Before the Storm by Chris Kuzneski

Author:Chris Kuzneski [Kuzneski, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781543243000
Google: 3kzXAQAACAAJ
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2017-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Payne stared across the table at Cobb, whose body language had changed dramatically during their brief conversation. When Payne had first arrived, Cobb looked as if he were ready to climb a lifeguard tower and start shooting unarmed civilians. Now he appeared relaxed, like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders.

Obviously the visit had made an impact.

Cobb had always been wound tighter than Payne or Jones. He had grown up in a strict military household where fun was off-limits. His mother had passed away when he was young, but his father refused to fly home for the funeral because he said he had “more important things to worry about in the Middle East”.

It was a slight that Cobb would never forget.

Or forgive.

Over the next decade, Cobb bounced from one military school to another. Not because he struggled—his grades and behavior were impeccable, no matter where he went—but because his father hadn’t wanted his son to get comfortable in any one spot. According to his father, “comfort led to weakness”.

Cobb kept his mouth shut and never complained because he knew it would fall on deaf ears. His father was a hard man—a Marine, through and through—who treated Jack like a soldier he was preparing for war because that’s how he viewed the world.

To him, everything was a battle—including raising his son.

And winning was always his number one goal.

Cobb had let him have the upper hand until graduation when he finally made his move. His father had assumed Jack would join the Marines. That had been the master plan all along, and Jack had always followed orders, like a good soldier should. But Jack had gone behind his father’s back and applied to West Point, a military academy for the Army, a rival branch of the service. He did this not only to get out from his father’s shadow, but also to hurt him for his years of emotional neglect.

And Cobb’s decision to join the Army definitely stung.

His father viewed it as a slap in the face.

Which was exactly how it was intended.

Since then, the two of them had barely talked.

Unfortunately, all of that moving around had affected Cobb. Though he was quite popular, he had found it difficult to make close friends because he was always the new guy in town. It wasn’t until West Point that he finally let some people into his life. Slowly but surely he had bonded with two of his roommates and opened up to them about his upbringing and his hatred of his father. They were from military families, too, and understood him in ways that he never thought possible.

For once in his life, he didn’t feel like an outsider.

Sadly, their friendship was short-lived.

Both men were killed in a training accident shortly after being commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army. The news had devastated Cobb and made him pull inward even further to protect himself. He knew deaths were common in his line of work and decided he couldn’t do his job if he was emotionally attached to those around him.

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