No Man Left Behind: A Veteran Inspired Charity Anthology

by Elizabeth Knox

  No Man Left Behind

  Elizabeth Knox

  No Man Left Behind

  This book(s) is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the authors’ imaginations and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book(s) may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews.

  Kinetic. Copyright © 2021 by Elizabeth Knox & E.C. Land

  His Rage. Copyright © 2021 by M. Merin

  Gunner’s Redemption. Copyright © 2021 by H.J. Marshall

  Changing Seasons. Copyright © 2021 by Jewelz Baxter

  Healing Love. Copyright © 2021 by Cedar Rose

  Coming Home. Copyright © 2021 by TK Lawyer

  Saving Grace. Copyright © 2021 by K.C. Stone

  Sam’s Only Hope. Copyright © 2021 by Claire Ashlynn

  Puppy Kisses. Copyright © 2021 by Jaime Russell

  Cover design by: Clarise Tan, CT Cover Creations

  Copy/Line Editing by: Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing

  Proofreading by: Jackie Ziegler

  Formatting by: E.C. Land, Knox Publishing

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Kinetic

  Elizabeth Knox & E.C. Land

  His Rage

  M. Merin

  Gunner’s Redemption

  H.J. Marshall

  Changing Seasons

  Jewelz Baxter

  Healing Love

  Cedar Rose

  Coming Home

  TK Lawyer

  Saving Grace

  K.C. Stone

  Sam’s Only Hope

  Claire Ashlynn

  Puppy Kisses

  Jaime Russell

  Kinetic

  Death Stalkers MC

  Elizabeth Knox & E.C. Land

  Charlee

  I knew the second I’d arrived back in Portland he’d know I was here within days, so it wasn’t a shock to me that he came knocking on my door, literally.

  Kaden was my first love, but he isn’t the same man anymore. These days he goes by another name, Kinetic, one he was given when he went overseas. Now he’s in a biker club and living a totally different life. Hell, I roll my eyes thinking about it.

  I came back here to take care of my elderly mother because she just had a full hip replacement, but I didn’t come alone. So much has changed over the last decade and as soon as I saw him, everything came rushing back.

  Will I be able to get out of Portland unscathed, or is Kinetic going to weasel his way into my heart like Kaden did?

  Kinetic

  Years ago, I enlisted in the Marines and thought my life was going just the way I planned. Had the girl and the career I always wanted. We were kids, just starting our lives and had so much to look forward to. I had it all figured out, but the kicker is it never happened.

  I’ve lived the last twelve years mainly overseas working alongside my brothers. Men who I’d lay down my life for. Coming home we started the Deathstalkers MC and I never looked back.

  Now I’m standing on the front porch of Charlee’s mom’s house, glaring down at her as she holds onto the one thing she knew I always wanted.

  My kid.

  Decisions have to be made and something’s going to give. Either way she’ll be mine again.

  Prologue

  Kinetic

  12 years ago . . .

  Age 18

  Standing on the sidewalk waiting for Charlee to show up my nerves are unsettled. I’m anxious to see her one last time before I head out to basic training. It’s gonna be a bit before I’ll see her again, and I want to ask her the one question I’ve wanted to ask her since the day I knew I loved her.

  I always knew I’d join the Marines when I graduated high school. It was a given with absolutely no doubt about it. I’d follow in my ol’ man’s footsteps. He was my idol growing up. Still is, if I’m being honest.

  I grew up a military brat and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My mom was proud to stand by her husband’s side. Every morning she would get up with him to see him off. ‘You never know when your last day on this earth will be. Don’t let a moment go to waste,’ she always says.

  Thankfully, my parents knew what was ahead of me and what I had full intentions of doing. They didn’t stay and hover around me while I waited for Charlee to get here. ‘You’re a man now, boy. Proud of you for going for what you want,’ my ol’ man said before they left.

  I couldn’t have asked for better parents. Growing up, seeing the love they had for each other, I knew Charlee was the one for me. The way she made me feel, hell the way she’d look at me in return.

  Glancing around me, I stick my hands in my pockets as I rock back and forth on my feet more than nervous now. The ring I picked for her laying in my pocket, ready to slide on her finger the moment I ask her to be mine.

  As time grows closer for me to get on the bus, I begin to think she’s not going to show. I’d told her last night to meet me here at noon. Now it’s nearly one and the bus is already here. Grabbing my duffel bag, I sling it over my shoulder, knowing I have no choice but to get on the bus. Just sucks to have to do it before I see my girl one last time.

  “Kaden.” Hearing her sweet voice, I tilt my head in her direction and grin as she rushes toward me. I don’t pay attention to the tears welling in her eyes. Nor the fact her car is parked haphazardly.

  Without dropping my bag on the ground, I swing her up into my arms while lowering my mouth to hers.

  “Fuck, babycakes, I thought you weren’t gonna show,” I murmur, breaking the kiss and pressing my forehead to hers.

  “I almost didn’t,” she states, her voice cracking.

  “What do you mean by that?” I ask quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear our conversation.

  “I’m sorry, Kaden. I can’t do this. I can’t be the girl who sits at home and waits for you to come back, or for the call that you’re dead. I have plans. My own dreams . . . and I can’t stand by while you’re hundreds, if not thousands of miles away,” Charlee murmurs, tears spilling down her cheeks.

  “Charlee,” I mutter her name in protest. Ready to tell her we can work it out, that I don’t want her to sit at home, how I want her to follow her dreams. I’d make it work for her. Fuck, I’d do anything for this woman.

  “No, Kaden, don’t say anything. It’s done. We can’t do this. I know what’ll happen. We’ll smooth things over like we always do and I’ll slowly begin to resent you . . . and god, I don’t want that, Kaden. I don’t want to resent you . . . I’d rather miss you every day and know you’re off living your life and I’m living mine,” Charlee declares as she pulls away from my arms.

  “Charlee, look at me,” I demand, feeling her words circle in my head on repeat.

  Shaking her head, Charlee continues to step backward.

  “This is a mistake, babycakes. If you do this, there’s no turning back,” I stress to her, wishing she would meet my gaze.

  She shakes her head back and forth, wiping away the tears streaming over her cheeks. “I . . . It’s done, Kaden. I’m not going to change my mind. I can’t. I’m so sorry, but I can’t . . . I love you so much, but I can’t do this, and I hope one day
you can forgive me.” Charlee turns on her heel and rushes back to her car.

  Closing my eyes, I lower my head as I ball my hands into fists, clenching them at my side. She’ll regret this decision and when she does, it’ll be like I said, no turning back.

  I won’t risk what she’s done to me. Not ever again.

  “Time to go, Kelly,” my recruiter calls out.

  Nodding, I open my eyes and turn toward him and the rest of the guys all loading up. “Yeah, time to go,” I mutter.

  Time to focus on what I have going for me. For my future even if it’s one without Charlee. She’s made her bed. It’s her burden to bear. Not mine.

  Chapter One

  Charlee

  Present Day . . .

  “Mom, how long are we going to be here?” Vivi, my eleven-year-old daughter, asks. It’s more of a whine and I can’t blame her in the least bit for being upset. I’ve just ripped her, no. I ripped us from our home in upstate New York. I took her away from her friends, her school, her soccer team, and the man she knew as her father. In all actuality he was her stepfather, and he was a shitty one at that. I think Marc might’ve shown up to one of her school plays, and maybe he took her to one daddy-daughter dance. It was never a shock considering he was too busy working to really make time for either of us. Well, working and ramming his cock into Jessica, his personal assistant.

  Now I’m back here taking care of my mother after she just had a double hip replacement yesterday. Fortunately for us we have a home health nurse coming in a few times a day to assist, and honestly, I wouldn’t be able to take care of her by myself. I still have to work remotely from my laptop, and these eight hours of work have to be crammed in somehow. Ugh, imagine the horror running through my veins after I had to explain to my boss why I needed to go remote. She wasn’t going to grant remote access to me, said there was a few people ahead of me, how everyone wants to be working from home, blah, blah, blah. But when I told her the reality was that I either went remote or handed in my resignation that day because I was leaving my sleazebag of a husband and moving across the country, well, she gave me the access.

  Hell, it would’ve been so dumb of her to not give it to me. I’m one of her best marketing analysts, if not the best.

  “Mom?” Vivi whines again, pulling me out of my own head.

  “Sweetie, it’s like I said. We’ll be living with Nana for a while. She’s going to need our help until her hip heals and . . .” how do I break it to an eleven-year-old that we’re not going back to the home she knew? Fuck. This is the worst part about being a parent, letting your kid down. “You never know, we might like it out here.” I plaster on a big smile, not having the courage to tell her I filed for divorce from Marc yesterday.

  Vivi nods once and goes back into her new bedroom, equipped with almost everything I could fill in another suitcase. Most of our belongings are back in New York and I doubt Marc will let us get them, or even ship them out. He’s a dick like that.

  When Vivi was five, she came to me in our apartment and asked me why she didn’t have a daddy like the other girls in her class. At five-years-old she tore my heart in half, stomped on it, lit it on fire, and then threw it down a garbage disposal. I didn’t have time to date. I’d just finished college, had an internship at a marketing firm, and was working as a waitress on the weekends. I barely had time to breathe so when in the fucking world was I supposed to date?

  Then I met him—Marc.

  He was my supervisor, because of course every story starts off like this. He charmed me at my internship, made me laugh, shared a few short conversations with me in the hallway. Eventually, I was offered a job at the firm and here I am seven years later, still working for the same company. But because Marc and I had a romantic relationship, I was transferred to the e-commerce marketing department.

  The kicker here is that the head of the department I was transferred to is his sister, so, she really loved it when I told her I was leaving my asshole of a husband.

  Now, here I am. My thirtieth birthday is in a week and I’m a single mom, back living with her mother in the home she grew up in, sleeping in the bed she had when she was a child on top of it all.

  Falling back on the hard as a rock mattress, I stare up at the poster of the Backstreet Boys hanging on my ceiling. God, how I wish I could go back to the days where I thought Brian Littrell would really be my husband. How amazing life would’ve been if that ended up happening.

  Closing my eyes, I breathe in and out slowly, calming myself down. Since being here I’ve had small panic attacks, terrified I’m making a horrible decision, that I might be fucking up my daughter’s life. I could give a rat’s ass about my own, but she’s the most important thing in the world to me.

  Was I warranted in taking her away from everything she’s ever known? Just because a man acted like a dog and did me dirty? Is that reason enough? I’m unsure if I’ll ever know. The only thing getting me through this is the fact I want to show Vivi that you don’t allow men to treat you like that. Not ever.

  Out of nowhere the doorbell rings, causing me to practically piss myself. I sit up on the bed, put my hands on the mattress, and huff as I get to my feet. Walking down the stairs as leisurely as possible, I figure whoever it is can wait if they came over unannounced.

  The doorbell goes off again, and now I’m getting irritated. Who comes over to someone’s house unannounced and rings the doorbell twice in that short of a time period? “I’m coming!” I holler from the bottom of the stairs.

  Placing my hand on the door, I tug it open and the man I see before me is one I left behind a very long time ago. Twelve years ago, to be exact.

  I knew him as Kaden, but word on the street is he goes by Kinetic these days.

  Chapter Two

  Kinetic

  After getting back from a week-long run, the only thing I have on my mind right now is getting a beer, sitting with my brothers, probably shooting some pool with Bone, and finding one of the firecrotches to sink my dick into for the night. Once I do that I’ll pass out with my dog, Koda, on the end of the bed. A lot of clubs will refer to the ladies that live with ‘em as clubwhores, but we don’t like callin’ em that. Firecrotches seem to suit ‘em better.

  Since Koda’s a grouch in his old age, he doesn’t let anyone sleep in the bed other than me. It’s why none of the firecrotches ever come in my room and try to snuggle up with me under the covers. He’ll tear into one of them. That’s his territory and he doesn’t share. Well, besides with me. Fuckin’ love that dog. Being a German shepherd at nearly ninety pounds he’s a brute and hogs the damn bed.

  I’m not about to complain. Between him and my brothers they’re all I need. Koda stays here at the club when I’m out on a run, but normally he’s at my house. A house I still don’t know why I fuckin’ bought in the first place.

  Probably because it reminds me of her.

  Charlee.

  The woman who fuckin’ crushed my heart and left me the day I left for basic. We’d had dreams of buying a house like the one I did. Two story Cape Cod style with four bedrooms and a wrap-around porch. Now it’s mine and Koda’s.

  “Hey, Kinetic,” Feisty purrs into my ear as she wraps her arms around my neck. My body stiffens in reaction to her pressing her body against my back.

  Without hurting her, I jerk Feisty around and away from my back. I don’t like to have anyone standing behind me. Not since the last mission I’d been on with three of my brothers. We’d been taken hostage. Hell, we’d been lucky to make it out of there alive. Doesn’t mean we didn’t leave unscathed. My back bears the marks of what was done to not just me, but Rajah and Horseman. The three of us carry the same scars. If it wasn’t for Falcon and the rest of our team the three of us wouldn’t have made it out of that hell hole.

  “Feisty, you know you’re not allowed to touch me unless I tell you,” I scoff, releasing my grip on her hand.

  “I know but you’ve been gone for a week. I’ve missed you and couldn’t wait
to hug you,” she giggles. That’s one thing about Feisty, she doesn’t have a problem testing boundaries. Normally, I don’t have any problems with this; however, I’m not in the mood to put up with her shit.

  “Get it through your head, woman, it’s a fuckin’ rule around here, don’t fuckin’ wrap yourself around me like that again,” I snap.

  “Okay,” Feisty pouts as she slides into my lap as if she didn’t just piss me the hell off. Right now, I don’t want her anywhere near me after she pulled that shit. She knows the rules and if she doesn’t stop this bullshit, I’m gonna have a serious talk with Falcon and Hawk about it. I know she’s a favorite amongst my brothers, I just don’t give a fuck right now.

  As I place my hands on her hips to remove her from my lap, Bowser sits in the chair across from me with a shit-eating grin.

  “What the fuck’s got you smiling like the cat that ate the canary?” I ask, releasing Feisty and waving my hand, telling her to get lost. She fucked up with her stunt, I’ll find either Legs or Nama later.

  “Well, this cat just so happens to have some news for you,” Bowser chuckles.

  “Yeah? You gonna elaborate on this news?” I ask, lifting my beer to my lips.

  “Seems I have a new neighbor. Someone moved back into her momma’s house while we were out on this run.” My body stiffens at the mere mention of this news.

  “Which neighbor?” I demand, gritting my teeth together.

  Bowser had bought a house next door to Charlee’s mom about three years ago, and ever since he’s ragged me about shit back from the old days. Charlee’s mom was always a sweet woman so I’d kept in touch with her, making sure she was taken care of since I caught wind Charlee moved to the east coast. Bowser started doing this as well, knowing she’s a good woman who needs help every now and then. I think Bowser does it for the cookies and cakes she bakes him in payment.