Yet Elliot remained unreachable, even after Stephen told him the good news.
Mac came by in the afternoon when Shane was napping, and she made up excuses. Shane was a little bit younger than Elliot. He was in better physical shape. His Navy SEAL training had prepared him for this type of trauma.
There were a lot of reasons why it made sense for Shane to have woken up first.
And Stephen didn’t believe any of them. “Maybe he still thinks I’m angry at him,” he said as he held Elliot’s hand. “I was so angry, Michelle.”
It had been—potentially—the last time he was going to see Elliot alive. His last chance to say something meaningful, to tell him how he felt. Instead, he’d merely asked Elliot if he was ready before he’d hit him with enough energy to stop his heart.
I love you, Elliot had told him.
Right. Are you ready?
“I just want him back,” Stephen said now.
“Give him time,” Mac said. “He’s going to be okay. Did you tell him about Shane?”
Stephen nodded. “Of course.”
“That’ll help,” she said. “His knowing that it works. His theory, his procedure. That’ll definitely help.” She nudged Elliot’s bed with her leg. “Hey, asshole slacker, get out of bed!”
Stephen laughed for the first time in nearly two weeks. “Is that how you woke up Shane?”
“Nah,” she said. “I was talking about painting my bedroom. Crazy, huh? He wanted to help.” She nudged Elliot’s bed again. “Hey, Zerkowski, I bet if you wake up, the hottest guy at OI’ll rock your world.” She looked at Stephen and smiled. “How’s that for a little incentive? Although—correction, you’re the second hottest guy here, now.”
“You’re going to let Shane stay?”
She nodded, trying to play it nonchalant.
“You know, you’re allowed to be happy,” he told her.
“You are, too,” she shot back. She kissed him on the top of the head as she headed for the door. “Because Elliot’s gonna wake up, and then you’re going to get married, and annoy the shit out of everyone because you’re so fucking perfect together.”
“I hope so,” Stephen said.
“Count on it,” Mac told him, closing the door behind her.
It took one week, six days, one hour, and four minutes before Elliot finally woke up, too.
Shane was up and dressed and taking his first authorized walk around Obermeyer Institute when it happened. He and Mac had just stopped by Bach’s office when the word came down—that Elliot was finally back.
They both took a moment to compose themselves after hearing the good news—and Mac knew that Shane felt responsible for Elliot having taken his idea to shoot up, and run with it. It was a miracle that they’d both come out of it alive—and everyone at OI knew it.
This was not something they would try doing again.
“Do you mind if we, um …” Shane pointed to Bach’s closed door, and she shrugged, so he knocked.
It took a few seconds, but Bach finally answered, and he shook Shane’s hand. “Good to see you up and about.”
“Mind if we come in?” Shane asked. “I know you’re busy, but I had this idea and, um …”
Bach opened his door wider, letting them in, giving Mac a quizzical look that she responded to with a smile. She’d thought they were just out for a walk. But if Shane really wanted to do this now …? She would stand by him.
Or sit by him.
As she sat next to Shane on the sofa, she asked Bach, “Are you okay?”
He was looking even more tired than usual as he took a seat in his favorite chair. “Rough couple of weeks,” he said, forcing a smile as he turned to Shane. “What’s up?”
“I’d like to work for you,” Shane said, just point-blank, in true Shane fashion. “I’ve had a few conversations with the team down in Security, and I know there’s a place for me there, if I want it—I appreciate your recommendation, but …” He looked from Mac to Bach. “I’d really like to be part of your team, sir. I know I’m not a Greater-Than, and I’ll never be one, but I do bring my own set of skills to the table. I really think your entire crew could use some weapons training—not necessarily to use firearms, but to know what to do when they come up against them. Which is going to happen, because you know the Organization isn’t just going to leave Boston. They’re going to regroup and they’ll be back in even larger numbers. And you better believe that from now on, anyone from OI is going to be wearing a target on his or her back. If I were you, I’d grow both your team and OI’s general security. And I can help you do that. Plus, I think we’ve learned that it’s always good to have a fraction on the team for unorthodox scenarios.”
“Non-Greater-Than,” both Mac and Bach corrected him, but then Bach looked at Mac. “You’re okay with this?”
“Very much,” she said. “I mean, I told him he could stay and be my boy toy, but he seems to want to be useful.” She glanced at Shane and smiled. “More useful.”
“What happens if you break up?” Bach asked, looking to Shane for the answer.
“I leave,” Shane said promptly, adding, “In the extremely unlikely event that that happens.”
“Or we learn to coexist,” Mac chimed in. “You get to decide if we’re pulling it off.”
“In the aforementioned extremely unlikely event that a breakup happens,” Shane said again.
Bach nodded. “I won’t have drama on my team. And for the record? I intend to inform Drs. Diaz and Zerkowski of this as well.”
“No drama,” Shane agreed. “Message received and understood.”
Bach stood up. “I’ll have a contract drawn up. I assume you’ll want to live on campus?”
Shane looked at Mac and smiled his happiness, as they both stood, too. “Yes, sir.”
Bach held out his hand. “Welcome to the team.”
The two men shook. “Thank you, sir,” Shane said. “You won’t regret this.”
“Thank you, sir,” Mac echoed, shaking Bach’s hand, too.
They went out the door, closing it behind them, heading down the hall toward the lounge before either of them dared to speak.
Mac broke the silence. “You didn’t even ask the rate of pay,” she commented.
“Because I don’t give a shit,” Shane told her. “I got room, I got board, I got you—on top of that, everything else is gravy.”
“This gig probably doesn’t pay as much as cage fighting,” she told him.
Shane laughed as he looked at her. “You are never going to let me forget that,” he said. “Are you?”
She smiled into his eyes. “Damn straight.”
“Seriously, Mac,” he said, stopping her with a hand on her arm. “You have no idea how good it feels to be welcomed here this way. To have a place where I fit in, where I belong. I didn’t think I’d ever have that again.”
Mac just smiled at him.
And Shane smiled back at her, and the love in his eyes was beautiful—regardless of how it had started. At least she kept telling herself that …
“Do you think when Bach said no drama, he meant that I should avoid kissing the hell out of you in the middle of Old Main?” he asked.
“I think PDAs probably qualify,” she said. “Especially when I start screaming Take me to heaven, Shane Laughlin! Take me Navy-SEAL-style, like there’s no tomorrow!”
Shane laughed. And he took her hand, and they booked it, double time, back to the privacy of his rooms, where he kissed her, and—absolutely—took her to heaven.
Even though they both knew that tomorrow was coming, whether they wanted it to or not.
For my readers, who are always willing to boldly go.
Thank you for your trust and your belief that love is a beautiful gift.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The thank-yous have to start with the real-life U.S. Navy SEALs—the best of the best. Fiction can’t touch the reality of who these guys are, and what they do.
I’ve been writing my sixteen-book
Troubleshooters series about Navy SEAL Team Sixteen since 1999, and my eleven-book TDD series about SEAL Team Ten since 1995. That’s a lot of Navy SEALs.
So you’d think when I sat down to write an entirely new series—a modern fantasy set several decades into a dark future—I’d have had enough of SEAL heroes.
But I just can’t shake my fascination with these tremendously intelligent, powerfully motivated, quietly humble, insanely courageous, and usually seriously funny guys. And thus was created Shane Laughlin, a former lieutenant in the Teams, and the hero of this first book in my new Fighting Destiny series. (Shane’s story doesn’t end in Born to Darkness, either. You’ll see plenty more of him in books to come.)
So thank you, real Navy SEALs—and not just for providing well over a decade of inspiration.
A big thank-you, too, to the team at Ballantine and Random House including my stellar editor Shauna Summers; my agent, Steve Axelrod; my eternally patient family: Ed, Jason, Melanie, Aidan, Dexter and Little Joe; and my parents, Fred and Lee Brockmann.
My first-draft readers should be given medals and a ceremony with a trumpet fanfare, just like at the end of Star Wars. Thank you, Deede Bergeron, Patricia McMahon, Lee Brockmann, Ed Gaffney, Deirdre Van Collie, and especially Scott Lutz. (Insert Wookie sound of approval here.)
Thank you to Bill and Jodie Kuhlman for letting me borrow the name “Old Main” for the primary building on the OI campus.
Thanks to the entire cast and crew of The Perfect Wedding, the indie feature romantic comedy that I co-wrote, produced, and helped film last summer. Find out more about what I’m doing when I’m not writing novels, at www.ThePerfectWeddingMovie.com.
And as long as you’re surfing the Internet, come and see what the main characters in Born to Darkness look like inside the murky depths of my head! Meet Shane and Mac and all the others through posts, photos, and video snippets over at my website: www.SuzanneBrockmann.com. Interact with them and with me (and with other readers) on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SuzanneBrockmannBooks.
Huge thanks to Shirin Tinati, photographer extraordinaire, for helping me bring these characters to life; and to my entire gorgeous cast of actors: Aubrey Grant (Shane), Briana Pozner (Mac), Eric Aragon (Bach), Apolonia Davalos (Anna), David Singletary (Diaz), and Jason T. Gaffney (Elliot).
Last but certainly not least, I want to thank you, my readers, who trust me enough to follow wherever I will take you, and who continue to give me permission to write the stories of my heart.
As always, any mistakes I’ve made or liberties I’ve taken are completely my own.
BY SUZANNE BROCKMANN
FIGHTING DESTINY SERIES
Born to Darkness
TROUBLESHOOTERS SERIES
The Unsung Hero
The Defiant Hero
Over the Edge
Out of Control
Into the Night
Gone Too Far
Flashpoint
Hot Target
Breaking Point
Into the Storm
Force of Nature
All Through the Night
Into the Fire
Dark of the Night
Hot Pursuit
Breaking the Rules
SUNRISE KEY SERIES
Kiss and Tell
The Kissing Game
Otherwise Engaged
OTHER BOOKS
Heartthrob
Forbidden
Freedom’s Price
Body Language
Stand-In Groom
Time Enough for Love
Infamous
Ladies’ Man
Bodyguard
Future Perfect
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since her explosion onto the publishing scene more than ten years ago, SUZANNE BROCKMANN has written fifty books, and is now widely recognized as one of the leading voices in romantic suspense. Her work has earned her repeated appearances on the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists, as well as numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America’s #1 Favorite Book of the Year (three years running), two RITA Awards, and many Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Suzanne Brockmann lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband, author Ed Gaffney. Find Suz on Facebook at Suz Brockmann’s Troubleshooters World, and visit her website at www.suzannebrockmann.com.
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