Destiny’s Delta (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)
Delta Team 3, Book Two
Becca Jameson
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
© 2020 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.
Contents
Newsletter
Foreword
Acknowledgments
About the Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Author’s Note
Also by Becca Jameson
About the Author
More Special Forces: Operation Alpha World Books
Books by Susan Stoker
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Becca’s Newsletter Sign-up
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the Special Forces: Operation Alpha Fan-Fiction world!
If you are new to this amazing world, in a nutshell the author wrote a story using one or more of my characters in it. Sometimes that character has a major role in the story, and other times they are only mentioned briefly. This is perfectly legal and allowable because they are going through Aces Press to publish the story.
This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I might have assisted with brainstorming and other ideas about which of my characters to use, I didn’t have any part in the process or writing or editing the story.
I’m proud and excited that so many authors loved my characters enough that they wanted to write them into their own story. Thank you for supporting them, and me!
This series is special to me as the five authors writing in the Delta Team Three series took a team that I introduced in Shielding Kinley and made them their own.
READ ON!
Xoxo
Susan Stoker
Acknowledgments
I want to thank Susan Stoker for all her hard work putting this series together. I’d also like to thank all the authors in this group for such a fun ride. Lori, Lynne, Elle, and Riley—you all rock! It was so much fun working with all of you. What an amazing series this turned out to be.
Nori’s Delta by Lori Ryan
Destiny’s Delta by Becca Jameson
Gwen’s Delta by Lynne St. James
Ivy’s Delta by Elle James
Hope’s Delta by Riley Edwards
About the Book
It's been twelve years since she picked the wrong brother...
Destiny Fisher is ready to move past the guilt and shame of losing a fiancé twelve years ago to the war in Afghanistan. She never should have said yes to his proposal in the first place, and she's been plagued by her choices for over a decade.
She was his biggest regret...
Trent Dawkins has been married to the army ever since he walked away from his brother's funeral...and the woman he loved. Delta Team Three is his family. Destiny has avoided him for all these years. Does seeing him remind her of his brother?
Can the two of them face their demons and move forward?
A chance encounter leads to a flood of emotional baggage. Neither of them is certain they can repair the damage. There are so many obstacles. Distance, secrets, a threat to Trent’s life… Maybe they weren’t meant to be.
Prologue
Today was definitely the worst day in Trent Dawkins’ eighteen years. For one thing, it was a Friday night and he’d stayed home all evening. After graduating from high school last week, he’d seen almost no one besides his parents and, occasionally, his brother, Sean. Trent was leaving for the Army in a few days, but for some reason, the thought of running around acting like a fool with his friends hadn’t appealed to him.
Hell, partying hadn’t appealed to him for several months, actually. Not since Sean had started dating their next-door neighbor, Destiny. Not since Trent had swallowed his tongue and given Sean his blessing. Not since he’d started lying to himself and everyone around him as if he didn’t care if his brother dated the prettiest, sweetest girl in school—the one Trent had had his eye on since he was old enough to be interested in girls.
Sean was also leaving for the military soon. He’d enlisted in the Navy. And he’d been out with Destiny nearly every agonizing night for weeks.
Trent hadn’t even joined his parents in the living room to watch television. He’d had a bad feeling about this night all afternoon. A premonition that the universe was not on his side today.
He’d been lying on his back on his bed, tossing a ball up in the air and catching it for hours to keep from pacing and fidgeting, when he heard the car pull up.
Trent caught the ball and closed his eyes. His heart raced as the front door opened and voices filled the house. Excited voices that rang out, thundering in his head, making his stomach clench.
And then his mother squealed in delight.
Yep. The world stopped spinning, just as Trent anticipated.
Sean hadn’t spoken to Trent about his plans, but Trent was a smart guy. He certainly couldn’t claim to be shocked.
His twin brother and best friend in the world had asked the cutest, nicest girl Trent had ever known to marry him.
Trent couldn’t bring himself to rise from the bed. He felt his life shatter into a thousand little pieces. He couldn’t catch his breath. All he could do was roll onto his side as a tear slid from his eye and swallow back his pain. He knew he would have to face the family eventually. He couldn’t hide out in his bedroom much longer as if he couldn’t hear their excited voices. But he needed another moment to absorb the truth.
Destiny Fisher was going to marry Sean.
Chapter 1
Twelve years later…
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just go to another bar?”
Destiny slammed her shot glass down on the table, shuddered as the tequila ran down her throat, and shook her head. “Nope. We were here first. We aren’t leaving.” She focused her attention on Bex first and then glanced around at her other three friends, Christa, Libby, and Shayla. They were all staring at her with narrowed eyes of concern.
“I don’t think it matters who got here first, Des,” Bex said in a gentle voice. The quietest of the group, Be
x placed her hand on top of Destiny’s and gave it an understanding squeeze. “What matters is that you’re uncomfortable.” Her words were nearly comical since typically Bex was the shy one, the uncomfortable one. She said it was because, with her brown hair, green eyes, and average height, she was so ordinary that no one ever noticed her.
Destiny shook her head again, a bit too hard. She grabbed the edge of the table to steady herself. “I’m not uncomfortable. It’s fine. The Ugly Mug is big enough for the both of us.” She glanced once more toward the growing group of men standing around three bar tables shoved together, giving high-fives and obviously celebrating.
He was there. His back was to her, but she would know him anywhere.
She wasn’t the only one stealing glances at the group. Every red-blooded woman in the place was looking. Not surprising. After all, this was Killeen, Texas, and they were only a few miles from Fort Hood. On any given night, the place was packed with military men, some in civilian attire, some in uniform. Didn’t matter what they were wearing because it was easy to spot them from their physique, haircuts, and often, tattoos.
Destiny jerked her gaze back to the surface of the table, noting there were still four full shot glasses. She’d ordered a round of tequila shots for herself and her friends the moment she’d spotted him.
Trent Dawkins. She hadn’t seen him in about six months this time, but he looked just the same. Tall, broad, built. His muscles bulged under his white T-shirt. The shirt could stand to be at least a size larger, but maybe he liked it tight. It certainly attracted attention. The bottom half of his tattoo peeked out beneath a short sleeve. She’d seen it many times. As far as Destiny knew, that was the only tattoo he had. Unless he’d added some ink since she’d last seen his naked chest.
She groaned at the thought of that vision, shook her head again, and reached for another shot. If her friends weren’t going to join her, she’d drink them herself. She tipped that one back and slammed the glass down on the table a bit harder than necessary.
“Des? Maybe you should slow down a bit,” Libby suggested. “We could go back to the hotel. Hang out, just the five of us. It would be quieter, anyway. We could order pizza and watch an old movie.”
Destiny smiled at the friend to her left. Libby tucked a thick lock of dark, wavy hair behind her ear and forced a smile. Her flawless dark skin, a result of her Guatemalan heritage, made all of them envious. She was currently holding Destiny’s gaze without flinching.
Destiny pursed her lips and inhaled through her nose. After a few seconds, she released the breath through her mouth. “Nope. I’m good.”
Shayla nudged Destiny playfully from her other side, her pin-straight, black hair swaying over both their shoulders. “He’s probably not half as amazing as your mind has turned him into over the years, anyway. After all, you said you haven’t had a full conversation with him in over ten years. Maybe he’s an asshole. Maybe he’s slept with a woman in every port.”
“He’s not in the Navy,” Christa teased. She rolled her eyes at Shayla and giggled, the dimples on her pale cheeks showing. She was the lightest of the five of them. No. That was an understatement. Her skin was so pale that she burned just thinking about the sun. Her blond hair was natural and almost white, her eyes a pale blue.
“Every desert then,” Shayla joked. “Whatever. That’s not the point.”
Destiny tipped back a third shot and tuned her friends out, her gaze wandering toward Trent’s back again. She didn’t believe it. There was no way he had turned into some womanizing dick. It wasn’t in his blood. No matter what life had tossed at him, Destiny knew he would remain the same guy she’d known most of her life. Kind. Funny. Laughing. Light. The fun guy. Always saw the best in people. An extrovert.
God, she missed him.
She missed the way he’d teased her, even when they were in Kindergarten. She missed the way he said her name. He was the first person to give her the nickname Des long before anyone else started calling her that, and no one had ever said it quite the way he did. Like a long syllable. Softly spoken. Even when they were kids, he would hold her gaze as he whispered her name. More so in high school, up until she started dating his twin, Sean.
Destiny shuddered at the memory. Those days were long gone. In the past. Another lifetime.
Suddenly, as if he sensed someone staring at him, Trent turned around. His gaze quickly scanned the area until it landed on hers.
She should have glanced away before he caught her looking, but she couldn’t. She was drawn to him like a magnet, unable to move or breathe as the clock ticked but time stood still. She wasn’t sure how long they stared at each other, but finally, he smiled, whispered something to the guy next to him, and headed her direction.
“Shit.” Destiny gripped the table again. The room was swaying a bit. She should not have done that many shots.
Her friends glanced back and forth between her and Trent, murmuring under their collective breaths. “Uh-oh,” one of them whispered.
“This is not going to go well,” Libby stated.
When Trent finally reached their booth, he seemed even larger than she remembered, looming over the five of them. Broader. More muscular. He probably was. Hell, he probably worked out ten hours a day.
“Des.”
She shivered at the sound of his voice, the way he spoke her name just as he always had. Reverently. As if she were royalty or something. Her body responded to his tone also, her nipples stiffening, her pussy clenching.
This—this reaction to just her name from his lips—this was why she’d chosen to avoid him since after high school. He melted her resolve when he spoke to her. If she let him get to her, really corner her and force her to speak to him, she feared she would share all her secrets. Secrets she would take to the grave.
“I didn’t know you were in town,” he stated before he glanced at her friends. “Ladies.” He nodded toward each of them.
“You must be Trent,” Libby said. A second later, she gasped, and Destiny assumed Bex had kicked her under the table.
Trent smiled at her, obviously not unaware that it was extremely telling that this stranger knew who he was without introductions. “I am.” He held out a hand. “And you are?”
“Libby,” she breathed out, a bit starstruck. Not surprising. She had a thing for men in uniform. She sat up straighter, which did very little to make her four-foot eleven frame seem larger. “This is Christa, Bex, and Shayla,” she continued, pointing around the table.
Trent nodded again at each of them.
“We work together,” Christa stated.
“For the airline. Open Skies,” Libby added.
Bex said nothing, but she was leaning forward slightly. No one was unaffected by Trent.
Trent shifted his gaze back to Destiny. “Do you have a few minutes? I’d love to catch up.”
Destiny’s heart raced. She’d love nothing more than to catch up with Trent. Hell, she would enjoy doing far more than that with him, but she wouldn’t. She shouldn’t. Just being near him was dangerous to her heart and her resolve. She opened her mouth to make an excuse, but Shayla quickly scooted from the booth and grabbed Destiny’s arm to tug her across the seat. Before Destiny could wrap her head around this bad idea, she was standing—swaying really—in front of Trent.
He frowned slightly, but his eyes were still dancing as he took her arm to steady her. “I’ll bring her back to you in one piece,” he told her friends as he led her away from the security of her posse.
She glanced back, begging her friends with her eyes to intervene. Say something. They waved and shooed her off. Great. Wonderful. Just what she needed.
Trent’s hand slid down to grasp hers, and he wove through several people until they reached a corner. The noise level was lower in this spot, but Destiny’s anxiety level was higher. What does he want?
This was not good.
Chapter 2
Trent was still stunned to have found Destiny here tonight. He hadn’t seen h
er for months, and she hadn’t spoken to him intentionally or looked him in the eye since high school. He wasn’t stupid. He knew she’d ignored him for the last dozen years. He even understood why. But he was done with that shit. Right now.
This wasn’t a decision he’d pondered often or even recently, but the second he saw her laughing and drinking with her friends, he made the spontaneous decision to face her eye to eye and force their weird awkwardness to take a hike.
He got it. Really, he did. She’d been in love with his brother, Sean, and mourned him. It probably hurt too bad for her to face Trent and pretend everything was fine. Hell, it hurt him too. Sean might have been her fiancé, but he was Trent’s twin brother. They’d been close from the moment they were born. The pain of losing Sean was tremendous. The pain of losing his best friend at the same time had been more than he could bear.
Although that wasn’t entirely true, he’d lost his best friend more than a year before he lost Sean. He’d lost Destiny when she started dating Sean and Trent hadn’t been able to face her. The angst of watching her with his brother had been too much. So, it was entirely Trent’s fault that he’d turned his back on her while they were still in high school.
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