by Diana Gardin
I wasn’t with her tonight. She needed me; she texted me. And I wasn’t here.
Fuck. Fuck!
“We understand, sir.” The woman checks for a pulse, glances at her partner, shakes her head.
My throat closes; the blood in my veins stops flowing.
They immediately begin administering CPR. The woman continues even as my sister is on the gurney. We all climb into the ambulance, the world around me blurring as they continue to try to breathe life into Echo.
In the ambulance, hooked up to the machine that gives the paramedics her vitals, Echo remains unresponsive. And by the time we pull up to the big, brick building in downtown Baltimore, my sister’s condition hasn’t changed.
The woman paramedic places her hand on my shoulder, the look in her eyes full of sympathy and compassion.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, sir. We’ve pronounced your sister DOA.”
One month later
Plunking myself down in the recruiter’s chair, I hold his gaze steady. There’s no room for argument, and I’ve already made up my mind.
A month ago, I buried my sister. I wasn’t able to get hold of my father, so it was just me and a few of the people Echo called friends at the cemetery. I spent the remainder of the money I’d earned as a bartender to get her the service and burial she deserved. Then I sold my car, brought out of my lease, and ended up where I am now.
Joining the military was something I always wanted to do. But then my mom died, my father disappeared, and my sister dug herself into a hole. It’s the first chance I’ve had to do what deep down inside I’ve always known I’m meant to do.
But if I could go back, save Echo that night, and spend every moment making sure she recovered and had what she needed, I’d put my life on hold forever.
That’s not what happened.
“Have you talked this over with your family, son?” The recruiter’s kind eyes, lined around the edges, look me over before landing on my face.
“Don’t have any. And I know what I want. I want to be in the Navy.”
Maybe it’s the fact that the grandfather I was close to growing up, my mother’s father, was a Naval officer. He told me so many stories about fighting for his country in WWI, and he was someone I admired. Much more than my own father.
I stare at the recruiter, making sure he can see the intent in my gaze. “Just tell me where to sign.”
For me, there’s no going back.
I’ll do this for myself, and most of all…I’ll do it for Echo.
1
Thorn
“I want to help her. I really do, Boss Man. But I don’t want to babysit her.” Glancing toward the door, the heat from the warm, sexy little body on the other side floats toward me.
You’re losing your shit already, Ryder. Heat can’t travel through solid wood doors.
“Wolf.” Jacob Owen, my boss at Night Eagle Security, leans forward on the table and holds me in one of his notoriously scrutinizing stares. The other guys, my Delta Squad team, remain silent as they watch the exchange.
Jacob continues. “How many times have I asked you to run point on a mission?”
My shoulders sink under the weight of his question. Jacob Owen has been everything to me since I left the SEALs. Father figure, superior, confidant. Along with the men I call my brothers, this company and Jacob have been my entire life since I left the Navy behind. Giving me purpose. Giving me a place to breathe and call my own.
“This is the first, sir.”
Jacob stares, gray eyes not giving away a damn thing. “And are you really going to turn that down?”
I open my mouth to tell him of course I’m not, but he lifts a hand, not done with me yet. “And since when has NES been in the business of ‘babysitting’? The company that I built from the ground up, the one that started with personal security and has now grown into the company that the government calls for private, black-ops contracts, isn’t good enough for you to run point on a mission I deem necessary?”
It’s worse than being screamed at by your commanding officer during SEAL training. It’s worse than being told how much you’ve disappointed your dad. This is Jacob, the Boss Man. And I’ll be damned if I’ll be the one to let him down.
“I’m sorry, sir. That’s not what I mean. I just—”
Jacob isn’t ready for me to talk. Out of the corner of my eye, I see one of my best friends and teammates wince as Boss Man’s voice lifts. “And do you realize how important this assignment is? It’s partly our fault that Ms. Phillips is in this predicament to begin with.”
I glance up at that one, fire lighting inside my gut. “Actually—”
Jacob cuts me off with a glance that could cut a block of ice. “She didn’t know we were investigating her husband, and they were estranged. Because he beat the shit out of her.”
I swallow, my insides going numb at the though of Frannie, the woman in question, being beaten to a pulp by that piece of shit.
I don’t know Frannie very well, or at all really, but the second I met her a couple of weeks ago—while Lawson Snyder and his now-fiancée Indigo Stone were undercover working the luxury-car-theft-ring case that involved Frannie’s estranged husband—there was something about her I couldn’t shake.
And apparently, now I’m going to be forced to face it head-on.
“I understand, Boss Man. I’ll run point on her protection, and I’ll make sure nothing happens to her while the feds continue to hunt Eli Ward.”
Jacob nods, finally look satisfied. “You’re damn right you will. I expect nothing less, Wolf.”
The use of my nickname for the second time doesn’t escape me. In NES, we all have them, depending on what special skills we bring to the table. Some of our nicknames have to do with our ex–Special Forces pasts. Mine, the White Wolf, has to do with my predatory skills. I can hunt down an enemy in any situation, and I’m ruthless when I’ve got a scent.
Right now, as Frannie’s protector, I’m worried my natural abilities are going to have to take a backseat to serving as her bodyguard.
The conference room door opens and Indigo walks in, followed closely by the woman in question, Frannie Phillips.
The two women couldn’t be any more different upon first glance. Indigo’s long black hair swishes across her back, her tank showing off miles and miles of inked skin. Studs pierce up both earlobes, and her face, though gorgeous and exotic looking with her dark olive complexion and Latina features, is accentuated by heavy, dramatic makeup.
Frannie, on the other hand, is take-a-second-look beautiful. And it isn’t because of anything extra she’s added to her body, although the ends of her shoulder-length blond hair are tinged pink. She’s got these big, blue eyes that make me imagine what they’d look like hooded with lust, and a curvy little body that calls out for my hands to touch her, make her feel good, mess up her Southern belle perfection just a little bit.
I’m from Baltimore, and there’s nothing similar about me. The only things that Frannie and I have in common are the blond hair and blue eyes. The likenesses stop right there. I glance down at the ink swirling up and down my arms, tattoos I had done during my Navy years, and then back at her golden-tan, flawless skin. The pink hair is new on her, probably something she’s trying, but I can’t stop staring at her because the woman is the very definition of the word distraction.
She’s like no one I’ve ever dated in the past, not that I’ve really dated. She’s no one like I’ve ever fucked in the past. Too done up and doll-faced pretty. But right now, I can imagine those perky little lips wrapped right around my cock, and that’s a major fucking problem if my focus is supposed to be on keeping her safe.
“I found Frannie sitting on the bench downstairs.” Indigo’s casual tone belies her curiosity, and I note that she can’t keep her eyes from flitting to Lawson the second she walks into the room. He, in turn, sits up straighter at the table in her presence.
“We were just about to call you in, Frannie.” Jacob’s eyes
soften when he’s speaking to a woman—something we’ve all noticed in the past. He used to be a lot tougher, but in the past couple years he’s rekindled a fire with his ex-wife and mother to his three daughters, and something about him is different. Less edge, unless he’s in the field.
Frannie blows out a breath. “Whew. That’s good, because I was getting tired of sitting out there swinging my legs while you big, strong men decide what is going to happen with my life from here on out.”
Sweetness mixed with southern sass, this woman was going to fucking kill me.
Jacob’s eyebrows lift, and he gestures toward one of the empty seats at the table. This meeting only involves the Delta Squad, and Indigo is here purely as a consultant since she no longer works for the Wilmington Police Department as a detective.
“We’re not deciding anything about your future. That’s up to you. Right now, we’re just trying to figure out the best way to keep you safe.”
Bain Foxx speaks up for the first time, something he doesn’t often do unless he’s spoken to directly. Of the four of us on the team, Bain’s the quietest, most unpredictable, and probably the deadliest. He also carries more secrets in the dark tunnels of his heart than the rest of us can even imagine. He hasn’t said as much, but working with a man day in and day out, sometimes overnight and in dangerous places, makes you get to know him.
His eyes, a lighter shade of blue than mine, carry an intensity that makes most people flinch. But Frannie just stares right back at him. “Keep you alive.”
At this, she blinks. Big, blue eyes focusing on Bain. “Yeah. I get that. I’d just like to be a part of the conversation, is all.”
Jacob leans back in his chair, fingers pressed together, assessing her. “The moment we decided to protect you, you became our client. Now, as it stands, the feds trust you with us instead of sending you into Witness Protection like they wanted to. But that could change at any time. We don’t want it to, and I’m guessing you don’t, either. Am I correct?”
Frannie nods, her hair brushing against her bare shoulders. The turquoise top she wears wraps around her neck in a classy style, and I didn’t miss the way her white jeans are painted on over shapely legs and rounded hips before she sat down. Ben McBride, the fourth member of our team, sits on her other side.
“I won’t go into Witness Protection.” There’s an underlying ferociousness in her tone that I’ve never heard before. I haven’t known her more than a few weeks, but apparently, this woman is half “honey” and “y’all” drawl, and the other half pure grit.
I’ve been staring at her since she came into the room, and when her gaze finally pulls to mine, I swallow hard and fight not to look away.
“We have a plan of action formed. Thorn Ryder here will take point on your assignment.” Her eyes flicker with something—recognition, maybe—and then she turns her gaze back to Jacob.
“You’ll move into a secure condominium building owned by NES, a place that I’ve recently acquired for situations like this one, that can be surveyed twenty-four seven.”
Frannie smooths her hands over her lap. “And I work three twelve-hour shifts at the hospital every week. Mr. Ryder here will accompany me and do what exactly…chill?”
I clear my throat. “Um, no. You’ll have to take a leave of absence from work until Ward is brought in. Don’t know how long it’ll be, but we can make the hospital understand.”
Frannie turns to face me full-on, not even bothering to hide the fact that she’s seething. “I. Will. Not. Quit. My. Job.”
I lean forward, elbows digging into the table, jaw clenched tight. “No one said anything about quitting—”
Her words barrel forward as if I hadn’t even spoken. This woman is all force and bluster when she’s worked up—a tornado just getting started. “But you’re telling me I can’t go to work. I’m sorry, that’s just not an option. I need my paycheck, and more than that, I need my sanity. Work is my sanity. Can you understand that, Mr. Ryder?”
I’m silent. There’s no way I can answer that without being dishonest. Because, yeah, without NES I’d be a fucking shell of myself. I was able to put all the turmoil inside me, the emotions churning me up inside for the past ten years, away in a box because I had a mission in life.
Always a mission.
First, I kicked my way through boot camp. Then, I rose through the Naval ranks as quickly as anyone possibly could in my position. Then, I went out for SEALs and became one of the elite. There was no looking back for me. The more intense the job, the better it was for my sanity. And I know a lot of guys who feel the same.
Maybe it’s like that for Frannie. Maybe, in order to overcome whatever she’s gone through in her past, she needs to nurse others back to health in order to be whole.
Who are we to take that shit away from her?
“If you work…” My voice is grudging, gruffer than I intend it to be. “I’m there with you. For every shift. Tailing you. Shadowing you. Get used to it, Frannie, because I’m not going anywhere. It’s my job to keep you safe, and the rest of the team will be weighing in as needed.”
She meets my gaze, her baby blues steady and wide and full of determination and truth. In them, I see her agreement before she gives it to me like a gift.
“Fine. If that’s how it has to be, I’m in.”
And that’s how it all starts.
Also by Diana Gardin
RESCUE OPS SERIES
Sworn to Protect
Promise to Defend
Mine to Save
BATTLE SCARS SERIES
Last True Hero
Saved by the SEAL
Man of Honor
NELSON ISLAND SERIES
Wanting Forever
Ever Always (novella)
Falling Deep
About the Author
Diana Gardin is a wife of one and a mom of two. Writing is her second full-time job to that, and she loves it! Diana writes contemporary romance in the Young Adult and New Adult categories. She’s also a former elementary school teacher. She loves steak, sugar cookies, and Coke, and hates working out.
Learn more at:
DianaGardin.com
Twitter: @DianalynnGardin
Facebook.com/AuthorDianaGardin
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