound like an overprotective possessive asshole. He’d cross that bridge if he came to it.

They reached a bench, and she sat down. He did the same, keeping a little distance.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”

She wasn't looking at him, keeping her eyes on one of the Navy ships docked further along the quay. Her hands were clasped in her lap.

“Kelly? Is everything OK?”

She nodded. “Yes, it is. This is just.... jeez... it’s more awkward than I thought it would be.”