After a quick apology and a round of beers for Big Papi and his friends, Chris made his way outside to talk with Luke and the woman with him. His sister. Also unanticipated.
The ground had been covered in freshly fallen snow, and snowflakes continued to drift, swirling around in the wind while Luke and his sister made him an offer he’d never seen coming.
A chance to be part of a new team, one they felt Chris was perfect for, for reasons they didn’t explain, even when he’d asked. But how could he say no to working directly for the Commander in Chief?
He never did get a chance to go back and chat up the Sox player, but Luke’s sister, Jessica, who co-ran the teams, made it up to him later that year. She scored him World Series tickets, a once-in-a-lifetime event he’d only dreamed of attending as a kid growing up in South Boston.
But wow, time had flown by since his recruitment.
“You gonna keep staring at your phone or answer it?” A.J.’s words had Chris blinking and quickly bringing his phone to his ear.
Right. “Hey, tell me you have good news,” Chris answered.
“I will as long as you’re not off on some beach soaking in rays while I’m out here training new recruits,” his former OIC, Edwards, responded, his throat raspy as if he’d been laying it on thick to the recruits at BUD/S.
“Definitely not on a beach,” Chris replied with a smile. “But I’m betting you are, and you’re actually loving every minute of chewing everyone out.”
Edwards barked out a laugh. “Nah, I’d rather be out there kicking down doors.”
“You’re the hotshot West Point grad who went the officer route,” Chris reminded him.
“The wife gave me no choice, what can I say,” Edwards said on a sigh. “But anyway, you still looking for a canine for your security team?”
Chris sat taller. “Hell yeah.”
“I got word there’s a Belgian Malinois who needs a home. He’d been brought in to work with the Teams, and well . . .”
“What?” Chris brought the phone closer to his ear.
“They say this one might be untrainable.” Becoming a canine for the Navy was about as difficult as a man joining the SEALs. “He’s not bad-tempered, he’s just not exactly motivated, but I thought if anyone—”
“I’ll take him.” Finally, some good news. “What’s his name?”
“Bear,” Edwards answered, and Chris’s mouth rounded in surprise.
“Bear,” Chris repeated, and A.J.’s brows shot up.
The guys had given Chris a hard time since he’d gone face-to-face with a polar bear up in the Norwegian archipelago, choosing to risk capture by the Russians rather than shoot the animal. This had to be fate.
“I’m heading back to the States today. Is Bear in Virginia or California?”
“Little Creek. I’ll let the guys know you’re on your way. Check ya later,” Edwards said before ending the call.
Chris tucked his phone back into his pocket and slapped a hand to his thigh. “We’re getting a dog. And he already has some training with a SEAL Team, so—”
“And why don’t they want him?” Wyatt looked back at him.
Chris lifted his shoulders and tightened his eyes. “They said he’s untrainable.”
Wyatt shook his head, a smile easing onto his lips. “Sounds about right,” he said just as a pop-pop-pop struck the side of the Tahoe.
Chris gripped his rifle and tossed a look out the window to see an SUV charging for them. “We’ve got company.”
“Incoming on my side, too,” A.J. added.
“Guess the bad guys want their leader back.” Finn reached for the radio to connect with the rest of the team in the second SUV.
“I thought we nailed everyone at the compound,” Wyatt said, annoyance in his tone. “How’d they find us?” He tossed another look back at Chris. “You let someone get the drop on you and plant a tracking device?”
“Real funny, brother.” Chris scoffed.
“Man, I really, really hate human traffickers.” A.J. turned toward the back as if this was just another day. And for them, it was. “RPG?”
Chris smiled and nodded. “RPG.”
Chapter Three
New Orleans, Louisiana - One Week Later
“Ella called last night,” Rory casually tossed out to her brother.
Jesse’s long, jean-clad legs were bent at the knees, and his cowboy boots, which had seen better days, were getting her new tile floors dirty as he worked beneath the kitchen sink, fiddling around with a pipe.
“She was asking about you,” she went on, knowing their childhood friend Ella was why he’d invaded her new place and had kept himself busy since the moment he arrived. “Ignore me all you want, but it won’t change reality.”
Rory grabbed a slice of bread from the bag in front of the bread box and popped it into the toaster. She didn’t use the bread box, but it was the perfect place to hide a handgun. Her brother knew about the gun. As well as the three others hidden around her house, placed strategically for easy access. What he didn’t know was the reason she needed four firearms. And she had no plans to divulge the all too real threats looming over her.
Jesse lifted his head to eye her for a moment. “Toast? At two in the afternoon?” He chuckled before swapping his wrench for another tool. “Didn’t you just eat a couple of those brownies your neighbor brought over?” he grumbled. “Don’t like that guy, by the way. Either he had something in his eye, or all that winking was meant as flirting.”
“Is that why you wouldn’t eat the brownies?” She peeked at the glass dish of homemade brownies. “I thought it was sweet. I’m pretty sure no guy has baked for me.”
“Still don’t like him,” Jesse added in a low voice.
“You don’t like anyone.”
“That’s not true.” He ducked back under to fidget with the pipes as if he knew what he was doing. And total disclosure, he didn’t.
“So, about Ella.”
Whack. He hit his head. She swore that man probably needed to see a neurotrauma specialist considering all the times he’d banged his head against the nearest object whenever the subject of Ella came up during the last few months.
Ella was supposed to marry a banker named Brian, a guy she’d met on a girls’ night out in Mobile. Rory had been somewhere abroad that night, but even when Ella had described Brian on their regular weekly chats, her tone had been lackluster at best.
Rory hadn’t even met the guy until the night of Brian’s bachelor party, which was Rory’s fault because of her travels, but he’d been stiff and uptight. Not the kind of passionate lover Ella deserved.
She had always assumed Ella would wind up with Jesse. Rory used to catch Ella drawing hearts on her notebooks during class in middle school, scrawling J.M. in red ink at the center. Jesse McAdams. But then Jesse went off to the Army right after high school, and his calls and letters to everyone had been few and far between. Rory was pretty sure Ella had given up on the idea of Jesse making a move, even after he’d returned from the Army, but Brian clearly wasn’t the man for Ella. And given all it took were a few words from Jesse the night before her ceremony to stop the wedding, said it all.