by K. C. Crowne
“Fine. My bad,” he shrugged, giving me a sheepish smile. “But I'd do it again in a heartbeat.”
I knew he would too. Liam, like all of my guys, was a good man. He would have risked his life to save someone in need. To help them. He'd break all the rules, do whatever it took, to do the right thing. That's just who he was. That's who all of my boys were. It was one of the reasons I loved him.
It was one of the reasons I loved all of them.
My smile fell at the realization.
At one time, I'd entertained the idea of dating Chris or Jason, but then the reality set in. We were all too close-knit, and we all loved each other. Picking one guy over the others seemed cruel, especially since I knew they all had feelings for me on some level. That would lead to a lot of tension, complications, drama, and eventually, the dissolution of our little family. And I couldn't bear the thought of that.
I dipped my toes into the water. It was late summer, right before Labor Day, but it was still hot as hell in San Diego. All of us chose to remain there, to remain close, even though we came from all over this God forsaken country. I was a local, somewhat. Grew up in Orange County, California. Chris and Jason were from a small Nevada town on just the other side of the California border. Seth came from the Northeast, and Liam from Chicago. Yet, after rotating out, we all stayed there, in San Diego, near where it all started for us. Camp Pendleton.
Jason was in the pool, his silky black hair drenched. Droplets of water ran down his chiseled face, and I stared at him for longer than I'd intended. Our eyes locked onto each other's, and I felt a small ripple of pleasure roll through me. He had a darkness in his eyes that might intimidate others, but not me. The look sent a shudder throughout my body. Not a chill, but heat, and it coursed through my veins.
“None of ya'll better fucking do that to us again,” Seth said.
He sat down beside me, draping an arm over my shoulder. We shared a look, a grin, and clinked our beer bottles together.
“I can't imagine life without any of you assholes,” Seth said.
“Here, here,” I said, raising my bottle.
Liam sat on the other side of me, leaving just Chris sitting on one of the beach chairs. With a childish smirk on his face, he took a running leap into the pool, landing not too far from Jason and splashed all of us in the process.
“Fucker,” Liam muttered as he stood up.
Jason and Chris, together, swam over to the edge of the pool. One thing I loved about Chris was his goofy, silly side. For a large, imposing brute of a man, he had a boyish look to him that went along perfectly with his goofy, sometimes childlike personality. His face was sweet, reminding you of the boy next door, and his sandy colored hair, and blue eyes made only helped with that image.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Chris said as he swam right up to me.
Before I could stop him, he grabbed hold of my feet and pulled into the pool. I squealed, laughing as I fell into the water. I was wearing an itty bitty, black and white polka dot bikini. The top hardly concealed my chest, and when Chris pulled me into the water, the top slipped up.
The boys got a view. Not that they hadn't seen them before, but not like that. I grabbed hold of my breasts and turned beet red as I noticed that all eyes were on me. Chris was bursting with tears from laughing so hard, but the others seemed stunned. None of them looked away, and I had to admit, some small part of me didn't really want them to.
“Fine. If we're going to be like that,” I said, daring to be bold. “Let's just take it off.”
I pulled the top off completely, and stood before my boys, topless, and smiling brightly. Of course, I might have been smiling on the outside, but inside, my anxiety got the best of me, and my stomach was churning. I wasn't sure how they'd react, and maybe I shouldn't have done it, but the alcohol was making it hard to think straight, and made it seem like a good, fun idea.
Chris stopped laughing, but he was still grinning like a fool. His eyes, however, we clearly checking out my assets. Jason came up beside him, and he was also smiling wide, his eyes riveted to my body. I had to turn around to see Liam and Seth, and both men obviously couldn't believe their eyes.
“Like what you see?” I teased.
“Uh, yeah. Who doesn't like boobs?” Liam said. “We're all warm-blooded men who appreciate a nice pair.”
He was trying to play it cool, but I knew it made a difference that they were my boobs he was ogling.
“Then maybe I shouldn't be the only one losing clothes,” I said.
Chris's shorts plopped in the water next to me before I even finished my sentence. Of course he'd be down for some skinny dipping. Jason too. They were my wild boys. The ones I could trust to be more adventurous, push the envelope, and always have a good time doing it.
Seth's cheeks turned red as he stared at his beer, apparently finding his bottle very interesting all of a sudden. Yet, I could very clearly make out the outline of his erection in his swim trunks. I was sure that was partially to blame for his sudden bout of shyness.
Liam, always one to act cool, stood up. He waggled his eyebrows at me, pretending to be all smooth and sexy, and then purposefully going over the top with it. His hands reached for the waistband of his shorts, and he rocked his hips a bit.
“You're really going to drop your pants right there, out in the open?” Seth asked.
“Sure, why the hell not? Ain't nothing you haven't seen before,” Liam said. “Or maybe you're just intimidated.”
Seth snorted. “Intimidated? By what, man?”
“By what I have in my shorts, of course.”
Chris shouted from beside me. “I think you're both too chicken to do it.”
“Hey, I'm not chicken,” Liam said.
Jason came up on the other side of me, and I glanced down. His shorts were balled up in his hand, and I could make out the outline of his erection through the reflective ripples of the water. I bit my bottom lip, realizing just how nice it was. He caught me staring, grinned, and winked at me.
When I turned my attention back to the two guys outside the pool, they were standing side-by-side, both daring the other to go first.
“Come on, Seth,” I shouted. “You can do it!”
He turned his eyes to me and flashed a shy smile.
“On the count of three,” Chris said. “One... two...”
Before he got to three, Liam dropped his shorts and jumped into the pool before any of us could get a good view of his member. Seth followed suit. His shorts came off, and I got a quick glimpse of him, already hard and thick, before he dove into the pool as well.
“Someone still has their bottoms on,” Chris teased.
Now all the guys were staring at me. Waiting. They were right. I was topless, but I still had my bottoms on. It only seemed fair to drop them completely.
“Fine, fine,” I laughed.
With a quick tug, I pulled off my bottoms and threw them in the air, cackling with drunken laughter. The night air around us was filled with the sounds of our hooting, hollering, and laughter. It was a perfect night, the kind you cherished forever, and thought back to fondly when you were old and gray.
God, I loved my boys.
1
Mallory
Present Day
“Hey, Chris, we missed you tonight,” I said, leaving my third voicemail of the night. “The guys and I are getting a little worried. Give me a call tonight when you get this. It doesn't matter how late. Just call me.”
I shook my head as I hung up the phone. Seth, Liam, and Jason were sitting around my table watching me, each with a varying level of concern on their faces. Only one seat at the table stood empty – Chris's. “I haven't heard from him since Monday,” Seth said. “I really don't like this.”
“Maybe he's just depressed over the breakup with Julia and needs some time alone,” Liam said. “You know how he gets sometimes.”
We were all silent as an uneasy feeling descended over the table. Chri
s was the most sensitive of the group of us. Surprisingly, even more so than me – and I'm a woman. Whenever he fell in love, he fell hard, and he fell completely. He and his newest girlfriend had just ended things on a sour note, which I knew had to hit him incredibly hard. It had to be excruciating for him because although he was insanely in love with her, she didn't love him back.
I hated to think it, let alone say it, but he'd loved her way too damn much and, on some level, I thought we all expected this to happen.
“I'll go by tomorrow and check on him,” Jason said.
Still, even though we all knew Chris was the type to take breakups hard, he never missed one of our Sunday dinners at my place. Never. The five of us had gotten together every Sunday almost without fail since getting out of the military. We'd all settled down in San Diego near where we'd all met each other years ago when we were Marines. We were all part of the same unit and had bonded with each other deeply, forming a kind of family together.
Nobody seemed to have much of an appetite and we all just kind of picked over our dinners. The conversation was unusually subdued, and I noticed the guys all stealing glances at Chris' chair. It didn't take a psychic to see they were as worried about him as I was. I kept checking my phone, hoping to hear something – anything – from our friend. Yet, there was nothing. No call. No text. Nothing but a very troubling radio silence.
Once dinner was finished, I cleared the dishes, put them in the kitchen, then brought out dessert. Still no Chris. We ate dessert almost as silently as we'd eaten dinner, none of us seeming to have much to say. When we were done with that, I cleared the table again and we all headed out to the patio to have a drink around the hot tub.
Jason looked off into the distance, lost in his own head. Of all the guys, he seemed to be the most concerned about Chris. With his dark, brooding eyes and a typically serious expression on his face, he mostly kept to himself, nursing his beer as he gazed into the darkness of the sky above. Chris was his best friend. They'd enlisted together all those years ago. He knew Chris better than the rest of us did, and he knew this wasn't like him.
If he was worried – and he very clearly was – I thought, we should probably all be worried.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly to my chest. It was a loving gesture and I felt him lean back into me a little. I knew he appreciated the comfort of the physical contact. We’d all been so close for so long, and though there was a certain sexual tension between us, none of us had ever wanted to risk friendship by going too far. Jason rested his head against my chest and let out a long breath. Being a cop, I was still in nearly perfect shape, despite having left the Corps. Though tough and toned with lean muscle, I still had a woman’s curves. “He's going to be okay,” I said, running my hand through his thick, jet black hair.
Jason looked up at me and smiled. The smile though, didn't reach his eyes and looked entirely forced.
“I appreciate that, Mallory,” he said. “This just isn't like him. Even through his worst break ups, he never went radio silent like this. Honestly, I'm a little worried and thinking that maybe we should check on him tonight.”
“Maybe so,” Seth said.
I looked over at one of my other best friends. He was in the hot tub, leaning back against the edge, a nearly full bottle of beer in his hand that he hadn't touched all night. He tried to look casual, but I could see the tension in his face.
I stood up straighter and heaved a heavy sigh. “Come on,” I said.
I put my own untouched drink down on a small table. No one was in the mood for fun. Not tonight. Not when one of our brothers was missing.
“It's eleven o'clock on a Sunday,” Liam said.
“He'll be awake,” Seth said. “And if he's not, he will be. He can't fucking drop off the face of the earth and not expect us to check on him.”
Liam shrugged and put his drink down.
“Who's driving?” he asked.
* * *
Jason drove us over in his truck, and it was a quick ride over to Chris's place. We all lived in the same part of town for a reason – we liked to get together as often as possible. Being in the Corps bonded us in ways civilians probably wouldn't ever understand.
We pulled into Chris's condo complex and filed out of his truck. It was late, and the lights in most of the other units were already off – most of the other families in the complex were probably asleep already. It was a small complex and nothing too fancy, which had always suited him just fine. Chris worked as a security guard for a nearby financial company. It was a cushy job for the most part. He just had to look tough and badass, standing out front of the building. It was a pretty low stress job, which was exactly what a guy like him needed after everything he'd been through in the Corps. The security gig didn't pay the best, but he did well enough for himself, given the high cost of living in Southern California.
Jason parked right outside Chris's condo, beside his car. I touched the hood and found that it was cold, which meant he'd obviously been home for a little while – which made the fact that he'd skipped the dinner with us without a word all the stranger. As I stood there, I felt dark, ominous tentacles slither their way around my heart, wincing as they squeezed it tight.
There was a light on in the kitchen, but that was it as far as we could tell from where we stood. The porch light wasn't on and we couldn't see any lights on deeper in the house. The nervous tension saturated the air around us as we trekked through the dark to his front door, where Jason stepped up and knocked.
When Jason knocked, the door swung wide open, bumping softly into the wall behind it. Seeing that it wasn't closed all the way, we all shared a look of unease with each other. That didn't bode very well at all and we were all sharing the same feeling of outright concern for our friend.
With the door open, knowing that couldn't mean anything good for Chris, we had no choice but to go inside. Jason stepped in first, followed by Liam, Seth, and then me. It reminded me of how we entered some of the buildings looking for bad guys overseas.
“Chris? You here, buddy?” Jason called out.
We all stopped and waited for a reply, all of us holding our breath. Nothing. The air around us was unnaturally silent and pregnant with a dark tension unlike anything I'd ever felt before.
Now on high alert, we went into soldier mode. Using the hand signals , Jason split us into two groups – he and Liam went down the hallway toward the bedroom, while Seth and I went into the kitchen, where the light was still on. The place was still and silent.
Completely still and silent.
“His car was out front though,” I finally said, breaking that wall of silence. “Think he went for a run?”
“And didn't lock his door?” Seth answered, quirking his eyebrow at me.
Of all the guys, he was the quietest one. Usually, the most level-headed too. He wasn't reactionary and usually thought things through – and almost always managed to come back with a logical explanation for anything. But now, he looked as clueless as the rest of us. His boyish face was twisted up, a troubled expression that made him look ten years older etched upon his chiseled features.
His green eyes scoured the room as he ran a hand through his shaggy, dark brown hair. He was the first friend I made while in the service – though, originally, I'd struck up a conversation with him mostly because I thought he was hot. I still did. His soft, boy-next-door face with just a hint of stubble, was charming as hell. His vivid, eyes sparkled like polished emeralds – eyes I knew had moistened the panties of many a woman. Despite his boyish good looks, he always came off so serious. He always managed to look like he was deep in thought about something – which, knowing him like I did, he usually was. Seth's mind never stopped moving. “Maybe he meant to leave it unlocked?” I offered with a shrug, not even believing it myself.
Jason called out to us from the other room, and the one in his voice sounded urgent. Seth and I rushed for the hallway and made it to Chris's bedroom in the rear of th
e house in record time. At first, it just looked like an ordinary bedroom; a room we'd all seen a thousand times. His bed was not made, but that wasn’t usual for Chris. Even back in the Corps, he hadn't been Mr. Neat and Tidy. I looked around the room, trying to see what had made Jason sound so frantic. It took me a long few moments to see what the others had did, and when I saw it, I felt my heart drop into my stomach.
“He's not here, but his phone is still plugged into the charger,” Jason said. “Tell me that doesn't set off red flags in your heads.”
The phone was still plugged in, but it dangled off the end table precariously. It was as if something had knocked it almost off. Liam reached out to push it back into place, but I grabbed his arm. As the police officer of the group, I knew that if this was a crime scene – we wanted to touch as little as possible and preserve everything we could. If we touched or tampered with anything, it could destroy valuable evidence or clues about what might have happened to Chris.
Seth was already on the phone with the police, but being a cop myself, I knew that there wasn't much they'd do. He was an adult, and there weren't really any signs of a struggle. No blood. Nothing broken or taken that we could see. At the time, he could have been out for a run – even though we all knew Chris well enough to know he'd never go anywhere without his phone and he certainly wouldn't leave the house with his door unlocked.
Seth was talking calmly on the phone, but I could tell by his end of the conversation that it wasn't going well. Just like I knew it wouldn't. Chris was a grown man, and if he wanted to just up and walk away from his life, that was his right.
“We don't know how long he's been missing – yes, I understand,” he said. “No, I'm telling you, this isn't like him. He wouldn't just vanish like this. Not without contacting us.”