“Got my wife pregnant while she was on the pill.”
Lainie and Austin announced they were expecting during dinner a month ago, which sent Claire into a fit of tears, and Momma made her take a test. Dylan teased him by asking if it was for real this time, which earned a slap from Momma.
“You’re right, Dylan, you do have super sperm, cause it’s a fucking miracle you got that tiny dick of yours to work.” I barked, having heard enough talk of pregnant wives and shit. Audrey and I had been trying every chance we got and still nothing.
I’d had an idea, one I hadn’t really planned out, counting on my brothers to piece together the possibilities of my proposal. When Austin set up the video chat for my wedding, I had the opportunity to talk with the guys I left behind. Hearing them share of how the team wasn’t the same since I left, filled with new guys who were hero hungry, instead of concentrating on the team.
LT, Zach Michaels, had less than a year left, and a girl he had started talking to. I asked him if she was enlisted, which he denied, but wouldn’t tell us much other than she was from his hometown of Atlanta. He wanted to return home and open a tattoo shop, something which didn’t sit well with his society family.
Doc, Logan Forbes, had received a package from a girl in Virginia. He tried to explain the story, but it was too crazy to believe. He too, had less than a year, and planned to serve the last of his time at the Naval base in Virginia and see where this mystery girl lead him.
Chief, Aiden Sawyer, had been eligible for retirement for several years, but wanted to stay until the rest of the team called it quits. He had fallen for a nurse they escorted across the desert, a sniper attack had sent them huddling inside the armed vehicle. Chief said he had to calm her down and used the only measure he knew.
Havoc, Alex Kakos, was looking at a medical discharge. The bullet he took in the chest had left a shadow on his chest X ray, something the military frowned upon. He had family in south Florida who owned a restaurant and bakery. His momma still on a mission to marry him off to a good Greek girl.
Reaper, Matthew Parrish, had bought some land in South Carolina. He wanted to fix up the old home and avoid the public. He believed the scar on his face scared most folks, especially the ladies.
Ghost, Ryan Biggs, had been looking at a government job, working in communications. His parents had left him some land in Tennessee and he was itching to get back to the hills.
“Listen, I need to talk to y’all ‘bout something important.” A huge knot tightened in my stomach, what I was about to suggest was not only illegal, but dangerous as fuck.
“Not sure I like the sound of your voice there Chase. Everything okay at home?” Dylan planted his feet on the ground, muted the television, and then tossed the remote.
“Everything is great at home, but what I have to say does effect them too.” Audrey had taken the morning off to help Momma with the church Christmas outreach. She showed me an envelope she had been saving money in to give, to help a family like the church had helped hers. I told her to double whatever she had squirreled away.
“Dylan, when you left your job with the department, you said it was because the law had started to fail the people.” Both Dylan and Austin looked at me with blank faces and arms crossed, but giving me their complete attention. “You asked for our help in serving the form of justice the courts couldn’t. Then we all helped with the son of a bitch who beat his wife, all because the law failed them.” Dylan nodded his head, but remained silent.
“And Austin, you did everything you could to help those people get their money back and stop a career criminal from fleeing the country. You even kept Lainie from taking the heat when they tried to disappear. Hell, you both saved my ass from ruin with the Harmony’s scams.”
“This train of thought of yours got a caboose?” Dylan prodded, a serious expression on his face.
“What if we could help more people? More than just the folks here in Charleston.” I let my question hang in the air, a pregnant pause in the conversation. “Originally we all agreed, Carson too, that we would help the ones who needed us. Turns out there’s a whole market of people who have been failed by all the authorities they’ve contacted.” I lock eyes with Austin, his expression chilling me the most.
“Keep going, little brother. I can tell by your eyes there’s more to this plan of yours.”
Standing, I start to pace, “You’re right, Austin, there is more. An entire SEAL team who would be willing to help us. Not right away, but by the end of next year we could have a Mercenary team—show the world what a little southern justice can do.”
“Where did you come up with SEALs? Those are some bad motherfuckers, not your standard issue military guy.”
My brothers weren’t stupid either, I couldn’t tell them when I had to go out on a mission over there. I’d told Daddy a little, but never my brothers. It was time to share what I could about how I came to know this group of guys, forming a brotherhood much like the one I shared with them. “All of these guys possessed a skill vital to a mission. The rules are very clean when it comes to the type of men you need on a team to make it happen. Zach is a born leader, handles stress like he’s drinking a beer. Aiden can talk a Nun out of her panties or a jumper off a ledge. Alex taught me everything I knew about explosives, how to respect them and how to blow the fuck out of anything. Matt, has the longest kill shot in history, not that he can claim it as it’s top secret. Ryan, can make a radio out of anything. Austin, you and him would talk shit for days.”
Dylan scoffed, placing his feet back on the table and crossing them at the ankles. “I fucking better get a cool call sign out of this merger.”
Austin kicked his boot with his own, “You fucking douche, you have to earn that shit.” Turning to me, an irritated look on his face. “What is your call sign, or can you not tell us?”
I knew Austin would know if I was holding back, that skinny assed bitch should work in interrogations. “Diesel.” I said, praying I didn’t have to explain the history behind it. If my brothers and my team from Afghanistan partnered up, they would find out soon enough.
“Tell me, Chase, you say there’s a need out there, but how do we find them? Or them us?”
This was the easiest part of all, and it surprised me he didn’t think of it. “Easy man, the internet.” I scoffed, watching, as the reality of my answer should have come to him first.
“I already have a potential client, a well known celebrity. His girlfriend has taken off with their baby, the one his popular recording artist wife knows nothing about. He’s offering a huge payout for the return of the love child.”
Dylan looked to Austin, who looked to me. “And we have a SEAL team willing to help?”
I nod my head, as I lean back against the counter top.
“You know I’m fucking in.” Dylan spoke first, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “As long as we’re here for the birth of the babies.”
Austin leaned his head back against his chair, spinning it in a circle, then sticking his foot out to stop himself. “Call the cheating motherfucker and tell him we got this.”
If all men were just, there would be no need for valor
“You tell that son of a bitch when he gets here, he is never touching me again.” Claire has been in labor for six hours. She wasn’t due for another three weeks, and insisted the guys take on one last mission before they were grounded for a while. Dylan fought hard to stay, but she had insisted she would be fine, and probably go past her due date.
When the guys sat us down and told us what they wanted to do, I was scared shitless. What if they got hurt or arrested? The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized they could get hurt right here in town. Priscilla and Dean raised these guys to give a fuck about the people around them—to do more than complain about a problem, to fix it.
Chase had sent me a text a minute ago, their plane had landed and Carson had called in a favor to have a police escort bring them here to the hospital. Claire, however
, was not impressed; she started the name calling of her poor husband around hour two, being a real bitch to the nurse who came in to check on her.
“Oh dear, God, where is he?” She moaned as another contraction hit her. It had been like this for a while, one minute she hated him and the next couldn’t live without him.
“Right here, Momma.” Dylan bursts through the door, dropping his bag to the ground as he raced around to be at Claire’s side, kissing her face, and belly, as she reached for him. His face and clothes were filthy, looking like he had crawled around in the mud to get here. “What’s this I hear about me not touching you? Now that ain’t right, you know we got a few bedrooms to fill.” And just like that, Claire found her focus and Lainie and I left the room.
Carson and Miss Georgia were filling Austin and Chase in on Claire’s progress, and had little William sleeping soundly in his car seat. Lainie had given birth to a baby boy a month earlier, winning the bet of who would be first. William Dean Morgan has his father’s eyes and his mother’s smile.
During the last mission, Carson had tagged along in Austin’s place. As they hunted for the man they were hired to find, they came across a little girl, abandoned in a bombed out building. Carson took her in, cleaned her up, fed her, and then spoke with the local orphanage, who had no record of her. After asking around, it was determined her family had been killed when an explosion rocked the building. Carson contacted Miss Georgia, who threatened him within an inch of his life if he didn’t bring the baby with him.
Lillian Margaret Carson, was a dark haired, dark eyed beauty. She seemed overwhelmed at first, the drastic change from a tiny village in a third world country, to a big city like Charleston. She found the television to be frightening at first, until Uncle Austin gave her an iPad with a few games loaded on it. Now, she is an excited, full of love and life, two year old.
It took the better part of six months for the city to fix the park across the street from Clifford’s burned out house. All the money raised from the bike run went to purchase new equipment. Many of the residents in the neighborhood banded together, with the drug house destroyed, they formed a neighborhood program to clean up the streets. The guys were already busy planning this year’s run, minus the surprise wedding.
Dean and Priscilla purchased the lot where the house once stood. Claire and Priscilla planned to build a women’s shelter, giving refuge to the women who couldn’t fight for themselves. They planned to have counseling, job placement, legal assistance, and even a health clinic. A sign has already been erected, the future home of Southern Justice, a Forrest Vanburen Memorial Center.
“Hey, Sweetness.” Chase closed the distance between us in a hot minute. I’ve missed him this time, my raging hormones keeping me up late at night. “How are you?”
He circles his arms around me, at least as far as he could. My eight month belly got in the way of everything, well, not entirely everything. “We’re fine, missed you, but fine.”
Chase worried when I didn’t get pregnant the first month we were married. I tried to reassure him even though it seemed most girls could get pregnant by looking at them, it really was a miracle in the making. The first time I vomited on his bare feet after he shoved a cup of coffee under my nose, he stood with me as I peed on the pregnancy test, and then dropped to his knees as he swore to be the best Daddy in the world to our child.
When I went for the ultrasound, he told the technician we didn’t want to know the sex, however after seeing the peanut on the screen, he changed his mind. We’re having a boy, due in a few weeks. We decided to keep the name a secret, as Dylan and Claire don’t know what they’re having and can’t agree on a name.
“I got a call.” He didn’t have to explain any further; we all knew what it meant when they said it. “A soldier this time. Came home to his wife and baby missing. She packed the house up and took off with a guy she met on the internet.” I could tell he was holding back, so I waited until he could collect his thoughts. “He’s been recovering in Germany for a while, and unable to reach her in almost a year.” A gasp left my mouth, catching Austin’s attention. With Will in his arms, he came to stand with us. I knew Chase and his friend Zach had been tying up final details for him to come to Charleston, joining the guys in this underground mercenary company they’d formed.
“Sweetness, Tombstone is like a brother to me. I have to help him, at the very least send a team to investigate. I won’t leave you and the peanut; I’d planned on calling a friend who just got back into the states. He’s an honest guy and he knows Tombstone.”
God how I loved this man and his sense of valor, always doing the right and just thing. “No man deserves to be treated like that. If he needs someplace to stay, you know we have room.”
The light sparkled in his eyes, he loved when I rode his brainwaves, able to say what he was thinking. Pulling out his phone, his eyes remained locked with mine.
“Hey Reaper, Diesel here.” He winked at me, causing me to smile at the memory of when he told me how he got the name; I couldn’t agree more, he certainly could spark a fire in me. “Hey man, I hear you’re back stateside, you busy?” His smile growing impossibly larger as he let out a head tossing laugh. “That’s incredible, good for you.” He listened with interest as he rubbed my belly. “Well, Tombstone needs our help and my wife is about to deliver any day. Can you drive to Charleston and lend us a hand?” Pulling me closer, he kissed my lips and forehead. “Okay, Reaper, see you in a few days.” Austin bounces a fussy Will, as Chase pockets his phone. “Reaper is on his way, so I can stay with Audrey.”
The brothers reach out, wrapping their hands together, their thumbs interlacing.
“Let’s do this.”
The End, well…sorta.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this story, the best compliment you can give the author is to leave a review where you purchased this book, or tell a friend!
Coming 2017 Trident Brotherhood Series.
The Morgan brothers have formed an alliance with Chase’s SEAL team. Come with me as I share with you six novels I’ve created about the members of the team. Join me as we dive further into the lives of these brave men, and the women who love them.
Book one SEAL. com
Lieutenant Zach Michaels receives a letter, which wasn’t intended for him. When he attempts to return the letter and the news of the recipient, he opens the door to a girl who will change his world. He must chose between doing what is right, and keeping his word to the girl he loves.
Kennedy Forrester has lived her life pleasing others. Her mother obsession to climb the social ladder, conflicts with Kennedys desires to work with horses and injured veterans. In the quiet of her room, she seeks out a dating website, hoping to find a solider to talk to. What she got was so much more than she ever bargained for.
I’ve always hated writing this particular part; afraid I will leave someone out and offend them. When I began creating the outline for this trilogy, I wanted it to be different from anything I had written in the past. I wanted to challenge myself by writing in a male point of view. Considering I have never been a male a single day in my life, this would be quite an undertaking. What I found, created a spark within me, an almost freedom I didn’t know was there, and a hunger to push further, writing without apology.
I have a ton of people to thank. First and foremost, my husband, thank you for taking a backseat on my priority list. For listening to the same paragraph over and over until I felt it was right. For giving me time to write, and the unyielding support you showed during the many trips to Charleston, SC.
To my editor Elizabeth; thank you for being my biggest ass kicker, for having the courage to tell me when something I wrote sucked. For covering my manuscript in my favorite color of red and encouraging me to keep going. For the text messages full of pleas to tell you one of my characters wouldn’t do something to make you sad. For ignoring my rants as I complained when my characters laughed at me, when I started writing what I felt they should
be doing, instead of the story they wanted to tell. Finally, for the being the kind of friend I needed when real life seemed to crash around me.
Jada, my graphic designer, aka the Sorceress, because you have some crazy magic to make what I see in my mind come to life. I recall the day I first contacted you in hopes of landing an appointment with you. I nearly fainted when you produced an animated book for Shamrocks and Secrets. When I sent you an email about the first book in this trilogy, you replied back with “I’ve got just the thing”, and you did. Now three books later, and so many more on the horizon, you are still the one I trust to introduce my words to the world.
Stacey, my formatter who I met when another company was booked solid for months. They introduced me to you and the rest is blissful history. Thank you for adding just the right amount of sparkle to every page I write.
To Alessandra Torre and Kandace Milostan, who helped to mold the characters of Claire and Lainie by being themselves. Alessandra, with her grace and undying smile, and Kandace for her endless courage, no matter what life tossed her way. To Lainie Suzanne, who was blessed with a name I fell in love with, thank you for lending it to me. To all the people who took part in molding a young girl from a poor family, telling her dreams were for when you closed your eyes at night, and not for believing in. Audrey Helms, in many ways is the girl I was most of my life, struggling just to survive, but keeping my dreams alive. It can happen, I’m living proof.
But most of all, thank you to everyone of you who have read and became engrossed in the stories I tell, the places I take you and the twisted route I make you travel to get there.
Absolute Valor (Southern Justice #3) Page 30