by Tamika Brown
Bryce and Calen had been together from the beginning. They grew up together, enlisted together, and did everything they could to make sure they ended up at the same basic training, and later on, they both tried for Special Forces.
Bryce was the brother Calen never had, and he loved him as such. They had been through a lot together. As kids, they ran in the wrong crowds and got in trouble with the law.
They ended up in a juvenile detention center together but were very fortunate to only come away with community service. He smiled as he remembered all the shit they used to get into.
And look at them now.
“So, man, what are you in such a daze about?” Bryce asked.
“Oh, um, nothing much, thinking about my vacation,” he rattled off.
“No, you mean, the pretty thang you met on your vacation.”
They all laughed.
He hadn’t told anyone about Shayla, not even Bryce, which was unusual. He normally told him about all the women he got involved with.
“How’d you know I met a woman on my vacation?” he asked, puzzled as to how Bryce figured it out.
Bryce waved his beer to indicate Calen’s face. “Dude, it’s all over your face. There’s only one thing that can make a man nurse a beer that way and put on that kind of look.”
They all said in unison, “A woman!”
Immediately, they all converged on him to tell them about his vacation and to tell them about her.
Bryce started in. “So spill, dude. What’s the deal?”
“Nothing to tell. I trained by running on the beach. That’s where I met her. She was standing there on her patio.” The bar faded as he remembered the moment. Of course, he didn’t tell them about him watching her pleasure herself. He’d never tell that, but he did tell them everything else. “This beautiful goddess just standing there watching the waves crash on the beach.”
“Sounds like my kind of woman,” Hodge butted in.
“As long as she’s breathing, she’s your kinda woman,” Page quipped back.
All the men laughed.
Calen loved these guys. No matter how down he was, they always found a way to make him laugh.
“So, did you two hook up or what?” Bryce asked.
Calen laughed before he told them the real story of how she absolutely hated him. “Man, I ran into her at a museum I visited. I just wanted to talk to her, so I followed her for a while to try to find a way to talk to her.”
“Stalker behavior,” Bryce muttered.
Calen shook his head. “I had to talk to her. Man, she whirled on me so fast and let me have it. Before I could even utter an apology, she was gone.”
“So, how is it she’s got you so twisted then?” Page asked. “You seem pretty taken with her.”
Calen took a swig of his lukewarm beer before he continued with his story. “I ran into her again at a restaurant. I sent her a drink over, asked if I could sit down, and the rest just fell into place. We spent the rest of the time together, until I got called away.”
When he finished with his tale, they all stared at him, stunned expressions on their faces.
Calen drained the rest of his drink and waited for the chiding he knew would come.
Instead, Bryce asked, “Well, did you at least get her number?”
“She texted me all her information before she left.” Calen hung his head. “I haven’t contacted her yet, though.”
Calen signaled for another beer.
“Man, you got it bad.” Bryce drained his beer. “Calen, you have got to call her. Let her know how you feel.”
He searched each man’s eyes for agreement with Bryce. “But we agreed not to let a woman come between us.”
“You know none of us would ever let that happen,” decreed Hodge.
And when Calen thought about it, Hodge was right. He was sure the men who sat at this table would forever be in his life.
Hodge and Page both told him not to call her because she probably gave him the wrong numbers, anyway. They continued to rag on him and disagree with Bryce totally.
“Come on, man, you know what kind of life we lead, not being able to tell people where we are, what’s happening to us. You really want to bring a woman into all that?” Hodge reasoned.
Bryce argued, “He made it work with Bonnie for a year.”
“But that’s different, she is… or was military. She understood the rules. Besides, look what happened with her. I don’t think we need to be comparing the situations,” said Page.
“Guys,” he held his hand up to stop the onslaught, “I didn’t say I was going to marry her or anything. I just want to see where it leads. She was… infectious.” Calen sighed, the last part being more to himself than to his friends.
They played a couple of games of pool and had another round of beers before they called it a night. Everyone reassured one another if they felt as though they couldn’t drive they would call Uber or Lyft to take them home.
Bryce, Hodge, and Page all climbed into Bryce’s SUV and waited for Calen to get to his car before they drove off.
While still early, they had to be ready for their training mission tomorrow.
He needed to clear his head before he would try to contact Shayla. He reached his car and took out his cell phone as he unlocked his car. He searched through his text messages for Shayla’s information. He slid behind the wheel, started the engine, then checked his watch. If it was eleven here, it would be nine in Denver.
He dialed her number, hoping she would answer on the first ring.
No such luck. She wasn’t home, and the voice mail picked up.
Just listening to her voice come through his receiver his body warmed and began to stir. He grabbed his crotch willing it to until he heard a beep. He didn’t leave a message. Instead, he tried her cell number, which he knew by heart.
He quickly dialed, pretty sure she’d pick up this time. It rang, just as her home phone did. He got the voicemail there too.
This time, he left a message. “Hey, it’s me, Calen. I just wanted to hear your voice, hope you’re doin’ well. Uh, I… I… Damn it, this is hard! I miss you, and I loved our time together.”
Frustrated, he hung up the phone. Why the hell couldn’t he tell her?
15
Shayla
Shayla wiped her eyes as she rolled over to check who was calling her.
When the landline rang, she didn’t answer, figuring it was either her mother or Tela calling for the tenth time.
She glanced at the caller ID on her cell phone and rolled back over, crying even more profusely. It was Calen, and she certainly didn’t want to talk to him at this point in time. She wasn’t in the mood to speak to anyone today.
The morning after her mother probed her about her use of protection; she got up and drove down to the drugstore to buy a pregnancy test. She had bought three, and all three confirmed her assumption.
She was pregnant.
That was two weeks ago. And it had been a rough two weeks too.
She called into work and told her assistant she must have picked up the flu or something on her vacation, and she would be taking an additional two weeks. She had to get it together before she could do her job.
Her business was for headhunters, not pregnant water buckets.
In the past week, she hadn’t been anywhere because she really didn’t know how to handle what was happening to her. She was protected and safe in her own element, not out where people could stare at her or guess whether she was pregnant or not.
However, she supposed she should talk to someone.
She picked up her phone and readied to call Tela’s number when the doorbell rang.
As if in slow motion, Shayla got up and dreadfully moved toward the stairs and down to the front door.
She opened it to find Tela standing on her porch.
Her friend grabbed her, hugged her, and moved inside the foyer all in one motion.
“Let me guess, you talked to my mother,” sh
e said while being crushed by her best friend.
“Yeah, well, what do you expect when I find out from her you’ve been back two weeks, and you hadn’t called me or returned my phone calls?” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for yelling. Your mom also told me your news. Is it true? You’re pregnant?”
With renewed tears, Shayla squeezed out, “Yes. The baby’s Calen’s.”
“Well, where is he? He should be here.” Her friend angrily stormed around the living room and into the kitchen, searching for the missing baby’s father.
“No, no, Tela, don’t. It’s not his fault.” She took a deep breath before she confided in Tela her real secret. “I… I haven’t told him. No one knows except you and my folks.”
Shayla could see the question clear on Tela’s face. Why hadn’t she told the man he had a child on the way if she loves him? Shayla breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t ask it. Her friend knew her well enough to understand she would tell him when she was ready.
Shayla was grateful. Right now, she couldn’t bring herself to answer the question.
“So, have you spoken with him since you’ve been back?” Tela asked.
“No, but he just called. I haven’t checked my messages yet.” She sighed, making her way to the couch.
She was tired and just wanted to be left alone to sleep, but it would do no good to express this to Tela. She would more than likely make her take a shower, put her clothes on, and go out somewhere.
She rolled her eyes at the possibility.
“Are you going to call him? Girl, you know you can’t keep this from him.”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about him yet, but I am going to have this baby,” she said with finality. “I don’t need Calen here to take care of him or her.”
“What did the doctor say, have you made an appointment yet?”
“Yeah, I went the day after I did a home test. He said the baby, and I seemed healthy, and I was about five weeks along. Tela, how could this happen?” She knew what Tela’s answer would be before she spoke it, and she smiled and waved Tela’s answer off.
She knew it was going to be graphic and definitely not the answer she hoped for. Leave it to Tela to try to diffuse the situation.
“You know what I mean,” she chuckled. It felt good to laugh again. “I guess I was so caught up in this love affair, that I was careless. I didn’t even consider what we were doing. You know how caught up I was. He was… infectious. Had me in knots.”
She immediately flashed back of Calen and his excellent skills in bed. Infectious, now, why had she said that word? She let it fleet away as her friend came to her side to comfort her.
“Well, Miss Infectious, let’s get you presentable so we can go get something to eat,” she said, laughing.
Before she could refuse, Tela pushed her upstairs to the bathroom.
16
Calen
It had been two days since he left that messed up message on Shayla’s phone. He seemed like a complete idiot. He usually didn’t have any problem expressing himself to anyone, let alone a woman.
With the men he commanded, they knew he was the best at what he did, and they trusted him with their lives. With women, well, women just usually took one glance at him and fell all over him or threw themselves at him.
But with Shayla it was different. It had always been different. She was literally angry with him when he tried his wows on her. He wasn’t his usual confident self. As a matter-of-fact, he felt like he was going to say or do something stupid when he was with her, and she would run in the opposite direction and do it as quickly as her legs would carry her.
He didn’t want to mess anything up with her. This was the chance of a lifetime with her. He wanted to call her back, but he’d been so busy and here he was once again on another training mission.
Calen told his men they would be training more often than ever before because they had a huge mission coming up. Months of training would be required which meant more months without seeing or talking to Shayla.
They would be going back to Orahm.
They received Intel on Ahman Ahsan, a warlord in the small country of Orahm.
Ahsan was a nasty character, the leader of a rebel faction set on overthrowing the ruling family so he could control one of the richest oil fields in the Middle East. He would do anything necessary to gain access to what he wants. Orahm was an ally to the US, and Calen and his men’s assignment was to take Ahsan out and make certain his crew cannot reassemble. He and his unit will be ready to do just that.
Finally, the last training day after three months of strenuous workouts and routines came for Calen and his men.
As before, the chopper dropped down like a well-rehearsed dance, and Calen’s men fanned out as they disembarked. The movement so ingrained in them was second nature.
This training mission would entail locating and taking kill shots on all the target dummies, instead of human targets. Just as before, there would be no survivors.
When the unit converged on the targets, Calen and his men received heavy fire, and a pyrotechnic show erupted. It was unexpected, but they were ready. Gunfire and explosives all around, the team took out their would-be ambushers with precision. They knew this small assault would alert anyone around and knew time was of the essence.
Calen and his men moved swiftly but stealthily, proceeding to the targets, each man taking out the one assigned to him, then the firing stopped. With all the training, they would be ready for anyone.
They would definitely be ready for the next visit to Afghanistan.
It was well into the night by the time they were able to confirm the kills and get out of there to the sleeping location. They wouldn’t be going back to base tonight. He and his men would sleep under the stars to acclimate to the weather. This location with, its similarity to the Orahm mountains, was perfect for what they would need to endure.
The chopper arrived on time the next morning at 0700, and Calen and his men flew back to Fort Bragg for a briefing on their upcoming trip to Orahm.
After the briefing, he would try Shayla again.
Before he knew it, it was time. He and his men got their last instructions.
“Let’s gear up,” Calen said, and his men were up and ready.
On their ride, Calen was scatterbrained. His thoughts constantly on Shayla. Everything going back to her. He tried calling her again. And like the previous times, she didn’t pick up, so he left her a text.
Calen: Goin’ on a mission, can’t call me. Talk 2 u later.
He couldn’t shake the idea she was avoiding him. He figured by him not responding to her when she said those three little words, I love you, he burned his bridges with her. Why didn’t he say it back? Then maybe, he wouldn’t be going through the torture of wondering what she was doing or who she was with.
He flashed back to that night. Of how he stroked her and the throaty moan she expelled when he touched her spot. He missed all of it. He wanted it to be with him forever, and he hoped it would not be the last time he experienced it.
His eyes half-closed already, he drifted off to sleep. It would be hours before they reached their destination.
He awoke refreshed and refocused on what he and his men came there to do. They arrived with the cover of night, always a plus. They came down about three miles from the target, then traveled double time.
When they reached the destination, his men went into action. The intel was dead on. The layout of Ashan’s place was ingrained into each man’s mind. They had four minutes to get in and get out. It wouldn’t even take them that long.
The targets had already been located; they knew exactly what to do and how it was going to play out.
Five seconds. Calen lifted each finger on his right hand as he counted out in his head the time. The first shot was off.
Ahsan and his men inside didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know what hit them. Immediately, chaos ensued;
everyone and everything moving inside was mowed down, confirmed kills. No survivors.
His men were ready to pull out with no wounded or casualties to bring back home with them.
They reached the rendezvous point in less time it had taken them to get to the target.
In no time, they were off.
“Nice work tonight guys. The Orahmians can rest easy tonight, now, that the rebels were shut down.”
“Until the next one comes around to take the fields again. That place is always gonna be a target,” said Bryce.
“Well, at any rate, you can relax now. Get some sleep,” he said as he scanned the chopper from man to man. Each one nodding in agreement.
They were in the clear. He could look forward to sleeping in his own bed after all.
After briefing the next day, Russell addressed the men. “I’ve got a surprise for you men. You’ve been through a lot these past months. Seems as if you’ve been going nonstop. So, take some time off. Two weeks, or until your next mission. I don’t foresee one anytime soon, enjoy yourself. It’s well deserved.”
He didn’t have to tell them twice.
Calen and his men were looking forward to time off for a couple of months now. This was the perfect opportunity for him to do what he needed to do.
They all filed out of the room, chatting excitedly, making plans for the remainder of the day and for the next few weeks.
Bryce caught up with Calen. “What are you going to do with this mini vacation we have all of a sudden?”
“I’m going to find her,” Calen said abruptly.
“What d’ya mean, find her?” he asked.
“Man, I’ve been calling, leaving messages, texting her, but she hasn’t been returning my calls.”
“So, you’ll just pop in on her? Just like that?” Bryce shook his head as if Calen had lost his mind. “You can’t do that. What if she has someone else, and you go running up on them? What if she doesn’t want to see you? Man, it’s been months, right?”
“Yeah, about five, but I gotta try. I think I love her. We didn’t really end on good terms, and I got a sense something’s not right with her. She texted me all her information, asked me to get in touch with her when I was ready, then all of a sudden she just stopped communicating with me, period. Wouldn’t return any of my calls,” he explained. “Why would she give me her info, then not want to talk to me?”