“We want you in the CIA. I mean, working alongside the CIA. You reenlist and give us a few more years and we’ll make it worth it for you.”
Laughing, I glanced between the two men. “Why in the world would you want me?”
Doug pulled out a thick folder and opened it. It was obviously my personnel file since day one of being in the Marines. He pulled out a picture someone had taken of me. I was shooting at something. Or someone, most likely.
“You are exactly what we need in our counter-terrorism unit. As you already know, we work closely with MARSOC, as well as the Navy SEALs and Green Berets on a lot of our missions. You would be a valuable part of the team.”
I stared. I knew there were guys who were better than me, not only at sharp shooting, but I sucked when it came to the technology shit, and I’d be the first to admit I was hard headed and liked to do things my way. “There are plenty of other Marines who would be a better match,” I stated.
“I don’t want another Marine. I want you.”
My commanding officer sat down next to Doug. “You’ll be discharged at the end of the term. No additional service at all.”
I rose a brow. “No inactive duty?”
“With the nature of this…position…we are willing to factor that into the time served. You’ll still be alongside the MARSOC. Even be working with some of same soldiers from the last few years, but you will have more solo missions for when we need to keep things more private.”
“Why me?” I asked again.
“Honestly? You’re one of the best, if not the best, sharpshooter I’ve ever seen. You have yet to miss a mark, and you’re quick on your feet. You can think under intense pressure, and you’re not afraid to take on a challenge. You don’t have anything tying you down at home. No wife, no kids. You’re the perfect person for the job.”
An image of Kynslee popped through my mind. I had been planning on going home on leave next week to surprise her for her birthday. I was going to ask her to commit to me, exclusively, now that my time was almost up in the Marines.
I’d wanted to commit to her that night, before I left for boot camp, but I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t sure if I was scared, worried she’d say no, or honestly not sure where my life was going. Kynslee had hinted to there being an us, and I had no idea how to respond to it at the time. Hell, I was twenty, brushing death every time I turned a corner it seemed like. The last thing I had wanted to do was drag Kynslee into that world. The idea of her worrying about me or being scared when I couldn’t contact her for weeks at a time…it wasn’t something I wanted for her. For either of us. I’d seen too many of my fellow brothers losing out on the women they loved because of our dangerous jobs.
The other dark side to the lives we led involved cheating, which happened a lot since we were away from home for months at a time. I didn’t want Kynslee dealing with any of that, always wondering and worrying, so I convinced myself that I needed to let her go. At least for the time being. Then she’d seen the picture posted on my Facebook page of me kissing some girl I’d met when a few buddies of mine went out one night to blow off some steam. That didn’t lead anywhere, but it was enough to push Kynslee into dating some douche bag in college. And enough to make me delete all social media. Not that I was trying to hide anything from her. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt Kynslee.
Doug’s voice brought me back to the now.
“Unless you’re leaving to get back home to someone?” Doug asked with a raised brow.
When I didn’t say anything, he sweetened the deal. Taking out a piece of paper, he wrote down a number and slid it across the table. My eyes widened in shock.
“What’s this?”
“Your sign-on bonus. Give us five more years, Warner. Five years and then you can walk away and head back to your farm in Texas. I would imagine this type of money will probably pay off your mom’s home and the farm.”
My eyes lifted from the number up to him. This would not only pay off the farm, it could take care of Steve and Lana, and leave me a nice little nest egg to start my life. “More than pay it off, sir.”
He smiled like he had already known that. They had clearly done their homework and knew money would be my weakness—the whole reason I’d enlisted in the first place—and they were right.