Hiding Catherine (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)
Delta Force Guardians Book 1
Jennifer Becker
Contents
Foreword
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
Untitled
More by Jennifer Becker
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Books by Susan Stoker
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.
© 2018 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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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!
READ ON!
Xoxo
Susan Stoker
Blurb
Captain Charlie "Bulldog" Green has just returned home from a mission that in his opinion went terribly wrong. He needs answers to who set his team up before another mission goes wrong. As a member of the elite Delta Forces, failure is not an option. On his way home he comes to the aid of Catherine Cunningham, who is the only woman he has ever met that didn’t cringe at his scars. Charlie is not only scarred on the outside thanks to an IED but on the inside too. Past experiences with the fairer sex have taught him to be wary of women but Catherine wages an all-out war to win him over. Charlie doesn't need a distraction right now and tries to ignore the feelings Catherine invokes in him. Can he win the battle and keep his distance?
Catherine was having the worst luck when the man she had been lusting after for the past few months comes to her aid. She sees straight through his gruff exterior and scars and longs to know the man underneath but Charlie doesn’t make it easy for her. She’s lusted after him since the first time she saw him walk into the PX. He always wore a low baseball cap shielding the world from the scars that marred his face. She doesn't see the scars though. She only sees a man looking to be loved and accepted. As they get closer a dangerous past she thought she left behind catches up with her and threatens not only herself but the man she loves and all he holds dear.
Hiding Catherine is the first book in the Delta Force Guardians Series.
***This book was previously published in Amazon Kindle Worlds***
Chapter 1
Captain Charlie “Bulldog” Green was in a foul mood as he drove home from the base and it had little to do with the weather. The rain beat down on the windshield of his black jeep making visibility low. It was hard to see beyond the hood. It was a good thing he lived only a few miles off base. Out of his fifteen-year military career, Fort Sam had to be his favorite base. The scorching heat held little joy for him. And he cared little for the snakes or other poisonous creatures here; it was his team that made it worth living here. He had been stationed at Fort Sam for five years now. This was where he met his six teammates, and he couldn’t imagine having a better team. They were a true band of brothers. So why was he in a foul mood?
Charlie was returning from Panama. He had been there to assist another Delta Force team in extracting hostages and collecting data from a contact with ISIS, Alejandro Ferrero. It should have been a simple in and out mission. One Charlie’s team had done a hundred times. So, what had been so different about this one? Someone had set them up and tried to end both teams. If Charlie hadn’t commandeered a truck and rammed through the gate, they would have most likely died on that miserable island. Militia had surrounded them and had been using RPG’s and other heavy weaponry. No wonder he was ISIS’s new best friend. He had a large supply of weapons and drugs, plus an entire island to hide them, and ship from.
Once off Alejandro’s grounds, it had been smooth sailing. They had landed at Patrick Air Force base in Florida. Charlie and his team took the first C-17 out to home base. Their mission accomplished. But Charlie now wanted to know who set them up. Because how long until another of their missions was sabotaged? Or a team member was killed. Midas, the leader of the team he assisted, had assured him they would find the mole. But Charlie didn’t want to put his faith all in one person. He would do his own research as well and leave nothing to chance.
Charlie planned to make a call to an old buddy, Ghost, another Delta Force operative. They had gone through training together and had kept in touch over the years. Ghost had a contact, Tex, who was a wizard at tracking people down. It was borderline scary the skills the man had with a computer. Upon debriefing, they discovered that some hostages they had helped rescue had drugs implanted inside of them. One woman they had rescued was being flown back to Midas’s base, Fort Irwin in California, to help find the mole. He would hold off the call for a few days, depending on what this woman knew. For all Charlie knew, she could be a mole and set a trap for the other team. Charlie had seen little of the women on the rescue mission. His job had been to secure the perimeter while Midas’s team did the extraction. He didn’t know how reliable this source was. If Midas were willing to trust her, then he would give it a few days before he called Ghost. He knew from reputation few could compare to Tex at finding someone. He’d helped many SEAL’s and Delta’s in a time of need. After Tex lost his leg to an IED, he spent his life serving his country via computer now, and he was damn good at it. Charlie was not a computer guy himself. He hated computers. He preferred his guns over anything. Or any weapon. They were more reliable than computers in his opinion. They didn’t crash or get viruses or whatever computers got. A weapon was simple and deadly. He trained for hours with his weapons. Taking them apart and putting them back together. He even went out to the firing range every chance he got. The guys teased him; he spent more time with guns than women, which wasn’t far from the truth. With a mug like his women flinched at his constant scowl, thanks to an IED exploding close to him and tearing up his face. After 15 surgeries
, this was the best they could do for him. He hadn’t been pretty before, but after all the surgeries it wasn’t much better. Not that he cared anymore. If someone couldn’t accept him for him then they weren’t worth his time. His team accepted him, bulldog face, and that was all that mattered to him.
Charlie thought he was almost home; it was hard to tell through all the rain when he saw something on the side of the road. He thought little of it at first until he pulled alongside it, and saw it was a car pulled over with someone standing outside flagging him down. Charlie wasn’t so sure about pulling over on a deserted road at this hour of night. But it went against his nature to keep driving, especially when the person flagging him down looked like a woman with their slight frame and short stature.
Charlie pulled over in front of the car. He hadn’t packed any rain gear, so all he had was his American flag baseball hat. It wasn’t much, but it would at least keep the rain out of his eyes and shield his scars. No sense in scaring the woman. Charlie got out of his jeep and met the woman between their vehicles.
“Thank you for pulling over. I’ve been standing here for the past forty-five minutes, and you are the first to pull over. You’d think someone thought I was a serial killer or something.” The woman laughed at her own joke. Charlie didn’t crack a smile. He didn’t smile anymore. He had nothing to smile about, and it hurt his face. He looked down at the woman that was several inches smaller than his six-foot frame. She wore a heavy raincoat with the hood pulled over most of her face, concealing her features. Her voice was sweet and soft. It made him think of things he hadn’t thought about since before his incident. He didn’t like it. Women equaled complications, and this wisp of a woman had trouble written all over her. He needed to help her and leave. In and out.
“What seems to be the problem?” Charlie said in his typical no-nonsense voice. He didn’t like to talk more than what was necessary, nor did he want to be out in the pouring rain longer than he had to.
The woman tilted her head back revealing more of her face and looked him in the eye. He knew she couldn’t see all of him because his baseball cap was pulled low over his face. His lower face was still exposed to the harsh head lights of her car. He waited for her to flinch at seeing him like all the others, but she did the opposite. She smiled at him, and he could have sworn the rain stopped, and the sun came out it, was so bright and warm. No one ever smiled at him when they first met him. Did she not see the permanent scowl on his face? The deep scars that his growing beard hadn’t covered yet? How could she not, everyone else did?
“I know you from base.” Charlie’s body tensed, he immediately looked around for possible danger. Had the woman lured him out of his car on purpose? No, he was being silly. She seemed surprised to see him. He was acting paranoid after Panama but who could blame him?
“How’s that?” He asked trying to place her. He was always watching his surroundings but didn’t memorize faces unless they were a target. He would have to get better about that.
“I work at the PX; I’ve seen you there on several occasions.” The woman looked crestfallen that he didn’t remember her.
Charlie searched his memory. Yep, sure enough, he remembered her. He had never spoken to her, but she always wore the same bright smile as she had given him a moment ago. “I remember. So, what’s wrong with your car?” Steering her back towards the problem at hand. He had training in the morning, and the firing range if he had time before catching up on paperwork. He didn’t have time for a conversation in the rain.
“Oh yeah,” the woman shook her head as if she forgot she was standing in a rainstorm. “I got a flat tire, and I don’t have a spare. I used it a while back, and I never replaced it. I need a ride either to my house or back to base so can call a tow.”
“You don’t have a cell phone?” he asked skeptically. Everyone had cell phones now a days. He was only thirty-seven and always had one in case of an emergency.
The woman cringed under his scrutiny. “I misplaced the charger in my house somewhere, so it died a few days ago.”
It seemed plausible. Charlie looked around again for any hint of danger, but when there was none, he relaxed. Charlie knew he didn’t have a spare tire that would fit her car. He would have to give her a ride. “Hop in, and I’ll give you a ride home.”
The woman beamed up at Charlie as if he handed her the moon. “Thank you so much.”
Charlie felt uncomfortable under her praise, so he nodded and headed back to his jeep, and waited for her to get in. It only took her a few minutes to turn her car off and climb in the jeep.
“Sorry, I’m getting your seat all wet.”
Charlie shrugged and threw his soaked hat in the back seat. He wasn’t a talker by nature especially when he didn’t have something to say. “So where do you live?” She gave him her address, and they were back on the road.
“I’m Catherine by the way. Catherine Cunningham.”
“Charlie,” was all he said, keeping his eyes on the road.
“So, what do you do on base, Charlie?”
“Do you always ask strangers so many questions?” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye then back on the road.
“When a stranger is giving me a ride home late at night, yes.”
“That seems a moot point now to ask questions when you’re already in the car.” He pointed out. He wasn’t trying to scare her, but she needed to be careful. One could never be too safe, and she was so small, she would be easy prey.
Catherine seemed to ponder his question. “Would you rather have had this conversation in the rain?”
“No,” he grumbled. He’d rather be home already and still dry, and not have a chatty woman sitting next to him that smelled of vanilla. It was distracting. He hated distractions. They were deadly.
“You don’t talk a lot, do you?”
“Not if I can help it.” Charlie had never been much of a talker. He never felt like he had anything to say that took more than a simple answer. He was a simple, straight to the point, kind of guy. He turned on the radio hoping Catherine got the point he didn’t want to talk.
In recent news, another woman was discovered dead today in San Antonio. The body was placed for officials to find in a local cemetery in front of a grave site. She was thirty-three years old and it appears she might have been buried alive. There are no signs of strangulation. She had gone missing over a week ago. Authorities are not saying if it’s in connection with another string of murders two years ago when a San Antonio resident was burying women alive and taunting the police. No statements have been made yet by the San Antonio police department, but this makes the third victim in the past four weeks. We’ll have more as the story unfolds.
Charlie turned off the radio. He had been listening to the same story for the past month. No one had any details or if there were any witnesses. It made him uncomfortable that Catherine had been standing outside in the rain for as long as she had. There were a lot of unsavory people in the world, and he knew all too well about them. He saw Catherine shiver out of the corner of his eye and he took it as she was cold, so he turned up the heat.
“Thank you,” she murmured as she rubbed her hands together. They rode the rest of the way to her house in silence. As soon as they pulled into her driveway, she pulled her keys out of her purse. “Thank you again, Charlie, for getting me home.”
“It was my pleasure. Take care.” Charlie didn’t know what else to say. He had fleetingly thought about asking Catherine out but thought better of it. What woman wanted to go out with him? He was better off alone. Catherine liked to talk, and he didn’t. It would be better if this were the only interaction they had.
Catherine opened the door, and the dome light came on illuminating the car. She turned back to look at Charlie. Here it was. Time for her to cringe at him. He no longer had a cap on to hide most of his face like he always did wherever he went. Even the few times he saw her in the PX he always kept a hat on low over his face. Earlier in the rain, it had been to
o dark and the bill of his hat low over his face, so she wouldn’t have been able to get a good look at him. Now he had no cover, and the dome light illuminated the whole vehicle. “Good night,” she whispered and did the most unexpected thing of all. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. It was his unscarred one, but she kissed his cheek all the same, without so much as a glance at his scars. She gave him one of her bright smiles, and got out of the car racing to her front door, and all too swiftly disappeared inside.
Charlie sat stunned in his car watching her race inside. He could still feel her lips on his cheek. What had possessed her to do that? She hadn’t cringed at all when she saw him. That was strange. He shook his head at himself and backed out of her driveway heading home. It didn’t matter that Catherine didn’t cringe at the sight of him. It didn’t matter she kissed his cheek. Catherine Cunningham meant nothing to him. He was a Delta Force operative. One of the most secretive groups in the military. He was dedicated to his job and his country. He didn’t have time for chatty women, even when they looked at him like he was the most handsome man alive.
Chapter 2
Catherine sighed as she leaned back against the door after impulsively kissing Charlie’s cheek. She had been attracted to him from the first moment she saw him in the PX. He wore his scowl like a warning, telling everyone to leave him alone. She didn’t listen. She wanted to know him. She didn’t know what caused the scowl on his face, but she didn’t care. The fact he was military, she was sure it had come from a tour overseas. She had seen so many soldiers afflicted with wounds or missing limbs from tours overseas. Her brother was one. He had lost his leg when his Humvee was struck by an IED. He didn’t like to talk about what happened nor did he want anyone’s pity. She could tell Charlie was sensitive about his face. It was why he always kept as much of it covered when out in public as possible. It didn’t bother her in the least. It was a war wound he received while serving his country. She couldn’t look down at him for that. Besides nobody was perfect. She said the first thing she was thinking. She was about 15 pounds overweight and she had an unhealthy addiction to Dr. Pepper.
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