SCAR_A Dark Military Romance

by Loki Renard

  The helicopter is loud. It’s impossible to have a conversation between the rapid beating of the blades. Instead, Ken just holds my bloodied hand.

  The moment we land inside our compound, others take over. The poor bastard in the back is about to have a very, very bad day.

  Ken is sore. He needs medical attention. I tell him as much, and hear the last thing I ever wanted to hear.

  “You need to see the doctor too.”

  “Nope.”

  “No doctor,” I insist.

  “We have a new one on staff. I think you’ll like him.”

  “There’s only one doctor I’d ever see and…” I trail off as Ken’s lips twist into a knowing smirk. “You got Tom hired here too?”

  “He’s a military surgeon whose ex-wife ruined his civilian career. He’ll do well here,” Ken shrugs. “And you’re going to see him, if I have to pick you up and drag you to him.”

  “You couldn’t pick up a kitten right now,” I point out.

  Ken lets out a growl and advances on me, keen to prove me wrong. Before he can hurt himself macho-ing out on me, I raise my hands in surrender. “Okay! Okay! Fine!”

  15

  MARY

  It’s damn good to see Tom again. I don’t think it’s as good for him to see me. As I come through the door, he pales. His jaw clenches. When an Ares man is angry, it’s an impressive thing to behold. Tom has a good grip on his temper though, and he manages to hold it together.

  “What the hell happened to her?” He crosses the room over to me and half-crouches in front of me. “Mary…”

  “I’m fine,” I say, stepping back before he can start gushing all over me. “Do Ken first. He’s actually broken. I’m just bruised.”

  “Come over here and…”

  “No,” I pull back again. Tom’s not getting it. “Ken first.”

  I’d be telling Ken to go first even if my head was hanging off. I trust Tom, but medical stuff will never not creep me out. And he really does need the treatment first.

  “I’ll go first,” Ken agrees. “Show you there’s nothing to be scared of.”

  There’s plenty to be scared of, but not with Tom around. He examines Ken competently, puts him through an x-ray, and comes to much the same conclusion I did - broken ribs.

  “You’re going to have to take it easy,” he says. “Off active duty for eight weeks at least.”

  “Oh come on,” Ken grunts. “Ribs take six weeks to heal.”

  “Eight weeks,” Tom insists. “Keep talking and I’ll make it twelve.”

  I snort with amusement. Tom almost never gets all dominant with Ken, but in doctor mode, he’s definitely in charge. That makes me all the more nervous when it comes to be my turn.

  “Alright you, up on the table,” he says, slapping the white papered surface.

  I get up there against my better judgement. All I need is a painkiller and a hot towel to clean off with.

  Tom starts with the cleaning, using warm water and a bit of saline.

  “I know it hurts,” he says sympathetically as I try not to flinch. They really fucking caught me across the face. Tooth. Nose. Eye. All up the fuck. But it could be a lot worse.

  Cleaning all the blood and stuff off takes a while. He works carefully and gently, taking care of me as best he can.

  “I’m sorry,” I mumble.

  “Sorry for what?”

  “Sorry you have to see me like this. I know I look all fucked up.”

  “Don’t apologize for that,” he says grimly.

  “It’s worse than it looks,” I say.

  It’s true. It looks messy, but I’ve had far worse. The pain is going to kick in soon, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to give me decent enough pain relief to deal with that. Right now, I’m still running on adrenaline and I feel bulletproof.

  “Settle down, little girl,” he says as I squirm under his hands.

  “I’m not a little girl,” I protest. “I just killed four men with my bare hands.”

  “I don’t care how many men you killed,” he says patiently. “Sit still for me while I take your blood pressure.”

  “You don’t care?” I look at him under my lashes as he fits the cuff on my arm.

  “I was in the military too,” he reminds me. “I know what happens.”

  What we just did wasn’t the sort of thing they do in the military, I don’t think. Or maybe it is. I don’t know. I’ve never been in. It’s what I do to survive though, and I guess that’s similar enough.

  “I think you’re alright,” he says finally. “You’re going to need to see a dentist for that tooth… other than that, I’m not seeing anything of medical concern. You’re bruised, but everything is intact.”

  “See? I’m fine.”

  “Mhm,” Ken rumbles.

  KEN

  She really is pretty damn close to being fine. She’s missing a tooth and now she’s cleaned up a bit, she somehow manages to look almost cute with the little gap which we’ll have to have fixed just as soon as we find enough rope to tie her down for dentist to see her.

  I am unspeakably proud of her in this moment. The first mission is always difficult. The first mission going wrong is very bad news. We have no business being alive. And we wouldn’t be, if it wasn’t for her.

  In that basement, she was a whirlwind of death. Those poor bastards never had a chance. When it comes to killing, technique and practice are key, but they’re nothing if you don’t have the inner steel to do it. She does.

  She’s absolutely dangerous. She always will be. She’s a weapon and in the wrong hands she could do untold damage. But she’s mine.

  I don’t like seeing her hurt. I could have fucking burst with rage when she came in streaming blood. But now, I don’t know. Something is different. I’m starting to realize she’s in her element. Brutality suits her.

  The life she’s led has taken a lot from her, but it’s made her tough as hell in other ways. She’s sitting there with a half smile, and I’m watching Tom try to wrangle her into taking a shot. We all know she’ll let him in the end. This is just her way of making sure he’s still in charge.

  “Ares. Head wants to see you.”

  A summons from the Head cannot be ignored. I make my way gingerly to the woman’s office, thoroughly expecting to be chewed out for the shit show which just ensued.

  “You wanted to see me, ma’am?”

  “Congratulations, Ares.”

  I literally never know what this woman is going to say. She’s unpredictable as all hell.

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Mary is cleared for full status,” she says. “You can tell her the good news.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “That’s all.”

  But that’s not all. It can’t be all. She’s not even going to mention that we were both almost taken captive? That doesn’t make sense to me. This woman rules with an iron fist. I’m pretty damn certain she doesn’t approve of mistakes. And a huge mistake was made today.

  “Ma’am, a question?”

  “Yes, Ares?” She looks up from the documents on her desk, and I feel the full force of being an inconvenience.

  “Why wasn’t there backup?”

  The Head looks at me with those steel gray eyes of hers. “You didn’t need it.”

  “We needed it.”

  “No,” she disagrees. “That girl needed to know she’s capable of surviving.

  I have been racking my brain since we got clear how they knew we were there. Our approach was practically flawless. We tripped no wires, the security was laid out in the schematics and we flanked all of it. But they were waiting for us when we walked in. Like they had nothing better to do than just sit there and… holy shit.

  “You….” I draw in a breath. “You tipped them off on purpose.”

  “They were rogue operatives from another branch. Scheduled for destruction. No loss.”

  Jesus Fucking Christ. This woman.

  “You could have lost
us,” I point out.

  “If we’d have lost you, you wouldn’t have been worth having.” She gives me one of those thin, tight smiles. “You need to work on your reaction time, Ares. You were slow. You’re lucky she was there.”

  “Yes,” I say through gritted teeth. “I guess I was. But ma’am…”

  “Yes, Ares?” She raises her chin, as if daring me to say what she knows I’m going to say.

  “If you ever put us in a situation with bad intel again, I’ll tell Mary.”

  The Head breaks into a genuine smile. “Ah, you know how to make a threat, don’t you. Never fear, Ares. The testing period is over. Any damage you take from here on out will be entirely organic. I give you my word.”

  16

  MARY

  Tom will not stop fussing over me.

  “I’m fine,” I insist.

  “You have contusions all over your head,” he scowls at me. “When I get you home, you’re going straight into the bath, little girl, and then to bed.”

  “I am a stone cold killer,” I remind him. “Assassins don’t have bed times.”

  “This one does,” Tom rumbles. “And she has a daddy to make sure she gets there on time too. Ken is going to be out of commission for a little while. So you’re going to be answering to me at home.”

  “Boring,” I pout, even though I am secretly thrilled. I need home. I need comfort. I need to feel just a little domestic. It’s not that I feel bad for what I did today. It’s that sometimes, the fact that I don’t feel bad scares me. Tom is my one connection to the world of typical humans. When I’m with him, I feel like I have some access to the realm of the ordinary.

  Tom’s arms wrap around me. He pulls me onto his lap and cuddles me right there in the doctor’s office. I snuggle into his embrace and rest my head on his chest. This is more therapeutic than a thousand painkillers and stitches.

  “Ken’s not going to want me anymore,” I say softly.

  “What?”

  “He saw me do those things today,” I mumble, my fingers playing with Tom’s shirt. “He won’t like me after that.”

  “I guarantee you Ken has seen worse.”

  “Yeah, but he hasn’t seen his girlfriend do it.”

  “You looked phenomenal.”

  Ken must have heard the tail end of the conversation as he came in the door.

  “What are you talking about, Mary?”

  Shit. Hearing him say my name sends a tremor right through to the core of me.

  “Nothing,” I mumble.

  “Tell him, little girl,” Tom prompts me.

  “Yes, tell me, little girl,” Ken echoes.

  I am trapped between two Ares men with no way out. Surrender is the only option, even though it involves confessing my biggest fear for a second time.

  I avoid Ken’s gaze as I repeat what I said to Tom in a mumble. “I know you don’t want to be with me now.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t want to…”

  “I heard what you said,” Ken interrupts me, incredulous. “How could you possibly think that?”

  “I mean, you saw… what I did.”

  “Your job?” He shifts uncomfortably and grimaces to let me know it’s not because of me. Broken ribs hurt like a bitch, and there’s basically nothing anybody can do. “Girl, I could watch that all day.”

  “But… it was… I was…” I mime stabbing and blood spurting with splayed fingers.

  He frowns and tries to cross his arms over his chest, only to remember that hurts like hell, and put them back by his side.

  “You saved both our lives,” he rumbles. “You saved yourself. And me. And you did it quick and clean. You didn’t do anything wrong, Mary. You were perfect.”

  “I was?”

  Tom rubs my back as Ken reassures me from his uncomfortably stiff position.

  “You were everything I needed you to be. You understand that? Those men needed to die. They were going to kill us both. You did what you should have done. Hell, you did what I should have done. I should be apologizing to you. Don’t…” his voice breaks just a little. “Don’t ever think I don’t want you.”

  Tom’s arms snug around me, giving me the hug I know Ken would if it didn’t risk puncturing his lung with a shard of shattered rib.

  Suddenly I understand something I think I’ve known from the first time our eyes met in that fucked up hospital. Ken is just like me. He’s my soulmate. He understands me. There is no part of me, no thought, no fear, no scar, that could change his love for me. And there is absolutely nothing that could change my love for him.

  Hot tears run down my face. They hurt, coming from one sore and swollen eye and one good one, but they are tears of joy which is bursting through my body. I am loved. I am loved to the very core of me. And no matter what happens in life, that will always be true.

  EPILOGUE: Tom

  “Little girl, where are you!?”

  “I’m hiding,” the curtains declare.

  Months of training and she still doesn’t seem to realize that her sneakers can clearly be seen sticking out from under the curtains. Or maybe she does. She only plays around like this when Ken’s not here. He doesn’t find it as funny as I do, or as cute.

  “Well, I guess I’ll have to eat these cookies on my own,” I say, sitting down on the couch with the tray in front of me.

  I take a cookie and start eating. Approximately two seconds later, I hear a voice at my ear. “Give me the cookies and I won’t sell your secrets, mister.”

  I reach back, grab her by the back of her jersey, and flip my little spy over the couch and onto the seat next to me in a forward somersault which she executes perfectly. She’s more adept than she likes to make out. Ken’s training has produced some real changes in her. She’s fitter, faster… and happier.

  “Zees cookies are mine!” She declares, grabbing three of them.

  “Mary, put them down. You can have one,” I censure her.

  “You drive a hard bargain, mister,” she mumbles, relinquishing the excess.

  “Mhm.”

  EPILOGUE: Ken

  I don’t know why, but I’m always the one on the beer runs. Hardly seems fair, especially when I come back home to discover that Tom and Mary have put a hell of a dent in the cookie stash.

  “Are those chocolate chip?”

  “Yesssir. I’ve conducted intense surveillance, and I can assure you that they’re chocolate chip, they’re delicious and…” she pops the last piece in her mouth. “They’re all gone.”

  “Brown!” I snap her work name at her and watch her pale a little. Good. Nice to see she doesn’t completely forget who is in charge even when Tom spoils her silly.

  “Whaffat, fur?” Her question is muffled thanks to the ungodly amount of cookie in her mouth.

  “Get over here,” I growl, putting the beer down and pointing at the floor in front of me.

  She vaults over the couch and comes to me double quick, looking up at me ready to receive instructions. Oh she’s trained alright. Like a naughty Golden Labrador. I reach out with my thumb and brush a few stray crumbs off her cheek.

  “I love you, brat,” I say with a smile.

  She smiles back broadly. “I love you too, sir.”

  The sir really has become a habit with her. I don’t mind it one bit either. Smiling, I hand her a beer. “Go give that to your daddy.”

  “Sir, yessir!” She salutes and runs the beer over to him, knees high, double time. God, she is incorrigible.

  It’s hard to believe she was ever that pale waif so horribly hurt in that hospital bed. It’s harder still to believe that she was a foreign agent trapped in a web of lies. What’s not hard to believe is that she’s mine. I went to the gates of hell for this girl, and that was only the beginning. I’d do anything for her. I will be whatever she needs be to be. Her lover. Her handler. One day very soon, her husband.

  EPILOGUE: Mary

  The cookies are good. Ken is better.

  He saved me.
<
br />   He saved me from hell.

  He saved me from myself.

  He saved me from my fear, my anguish, my pain, my scars, my life, my death.

  He’s my commander. He’s my lover. He’s the only man I have or will ever love with my body, my heart and my soul. I owe everything to Ken Ares.

  I don’t believe that there is another man on the planet who could have done what he did, no man with the skills or the heart to be what he had to be for me.

  When I needed a rescuer, he saved me. When I needed a lover’s gaze, he looked at me with so much desire I could never feel ugly again. When I had to be sent home from the war I was trying to fight on my own, he did that. It hurt him to do it, but he did it anyway.

  And it still wasn’t enough. He came back, wanting nothing more than a sweet little life with me. But when my past came for me, he put aside his desire and became the taskmaster I hated. He became my tormentor. He withstood me looking at him with hate and fear and pain because he knew I had to go through it all to come out the other side.

  Now I am his. He owns every part of me. Because there is no chance any part of me would be here if not for him. I love him with every bit of my being, and I will be his in lust, love, and obedience forever.

  THE END

  Thank You

  Thanks for reading! Mary was a character who captured my heart with her blend of vulnerability and strength, along with Tom and Ken, alpha men who knew exactly what their broken girl needed. I hope you enjoyed their story. I loved writing it. Your feedback, via review, is of course, always appreciated too.

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  If you’d like to devour further intense hotness with a dark touch, I can recommend the following, all currently available through KU: