Maximum Force: A Career Soldier Military Romance

by Tawdra Kandle

  “Yeah.” He shrugged. “I know I don’t look the part the way he does. The other guys tease me about being a surfer dude from California, which I am. But I like what I’m doing here, too. I just don’t want to live it around the clock.”

  “Is it even possible not to?” I thought about what he’d said a few minutes before, about the military not being a nine-to-five job.

  “Eh. Like I said, tough to do but not impossible. I live off-post because it’s important for me to be able to separate my Army self from my regular self. I have hobbies.” He patted the dashboard. “I have towing capacity on the truck because I rescue cars and restore them. Someday, when I’m done serving Uncle Sam, this is what I’m going to do full-time. I bought some land in Minnesota a few years back, and I’m planning to retire there and raise classic autos.”

  “Minnesota? That seems like a long way from California.” I smiled.

  “It is, but my cousin lived there for a while when we were growing up, and we used to visit him. I fell in love with the land and the seasons . . . so when this property came up for sale, I jumped on it. It’s my security for when I get out.”

  “That’s very forward-thinking.” I leaned forward as the truck slowed in front of a small two-story house with a wide driveway. A black Jeep was in the front along the curb.

  “Hey, do me a favor? Jump out and stand in front of the Jeep while I back in your car. I don’t want to scrape Specialist Evans’ vehicle. That’s his baby.”

  I opened the door, pausing before I slid out. “Wait a second. If I stand in front of the Jeep, won’t I be the one you’ll possibly hit?”

  He grinned again, that dimple popping out. “Aw, sugar, don’t worry. I’ll be real gentle.” His voice, low and suggestive, made me blush, something that happened rarely.

  I landed on my feet and turned back to lean my arms on the seat so that my boobs were thrown into prominence. Cocking my head, I gave him a slow and sultry smile and mimicked his drawl.

  “Baby, gentle isn’t my thing. I like it hard. Hard and rough.”

  I had just enough time to catch his jaw dropping and his eyes going wide before I slammed the truck door.

  Chapter Three

  Max

  I had a dog whose name was Boo

  Boo wanted to go to Infantry school

  So early one day I took away his chow

  And I motivated his bow-wow

  I made him walk for 15 days

  And put old Boo into a zombie haze

  Now my Boo’s a trooper, too

  Mess with him and he’ll bite you.

  My feet pounded against the hard dirt path, keeping in perfect rhythm and cadence with all the other men running alongside me, behind me and before me. Lake was leading PT today, and his voice rang out. The chants kept us all in sync, which was great, but the lieutenants who called them all tried to come up with new and more outrageous words. I had a sneaking suspicion that Lake scoured the internet late at night, just trying to find the one that was going to push all of us into laughter.

  Next to me, Kade nudged my arm without breaking stride. “Doesn’t Lake actually have a dog named Boo? Or did I dream that?”

  I shook my head. “Don’t remember. But it could be. He’s got the wife and the kid, why not the dog?”

  “True.”

  We were silent for a little bit, each of us lost in our own thoughts as we ran. I glanced at Lieutenant Lake at the front of the formation. He was about five years younger than me; he’d been here at Fort Lee for a couple of years, coming in as a platoon leader shortly after I had taken command of this company. A West Point grad, he’d gotten married the same day he’d graduated, and now he and his pretty little wife had a sweet baby boy. I’d been invited to the christening.

  Like me, Lake came from a family that had been Army for generations. His father had been a two-star general before early onset dementia had forced his retirement. I respected the young lieutenant, and I genuinely liked him, too, but his life puzzled me. I remember when I had been just out of college and fresh in the Army. The idea of a wife and family had been the furthest from my mind. Hell, even seven years later I didn’t feel the lack there.

  My life was full and busy. I gave my all to the job at hand, and when I was off-duty, I knew how to play hard, too. I couldn’t imagine trying to fit a wife into that equation.

  “You ever wonder if we’re missing out on something, not doing like Lake there?” As if he had been reading my mind, Kade spoke low between puffs of breath. “Think we should’ve found a nice girl and settled down before now?”

  I smirked. “I think finding a girl who’d take on both of us at the same time would automatically qualify her as not nice.”

  “Ass.” He shoved against me. “You know what I mean. Maybe we should’ve each found ourselves a nice girl, done the right thing and then knocked her up and started cranking out babies.”

  “Not enough hours in the day, brother.” I squinted across the field that lay along our path. On the far side of the waving grass was a copse of trees, and on the other side of the trees was the battlefield. It was early still; mist was swirling close to the ground, not yet burned off by the morning sun. Samantha Crewe probably wasn’t over there yet. I wondered how she’d get to work without her car, and I wondered whether or not having it would slow down her protest activities. And I wondered whether my buddy Kade had made a move on her last night when he’d driven her home.

  “Yeah, maybe.” Kade’s voice pulled me out of my brood. “But it seems like some people can figure out how to make it work. Like Lake there.”

  “Hmmm.” I was noncommittal.

  “Maybe it’s just that we haven’t met the right chicks yet.” Apparently, Kade wasn’t running fast enough to keep him from going philosophical on me. “We don’t go out of our way to find women who are marriage material. Or even long-term commitment material. I never really thought about it, but after meeting Sam last night—”

  A sound came out of my throat that was half way between a grunt and a growl, and Kade shot me a look of surprise.

  “You okay there? Got a hair ball?”

  I shook my head but didn’t say anything.

  “Anyway, as I was saying. You meet someone like her—she’s clearly smart and savvy, she’s got a ton of spunk, and holy hell, her body . . . well, nothing to complain about there, huh? Did you get a load of those tits? And that ass . . . it was a handful, for sure.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” I ground out the words between clenched teeth.

  “What was that?” From the teasing undertone, I realized he was playing with me. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “Asshole.”

  “Hey, I was just making an observation. Or more accurately, a series of observations. Sam’s a cool chick. I like her.”

  “Did you fuck her?” I didn’t mean to ask it, and once it was out of my mouth, I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer.

  “Hmm. Would it matter to you if I said yes?”

  My blood boiled, and my temper rose. “Did you? Because that would be an asshole move.”

  “Oh, and you’ve never banged a girl you just met? You’re so much better?”

  “Not saying that.” We rounded a corner, and the rays of the rising sun hit me in the eye. “Just saying that she’s . . . she seemed different. She’s not some girl you just bang.”

  “Yeah?” Kade hummed a little. “I guess I can see that. She did seem like the sticking kind. But you know, even the sticking kind like a quick roll now and then. Right?”

  “But you didn’t.”

  The run was coming to an end, and as we fell out, Kade bent over, leaning on his knees. He glanced up at me and shook his head.

  “No, Max. I didn’t. But maybe you should.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know her. I only met her yesterday, right before I called you. She’s just . . . some girl.”

  “Uh huh. Then why were you about to rip off my head and stuff it up my ass when you thought I’d made a
move on this ‘just some girl’?”

  I didn’t have an answer to that question—at least, I didn’t have an answer I was comfortable saying out loud. The truth was that the idea of Kade with Samantha Crewe had kept me tossing and turning all night. I’d swung from brooding jealousy over the images my mind kept painting for me to annoyance that I was even thinking about her. Even if I’d experienced a little physical attraction, that didn’t mean I had to act on it, especially when it was crystal clear that this chick was not at all my type.

  Sure, the whole package was pretty sweet. I had to admit that. I’d stopped on my way home when I’d seen the old car with the raised hood in the empty lot, but I’d expected the driver to be someone on his or her way home from work on post. When Samantha had poked her head around the hood to look at me, I’d been nearly as surprised as she had seemed. Her light brown hair fell in silky strands to just below her chin, and my first impression had been that she was kind of adorable. And then her big blue eyes had blinked up at me as she’d brushed the hair out of her eyes, and she’d moved just enough that I got a better look at the rest of her . . . and adorable went out the window. She was hot, and not in a fleeting, casual way like some of the girls I’d met in the past. No, she was bubbling with the kind of sensuality that imbued everything she did: from the roll of her hips when she walked to the slow smile that spread across that generous mouth.

  But the minute Samantha had admitted that she had been part of the protest outside post, I knew getting involved with her wasn’t a good idea. People might say that opposites attract, but in my line of work, when I was ready to get serious and consider a long-term relationship, I was going to need someone like me: someone who understood what service to our country meant, someone who could make sacrifices while she understood that the Army was always going to come first for me. Samantha Crewe might have been sexy and tempting—and a spitfire, to boot—but there wasn’t any doubt that she was a free spirit who questioned authority on every level.

  As Kade had pointed out this morning, I could have gone for just a no-strings attached night of fun with Samantha. I’d done it before, more times than I could count, even with women who normally weren’t the hook-up types. But the thought of a one-night stand with her made me queasy. I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew why.

  “Maybe you’re afraid that if you take her for a test drive, you’ll end up wanting to commit to more. And maybe you’re not ready to sign a long-term lease yet.” Kade lifted the hem of his T-shirt and swiped at the sweat on his forehead. A car was passing us just then, driving at the snail’s pace speed limit required on post, and I caught sight of the driver’s face. She was staring at my friend . . . or more accurate, at the chiseled muscles of his abdomen as revealed under his shirt. She nearly drove off the road before she course-corrected.

  “Comparing a woman to a car is offensive, Kade.” I felt duty-bound to say that, out of respect for my mother and my sister. “And no way. I’m not looking for a wife or a family yet. You know what they say: if the Army wanted you to have a wife, they’d issue you one.”

  Kade sighed. “Whatever you say, dude.” He paused, shaking out his legs. “So if you’re not going to make a move, you don’t have a problem with me calling Sam? I think we could have some fun.”

  I could feel a nerve jumping in my cheek. “You can do whatever you want. But I’d prefer you didn’t.”

  “Aha. I bet you would.”

  “I’d prefer you didn’t, because she’s involved in the protests, and you’re a company commander in the same battalion with the soldier at the center of the whole fucking mess. Things could get . . . complicated.”

  Kade frowned. “Reardon’s not in my company. He’s in yours. I don’t see how that complicates anything. I won’t mention anything about it to Sam. I doubt the subject would even come up.” He smirked, and I wanted to smack it off his face. “Matter of fact, we probably wouldn’t do much talking at all.”

  “The fact remains that you have privileged information about the case, and there’s a possibility she could use anything you might inadvertently reveal. Do we really need more shit to shovel right now?”

  He groaned. “You’re really going to stick to this story about a conflict of interest? That’s the only reason you don’t think I should date Sam?”

  I kept my expression bland. “What other reason could there be?”

  Kade shook his head. “You might be able to sell that line with some people, Max, but I can see right through you. That chick scared the crap out of you, didn’t she? Not because she might snarl up all the shit with Reardon, but because even just meeting her once, you already know she could be the one to ruin all your plans. She might be the one who could make you forget about the Army, forget about your career, even if it’s just for a little while. She could be a game changer.”

  “You’re full of shit, Braggs. You know that, right?” The rest of the men were beginning to disperse, some going home to shower and prepare for the rest of the day while others returned to the enlisted barracks or the bachelor officers quarters. Even though I lived off-post in a townhouse, I always showered at the BOQ to save myself the trip off post.

  “I’m one of the few people around here who recognizes your particular brand of bull, buddy. You can lie to the rest of them and to yourself, but I see right through you.” Kade started to stalk off in the opposite direction that I was going. He always went home between PT and the rest of the work day. After a few steps, he stopped and turned around, calling to me. “So you want her address, Max? I know where she lives now. I could give you the info . . . for a price, of course. All you need to do is say, ‘Kade Braggs is a god among men and knows me better than I know myself.’”

  I answered succinctly with a one-fingered salute and headed inside to grab a shower.

  * * *

  I had plenty to keep me busy that morning. Lake updated me on Sergeant Tulley’s visit with the Petersburg police and what he’d been able to discover there, which had been basically jack squat. I met with a few other platoon leaders, because even though Reardon’s fuck-up took priority right now, the rest of the company had its normal daily function to maintain, including soldiers transferring out to new duty stations and other soldiers transferring in to take their places. I had schedules to approve and some kinks to work out of an upcoming weekend excursion to the field, where we’d be focusing on specific elements of training. We were only going to Fort Pickett, but any sort of trip or movement required detailed planning, whether it was an hour up the road or thousands of miles overseas.

  Still, Samantha Crewe was never far from my mind. When Lake told me that the local folks were still up in arms about Reardon being in our custody instead of under the local jurisdiction, I flashed to her face, flushed and impassioned as she spoke about justice being served. When the lieutenant informed me that the guy whom Reardon had hit was apparently now awake, although still in critical condition at the hospital, I remembered the heat in Samantha’s eyes when she’d told me, “Someone’s got to do it, or people like you and your brothers-in-arms will roll right over us.”

  When it came right down to it, this woman I’d met once and for less than an hour was camped out in my head all morning, and it was annoying as hell. It got even worse when I found myself wandering down to the motor pool under the pretense of checking our readiness for the trip to Pickett . . . which was over a month away. I lingered until Specialist Evans happened by.

  “Morning, sir.” He saluted with an easy smile. “How’s it going today?”

  “Ah . . . it’s going, Evans. One of those days.” I struggled with the real reason I was down here and finally gave in. “By the way, thanks for taking a look at that girl’s car. I mean, you and your brother-in-law.”

  There were rules about soldiers doing any kind of work on the side, no matter how informal or casual it might be, since it could create conflicts of interest within the ranks. So, while I was fully aware that Evans did much of the mechanical repa
irs when we brought our vehicles to his house, we maintained a plausible deniability by giving credit to his brother-in-law.

  “Hey, it wasn’t a problem at all. She’s cool. And she was right on target—her starter’s bad, so we’re going to replace that tonight. It shouldn’t take very long, so I told her to come by and pick it up after dinner.”

  My ears perked up. Another part of me might’ve stirred, too. “Oh, yeah? Well . . . that’s good. Thanks for taking care of it.”

  “Sure. No sweat. You know I like to help any time I can.”

  It was true. Evans was definitely one of the easiest-going guys in the company; half the men called him Uncle Mickey, even though he was their age or younger. I clapped him on the back and was about to turn to leave when he proved to me once again how accommodating he could be.

  “Hey, Captain, speaking of cars, did you ever figure out that leak in your radiator hose? You know you can bring it over any time and I’ll be glad to take a look.”

  It was a gift that Specialist Evans had just tossed into my lap: the perfect excuse for me to swing by his house . . . say, tonight, so that he could check that hose for me. I knew I should tell him I’d bring it in next week. But before my brain could fully engage and do the right thing, I heard myself speaking.

  “Maybe I’ll swing by tonight and have you take a look, if you think you have time. I don’t think it’s an emergency, but I’d feel better if you and your brother-in-law had a look.” Oh, yeah, I’d feel better . . . but it would have nothing to do with my car.

  “Yeah, that works. And if you come a little early, Cecile will make you those nachos you liked so much when she brought them to the company picnic.”

  I grinned. “You just made my day so much better, Evans. I’ll be over with a six-pack.”

  “Now you got yourself a deal, Captain!”

  I returned to my office whistling. I was probably making a huge mistake . . . that, or I’d get there tonight and realize that the connection I’d felt with Samantha Crewe had just been a temporary deal. Or maybe she wouldn’t be interested in me.