Chapter 1 - Step Away from Lieutenant Colonel Vance
Captain Mason Drake tipped the last of the Coke over Sarah Vance’s head.
Dark soda ran through her blonde hair, crossed her cheeks, and soaked the front of her camouflage uniform. Drops struck the hot gravel beneath her boots.
Thirty soldiers stood nearby in rigid silence.
One man released a nervous half-laugh, then stopped when nobody joined him.
Drake lowered the empty red can.
“You look like you could use a shower, sweetheart.”
Sarah did not wipe her face.
She did not look toward the soldiers who had watched.
She kept her eyes on Drake.
“You should have checked my last name first.”
His smile weakened.
“Are you threatening a captain?”
“No. I’m giving you one chance to stand down.”
Drake stepped closer.
“You don’t give me chances on my base.”
Boots moved behind the formation.
Every soldier straightened.
Colonel Richard Vance crossed the gravel carrying a sealed personnel folder. His expression did not change when he saw Sarah’s soaked uniform.
He stopped beside her.
“Captain Drake, step away from Lieutenant Colonel Vance.”
The empty can slipped from Drake’s fingers.
It struck the gravel with a hollow metallic sound.
Sarah had been standing in front of him for nine days.
He had never once asked why her rank tab had been removed from the temporary field uniform.
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Now he understood that the quiet logistics officer he had chosen to humiliate outranked him.
What he did not yet understand was why she had allowed him to believe otherwise.
