Embattled Minds (Military Romance) (Lost And Found Series)

by J. M. Madden

  Ember was shaking her dark head. “You’re not a freak. Quit saying that. Wait, what?”

  He swallowed, aware his brain had spit out what it was thinking rather than what he wanted to say.

  Her dark chocolate eyes widened and she sat back in the chair as if she didn’t believe what she’d heard. “In love? Did you really just say that?”

  Zeke refused to take it back. “Yes, I did.”

  Ember, on the other hand, looked pissed. “You did this because you loved me.”

  He flinched, even though it hurt. “No…”

  “What a freaking ridiculous…” she lunged to her feet, throwing her hands in the air, “senseless, egotistical Marine thing to do! All this protective, defensive bullshit has to stop. I won’t stand for it. I told you flat out that I loved you. I think I loved you when you kicked those college kids out after they grabbed my ass. I know I loved you that day in my office when you held me in your arms as if you couldn’t let me go and let me cry out my frustration. I love your looks, even though,” she glared at him, “you went and changed them without telling me.”

  She shook her head and looked at the floor for a minute, before lifting tear-drenched eyes to his. “But your looks aren’t why I love you. You’re strong and resilient and have a heart of absolute gold, and I can tell when you touch me that you would walk over glass for me. Most especially, I love the way you treat my child, with respect and encouragement.”

  Zeke slid out of the bed to stand barefoot on the cold floor in front of her. “I would walk over g-glass for you, in a damn hospital gown with my ass h-hanging out. And your son is brilliant. I look forward to playing Legos with him again.” He dared to reach out and tuck some hair behind her ear. “And I love you because you’re the only one that sees me, not the scars or the h-history, just me. You scare the hell out of me with how much you see.”

  She grinned, tilting her mouth up for a kiss. “I do, huh?”

  He kissed her carefully, yearning to sink into her more deeply. A nurse bustled in just then.

  “Okay, now, that’s enough of that,” she laughed. “Let me check a couple things and I think the doctor is going to release you in the morning.”

  She urged him to sit on the side of the bed and started to carefully peel the stretchy mask away from skin. Ember stood just beyond the woman’s shoulder, and he appreciated her being there. It seemed right.

  He watched her face for any sign of disgust as the ragged, angry skin beneath the mask was revealed, but nothing appeared. She cringed and gasped in sympathy when one of the stitches caught, then seemed ready to beat the nurse, which made him snort.

  “Do-don’t make me laugh, damn it.”

  She winked at him over the nurse’s shoulder and smooched him a kiss. Such a sense of calm descended through his body that the nurse could have ripped the mask away and he wouldn’t have minded. He’d had brotherhood in the Marine Corp, solidarity, but he’d never felt it with another single person the way he did right now with Ember.

  He waited until she met his gaze. “I do love you.”

  Her face eased and relaxed into a smile. “I love you, too.”

  “I want you and Drew to marry me.”

  The nurse lifted the mask completely from him, sniffed and tactfully left the room.

  Ember’s brown eyes were wide and luminous with tears. One slipped down her cheek. “And I can speak for Drew when I say we want to marry you too. He already told me you needed a family. Our family.”

  Emotion tightened his throat and made his eyes burn.

  “I never e-e-expected to find somebody willing to take all of me, like this.”

  She shook her head and stepped between his knees, reaching for his hands. “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you a million times more. Your scars don’t bother me. I love them, because they tell me exactly the kind of man you are, willing to fight for your country and your brothers. If you never have another surgery, I’ll be fine with it. The outside isn’t the important part to me. It’s this right here.” She laid her hand over his pounding heart.

  His damn eyes. He wiped the tears away and pulled her into his arms. “I’ll love you forever,” he vowed. She tightened her arms around his neck and pressed kisses to his skin.

  He cleared his throat. “I do need to talk to yo-your d-dad, though. I’m doing this b-b-backwards.”

  She nodded against him and pulled back to give him a watery smile. “He would appreciate that. And I would too.”

  *****

  They released him the next morning. As he and Ember walked out into the cold December day, he felt the stares of the people around him, but he didn’t turn away from the scrutiny. He just looked down at Ember and smiled.

  Chad had parked in the loop to wait for them. He stepped out and leaned against the front fender. His eyes tracked down to their clasped hands as they walked toward him, then back up to scan his face. Zeke grinned, even though it tugged sharply at his stitches and stopped in front of him. “I may need a b-best-man in the not-so-d-d-distant future.”

  Chad’s eyes got big with surprise and he let out an “Oorah!”, dragging him into a backslapping hug. Zeke laughed and took the assault, not caring that they were drawing more looks.

  Then his buddy turned to Ember and wrapped his arms more carefully around her. He whispered something in her ear and she nodded. When they stepped apart, they were both teary eyed, making Zeke wonder what had been said.

  Nodding his head, Chad turned to him. “I’ll be there for you, Tiny.”

  Zeke laughed out loud and punched Chad on the shoulder, appreciating his life more than he had in many years.

  The End

  Note From the Author~

  I sincerely hope you enjoyed Book 2 of the Lost and Found Series. I would appreciate it if you would:

  LEND IT- to friends and family. It is lending enabled.

  REVIEW IT- at the site you purchased it from.

  RECOMMEND IT- to anybody you think would enjoy it. Positive reader reviews have a huge impact on the success of book.

  About the Author~

  I am a wife and mother of two. I am a stay at home writer, which I dearly love. I was a Deputy Sheriff in Ohio for nine years, and I found myself tapping that experience as I wrote Second Time Around, my first book. No, I didn’t tackle and cuff my husband, although there was that time in K-mart… Anyway, it was quite a change going from writing technical reports with diagrams, witness statements, inventories, etc., that would stand up in court to writing contemporary romance. I’ve always written, though, and it was always a dream to do something with that huge, leaning stack of spiral bound notebooks.

  Embattled Minds is my twelfth release. I thank you so much for taking an interest in my work!

  Stay tuned! There’s a lot more coming!

  Other Books by J.M. Madden

  The Embattled Road – prequel to the Lost and Found Series

  Embattled Hearts – Book 1 of the Lost and Found Series

  A Needful Heart

  The Awakening Society

  Tempt Me – Book 2 of The Awakening Society

  Wet Dream – part of the 1NS Series

  Love On the Line – Book 1 of the Silver Star Series

  Love On the Line – Book 2 of the Silver Star Series

  Second Time Around

  Urban Moon Anthology

  For a complete book list with links, check out my website HERE!

  And be sure to connect with me online!

  www.jmmadden.com

  www.jmmadden.blogspot.com

  Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jmmaddenauthor

  Twitter – @authorjmmadden

  Or you can send me an email.

  Authorjmmadden@gmail.com

  And now an unedited sneak peek of Embattled Home, Chad’s book, coming in late 2013.

  Chapter One

  Chad went from reclining in his seat, debating whether or not to take off, to hyper aware as he heard a crash of glass and a muffled s
ound from inside the house. What the hell? He’d been sitting here for five hours, waiting for the woman’s supposed boyfriend to show up, and all had been quiet. The little girl had gone to bed several hours ago. Lora Malone had then puttered around the house, picking up toys and re-locking windows and doors.

  She had locked the windows and doors four times now.

  Fumbling the door handle with his bad hand, he jumped out of the car and started to cross the suburban street. Nothing moved. It was after midnight on a Tuesday. Everybody was in bed. The woman had been the only one moving around. She’d been pacing constantly.

  For a second, he debated what to do. The decision was taken out of his hands when he heard a crash from inside the house, followed by a woman’s muffled scream. Adrenalin surged as took off running. The front had been clear for the past several minutes, so he circled the house to the back door.

  “Oh, shit,” he grunted as he leapt the pile of glass that used to be her sliding glass door. Looking inside the house, things were upturned everywhere. Dark black potting soil was all over the bright white carpet. The ceiling fan was swinging as if it had just been hit. His heart pounded as he saw a smear of blood on the opposite wall.

  A thump from somewhere down the hallway had him running again. What the hell was going on in here?

  A second smear of blood told him he was in the right area, as he cleared the doorway to the master bedroom. For several heartbeats in time he couldn’t believe what he saw.

  His client, the well-to-do, likable Mr. Derek Malone was beating the woman Chad had been hired to watch. Her left eye was already purple, and swelling shut. Blood had begun running down her forehead from a cut at her hairline. Derek had his hand clamped so tight over her mouth he was pushing her head down into the mattress. Her clenched fists were beating at his head ineffectually, and Derek was laughing as he reached for his fly with his other hand.

  Chad saw red.

  Lunging forward, he slammed his right fist into the side of Derek Malone’s face. The jerk never saw it coming. The force of the punch knocked him off the bed and against the wall, dazing him for a moment. When he looked up and saw Chad standing over him, he sneered.

  “Get out of here, gimp. This doesn’t concern you. It’s between me and my wife.”

  “Ex-wife, asshole,” the woman croaked from the bed, levering herself up. Chad was dismayed to see she was holding her right wrist, and her lip was split on the right side.

  Chad’s inattention cost him. Derek leapt up and sucker punched him in the kidney, then tried a roundhouse to the jaw, but Chad jerked back just in time. Doubling his own fist, he smashed it up into pretty boy’s nose, breaking it instantly. Blood gushed, and Derek crumpled back to the floor, his hands trying to staunch the flow.

  “You son-of-a-bitch,” he garbled. “You’re fired.”

  Chad barked out a laugh and pulled his cellphone from his pocket. “Too late, Dude. I already quit.”

  Dialing 911, he requested a squad car and ambulance.

  “No siren,” the woman pleaded. Nodding, Chad passed on the request, and hung up. She was sitting up now, and Chad sympathized with her. She was obviously in pain, hunched over and cradling her stomach and wrist. Occasionally she wiped away tears that coursed down her cheeks. At one point she found the blood on her head, and sighed as she rubbed it away from her fingertips. Her whole demeanor screamed defeat, and it broke Chad’s heart to watch her.

  Derek, on the other hand, was nonstop mouth. Chad was tempted to punch him again just to shut him up. When he started berating the woman for being weak, and asking for what he had done to her, Chad had had enough. Jerking him up by the collar, he frog-marched him out to the demolished living room to wait for the cops. He glanced at the woman before he cleared the doorway. “Will you be okay here alone for a few minutes?”

  She nodded her head.

  Within minutes, Denver P.D. knocked on the door. Chad flashed his state investigator’s license, and explained what had happened. Derek denied everything, of course, and told them he wanted his lawyer. They escorted him out in handcuffs, protesting the entire way.

  The ambulance team had already disappeared into the back bedroom, and he found himself drawn back that way. The woman was blinking into a pen-light beam being shined into her one good eye, and the paramedic was asking her questions. The woman looked up at Chad for a brief moment, and there was such shame in her face that he almost stepped forward to console her. But he stopped when she looked away. It wasn’t really his place to console her. Hell, he had been hired to gather evidence against her. Derek had retained the agency because he feared for his daughter’s welfare, saying that Lora Malone was subjecting her to unsavory characters.

  So far, the only unsavory character he had seen her with was Derek.

  Chad had collected no evidence the entire time he had been watching her. She kept her head down, and watched everything warily. She hustled her daughter to and from the mini-van, and very rarely let her play outside. When she did go anywhere, it was to a nondescript house in Arvada, where she would stay for several hours then leave. Chad had been unable to find out what was in the house, only that it was owned by a corporation, and the only other person he had seen at the house had been an elderly black woman, no relation to Lora Malone.

  Derek had said that he believed she had a boyfriend, and that she was partying at all hours, leaving her daughter to fend for herself. Derek’s mother had also come forward, with ‘incriminating’ evidence. Chad had a feeling now it had all been fabricated.

  Chad had seen no evidence of any of it in the six weeks he’d been watching her.

  “Is my mommy okay?”

  Glancing down, Chad realized the little girl had come out of her own room, and was now peering into her mother’s room. Shadowed grey eyes widened when she saw the people around her at the bed.

  “Mommy?” her little voice quivered in fear.

  “I’m okay, honey, just had an accident. Can you go in your room please?”

  Chad’s heart clenched when the woman smiled brightly for her little daughter. That had to hurt like a bitch with that split lip, but she didn’t flinch at all. He admired her for reassuring her child.

  Reaching down with his good hand, he turned the little girl’s shoulders away from the doorway.

  “Come on, Sweets. Why don’t you show me your room.”

  Hanging her head, little Mercedes Malone trudged back into her bedroom. She dragged a raggedy stuffed animal with her, and Chad realized it was supposed to be a dog, although it had lost most of its form long ago. It was just a hanging pile of fluff now, patched in many places but obviously well-loved.

  Chad knew that Mercedes was supposedly six years old, but even to his inexperienced eye, the little one seemed small for her age. Climbing onto the twin bed, the little girl sat cross-legged in her pink and purple Dora pjs, not looking at Chad.

  “This is my room,” she said quietly. “Is my mom okay?”

  Chad looked at her in the illumination from the nightlight, debating how much to tell her. “I think she will be, but she has to go get checked by the doctors right now.”

  She blinked at him, and he frowned at the knowledge he could see in her eyes.

  “She’s had accidents before. But only when my dad’s around.”

  It took everything Chad had not to flinch.

  “Were you in an accident?” she whispered. “Is that why your arm is like that?”

  He blinked at the shift in topic and looked down at the appendage. “Yes, I was. Several years ago.”

  She nodded, and laid down on her mattress, pulling the comforter over top of herself.

  “Can’t the doctors fix it?”

  He shook his head and looked at the bookcase beside him. “Hey, this looks good.”

  He pulled out a white book with a little girl having tea with a group of stuffed animals on the front.

  “Oh, that’s my favorite,” she sighed.

  “Your mom must love you very
much, then, because you have a bunch of these books.”

  And Chad realized that was probably the truth too. He had logged many man hours watching Lora Malone, and he had never seen her raise her voice, let alone a hand, to the child. Quite the contrary actually. She seemed to have every toy a kid would need, and her room was outfitted with nice furniture. Many times he had watched her snatch the little girl up in her arms and give her big, tickling smooches, with Mercedes wiggling and giggling. He had only ever seen a mother who loved her child. Certainly not a woman endangering her daughter with her irresponsible lifestyle.

  He needed to call Duncan and let him know what was going on.

  Chad obligingly began reading the book. It only took a few minutes for the little girl to slip into sleep, though. Covering her with the comforter, Chad replaced the book on the shelf and left the room.

  In the other bedroom, Lora was arguing with the ambulance workers.

  “I’m not going to the hospital. I can’t.”

  “Ma’am, you probably have a concussion. I also believe you have cracked bones in your face. Judging by the swelling in your wrist, it could be broken too.” The gray haired technician was obviously going over the same argument again. “You have to be seen by somebody.”

  Lora shook her head obstinately, even though it looked like it hurt. “I can’t leave. I can’t leave my daughter.”

  Chad fought with his conscience. If he had been just a few seconds quicker, she never would have been hurt at all.

  “I’ll stay with her.”

  He didn’t even realize he had spoken until she whipped a venomous glare on him.

  “Oh, really? And snoop through my house and gather evidence on me? I heard what you guys said to each other.”