The Navy's Ghost (Bad Boys of Beta Squad) by Siobhan Muir Page B

behind him so he couldn’t see his face. The doors hissed shut.
    “She’s not goin g to be back in the Teams, Deli.” Petty Officer First Class Greg Killian slapped the younger man on the back of the head.
    “Fuck.”
    Magic wasn’t sure who muttered the curse into the thick silence, but he shared the sentiment.
    “Brickman’s got some good news, though,” Todd said as the doors slid open again. “I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it when you see her.”
    At least, he hoped she would. Another chill rippled down his back and his sense of unease ramped up at the tight expressions on the nurses hurrying down the hallway toward Ghost’s room. What the hell is going on?
    The place still smelled like antiseptic and resignation, but now fear snaked down the hall, tensing Magic’s shoulders. Someone murmured, “fuck” again and the squad followed the hurrying nurses toward room fifteen. Magic reached the door first, but got shoved out of the way as another nurse barreled past him, making for Ghost’s bed.
    He could barely see her between the nurses and the doctor leaning over her. They worked on her leg, but he couldn’t tell what they were doing from the door. An unaccustomed sensation of fear raked through his raw heart and he swallowed hard against the urge to vomit up the coffee he’d drunk with Retro.
    “What the hell is going on?” Rimshot demanded, but Magic just shook his head.
    “B/P’s ninety-five over sixty,” someone stated and the doctor barked, “Give her five hundred milliliters of five percent Albumin.”
    “Temperature’s one-oh-four.”
    “I need the Tylenol now.”
    “Shit. ” Magic clenched his fists, desperate to do something. Anything.
    “What is it, Chief ?” Deli stood at his shoulder, dark brown eyes full of worry.
    “Fever’s spiking, blood pressure’s low.”
    “Is it bad?”
    “It’s bad.”
    “What are we gonna do?” Deli asked.
    “Nothing. Just wait,” Killian said, his gaze on the swarm of white around Brickman.
    “Wait and pray,” Magic said. He already was.

Chapter Six
     
     
    Jim strode swiftly around the campus of the Coronado Medical Center, his mind churning as strongly as his legs. Not completely unaware, his mind processed his surroundings and dismissed the details as unimportant as compared to the issue of Ghost and Magic, and intimacy with them both.
    I can’t do this! Dad said it was wrong. I can’t disobey Dad.
    The voice continued in an unbroken litany of fear and the need for attention. The whiney voice of the teenager he’d been while living with his tyrannical father turned his stomach. Always striving for Sgt. Waters’ attention and approval, Jim had banished the boy as soon as he’d joined the Navy.
    But the fear of punishment ran deep.
    He’d always had needs, dark needs he’d tried to keep hidden. In the early days, it had been difficult. Hard copy photographic evidence couldn’t be kept at home, but with random locker searches at school, he had to become creative and careful. The occurrence of the internet had helped. His father had refused to learn the computer and Jim figured out how to hide his searches, memorizing the URLs rather than writing them down.
    Still, his father had found some of the magazines depicting two men taking a woman and his rage had boiled over. Sgt. Waters had called Jim perverted, demented, depraved and forbidden him to ever look at them again. He’d burned the magazines in the metal garbage can and made Jim watch to be sure they went up in smoke.
    James Sr. swore he was a freak, a fag, a rump jockey and no son of his would ever be interested in fucking with other men. Normal men never shared their women and only weak, sick bastards allowed another man to touch what was theirs. Just because he’d seen a woman in the photos didn’t mean anything. The men were still fucking each other through her and he’d be damned if such smut ever became associated with the Waters name.
    “Goddammit, shut the