ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (95 page)

“You broke the table, Daddy.” 

Vince heaved, pulling air into his lungs with as much strength as he could muster.  He had to get himself under control, or his daughter would be scared of him for life.  His normally dark brown eyes flashed a golden color in Sydney’s direction. 

Sydney eased out of her chair, keeping her eyes on Vince.  He followed her movement.  A predator watching his prey.  She reached Dakota and took her by the hand.  The hardest part was turning her back.  She expected to hear a growl then snap of teeth just before he attacked. 

Sydney quickly took Dakota back to her room and locked the door, cursing herself for not grabbing a phone on the way. 

“Mommy?”  Dakota’s eyes were huge and tears were just beginning to leak out. 

“Shhh…it’s ok.”  Sydney took her into her arms and sat on the bed to wait.  Wait for what she didn’t know.

Stanley Michaels opened the front door with a yawn, scratching the side of his head and standing in only his boxers. 

“This better be good, man.” 

“Can I stay here tonight?”  Vince hated how hollow his voice sounded. 

Stanley’s lip curled on one side, waiting for the punch line.  His eyes grew large as he realized Vince was serious. 

“Hey, yeah…come in.” 

A female called from the bedroom.  “Stanley?  Who was it?”

Stanley Michaels held up a finger and went to the entrance of the hallway.  “It’s Vince, babe.  Go back to sleep.” 

“Hi, Vince.”  She murmured sleepily. 

Vince cleared his throat.  “Hi, Annette.” 

Stanley shook his head.  “If she finds you here in the morning, you know she’s calling Sydney.”  He sat on the couch.  “What happened?” 

Vince lowered himself onto Stanley’s recliner.  He thought they had a nice apartment.  They didn’t qualify for the bigger and better housing since they didn’t have children, but Annette had made the space really nice. 

“Vince?”

“I don’t know what to say.  Things haven’t been good between Sydney and me for a while.  I had a little problem at breakfast, she called me a bastard…nothing new there…when I came home this evening…she dropped the divorce word like a bomb while calmly sipping her damn wine!” 

“Ok…but what happened?”

Vince felt his stomach turn over.  “I broke the kitchen table.” 

Stanley let his head drop an inch.  He opened his mouth, but chose to just shake his head instead. 

“I didn’t touch her.”

“Did she call the MP’s?” 

Vince shook his head. 

“How’s Dakota?”

Vince shrugged.  “She heard the commotion and got out of bed.  She’s scared, I think.” 

Stanley chewed on the inside of his cheek.  “Syd ask you to leave?”

“Nah.  I just thought I should.” 

Stanley stood with a light slap to his knees.  “I’ll get you a pillow and blanket.”

Vince waited for him to come back, realizing that he really didn’t want to sleep.

“Let me ask you a question.”  Stanley said as he handed Vince the pillow and blanket.  “Why were you out all day since we just came in yesterday?”

“Like I said, I was a little weird at breakfast.  I just didn’t want to be there.” 

“Flashbacks?”

Vince stared at him without speaking. 

“Right.  Look, Vince, you’re a good guy and a hot shot sniper, but you’re destroying your family.” 

“I didn’t come here to be lectured.”  He said dryly. 

“No, maybe not, but you need to hear it.  You’re up for OSC.  Do you really want to go through that hell with a nasty divorce riding your back?” 

“Not really.” 

Stanley looked at Vince with a mixture of pity and impatience.  “Do you even love her, man?”

Vince didn’t need to think about his answer.  “Yes.” 

Stanley looked relieved.  “Good.  There’s your starting point.  The next step is talking to her…I mean the kind of talking where you might have to listen…a lot.  The step after that is a checkup for the old noggin.  You need to get the flashbacks under control.”

“It’s better when I’m over there.” 

Stanley nodded his understanding.  “Yeah.  Over there we’re living it.  Here…we have to face the demons while picking out paint and cereal.” 

“Interesting analogy.” 

“Ever seen the Hurt Locker?”

“Bunch of times.”

“Then you understand what I’m saying.”

Vince nodded as Stanley walked into the hallway, shutting off the light as he went. 

Sydney cautiously opened Dakota’s bedroom door, glancing back once at her sleeping daughter.  The house had been quiet for over an hour.  She wasn’t sure if she heard the car start up and leave, but she didn’t think she had.             

          Sydney cut the light on in the kitchen and assessed the damage.  The table was destroyed.  It had been the first thing they had purchased as a married couple.  Vince had said to hell with the sofa and chair, a man needed a place to eat!  She had laughed at him, and readily agreed.  They laughed a lot back then, and the world had seemed open to them, just there for the taking.  When did it change? 

A shuddering breath hitched Sydney’s sides.  She covered her mouth with on hand, a strangled cry escaping through her lips.  When had she become such a bitch?  The request for divorce was only halfhearted.  She wanted him to see her.  She wanted him to sweat. 

Sydney slid down the wall, hugging her knees into her chest.  She knew she had no right to ask him to stop being what he naturally was, after all she had married him knowing he was a Werewolf, she had just been afraid.  Dakota was the main reason for that fear.  Sydney herself had only seen him in his wolf form a couple of times, and if she were to be honest, it had scared the shit out of her.  She didn’t want her daughter to experience it.  At least not just yet.  When Vince had dropped the bomb shell that Dakota had a chance of becoming one too after she hit puberty, it was too much for Sydney, and she had forbidden him to be what he was anymore.  If he shifted while deployed, well that was on him.  If what he had said was truth though, he had honored her wishes even while overseas. 

Sydney stood and began picking up the shattered remains of her kitchen table.  The shrill ringing of the phone caused her to jump, and she grabbed the receiver before it could ring again and wake Dakota, not bothering to check the caller ID.  

“Hello?”  

Sydney could hear static and a faint popping noise on the line.  She was about to say hello again, when a heavily accented male voice pushed through the noise on the line. 

“Vince Torres.” 

“I’m sorry, but he’s not in right now.  May I take a message?”

The line noise was her initial answer.  She twirled the phone cord around one finger and waited. 

“Hello?  May I take a message?” 

“Tell him he’s a dead man.” 

Sydney pulled the receiver away from her ear like it was hot.  The line had gone dead, but she listened anyway.  The caller ID was blank.  She didn’t know what to do, so she did the only thing she could do. 

Vince had just drifted off to sleep when his cell phone began chirping on Stanley’s coffee table.  He looked at the screen and sat up. 

“Yeah?”  He wanted to sound bruised and angry, but the sliver of hope was audible even to Vince’s ears.

“There was a phone call, and I think the man was foreign, and he asked for you, and then he said to tell you you’re a dead man, and I’ve turned off all the lights, but I want you to come home right now!”

Sydney’s voice sounded like machine gun fire. 

“Hold on, Syd, calm down!” 

“I want you…to…come…home…now!”

“Ok.  Just hold on.  I’ll be there in a few minutes.” 

Vince was up and knocking on Stanley’s bedroom door before Sydney could hang up the phone on the opposite side of housing.

Stanley looked legitimately angry as he swung his bedroom door open.  “What, Vince?”

“I gotta go home.  Sydney had some weird phone call, something about a foreign guy asking for me and telling her to tell me that I’m a dead man.” 

Stanley’s angry face smoothed into one of stunned silence. 

“Oh shit, Vince!”  His words were whispered.

“Yeah.  Look thanks, but I need to get home.” 

Stanley followed Vince up the short hallway.  “You need to let the powers that be know!  We didn’t take out a low grade terrorist last week, we took out a pretty freaking important terrorist!” 

Vince looked at him, and nodded gravelly before walking into the night. 

Stanley yelled after him, not caring what neighbors heard.  “This is serious!  I’m coming over!”

Vince started off at a trot, but was soon sprinting, his Nike’s making a soft slapping sound on the pavement.  It was a bad situation but it felt good to run full out.  If anyone looked out of their windows they would see a streak.  If they did determine it was a man, they would chalk it up to indigestion or night terrors, because no man can run that fast.

Sydney only half rose from the end of the couch as Vince unlocked the door.  She had one of Vince’s firearms on the cushion in front of her, and she had kept her hand on it since pulling it out of the closet.

Vince blinked at the darkness, but he found Sydney easily.  He could smell her fear.  He cut on a light and sat in front of her, gently moving the gun from her shaky grasp.  His eyes were large with worry. 

“It was a terrorist wasn’t it?”  Her voice sounded like she had been running too.

“I don’t know.” 

“You don’t…”  Her words trailed off.  “I’ve never asked you what you do when you’re gone.”

Vince lowered his eyes briefly before looking at her again. 

“I know you can’t tell me, but…”

Light shone through the living room window, sending rays of brightness through and around the pulled drapes.  Sydney’s eyes widened with fear.  A light knock sounded at the door. 

“It’s ok.”  Vince said and stood to answer it, opening it for Stanley and Annette.  Stanley exchanged a grave look with Vince as Annette descended on Sydney.  She had her bathrobe tied tightly and her slippers made a swooshing noise against the carpet.  She wrapped her dark arms around Sydney. 

“Are you ok?”

Sydney nodded against her shoulder.  “It was just scary.” 

“I bet.”  She leaned back and looked at Sydney with concern.  “I’ve never heard of something like this happening.” 

“Me either.” 

The two women looked back at their men whispering in the corner by the front door.  They were strikingly different in appearance.  Vince was tall with broad shoulders and the swarthy skin of his Spanish heritage; whereas Stanley was only 5’9” thin and wiry with pale skin and reddish hair that sat high on his forehead due to a severe widow’s peak.

Stanley’s green eyes were intense.  “Vince, you can’t play around with this.” 

“What if it’s just a prank?”

Stanley shook his head.  “A prank?  Really?”

Vince sucked his lower lip into his mouth.  “What if it has something to do with who we just took out?  How would anyone over there get my private number?”

Stanley stared at him blankly.  “Are you serious?  There are active terrorist cells all over the U.S.  How do you know the informant wasn’t playing devil’s advocate?” 

Vince looked over Stanley’s shoulder and directly into Sydney’s eyes.  She was still on the couch with Annett’s arm draped over her shoulder.  If they had his home number, they had access.  They had access to Sydney and Dakota.  He clenched his jaw and spoke quietly to Stanley. 

“I’ll make the call.” 

Captain Raymond Tillman looked out of his office window with his thick arms behind his back.  His fingers ticked together in a nervous way.  Captain Bryant was flying in later that day.  There would be a briefing, lots of talk, but the bottom line was that not much could be done.  The secretive, sometimes line riding between legal and illegal, were necessary in light of the dangers their great nation faced.  What spec op teams had to do were sometimes shady, but necessary.  Captain Tillman was in charge at Little Creek.  He was capable, but he was also tired.  He should have retired years ago. 

“Captain?”

“Yes?”   He didn’t turn from the window.  His view of the water, and boats built for war were just too damn comforting. 

“Petty Officer Torres and Petty Officer Michaels are here.” 

“Send them in.” 

Captain Tillman turned from the window with a sigh.  He seated himself behind his too large desk and folded his hands, still itchy for movement, in front of him. 

Vince and Stanley entered his office and saluted.  He informed them to just sit down. 

“Alright, boys, let’s hear it.” 

Vince spoke first.  “I think this may be connected to the Prince of Hearts.” 

“Son, you’re state side.  You don’t have to use the code names.”