by KB Winters
Lucas
An Army Wives Novel
By
Audra Cole and KB Winters
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing
Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing
Contents
Lucas - An Army Wives Novel
Copyright and Disclaimer
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue:
More from Audra Cole and KB Winters
Acknowledgements
About The Authors
Copyright and Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Chapter One
Lucas
The walls of my Contained Housing Unit, or CHU, weren’t getting any more interesting, but staring at them, counting the remnants of tape that had been left behind from the pictures, posters, or art work other soldiers had hung up over the years, was better than finally getting around to the phone call that I’d been putting off all day.
Earlier that morning, before PT, I’d found myself with a handful of spare minutes, and had logged in to check my email. Most of the messages were well wishes from family and friends back home. A lot of people kept in touch with me on a weekly basis, to tell me about what was happening back home, and to offer words of support as I endured the last few months of my deployment. However, what I hadn’t been expecting—or wanting—was an email from my younger sister, Carrie, telling me that she had an emergency and needed to talk to me as soon as possible.
As soon as possible had long since passed, but there I was, lying on my cot, staring at the walls.
Counting tape.
With a groan, I heaved myself off the side of the bed and made my way to the small desk in the corner. I fired up my computer and chugged down half a canteen of lukewarm water while the home screen flickered to life. “What’s it gonna be this time, Carebear?” I muttered, wiping my mouth. I opened my video chat program and hoped she’d be offline.
Her avatar popped up almost as soon as mine went online.
Shit.
I clicked the call and blinked away the frustration in my eyes as her video came into focus. “Lucas!” She sounded flustered. “I’ve been waiting all day!”
I shrugged. “Sorry, Carebear, this was the best I could do. What’s going on? I got your email.”
Carrie was just about to turn twenty-five, making her a year and a half younger than me. She was my only full blood sibling, but we shared four younger, half siblings, all the result of our mother’s second marriage. She was now working on finding her third. Even though Carrie and I were close in age, we couldn’t be further apart in regards to lifestyles. I’d served in the United States Army since the day I turned eighteen, enlisting in the infantry as soon as I graduated from high school. I’d quickly worked my way up and now served as a highly trained Ranger who spent more time overseas than I did stateside.
Carrie—when she decided she needed cash and ran out of friends to help her—worked part time at a frozen yogurt parlor at the local mall.
“Lucas,” she whined. “You’re never going to believe what happened.”
I braced myself. She was right, I probably wasn’t going to believe whatever sob story she’d cooked up. Carrie had a bad habit of getting herself into one financial pickle after another, and continuously relied on me to bail her out.
“I was at work one day, and this guy came in, he’s a regular, so I like know him—” she paused to huff a sigh. “Anyways, he told me he’s an investment guy, something with money, and I told him I had a little savings—”
“Shit, Carrie,” I pinched the bridge of my nose, my eyes pressed tightly as though her words were physically painful to me.
Which, they were.
“Lucas, I—”
“How much?” I glared at her, my jaw tensing as I waited for the answer. I didn’t have time to hear the details. I loved my sister, and if I had to hear the rest of the nonsense, I’d likely find some very unkind things to say.
She stared back at me, her dark hazel eyes wide and alarmed. Her mouth opened and closed before she mustered out her reply, “Twelve hundred…”
“Twelve hundred?” I slammed my hand on the top of the desk. “Where the hell did you get twelve hundred dollars? And what, on earth, would make you give it away to some guy you met at a fuckin’ fro-yo shop? God, Carrie, you’ve pulled some stupid ass shit, but this…” I shook my head and stared at the wall beyond the laptop screen. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at her.
The sound of a strangled sob brought me down a few notches from all-out rage and I dragged my attention back to the video chat. “Lucas! I’m—I’m sorry!” She sniffled. “I thought if he could double it, I could help out, you know? With everything—”
I sucked in a harsh breath, trying to steady myself, before nodding. “I get it. Carrie, I’ll try to help you out, but I can’t keep doing this. You know that. Right?”
She nodded and wiped away her tears. “I know, Lucas. I won’t do it again, and I already told my manager I need some extra shifts. I’ll pay you back. I promise!”
My heart rate began to slow back to a normal pace and I released my fists. “How much do you need right now?”
“I have to pay my half of the rent…so, five hundred…”
I grunted my acknowledgment of the sum and began working in a separate window to electronically transfer the funds directly to her bank account. When it was done, I closed the extra window, and looked at Carrie. “All right, it’s done.”
“Thank you, big brother.” Carrie smiled.
I nodded, choosing to stay silent as I knew any attempt at a “you’re welcome” would come out coated in sarcasm.
She leaned forward and propped her elbows on her desk. “How are things there? You don’t look so good.”
“Gee, thanks,” I replied.
Carrie laughed. “You know what I mean. You just look kinda worn out.”
I stretched back and rubbed the back of my neck, loosening some of the hardened knots in my tensed muscles. “Well, I’m not exactly on vacation in the Caribbean, ya know.”
Carrie rolled her eyes. “Lucas, come on. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Carebear. Don’t worry about me, all right? I’ll be home in a few weeks and then you and I, little lady, are going to sit down and have a very long come-to-Jesus talk.”
; She sighed. “Fine,” her voice was utter resignation.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I smiled and we hung up.
When the video was gone, I cursed under my breath and shook my head, still not quite believing her story. As the older brother, and the oldest of all of us siblings, it was my job to protect and care for everyone. It always had been, but especially since our mother decided that getting a big fat rock on her hand was more important than things like, oh, you know, child rearing. And my ex-step father, the only real father figure I knew, Harrison, had been recently moved to a full time assisted care facility as he entered into the more advanced stage of dementia. With no parents in the picture, a lot of responsibility fell on my shoulders, and while I could handle it, there were moments where I knew I was way too young to feel so incredibly old.
I powered off the computer and went back to my bed, ready for the long day to be put out of its misery. The next morning, I’d be going out on a mission, and needed all the strength I could get.
* * * *
“Lieutenant Sprigg? Wake up, sir.”
A frantic voice seeped into my consciousness and pulled me slowly from the deep sleep I’d slipped into the moment my head had hit the pillow. I opened my eyes and found my bedside lamp had been turned on to illuminate the face of my Staff Sergeant, Cooper Barnes. “Barnes?” my voice was scratchy and I swallowed hard to clear the dry, sandpaper feeling from my throat. Damn desert. The dust and sand dried out my skin and eyes, and irritated my throat, even when I was indoors. It was impossible to escape and left me sleeping with my mouth open, snoring like a fuckin’ lumberjack, more often than not. “Barnes, what happened?”
I rolled and dropped my feet to the floor, preparing my stiff body to launch into action. I fumbled at the edge of the cot, looking for my boots.
Barnes was stalling. Something really bad had happened.
My mind instantly went to the day before, replaying the meetings I’d attended, and pulling up a list of names and faces of the men I knew were out in the field.
My men.
My brothers.
“Barnes!” I snapped.
His eyes locked with mine and he licked his lips nervously. “Sprigg, it’s your…mother.”
“My mother?” Was I dreaming? What would my mother have to do with anything? She was thousands of miles away, probably wearing something tight and leopard print, hanging from some guy’s arm, and seeing dollar signs in his eyes. “Barnes, you’re not making any sense.”
He swallowed. “I’m sorry, sir, but there was an accident—”
The blood in my veins iced over.
“—the highway. There were three cars involved, and, sir, I’m told that no one survived the crash.”
All the air tore from my lungs, exploding in something between a scream and a curse. My hands went limp on the bed and my eyes blurred, almost blinding, as they remained fixed on Barnes.
If he was saying what I thought he was saying...
“Lucas?” Barnes squatted down in front of me. “Commander has put you on emergency leave. They’re shipping you out of here in three hours. You’ll go back home and be there for your family.”
I shook my head, the words out of his mouth were no longer registering. I needed everything to stop. Or, at least, slow down. I reached out, resting my hands on Barnes’ shoulders, as I flopped forward. “What?”
“I’m sorry, buddy.”
It was true.
All of his horribly, impossible, outrageous words were true.
She was gone.
I broke on the outside as the pieces of my heart began to tear and shatter. Using Barnes’ broad shoulders as support, I leaned forward and a sob gripped my insides so tight I thought I must have been suffering some kind of attack. I didn’t make a sound other than a gasp as I struggled to force a full breath back into my lungs. “Oh, God.”
Barnes came to sit beside me and slung an arm around my shoulders as I folded in on myself and released the blinding pain into a stream of tears that ran, unchecked, down my face and fell to the dirty, dusty floor below my bare feet.
* * * *
As the early morning hours stretched out, each minute slow and painful, the horror of what had happened unfolded. By the time I got onto a plane to fly to Washington state, I’d learned the whole story of what had happened.
My mother had been out with some friends, and at the end of the night—somewhere around eleven thirty—she’d gotten into her friend’s SUV to go back home. They were on the highway, about ten miles from my mom’s house in Bellingham, when a truck crossed the center median, crashed into the car in the right lane, which flipped it, and the SUV my mom was riding it, couldn’t avoid the flipped car, hitting it and rolling their own car because of the high speed of the collision.
And, as Barnes had originally reported, there were no survivors.
My mother, Patti, hadn’t even been taken to the hospital. She’d been pronounced dead by paramedics on the scene.
As the aircraft took off, I was told that when we changed planes in Germany, I’d be able to call home and let my siblings know I was on my way. Things had happened so quickly to get me to the airfield, there hadn’t been much time between Barnes waking me up and me having to pack and get my ass to a transport vehicle. I watched as the city below got smaller and smaller, and thought about what that call was going to be like. I’d have five younger siblings to tend to, and they’d all be counting on me to be rock steady.
Cause that’s who I was. Rock steady Lucas.
Chapter Two
Lucas
“What are you guys doing here?” I stopped in my tracks at the sight of my two best friends, Colton and Miles, standing at the gate when I got off the commercial flight the Army had booked me on from Germany all the way to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport in Washington state. Colton and Miles were both stationed in Georgia, at Fort Benning, where I lived when not overseas. I hadn’t had a chance to call either of them to tell them about my mom.
Colton, AKA, Hawk, stepped forward first. “Where else would we be? The unit got the news last night. Miles and I booked the first flight out here to see you.”
A lump formed in my throat. “Thanks guys, means a lot.”
Colton embraced me. “I’m so sorry, brother.”
I nodded, my chin hitting his shoulder. “Thanks.” When he released me from the tight bear hug, Miles took his turn. “Thanks for being here guys.”
“You have luggage?” Colton asked once we stepped out of the way of the flow of traffic. They each had their bags slung over their backs.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“All right.” We headed towards the baggage claim, stopping as a few civilians interrupted us to offer thanks for our service. I was in ACU’s, and both Miles and Colton were wearing Army shirts with their jeans. It was a show of solidarity. We thanked everyone who offered a kind word, and made our way to collect my large, Army green pack.
“I still can’t believe this is actually happening,” I confessed, shaking my head to myself, once I was loaded in the passenger seat of the truck that Colton and Miles had rented. Colton was behind the wheel and reached across to clap me on the shoulder. “It’s all like a nightmare.”
“Did you get to talk to your brothers and sisters yet?” Colton asked, firing up the engine.
I nodded, the lump of emotion returning as I recalled the teary conversation I’d had with them over speaker phone when I’d been on my layover in Germany. Carrie had been with our four half-siblings, at their house, when I’d called so she’d called everyone together and we’d all mourned together over the phone. Carrie and I had decided not to make a big show at the airport. Instead, I’d meet them at my mom’s house.
“It was rough,” I said, my voice thick.
“Sorry man. I’m glad they were able to get you out here so quickly, at least.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
When we got to my mother’s house, Colton pulled up along the opposite curb, and I froz
e in place as I looked across the street and saw her pale blue Prius still sitting in the driveway. It was like everything was normal. I should have been able to walk in the front door to the normal buzz and chaos of my four younger siblings and maybe she’d be cooking something in the kitchen and hollering at everyone to set the table and wash up.
Instead, I’d walked into a house full of sniffling noses, tear filled eyes, and a stack of casserole dishes in the fridge from well-meaning relatives and neighbors. Colton and Miles had dropped me off and gone to the hotel they’d booked. I’d offered to let them stay at the house, but they’d insisted that they didn’t want to intrude and said they were just a phone call away for anything we needed.
My siblings had piled on me the moment I’d walked through the door, and even Spencer, my fifteen-year-old brother who was usually too cool for hugs, clung tightly to me. It appeared that the living room had become something of a campsite with blankets and pillows scattered all over the floor.
“We had a sleepover last night,” Carrie explained sadly, as she watched me take in the scene. “Although, none of us really slept…”
I nodded. I hated that I hadn’t been there for them when they got the news. I was glad that Carrie had been able to go over right away and whatever was left of my irritation towards her about the money she’d lost, melted away.
“Hey, man, I want to see your diploma,” I said, nudging Ben, the oldest of my half-siblings. He was eighteen and had just graduated from high school a few weeks before. I’d missed it as I’d been overseas.
Ben offered a slight smile and got up to go retrieve the document from his bedroom upstairs.
“What about you, Spence? What have you been getting into?” Spencer was the artistic type, with a penchant for graphic novels and mixing his own music tracks. “Any new beats?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Normally I’d harass him for such a weak answer, but in light of the circumstance, I let it slide. “Emmie? Lottie? What about you girls?”
Emmie and Charlotte, who preferred to go by Lottie, were twelve and eight, respectively, and both heavily into cheerleading. Lottie spoke up first, “I won a ribbon!”