Jobe: Alvarez Security Series

by Maryann Jordan

  Jobe

  Alvarez Security Series

  By

  Maryann Jordan

  Jobe (Alvarez Security Series)

  Copyright © 2015 Maryann Jordan

  Kindle Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by: Andrea Michelle, Artistry in Design

  Editor: Shannon Brandee Eversoll

  Format: Paul & Oat, BB eBooks

  ISBN: 978-0-9864004-8-3

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost, I have to thank my husband, Michael. Always believing in me and wanting me to pursue my dreams, none of my books would not be possible without his support. To my daughters, MaryBeth and Nicole, I taught you to follow your dreams and now it is time for me to take my own advice. You two are my inspiration.

  My best friend, Tammie, who for twenty years has been with me through thick and thin. You’ve filled the role of confidant, supporter, and sister. You always believed that I could accomplish whatever I dreamed.

  My dear friend, Myckel Anne, who keeps me on track, keeps me grounded, and most of all – keeps my secrets. Thank you for not only being my proofreader but my friend. Our friendship has grown and changed and you mean more to me than you can imagine. And yes, my cat is huge!

  Going from blogger to author has allowed me to have the friendships and advice of several wonderful writers who always answered my questions, helped me over rough spots, and cheered me on. To Kristine Raymond, you gave me the green light when I wondered if I was crazy and you never let me give up. MJ Nightingale and Andrea Michelle – you two have made a huge impact on my life. Anna Mychals, EJ Shorthall, Victoria Brock, Jen Andrews, Andrea Long, A.d. Ellis, ML Steinbrunn, Sandra Love, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Susan Stoker and Laramie Briscoe – thank you for always answering my questions and giving me the benefit of your experience and friendship.

  My beta readers kept me sane, cheered me on, found all my silly errors, and often helped me understand my characters through their eyes. A huge thank you to Denise VanPlew, Sandi Laubhan, Barbara Martoncik, Jennifer Alumbaugh, Anna Mychals, Danielle Petersen, Shannon Brandee, Stracey Charran, Leeann Wright, Lynn Smith, Kelly Williams and Tracey Markin for being my beta girls who love alphas!

  Shannon Brandee Eversoll has been my editor for the past seven books and what she brings to my writing has been amazing. She has gone from editor to friend – a transition that I love! She and Myckel Anne Phillips as my proofreader gave their time and talents to making Jobe as well written as it can be. Both encourage me to stretch and work harder to bring my stories alive!

  My street team, Jordan Jewels, you are amazing! You volunteer your time to promote my books and I cannot thank you enough! I hope you will stay with me, because I have lots more stories inside, just waiting to be written!

  My Personal Assistant, Barbara Martoncik, is the woman that keeps me going when I feel overwhelmed and I am so grateful for not only her assistance but her friendship.

  The cover was created by my dear friend, Andrea Michelle with Artistry in Design, and her talent is evident in every detail. Thank you for working with me, planning with me, laughing with me, and understanding me.

  As the owner of the blog, Lost in Romance Books, I know the selflessness of bloggers. We promote indie authors on our own time because we believe wholeheartedly in the indie author community. I want to thank the many bloggers that I have served with, and who are assisting in promoting my series.

  Most importantly, thank you, readers. You allow me into your life for a few hours as you disappear into my characters and you support me as I follow my indie author dreams.

  If you read my books and enjoy them, please leave a review on Amazon. It does not have to be long or detailed…just that you enjoyed the book. Reviews are essential to indie authors!

  Dedication

  For twenty-two years, I worked as an adolescent counselor in high schools, and while the young people were wonderful, one of the problems we faced that crept into our schools was the gang activity. I dedicate this to the many young women who fight against the pull of that environment. Know that there is life outside of the gangs and people who will help you make those choices. For the girls that I dealt with, know that you are in my heart.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  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

  Author Information

  More books by Maryann Jordan

  Chapter 1

  Prologue

  Jobe Delaro walked back to his bunk after the briefing. As part of an elite Special Forces squad, he was ready for their next mission. From the meeting they just had…it would be soon. Each of his twelve squad members would spend the evening preparing in whatever way worked best for them. Their Captain, Tony Alvarez, would be in his room sending an email to his wife. The twins, Gabe and Vinny Malloy, would be hitting the weights while listening to some pounding heavy metal music. The others each had their own habits and rituals before a mission as well.

  Pulling out the letters from his locker, Jobe sat down on the edge of the narrow bed, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Letters from her. The woman he loved. The woman he promised to marry. The one.

  He read her last letter, where she talked about finishing her senior year in college. They met two years earlier while he was stationed at the base near the city of Richland where she was attending the university. And the moment he saw her…all bets were off.

  Several of them headed to a local watering-hole one weekend, grabbing a table overlooking the dance floor and loudly ordering their beers. He moved his eyes around the room and caught a flash of a reddish-gold amongst the dancers crowded on the floor. The unusual color of hair had him searching for her again.

  Leaning forward in his seat, he spied her. Long hair, the hue of a lion’s mane, flowing down her back. It was hard to tell from the crowd how tall she was, but the way her ass moved had his dick immediately standing at attention. Her arms snaked above her head as she slowly turned around, still dancing to the music. And holy hell, her front was just as good as her back.

  He jumped up, ignoring the calls of his brothers-in-arms, knowing he needed to make his move or one of them would be on her in an instant. Moving through the crowd, his towering frame made it easy to part the way until he was standing directly behind her.

  As she turned around again, she came face to face with him. Or rather face to chest. Her head jerked back as she looked up, her light brown eyes with flecks of gold piercing him. She must have liked what she saw because she c
ontinued to dance and within a few minutes they were moving together as though they had been a couple for a long time.

  They spent the next half hour on the dance floor before leaving the bar, heading back to her place. And were inseparable after that. Through the rest of his training. Through his deployments. Through everything. And now, in the middle of his missions in Afghanistan, her letters gave him a lifeline. Back to home. Back to a future with her. He smiled, reading her final lines.

  Please come home safe when all of this is over and know that I will be here for you. I’ve already told my parents to be ready for a fast wedding because I’m not waiting one more second to become your wife! Keep my heart safely nestled in yours. You have all of me, soldier-boy. Always and forever.

  “You reading the same letter again, bro?” Vinny joked as he walked into the room, falling down onto his bed. The ultimate player. A minute later he was followed by his twin, Gabe. Another ultimate player. Love these guys and respect ’em, but there’s no way either of them could ever understand what this girl means to me. Both men were huge, bulging muscles barely contained in their tan t-shirts. Blond hair cropped close to their heads, they were spitting images of each other. Except to the members of their squad who could tell them apart instantly.

  Smiling, Jobe just nodded and slid the letters back into his trunk. He sent her a quick email to let her know he would write to her again soon. This was their way of letting her know he was going to be out of contact for a few days.

  The consummate professional, he turned his mind away from her and back to the upcoming mission. It sounded easy—get into a village and rescue a captured foreign national. But in this country, nothing was easy. So the squad was trained to be the best. Go in prepared and be ready to take on anything that came their way. Control. Stay in control and then you can control what is happening around you. That had been his motto for as long as he could remember and it served him well.

  As Jobe closed his eyes in exhaustion, he tried to shake the feeling that somehow this mission was going to be different. Forcing those apprehensions from his mind, he went to sleep with one thought. We’ve got this.

  Two days later, he knew that his control was slipping. The mission had disaster written all over it from the beginning. The intelligence had been wrong and the foreign national had been relocated. Altering their plan, the twelve men moved toward the new location, traveling stealthily in the dark. The rough terrain was no challenge for them as they made their way over the rocky passes and darkened paths.

  The new site loomed ahead, a small village lighted by a few campfires nestled amongst the craggy mountainside. Now, with no intelligence about the new location, they planned by instinct. Captain Alvarez was meticulous in his leadership and they quickly developed a new strategy. As Weapons Sergeant, Jobe and the Engineer Sergeant moved in first, circling around the camp as they located the most likely holding place. Vinny, the best marksman of the group, crept in behind them providing cover. Gabe, the Medical Sergeant, stayed behind, watching the activity below and radioing his intelligence to the squad. Tony and Chief Warrant Officer Jacques “Jack” Bryant moved in behind Jobe, as the others spread out to provide the most optimum coverage for success.

  The village appeared to be mostly men with a few women moving among the campfires, preparing food. Just as the signal came from the Engineer Sergeant that he had located the hut with their mission, Jobe heard screaming from inside the building he was nearest. A quick glance through the window had his stomach knotted as his face contorted in a grimace. An Afghan soldier was in the corner on the dirt floor, rutting against a heavily pregnant young woman who was crying as she tried to push him off.

  A bead of sweat dripped down Jobe’s face as he fought the urge to kill the man on sight. The sound in his radio earpiece was the only thing holding him back.

  “Steady on,” came Tony’s voice, knowing the soldier’s discipline was needed to take care of the mission first.

  Jobe fought hard to tamp down the rage but found he was losing the battle. One of his younger sisters had been sexually assaulted two years ago when he was on his first tour after Special Forces training. His mind flashed back to the memory of his fury and his loss of control came rushing back. Feeling a touch on his shoulder he jerked around, seeing Vinny standing behind him.

  Signaling to move forward, Jobe did what he was trained. The mission needed to be accomplished at all costs. One wrong decision could mean the loss of the mission…and the loss of his squad. Forcing down the rage, he moved to his destination.

  Within minutes, the foreign national was rescued from his holding place and the men began moving back away from the village, pulling out in formation. As the first in, Jobe was the last out, passing by the now quiet hut. Going against his training, he peered inside. The man was now snoring next to the woman, a pool of blood between her legs. Visions of his sister crowded his mind. No longer able to control his thoughts, Jobe crept closer to the window. The woman looked up, eyes wide in horror, then moved quicker than Jobe could have imagined. She leaned over, grabbing the sleeping man’s gun and placing it to her head.

  Before Jobe could blink, she pulled the trigger. The image burned into his memory. Forever.

  *

  Three weeks later, Jobe walked into Captain Alvarez’s make-shift office. Tony looked up as one of his best soldiers moved into the room and stood at attention. Tony considered him carefully. The body was the same. The steely-eyed determination was the same. But the man was different. Hard. Closed. Jobe resisted having to take time off for a psychological evaluation, but he had been too good a soldier to not follow a command.

  Tony thought back to the days after they returned from the ill-fated mission. Jobe’s anger had turned inward and he had begun a path of self-destruction. He had gone on a rampage, trashing his bunk after getting stinking drunk. The squad members quickly circled around, offering him support but knowing when he needed help. He was too much a vital part of their team for them to give up on and whatever it took, they were going to see that he had what he needed. The three weeks that he was given leave of duty and been forced to meet with the base psychologist had been the right thing to do. But as Tony stared at one of his best, he wondered if it had been enough.

  Jobe stood in front of his Captain, determined to hold on to his control. He assured him he was fit and mentally ready to continue as part of the squad and had the backing of the psych eval to prove it. Nothing matters but the mission. Get in, get ’er done, get everyone out. That’s it. Anything else could get my squad killed. Refusing to allow anything else to crowd into his mind, he strove to regain control. After the meeting he made his way back to his bunk, but changed his course of direction at the last minute. Heading to the communications building, he sat down at the computer and began typing.

  First, was a note to his mom letting her know he was allright. Second, was a Dear John letter to his fiancé. Short, simple, to the point. We’re over. Too much to deal with without having to worry about you back home. I don’t need the distraction, nor the concern. You’ll be better off without me.

  Walking into his bunk, he knelt at the locker and pulled out her letters. The whole stack. Slowly, methodically, without any emotion he began tearing them up. Vinny walked in halfway through the destruction, took one look, and tried to grab them from his hands.

  “What the fuck, man? Don’t do this,” he shouted, bringing Gabe rushing in to see what was going on.

  The look in Jobe’s eyes stopped them. Cold. Hard.

  “Talk to us, bro,” Gabe demanded. “What’re you doing here?”

  Jobe shook his head for a moment not saying a word. It became apparent Vinny and Gabe were not going anywhere when they both sat down on the bed opposite of his. The tension flowed off of all three.

  Hold on. Just say what you need to say and wait until they leave. Shaking his head, he thought of what the base shrink said. Control. You feel a loss of control. Well, this is me getting rid of what I can’t
control.

  “I just gotta do this,” he replied. Their silence spoke volumes so he continued. Staring intently into the eyes of two men he trusted more than life, he admitted, “I almost crawled through that window. I wanted to kill that son-of-a-bitch. But if I had?” Holding their attention, he said, “I’da blown the mission. I’da blown our cover and some of us could have died.”

  “You’re human, Jobe,” Vinny said carefully. “We all are. We’re stuck in a fuckin’ war doing things most people back home have got no fuckin’ clue about.”

  “Yeah, and that’s the job we’re trained for,” he argued back. “We’re fucking Special Forces. We don’t make fucked up mistakes because we look into the eyes of some woman being raped and see our own sister.”

  “Vinny said it right. We’re still human, Jobe. But you turning away had nothing to do with that man raping her or her killing herself. That’s on them, man, not you,” Gabe retorted.

  “I’m the oldest,” he said. The silence once again settled around the trio. “I was on my first fucking tour when I found out my sister was assaulted at a college party. I felt so fuckin’ impotent.”

  Gabe and Vinny continued to sit quietly, letting Jobe have time to gather his thoughts.

  “But mama said she was doing okay, getting counseling, and the last time I saw her, she looked good. So I squared it away.” He looked down at his hands, pieces of paper still clutched in them. “Seeing that bastard just brought it all back and then seeing that woman blow her brains out…Jesus,” he exclaimed, rubbing his hand over his face.

  Sucking in a deep breath, he let it out slowly, as he continued to shake his head. “I can’t do this,” he said, indicating the torn letters in his hand. “I can’t be what she needs. What she deserves. I can’t be over here taking care of business, wondering what the fuck is going on back home. So I cut her loose. Fuckin’ shrink told me I had control issues. PTSD. Control issues? What the fuck does he know? Of course I have control issues,” he bit out. “We’re trained to take control of every situation, so you know what? I am. Cutting her loose so she can have a life without worrying about some nut-job returning from the war.”