Without Fear

by Reese Knightley

Call him a sap, but he’d been over the moon when Macy had stated in no uncertain terms that he was taking his last name.

  Logan pulled Macy into his arms. Dipping the slender man backwards, he planted a long kiss on Macy’s pink pursed lips. Slim fingers raced through his hair, mushing it up, and he smiled.

  The room hooted and hollered. Flowers and rice showered them as he led Macy toward the reception area.

  “Congratulations!” Justin said, leaping at Macy. Justin was so small, he barely reached Macy’s chin. The friends hugged each other while he and his brother, Elijah, looked on with indulgence. Before another second passed, though, Macy was reaching for his hand.

  They stood together next to the entrance as people moved into the room. Everyone stopped and congratulated them.

  “Congrats, bro,” Liam said, gripping his hand hard. At the Colonel’s side stood Captain Spencer Turner. They were engaged, but had yet to tie the knot. The pair were taking their time, the wedding was set for next summer.

  Logan hadn’t wanted to wait to get married and thankfully, Macy hadn’t either.

  “I’m so happy for you two.” Hayden stopped and gripped his hand before drawing him and then Macy into a hug.

  “Thank you,” Macy said, and smiled when Hayden took time to admire the diamond.

  “Okay, okay, keep it moving,” Jaxon grumbled.

  Hayden tossed Jaxon a glare. “Keep your shorts on.”

  Gunner, standing next to Hayden, laughed and Jaxon shot the guy a death glare.

  “Not at my wedding,” Logan warned the pair. The two hotheads were at odds for no apparent reason, but they worked well together when Jaxon and Gunner weren’t trying to beat the shit out of each other. He wanted no such repeat of what had happened at Ryder and Harrison’s wedding reception. Gunner had bailed because of Jaxon.

  “And you,” he warned Gunner, “better be here until the lights go out. And before you say a word,” he pointed a finger at Jaxon, who stood with his mouth open. Whatever the man was going to say dried up beneath his glare. “You will help Gunner clean up after the guests have left.”

  Jaxon let out a deflated breath and nodded. “Of course.”

  Even Gunner seemed resigned and nodded at Jaxon before the pair headed to the bar.

  “Well, as I live and breathe,” Hayden gaped at the backs of Jaxon and Gunner. “Are they getting along?”

  “Did anyone ever find out what the problem was between them?” Felix asked with a snicker.

  “It probably won’t last,” Ryder grunted.

  “It had better,” he muttered before turning to his love.

  Gripping Macy’s hand, he drew him to the front of the room where they’d spared no expense with the setup. Flowers of white and baby pink, and of course green that Macy assured matched his eyes were scattered about. Tables with long white table cloths held silver place settings and crystal champagne glasses.

  He drew his love to the middle seat and then took the chair at his side.

  Once seated, Macy turned to him, opened his mouth, but then paused.

  “What?” He lifted one slim hand to press a kiss to Macy’s knuckles.

  “After this?” Macy squinted. “We need some damned alone time to go on another date.”

  The whirlwind of getting their wedding planned and moving into his house in Denver, plus buying a house in Crumpet, had kept them extremely busy over the past few months. Not to mention, they both worked full time. It was no wonder that they hadn’t had the chance to finish their date.

  “Deal.” He gave his best one worded answer.

  Macy’s tinkling laughter was all the response he needed and everything his heart desired.

  THE END

  SNEAK PEAK OF CUTTING IT CLOSE

  Maddox

  If Maddox Stone could have walked away and given it all up in that very moment, he would have. But that wasn’t a luxury he could afford.

  He drew a deep breath and let it out hard before he spoke between his teeth.

  “I don’t give a damn why you did it, you should have asked me first.” He scowled at his business partner.

  Bull Seeger frowned back. “I own half this ranch!”

  He gave the man a narrowed look. “This ranch wouldn’t even be solvent if it weren’t for my grandfather.”

  “Well, thanks for that.” Bull’s face filled with hurt.

  Not wanting to be pulled into Bull’s manipulation, he steeled himself against the hurt in the old man’s eyes. If he didn’t get a handle on Bull’s erratic spending, the guy was going to be out of a home.

  “The truth hurts.”

  “You know what, Maddox? You can go to hell,” Bull said and stomped slowly into the living room. The cane held tightly by a gnarled hand thumped on the floor.

  With an overly long sigh, he stalked after the cranky old coot. “Look. I really don’t have time to be running back here every time Triton calls me because you have some half-cocked scheme up your sleeve.”

  Bull lowered slowly to the sofa. “Yes. You’re very busy.” The man turned his face away and stared out the wide window that graced one half of the room.

  “I am very busy!” He clenched his teeth. “I can’t get back here more than once a year, you know that. I’ll stay until I have this mess sorted out and then I’m gone.”

  “Don’t put yourself out,” Bull muttered. “I can handle it.”

  “Yeah, I see the way you handled it. We’ll be lucky if we pull out of this one.” He threw up his hands.

  Bull flinched but didn’t say another word.

  The one thing Maddox had done through the years was support this place. Yet, every time he turned around, he got a call about money problems. Frankly, he was sick of it. With the next few days free, he could look into the problem, but he didn’t always have free time. He was a very busy man. More so than Bull realized.

  Striding into the kitchen, his spurs rang on the hardwood floor as he strode past the kitchen table to the back door.

  “Jim,” he snapped at the ranch foreman just lifting a forkful of eggs to his mouth. Jim Lancaster had been the Triple R foreman since before his grandfather bought into the ranch. Jim shoved back his chair, the half-eaten food pushed aside.

  “Yes sir?”

  “I’m headed to the east barn,” he growled on his way out the back door.

  The man gulped, grabbed the toast from his plate, his coat from the hook near the door, and followed after him.

  Stalking to the main horse barn, he looked over the state of the ranch. As things went, it wasn’t in too bad of shape physically. The landscape around the main house looked good and the structure of the buildings looked sound. The livestock were healthy.

  What wasn’t good was the financial aspects of running the place. Every time he turned around, he was having to sink his hard earned money into the place.

  “You know…” Jim said, running after him. The older man huffed and puffed a bit when he caught up. “Bull is getting on in years.”

  He ignored Jim and yanked open the east barn door and stepped inside.

  “He didn’t mean no harm.”

  “You’d do well to spend more time doing your job than defending Bull’s actions,” he clipped out.

  Jim twisted his cap and nodded before turning away.

  He closed his eyes, spun around, and stalked down the long length to the end of the barn.

  Toward the rear door, the mare in the foaling stall stomped and pulled at the lead rope one of the ranch hands was holding.

  “Fucking hold still!” The guy smacked the mare on the muzzle and she cried out in distress.

  In two large strides, he fisted the back of the man’s shirt. His other hand came around and clamped on the pressure point on the man’s wrist. The guy yelled and dropped the lead rope. Spinning the man around, Maddox punched him in the nose before shoving him to the dirt.

  “What!” The guy scrambled back on his ass, hands holding his nose.

  Maddox towered over the guy.
“Collect your check.”

  “Wait. She’s -”

  “She’s in pain. I won’t say it again. Collect your check and get off my land,” he snarled, taking a step forward.

  Scrambling, the man jumped to his feet and ran.

  He spun and eased up to the skittish mare in the stall.

  “Whoa…” He caught the lead rope, careful to leave slack, and lifted a hand to smooth over the red gleaming coat of the skittish mare. She jerked beneath his touch.

  “He had that coming,” his young cousin said from behind him.

  Ignoring Triton, he ran his gaze over the mare. His mouth grew tight. She was only hours from giving birth. “Easy, girl, you’re going to be fine, you can do this,” he coaxed.

  “You talk to her like she’s human,” Triton said, moving closer, almost to his shoulder.

  Maddox sent his cousin a look and caught the quick flashing smile. His cousin was always smiling. People liked the young man and gravitated toward his happy disposition.

  “She’s more human than some people I know,” he growled.

  Triton snorted. The twenty-one year old was cute; all brown curly hair, big, bright eyes, slim, and stood around five feet eleven inches. Not as tall as he or bulky, but not everyone could be as big as him. There was a twelve year age gap between him and his younger cousin, but that never mattered to them. Triton, kicked out of his aunt and uncle’s house because he’d come out as gay, had moved to the ranch three years ago to live and go to college. Maddox had welcomed Triton with open arms and they’d grown close. When he was on leave, Maddox came home in the summer, teaching Triton the ropes of the ranch. The young man had taken to ranching like a duck to water.

  “I heard you and Bull fighting earlier,” Triton said.

  He gave a hard sigh.

  “He did fuck up the finances again, didn’t he?” Triton asked, and then shook his head.

  His cousin had been the one to leave the message at the base, the message that had brought him home. Maddox had called home and caught a flight out the very next day. Luckily, Major Jones had granted his military leave. But that was only because the target of their next assignment had gone dark before they could deploy, leaving Maddox with enough time to deal with this bullshit.

  “Bull took out a loan against the ranch to expand barn number three, so he could rent out the inside for storage.” Maddox removed the mare’s halter. Sliding it off her muzzle, he hung it near the stall.

  “I saw the expansion. I wondered where he got the money. For a minute, I thought you okayed it. I didn’t know any different until you called me.”

  “No, I wouldn’t have okayed something like that!” he snapped. “We had only enough to make it through this coming winter without adding a loan payment to the bills. He’s cut the ranch short. And I haven’t seen one payment coming in from the rental. That type of expansion needs to be planned for. And that’s why Tanner’s Feed Store called you about their unpaid bill.”

  “Bull’s been having the hands buy cheaper feed over at Smith’s.”

  A slow throbbing began behind his temple and he lifted a hand to rub at the spot.

  “Bull took money out of the ranch account. A lot of it. I don’t know where it is.” It pissed him off and worried him. When he was pissed, he lost his temper, and when he lost his temper…well, the results weren’t pretty.

  “Anything I can do to help? I can skip a few classes.”

  “Keep your ass in college,” he snapped.

  “Cuz. What the hell?” Triton said incredulously.

  “You asked.” He squinted at his cousin.

  “You don’t need to be an asshole to me.” Triton threw up his hands. “I didn’t borrow money against the ranch. Or wipe the account out. Don’t take it out on me!”

  Maddox made a sound in the back of his throat.

  “I wish River was here!” Triton said with a glare.

  “You didn’t even know him!” he shouted, and the mare stomped away from him. He shut the birthing stall and stalked to the end of the barn.

  “Mad!” Triton called from behind him.

  He stopped in the open doorway.

  “I’m sorry,” Triton said, drawing close. “I shouldn’t have said that. You’re right, I don’t know him.”

  “Then why’d you say it?”

  “Because Bull said you never used to yell when River was around.”

  “Well, that was a long time ago,” he muttered. A lifetime ago since it had all fallen apart and he wished for nothing more than to step back in time and make it right. But he couldn’t. “And I have bigger shit to deal with. So either help me or take off,” he said through clenched teeth, angry as all hell.

  Triton didn’t leave, he just stood quietly next to him.

  “Think it’ll rain?” Triton wisely changed the subject.

  “Nah, but you know what they say, give it fifteen minutes.” He took a long, slow breath and readjusted his hat before he tugged the brim down low and moved outside of the wide open doors of the barn. Triton followed and they stood together looking over his legacy. A lump grew in his throat and he rubbed a hand over his mouth. It was the only thing he had left of his grandfather, Andrew Stone.

  It was also the only thing left to remind him of his mistakes. Mistakes that had come at a price. He still came home every summer, waiting and hoping for the chance to make it right. He didn’t think anything could do that and regret formed a knot in his gut.

  What he needed to do now was keep Bull from running the ranch into the ground. His cousin was turning out to be a big help and when he left his part of the ranch to someone, he’d pick Triton.

  Someday, this would all belong to Triton and River.

  “How long are you staying?” Triton gazed up at him.

  “Not long,” he rasped, and even though he’d been an asshole, the young man’s face fell. He couldn’t stay long. He had a mission to get back to.

  “Have you been staying out here instead of the dorms?” he asked Triton.

  “When I can, I do. I like helping with the horses, and the college campus is not far.”

  Triton’s phone buzzed. His cousin made a face.

  “Who’s that?”

  “Clay, he wants me to pick up some dinner on the way back to town.”

  “You don’t want to go?”

  “Not really.” Triton shrugged.

  “Problems?” He leaned a shoulder against the barn door.

  “Just need some time alone.” Triton flashed him a quick smile, moving to stand beside him.

  “Make sure he’s what you want,” Maddox said of his cousin’s boyfriend.

  His cousin smiled and elbowed him. “I know, I know!”

  Maddox grabbed Triton by the head and gave him a knuckle rub and then jumped back. He didn’t play around often, so he took Triton completely by surprise. So much so, the kid stood with his mouth gaping.

  He jogged back into the barn in the direction of the foaling mare. Beyond her stall, the far barn door stood open allowing the small breeze to blow through the building. From there, he could see the other row of massive barns.

  “The number three barn door is open.” He frowned at the newly renovated metal of the barn Bull had spent the damn money on.

  “Yeah, it’s that monthly rental thing. I saw them pull up as I was coming to find you.”

  “The big rig?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They’re tearing up the grass.” He frowned at the deep tire marks in the green that separated each barn.

  “I’ll go see about the open door and tell them to be careful,” Triton offered and took off out the back door toward the barn.

  “Collect a payment if you can!” he called after his cousin. The young man gave a thumbs up before jogging away.

  Once Maddox had the stall door reopened, he eased toward the mare. She danced away from him, and regret he’d frightened her tightened his mouth. It took him several long minutes to soothe and calm her down.

  R
iver

  “Alpha team, what is your position?” Infinity’s dispatcher asked through the mic.

  First Lieutenant River Seeger pressed the small mic in his ear. “Alpha team, south rear entrance.”

  “Roger, Alpha team,” dispatch responded, and then after a moment, added, “Bravo, Charlie teams, confirm positions, over.”

  “Charlie team, front entrance,” Sergeant Diesel Gannon replied.

  Easing upward a bit, River took in the small porch and the closed backdoor. The paint on both the porch and the door was cracked and cratered. The wood should easily give way. He slowly crouched back down.

  “Easy peasy,” Sergeant Isaac Thorne whispered and waggled his eyebrows through the eye slit in his mask. Then the soldier walked a knife through the fingers of one black gloved hand as casual as you fucking please.

  Hunkered down next to them, Sergeant Blade Hammond rolled her eyes and gave Isaac a suffering look before she pulled down her face mask.

  River pulled on his oxygen mask and the rest of the team followed suit.

  From their left, Sergeant Ethan Caufield ran in a crouching run. When the man reached the house, he spider climbed up the side and crept across the roof.

  “Attic entrance. Bravo out,” Ethan finally replied through the mic once he reached the entry point from above.

  “Roger that. Infinity, mission is a go,” dispatch said.

  Leaping to the porch, River kicked in the old door. Wood splintered with a loud crack.

  River went in low with Isaac and Blade at his back. The house was small, maybe three bedrooms, and as a result, the floor shook when the rest of his unit slammed entry at once. It had the desired effect.

  The windows blew in at the den. He ducked back for a moment. A loud crack from the flash grenade erupted and then he was moving around the corner and back into the room.

  Drug addicts scattered, coughing and hacking in the smoke. Two long-haired, shirtless, skeletal-looking men flew from the hole-riddled couch. The glass from a mirror shattered and tumbled to the ground with a crash, razor blades flew, and white powder sprayed the air and the stained carpet. A lamp was kicked over in the fray. Three half-dressed women screamed and ran for various rooms.