Because I knew exactly which gate would be unlocked.
Because I had been the one who locked it.
I looked away from Maddox first.
“Yes,” I said.
Maddox stood so fast his chair bumped the wall.
The younger Marines stopped laughing.
Mason looked from him to me.
“What the hell is happening?”
Maddox swallowed.
“Corporal Reed.”
His voice cut through the table.
“Stand up.”
Mason’s face changed.
“What?”
“Stand up when you’re speaking to her.”
The bar noise kept going around us, but our table had become its own country.
Mason gave a short confused laugh.
“Staff Sergeant, that’s my sister.”
“I know who she is.”
“No, you don’t. She’s Harper.”
Maddox’s eyes did not leave mine.
“No,” he said. “She’s Iron Ten.”
That was the first mini-payoff.
Small.
Clean.
Enough to make Mason’s grin die.
But not enough to make him understand.
