Two Evils Read Online Free
Author: Christina Moore
Sig was suddenly against his forehead. “What the fuck does that mean, ‘of a sort’, Agent Courtney?!” she growled angrily. “How does a decorated war veteran with SpecOps training like Major Edward ‘Wildchild’ Lamacek get taken down by friendly fucking fire?”
“Because he was out of control,” John said simply. “Eddie and the other guys were recruited for a top secret training program, so secret that it’s barely on the books. But something happened and Eddie snapped. He went nuts, Billie—just flipped the fuck out and started killing people. And it took some serious firepower to take him down. By the time he hit the dirt he was so full of lead he’d have fried an x-ray machine.”
For the longest moment, she only stood and stared at him. John would never admit it, but the longer she held the gun to his head, the more nervous he became. He’d read her file, of course, including the psych evals. Wilhelmina “Billie” Ryan was compassionate with the old, the young, the downtrodden. She gave them all the benefit of the doubt unless she was given reason to think otherwise.
Men were another story.
She’d grown up with four brothers who had taught her to be tough, to take care of herself so she wouldn’t need them to shield her like a delicate flower. As a result, she was very much a tomboy as a child and in her teen years was more often than not seen as one of the guys. She’d gone into the military at just 17 years old and had proven her mettle time and again during the six years she’d served in the Marines, having become the first ever female to join a Force Recon unit. But it was during her Special Operations training at Camp Lejeune that her attitude toward men in general soured. She’d been the victim of some rather vicious hazing, including an incident in which she’d had a blanket thrown over her head and been severely beaten. The base psychologist also suspected she’d been raped, but Billie had never confirmed his suspicion.
After that, she’d gotten tougher, meaner. Billie’s skill level in all areas increased almost exponentially in a matter of weeks following the blanket beating, and she actually began to frighten some of her fellow trainees with how ruthless she could be in hand-to-hand combat. Her accuracy with every gun she held was unmatched by any of her peers, and it was about this time that she was slapped with the “She-Devil” moniker. Her deadly skills were put to the test numerous times throughout several campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of other locations that were classified. She’d been credited with 107 confirmed kills and claimed at least 60 more.
Then, six years and nine medals later, she was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, where she was taught to be suspicious of everyone. She’d served the agency for four years as faithfully as she had the Marines, until the death of the only man she was known to have become romantically involved with—fellow CIA agent Travis Mulcahy. After his funeral, she had summarily resigned and all but disappeared. That was a year ago.
The official judgment in her file was that she did not trust men any less than anyone else, but that she was simply on her guard more where they were concerned. Records indicated that while she had friends, the only men outside her family she was close to were the men on her Force Recon team—and she hadn’t spoken to any of them in the last year. She’d also once been close to her family, but she’d cut them off too.
The word she’d used when speaking to Rex on the phone came to mind then, and John decided he’d simply rather not find out what she was like when she got “twitchy.” That’s why he was nervous. Billie was a combination of exhausted, revved up on adrenaline, and plain old pissed off that could spell the end of him if he so much as blinked too fast. So he stood stock still, his hands in the air, and waited to find out whether or not she was going to
“Because he was out of control,” John said simply. “Eddie and the other guys were recruited for a top secret training program, so secret that it’s barely on the books. But something happened and Eddie snapped. He went nuts, Billie—just flipped the fuck out and started killing people. And it took some serious firepower to take him down. By the time he hit the dirt he was so full of lead he’d have fried an x-ray machine.”
For the longest moment, she only stood and stared at him. John would never admit it, but the longer she held the gun to his head, the more nervous he became. He’d read her file, of course, including the psych evals. Wilhelmina “Billie” Ryan was compassionate with the old, the young, the downtrodden. She gave them all the benefit of the doubt unless she was given reason to think otherwise.
Men were another story.
She’d grown up with four brothers who had taught her to be tough, to take care of herself so she wouldn’t need them to shield her like a delicate flower. As a result, she was very much a tomboy as a child and in her teen years was more often than not seen as one of the guys. She’d gone into the military at just 17 years old and had proven her mettle time and again during the six years she’d served in the Marines, having become the first ever female to join a Force Recon unit. But it was during her Special Operations training at Camp Lejeune that her attitude toward men in general soured. She’d been the victim of some rather vicious hazing, including an incident in which she’d had a blanket thrown over her head and been severely beaten. The base psychologist also suspected she’d been raped, but Billie had never confirmed his suspicion.
After that, she’d gotten tougher, meaner. Billie’s skill level in all areas increased almost exponentially in a matter of weeks following the blanket beating, and she actually began to frighten some of her fellow trainees with how ruthless she could be in hand-to-hand combat. Her accuracy with every gun she held was unmatched by any of her peers, and it was about this time that she was slapped with the “She-Devil” moniker. Her deadly skills were put to the test numerous times throughout several campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of other locations that were classified. She’d been credited with 107 confirmed kills and claimed at least 60 more.
Then, six years and nine medals later, she was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, where she was taught to be suspicious of everyone. She’d served the agency for four years as faithfully as she had the Marines, until the death of the only man she was known to have become romantically involved with—fellow CIA agent Travis Mulcahy. After his funeral, she had summarily resigned and all but disappeared. That was a year ago.
The official judgment in her file was that she did not trust men any less than anyone else, but that she was simply on her guard more where they were concerned. Records indicated that while she had friends, the only men outside her family she was close to were the men on her Force Recon team—and she hadn’t spoken to any of them in the last year. She’d also once been close to her family, but she’d cut them off too.
The word she’d used when speaking to Rex on the phone came to mind then, and John decided he’d simply rather not find out what she was like when she got “twitchy.” That’s why he was nervous. Billie was a combination of exhausted, revved up on adrenaline, and plain old pissed off that could spell the end of him if he so much as blinked too fast. So he stood stock still, his hands in the air, and waited to find out whether or not she was going to
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