Five Marines stepped inside.
They weren’t drunk yet, but they were halfway there and heading confidently in the wrong direction. At their center walked Sergeant Tyler Maddox, the kind of man who had the broad shoulders and sharp posture that looked impressive in uniform but occasionally came packaged with a dangerous amount of confidence.
Confidence is useful in the military.
Too much of it, however, can turn into arrogance before a person realizes what happened.
They claimed a table near the center of the bar and began ordering rounds immediately. Their voices carried easily across the room, laughter spilling louder than necessary, the kind of restless energy that usually came after a long training cycle when men hadn’t quite burned off the tension yet.
