Moment of Weakness by KG MacGregor

Author:KG MacGregor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781594935572
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2017-07-25T03:00:00+00:00

* * *

Zann closed her window to shield the setting sun and stretched her legs as far as the seat in front of her would allow. The ninety-minute flight would put her in Burlington at ten thirty, meaning she wouldn’t get home until midnight. That would spare her having to talk, though Marleigh would have questions in the morning about her supposed doctor visit.

Major Rodriguez had done his best to quiet her distress, but there was nothing he could say to change the fact that she was directly responsible for the death of a fellow soldier. Not just a soldier—a soldier under her command, a friend. Someone who’d once been her lover. So why had she been given a medal for that?

“You weren’t, Captain. You were given a medal for showing extraordinary bravery. You charged into a hostile dwelling and dispatched four Taliban combatants who had ambushed your unit. Four combatants who at that very moment were assembling explosives that almost certainly would have resulted in innumerable casualties of fellow Marines if not for your actions. There’s no way of knowing how many lives you saved that day, how many families you saved from having to hear the dreaded words that their Marine was lost.”

She gripped her biceps and flexed her arm just to prove she could. The report made special mention of her injury. Hamza’s bullet had rendered her momentarily incapacitated, that moment being the milliseconds before she realized she could no longer hold her rifle steady with her left arm. It was in that fleeting window that an errant shot had found Whit—who was undeniably the true hero that day.

For her sacrifice, Whit was posthumously awarded the Marine Corps Commendation Medal, a fine honor but nowhere near as prestigious as the Bronze Star with the Combat-V they’d presented to Zann. It was already a sticking point with enlisted personnel throughout the military that officers typically received higher honors for lesser actions. What would they say if they knew her medal of valor had come through even after officials had learned of her mistake?

If she were honest with herself, Whit’s death had always held her back from celebrating the honors others wanted to bestow. From the medal ceremony at Camp Lejeune to Marleigh’s newspaper article to being honored at the Fourth of July parade, she’d always felt a solemn remorse that Whit had made the greater sacrifice and gotten less recognition.

Despite Major Rodriguez’s assurances, the pride in knowing her actions that day had saved Marines at Camp Leatherneck did nothing to erase the horror. The question now was whether or not she could bring herself to tell the people who loved her that she didn’t deserve their lofty esteem. She’d always said she hadn’t done anything special, that her actions that day were the result of the hard-nosed training all Marines went through to prepare for moments like that. Just doing my job.

From the moment they met, Marleigh had worshipped her as a hero. What would she say if

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.