FIRE (Elite Forces Series Book 2) (10 page)

“I’m going to get ready for bed,” Jade speaks from the kitchen, where she’s just finished cleaning up. She let me work while she took care of it tonight.  That’s not something I expect from her, but I love that she knew I needed a moment today.  I have a few things I need to do.  I’ve been sitting here the last few minutes, thinking about all this while texting back and forth with my sister for us to surprise my mom tomorrow. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen them. With everything that’s happened, I need to hug both of them.   I need to see with my own damn eyes they’re alright.

Like I said before, my mom can pick up on every damn thing. She’ll know the minute I walk through her front door that I’m hurt. Then she’ll ride my ass about quitting, or guarding some dull-ass politician, or becoming someone’s personal bodyguard. No fucking way. I was born for this shit.  I serve and protect my country, and in some cases have to go in and kill the enemy. 

Jade went on a little terror scare about the possibility of me heading back out. I let her bitch up a storm then told her enough. We’ll deal with whatever is thrown our way, and we’ll deal with it together. That shut her up for about five seconds. Goddamn woman is the most stubborn person I have met.

“I’m coming.” I stretch my arms above my head, my muscles pulling tight. The first thing I’m gonna do tomorrow morning when I wake is work out. It fucking sucks that I have to start out with half the weight I was using before. It’s going to feel like I’m lifting a brown paper bag instead of what I’m used to.

I close down my laptop. I’ve been studying the area where the crazy-ass fucker came close to killing me. I remember him saying he had a home back in the woods somewhere. I remember him calling it his kingdom, or was it his domain?

“I’ll find you, Ty, and when I do, you’re going to be praying to the devil to take your fucking soul.”

I lock up the house, grab the charger to my phone, and make my way to my bedroom before I fall to my knees. Jade’s already in bed.

The sight of her in my bed has my cock coming to life. If I didn’t notice how exhausted she was when we were having dinner, I’d flip her ass over and make love to her nice and slow. But she needs a good night’s sleep. She hasn’t slept in a bed since before we left, because she was at my side the entire time I was in the hospital.  She either slept in the recliner or next to me once I was able to succumb to the pain of having her that close to my body.

“You’re beautiful,” I tell her. My skin itches to be close to her, and I want to hold her and feel her warm body up against mine.

“I’d be even more beautiful in your arms.” Good choice of words, baby. I strip out of my clothes. Her gaze travels down to my rock hard cock.  I quirk a brow and she smiles.

“Yeah. One look and you have me hard.” It’s the truth.

I twist my body around to shut off the light, never taking my eyes off of her. Once I make it to my bed, I welcome her sliding her ass as close to me as she can get. My cock jumps at the feel of her as it rests in the curve of her tight little ass.

“Go to sleep, baby.” My arm rests just below the swell of her breasts, and my face is buried against her neck and into her hair.

“Kaleb.”

“Yeah.” My eyelids are heavy as I answer.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Mrs. Maverick.” That seems to get a chuckle out of us both.

“About that,” she whispers.

“It’s ok.  Just go to sleep, Jade.”
Someday
, I think to myself before I fall into a deep sleep, where I dream of her instead of succumbing to the nightmares of the torture I’ve endured that have been tormenting my troubled mind.

I’ve been sitting on the porch for over an hour, watching the door to the office I watched Kaleb disappear behind.

Our bags are in the back of the SUV and I’m ready to go.

We slept for nine hours straight last night. I don’t think I moved the entire time. I would have kept on sleeping if he hadn’t had to get up and work out, and then rush out the door to have his so-called private meeting with Kase and the President.

Now I sit here, worried out of my ever-loving mind. I’m about to unglue my ass from these steps and bust in there. My gut tells me that whatever the hell is going down in there, I’m not going to be a part of, and that pisses me the fuck off.

Kaleb wants to protect me, and I love him even more for that. But, damn it, can’t he see I want to protect him too? That the thought of him going somewhere without me, especially when he isn’t in the right state of mind, not to mention he isn’t healed, is tearing me apart?

What pisses me off even more is my hands are tied. If these orders come from the President, there isn’t a damn thing I can do.

I’m startled when my phone rings beside me. I glance down, wondering who the hell would be calling at eight o’clock in the morning. I fumble, picking it up when I see Mal’s name flashing on the screen.

“Where have you been?” I say sarcastically. I’ve been worried about her. Worry seems to be all I’ve been doing lately. I’m sick and tired of it. I want normal. Whatever the hell that might be.

“Hello to you too.” The sound of her voice alone pulls a beaming grin across my face.

Then, like I’ve been hit over the head with a two by four, it dawns on me and slaps me in the face. I haven’t heard a word from Harris either. That’s unlike him, not to check in with me. They’re together. I know they are.

“What you been doing, Mallory? Or should I say, who?” I laugh, my over-active temper subsiding because it’s my best friend on the other end of this line.

“Ah. Jade Elliott. The clever smartass is back. Welcome home. I missed you.” Yeah, right. I bet she did up until she hooked up with Harris.

“So. Harris, huh?” I stand, my ass is numb from sitting here.

“Yeah. He called me. God, Jade, he is one hell of a…”

“Stop. I don’t want to know.”  I’m not about to tell her I know. Well, technically, I don’t. But still, I’m not telling her a thing. Especially when she keeps going on about how sweet he is to her. I listen as she carries on for our entire conversation about him. How he left for the base an hour or so ago but promised to call her as soon as he could.

I’m happy for her, I really am. I know Mallory though. Sometimes better than she knows herself. I’m not about to burst her bubble with my worry. Mallory isn’t cut out to date a man who has to leave at the drop of a hat to go fight for his country, ready to sacrifice his life. She’s a wonderful person and the best friend anyone could ask for, and she may have a mouth on her with no filter, who tells you like it is, but Mallory worries more than anyone I know.

The door swings open, finally. I smile wide when I see the look on all the guys’ faces as they walk out one by one.

“Hey, Mal. The guys are walking toward me. We’re heading home. I should be back in a few days.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” she returns.

“Ask Harris if he wants to come over to my parents’ for dinner Saturday night.” It’s crazy how this past month or so has gone. Meeting Kaleb like I did. Then falling in love with him. When I told him last night about the conversation with my parents and how my mom talked my dad into having a big get-together, he honestly seemed to be looking forward to something for the first time since this entire mission went to shit.

This demanding and bossy man has a loyalty to family. I’ve known it all along with the way he talks freely about his mother and sister, not to mention the overflowing love he has for all these guys. Underneath his hard shield is a man who’s not afraid to show how much others mean to him. It’s one of the many reasons why I love him. It’s also one of the reasons why I’m worried. He may be hiding how he truly feels about his brother. A big part of him does hate Ty, but—and it’s a huge but—no matter what he tries to tell anyone, I know it's killing him slowly inside to deal with this shit.

“Dad’s barbeque chicken. Hell, yes, I’ll be there whether he can be or not. Love you,” she says quickly, and I tell her the same before I hang up while watching what feels like a dozen pair of eyes trained on me. Every set of them screams power and determination. They are also warning me to not ask a damn thing.

“You ready?” Kaleb lifts me off my feet and plants a hard, closed-mouth kiss to my lips.

“No. Not until you guys tell me what the hell is going on?”  It’s Jackson who gets my hard glare after Kaleb puts me down again on solid ground. A ground that feels like it’s trying to suck me in. These assholes are keeping something from me, and I don’t like it.

“Jade.” Kaleb says my name like a warning. I keep my eyes on Jackson. His smirk is pissing me off. This is not the time for him to act like an asshole. He’s itching to give me some smart-ass retort, that’s why I’m glaring at him like I want to kick him square in his damn dick.

“What’s going on?” I demand.

“Baby. I’ll tell you later. Right now, I want to forget all of this shit for a few days and spend some time with our families.” Even though the sun is shining down on us and the humidity in the air is letting me know it’s going to be a sweltering hot day, a cold shiver runs up and down my spine.  Goosebumps caress my skin. Whatever it is, it’s bad, very bad.  “We need to go or we’ll miss our flight.”  I internally take note of all their faces.  Analyzing is what I do best, and these assholes know that.   

“You’re lucky you found her first, dickhead.” Jackson leans down and plants a kiss on my cheek, pulling me in close for a hug as he begins to whisper into my ear.  “Cheer up, buttercup. I promise to protect that big ape of yours.  You have nothing to worry about.  Just relax.” I squeeze him tight, knowing it’s bothering him to keep whatever this is from me.  It should be Kaleb with the guilty conscience.  

If it’s no big deal, then fucking tell me
.  I almost force those words out of my mouth. I know better though. I leash it all in and just observe and watch every single one of them.  They can’t look me in the face when they tell me goodbye. These fuckers are terrible at this shit.

They think I don’t know they’re all hiding something, and I’ve had it with all of them. I’ll keep my shit together and enjoy my day meeting the two women in Kaleb’s life who mean everything to him. But I can promise one thing… before that, I’ll work on Kaleb.  This could be a very long flight.

The flight so far has been awkward.  Neither of us tried to hide that there’s an issue suffocating us both.

“You acting all pissy and shit makes my dick hard.” I mull over my response before answering him. Does he really want to go there right now?

“It’s just like you to try to deflect my attention and avoid the issue, Kaleb.”  I sneer, and he smirks.  I’m beyond pissed. I’m fucking livid. How dare he keep a damn thing from me. Especially with everything we’ve been through. I know I’m making this about me. This is about how I’m going to be able to handle the shit that has been dealt this time. About how I’m going to feel if he travels out there somewhere without me, which is very likely to happen.

“I hear the clicking noises going off in your pretty little head, Jade. If you really need to know, it’s nothing. A small job; one I’ve done many times. We’ll be in and out and back home within a day.” Kaleb is lying to me. He shifted in his seat, which isn’t like him at all. That right there, along with him not being able to make eye contact, is one of the first signs I look for when interrogating someone to see if they’re lying.

He’s a pro at this job. Very rarely does he make a mistake. So why is he lying to me? I guess I should be happy he can’t be the expert he’s trained to be when it comes to lying to me. But I’m not. I will get to the bottom of this one way or another.

“Fine, Kaleb,” I concede.  I’m not in the mood to argue, not here anyway. Not when we're about to land and head straight to his mom’s house.

How I wish I had time to call my superior right now. I still have a few weeks left of my extended leave. Maybe I should schedule a meeting and talk to him about my request to be assigned to work with Kaleb on all of his missions. This way, there wouldn’t be a damn thing Kaleb could do or hide from me.

I may need to reconsider that thought, if this is how he’s going to treat me.  Did he forget that quickly that I was the one who saved his ass in Afghanistan?  I tried like hell to save him in Mexico and forced his team to rush his rescue.  Why would he even consider keeping me away from any of his missions?

With those so-called clicking noises in my head, I start to think about what I’m going to do about this.  I’ve fought my entire career to be treated equal, and he seemed to be the first man to give me that respect right off the bat.  Now, he’s retracting all of that and acting like I’m a piece of fucking glass that can’t handle any real pressure.  What he doesn’t realize is I now have this need to protect him, when I’m sure he thinks he’s doing the same for me.   I’ll be damned if he’s going to treat me like a fragile woman.

The plane ride was irritably quiet after our brief disagreement. He dozed for a bit, while I watched his handsome features. He looks so peaceful with his eyes closed, and yet I know there is a major storm brewing in his head. The eye of it is about to hit. I can feel it. That’s the only reason why I backed down from the real shit I’m feeling inside.

Kaleb may have gotten the impression I receded because he told me to, but I’m just calculating how to go about this.  He’s a complicated man, who is as stubborn as anyone I’ve ever met.  He knows I’m his real challenge, but I refuse to let it darken the day I meet his mom and sister.  I’ll talk to him as soon as we leave their house. 

I try really hard to set it all to the back of my mind, but I’m still fuming by the time we walk through the terminal and even down the stairs toward baggage claim, where we meet Kaleb’s mom and sister.  It all temporarily subsides the moment I see the female with a mile-wide smile on her face once she spots her son.

“Kaleb.” She wraps both her arms around his waist in a hug one can only get from their mother. It’s a sight to behold, seeing this big, bearded man covered in tats with muscles bulging in his shirt sleeves squeeze his mom while she rests her head on his chest.

“I missed you, old lady.” I haven’t given a whole lot of thought on what to expect when I met his family, but surely not this. I feel like a damn intruder as I watch her pull away from him only long enough to look at his face through her tears, then go in for another tight hug.

“You must be Jade.” I turn to a woman I assume is his sister when I hear my name called. They look nothing alike, except those same deep, penetrating eyes. She’s free and clear of makeup and absolutely stunning.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Amelie,” I express truthfully as my hand goes out to shake hers.

“A true soldier, I see.” She takes my hand in hers. She seems very warm and friendly, and that’s something I’m not accustomed to.

“You have no idea how happy we are to finally meet the woman who has captured Mr. Grouchy Pants here.” She punches her brother in his arm, obviously to get his attention. I love reconnecting moments like this, especially now with everything this tender-hearted yet struggling man has been through.

I feel the love pouring out of his mom when the two switch positions, allowing Amelie and Kaleb to embrace. He keeps his arm around her neck and pulls me into the other side of his body.

“Mom. This is Jade. Jade, my mom, Evie.” No handshake from her. I’m brought into her embrace as well and have no choice but to encircle her in my own arms. 
She reminds me of my mom.

“This is a great day. Finally, he has found someone. I hope he treats you right.” Evie teases her son as she steps back from me. Her gaze goes back and forth between the two of us, and I know she’s observing us and probably picking up on a little tension even though we’re both trying to hide it.

“Of course, I do. I had to live with the two of you, didn’t I? Specifically, this one.” He jeers his head toward his sister.

“Ha. Come on, Jade. Let me fill you in on the younger days of the badass, pain in the ass Kaleb Maverick.” Amelie hooks her arms through mine. Her loud voice carries us all the way through the airport until we’re outside and in the car.  Her laughter and stories continue until we’re about halfway to his mom’s house.  I love hearing her insight and smile even wider when Kaleb corrects her story to his view of how it went.

We pull into the long drive, and I can’t take my eyes off the house in front of me. Its historical beauty takes my breath away.  “This is gorgeous,” I tell them as Kaleb grabs ours bags and leads me through the black rod iron fence.  There’s a swinging gate to the white picket fence and green painted stairs that match the color of the house.

“Wait until you see the inside.” Amelie opens the big, wooden door, and as we step through it, I let out an unfamiliar gasp. I don’t gasp when it comes to material things. I don’t get all tied up in knots over homes, but this…. Seeing where Kaleb grew up, pictures of him and his sister and Ty in every stage of their lives all over the walls and along the mantel of the fireplace, brings tears to my eyes.

How could Ty turn his back on this? How could he walk away from a family who’s full of support and unconditional love? I could ask myself the same question about the few years I became detached from my family. Although, I lost my true self when I lost my brother. My heart bleeds for his mom, his sister, and for him. Because, as of now, Ty is very much alive in this family.