Fight For Us is live! This is a second-chance military romantic suspense containing:
childhood sweethearts torn apart by tragedy
a kicka55 sharpshooting heroine with an attitude problem
an emotional alpha male on a suicide mission
Scroll down to read chapter one now!
“Fight For Us - Chapter One
Nate – near the Syrian/Turkish border
The ammo magazine locked into place with a satisfying click, and I squared my shoulders to the pockmarked wall, trying to keep my mind on the standard weapons check of my rifle. My spine tingled under the tattoo of Kit’s name, and I forced back dangerous regret that I’d never see her face again.
In twenty-four hours, I’d be dead.
I knew she’d forgive me.
Too late for remorse, even if I hadn’t long ago shut down my emotions. Six years it had taken to get here. Six long years of learning from the best in how to fight and how to kill. Now, only hours remained until I could ditch my unit and take my chance.
I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.
Lomax shot me a glance across the bare floorboards of our holding area. He wiped his straight razor across his pants, his head half-shaved. “Is there a problem?”
The rest of our Green Beret Special Forces unit was spread throughout the stucco building overlooking the market town. Recon from Charlie and Griffin on the square outside, on the eyes watching, told us how many guns were trained on each and every window. If I stuck my head up a few inches, I’d lose it.
My mind should be on the mission. On the shit storm we were primed to rain down.
The over-muscled sniper sharing my space knew me well enough to tell something wasn’t right. If Lomax could read my mind, he’d have me hauled in faster than I could blink desert dust from my eye.
Fuck. I needed to dial it back.
“Just ready to go, my brother.”
“Bullshit.” He drew the razor through his fuzz with a scratch of bristles, eyeing me still.
For his sake, I made a show of checking my pack, ignoring his piercing gaze. We were traveling light, but I had all I needed: my SIG side arm, M4 carbine, money to hire a car, and an all-encompassing hatred fueled by loss.
I’d been ready for years.
I was out. Done.
Everyone wanted to kill terrorists, but there was only one in my sights. Araim.
He was mine, a dead man walking.
My father’s murderer.
Dad’s death—the video of his execution—had rocked the nation and had kids signing up to the army like flies swarming a rotting corpse. It had turned me into a machine with only one objective.
Araim was fifty kilometers away. My informant had finally come through.
Even thoughts of the girl I’d left behind couldn’t stop me. I owed this to my dad, and I was the only one who could right the wrong.
So long as the team didn’t guess my intentions, my revenge mission had begun.
***
Kit – Trelaida military base, US
Hot Blond ground his dick against my leg, shoving me through the open door of his quarters. With a slobbering mouth, he sucked on my neck then worked his way down, grabbing hold of my hips over my pants.
“I’m gonna fuck you so hard, baby,” the walking dildo panted, his breath stale beer mixed with a smack of the shots we’d done. “You’re going to see stars. Meteor showers.”
I was so not into this.
The Nate Wolfe effect had struck again.
Ugh. Yeah, right.
My back hit the wall and I rolled my neck, giving him better access, trying to get into the zone. The tension in my muscles desperately needed release. My head ached like I’d smashed rocks with it, the liquor I’d swallowed to kick off my week of leave wearing off far too soon.
What was I even supposed to do for seven days without work? It was enforced R&R after a completed mission, and what a waste of my time. I had no clue how to spend it. If I wanted to feel particularly shitty, I could visit Mom in military prison, but I’d probably do as I’d always done in the past: hit the road and drive until it was time to return.
That was why I was thinking about Nate.
I had nowhere to go, I was that pathetic. It shouldn’t have been like this. We’d had plans. We were never going to enlist like our parents had. The world had been ours to discover together.
Until he’d left.
Thoughts of that abandoned future could get the fuck out of my head.
Avoiding memories of the man wasn’t so easy. I had to hear about his exploits like everyone else. The son of the man famous for being kidnapped and murdered in cold blood was now celebrated in his own right. Nate was the poster boy for military recruitment and national pride from sea to shining sea. Everything he did made America safer. He was the soldier of the people, out there with his unit of full-grown Action Men, taking down the bad guys. He belonged to everyone.
He should have belonged to me alone.
“You know what you do to me when you flaunt this tight little ass around the base?” Hot Blond’s thumbs pressed into my waist, his fingers sliding south. “You thinking about me when you run by every morning? Do your shorts rub you right where you want my tongue?”
Uh, not really.
This guy couldn’t talk dirty for shit. Nate could; we’d learned to do it together. And so, the man ruined my sex life, too. Every guy I hooked up with, it was Nate’s dumbass face I saw. His broad body I compared them to. I couldn’t even remember Hot Blond’s name. Kevin? Kane? Something like that. Whatever it was, if he didn’t shut up, I was seconds away from walking and scratching my itch with my battery-operated boyfriend. At least Sawyer had the night shift and I’d have our barracks room to myself.
Deep in my pocket, my phone buzzed, the sensation the most exciting feeling I’d got all night. Hot Blond made a noise like he was enjoying it, too, but I used the distraction to push him off.
“Sorry, buddy. I need to take this.”
Reaching down, I extracted the phone and checked the screen, blinding bright in the dark of a room that could only exist on a military base. The place screamed army with its standard issue everything. Something a military brat like me knew all too well.
“You fucking kidding me?” he said.
“Give me five.” I patted him on the cheek and squinted at the screen.
Hot Blond groaned then stalked out the door.
I answered the call. It was Sawyer’s name on the display. “What up, Lieutenant Bitch?”
“Where the fuck are you?” Her no-nonsense tone had my whiskey haze receding further.
“Still on base. Some guy’s room. Why?”
“We mobilize in thirty. Get to HQ. Cody went to our block to collect you. I’ll redirect.”
Mobilize? My mind scrambled to keep up. “I’m being deployed? But I’m meant to be on R&R.”
My roommate’s voice barked back, “Postponed. Two days. This is top priority, and you’re assigned essential personnel. Give me your location so I can get Cody’s ass over to you.”
Where was I? “Um, hey,” I called out into the hall. “What block is this?”
“Thirty west, block D. Out on Magnolia. Babe, don’t even think about leaving. We’ve got business to finish. I’m all swollen up here.”
I relayed my location and killed the call, not hiding my snicker. I was Kit Samson, a twenty-four-year-old second lieutenant intelligence officer whose leave had been cancelled, thank fuck, and nobody, nobody, was telling me what I was or wasn’t thinking.
***
Cody gave me a once-over as I jumped into his black MP Jeep, my tank top riding up my belly and my pants button still undone. Aside from Sawyer, he was the only other person at Fort Trelaida I considered a friend. He’d grown up here with Nate and me before he joined the Military Police right out of college.
“Hey. What’s the mission?” I asked.
Cody gunned the engine, a grin stretching his face and a buzz of excitement coming off him in waves. With his brown hair, tan skin, and bright-blue eyes, he was handsome and he knew it. And he’d prowled his way around the barracks more times than I had.
Stretching over, he thwacked my boots off his dash where I’d set them.
“You look like crap, Kit. Who was it this time?”
“Do you hear me asking questions about your sex life? Give me the mission details or shut up and drive.” He’d know what was going on. Cody always knew everything. A benefit of being the son of a commander. The only benefit I could see.
His grin dialed back, and a pensive energy haunted his features. Lights flashed over his face, and we sped up, leaving the quiet residential blocks for the base’s wide main circular road.
“Extraction of a high-priority target. About to go AWOL. Likely a deserter.”
The words penetrated, clearing the last vestiges of my drunken night, and my mind woke into clear, sharp focus. This was a military target. The mission just got way more interesting. “Who?”
Cody hit the brakes, the car squealing around the corner, and the brightly lit HQ building came into sight. “You know I can’t tell you that, Kit, but the man’s in trouble. You’re being sent in to rescue him. Save him from himself.”
***
You’re being sent in to rescue him, save him from himself.
The mantra repeated over and over in time with the drone of the C-130 Hercules engines, and I fidgeted in my seat. None of this made sense. Not the ultra-short briefing I’d been given as I was hustled through the building and out to the airstrip, nor the role I had to play. I’d never had an assignment like this before. So…imprecise, with so few details. My function was intelligence, and I was used to being in the rearguard, providing the information. Clear about what was needed of me.
They’d told me shit.
Aside from Sawyer, I only recognized a couple of other people on the plane. None of my usual unit. Something felt very wrong. Like the objective wasn’t what it seemed and it was a mistake why my name in particular had been pulled out of the hat.
All I was sure about was that I had to walk into a market in a remote dusty village, undercover, and on reconnaissance. For what, I’d be told on the fly. I wasn’t clear what country we were heading for, and I couldn’t find out what the target soldier’s mission had been or why the army cared so much.
Why would the top brass go to such efforts to pull in an AWOL soldier? The most he’d get would be a slap on the wrist for his adventure. It must be someone important.
My hardened, bitter heart beat out of time at the random thought that I might see Nate. Why? I had no reason to expect his Special Forces unit to be there. Even so, it staggered me, just as it did every time I was deployed. The chance to see his face again…
Focus. This is what you’ve trained for.
Binding my hair into a braid, I donned the civilian attire I’d been ordered to wear—the clothes of a married, respectable woman. Inconspicuous, so long as no one could hear the clanging bells of dread that rang in my mind.
Then I waited as the plane sped on, plunging into the dark night ahead.”