I thought of the CO as I did my laps in the indoor pool. Swimming helps me to relax and clear my head when it gets too hot, or when something keeps rattling around in there. It wasn't long before I felt the stress begin to leave me and my limbs became more relaxed and pliant as the tension eased. Only in the water do I feel this at peace. An old woman once told me that it was because of my 'gift'. Apparently those things are all connected to the elements or some shit. I could do without this 'gift' as she called it, though it has helped me out a time or two in the past. And then there're the times when it's a right pain in the ass; like now. From the time I was a very young kid, before my dad tried to beat it out of me, I had a very strong sixth sense. Apparently it's something that ran in the male line of my family. Some Celtic shit that had been passed down since the days of the druids or some fuck. Fuck if I know, I grew up on the streets
That was the night they became my brothers in heart. It was from that moment on that the seven of us just clicked into place for me. That was a lifetime ago now and we'd come very far and had faced some serious shit together over the years that had only made us closer, stronger. As time went by we became more than just a team. I don't remember us ever being apart even when we came back stateside after that. Lo had decided to take our training a step farther and since we were a motley crew of semi orphans, we all just seemed to fall into brotherhood. Before that I was more of a loner; still have a bit of the lone wolf in me. The navy hadn't knocked the stubborn out of me and I'd say for sure if not for my brothers, my ass wouldn't have made it out of the sling a time or two. But since we 'semi retired' I've calmed the fuck down like ninety percent. Lo has a lot to do with that. He knows each of us almost as well as we know ourselves. That's why he's so good at
We've had to protect women before but under very different circumstances. There's a big difference between shielding girls and women in a school in Kabul that was under threat of being bombed because some asshole didn't think women should learn shit, and having that shit happening in your own backyard, with women that are now family. The situation still gives me pause, but I can't say that I would wish for things to be different at this stage. I can't imagine them not being here, part of the fabric of our lives. My brothers are happy and after the shit we'd seen together in the field, I can honestly say, they deserve every bit of that happiness. I'll do whatever it takes to see that nothing and no one fucks with it and them. It hadn't been easy at first, had taken some getting used to for the rest of us each time another one fell. It had been just us guys for so long that suddenly having the care of females was going to take some reorganizing on our part.
I looked back at Quinn once before following the others to Lo's house for lunch. I can't put my finger on it, and he's so good at camouflaging shit when he wants to that it had taken me a while, but something's up. Ever since that early morning phone call I knew he was hiding something but had let myself be convinced otherwise. I was tempted to go back and get that shit out of him, but the baby distracted me when she met us at the door. She babbled away about something or the other that only Ty understood and the rest of us became bystanders to their continuing saga. I don't care how hard you are, nothing melts you faster than a tiny tot with attitude and a chip on her shoulder. She read Ty's ass but good. The rest of us got a few eye rolls and finger shakes, but he was her mark no doubt. It was hard not to smile at the two of them and their antics. Once he picked her up and cleared the way we made it inside where the women met us w
We'd dug into Mancini, as much as it's possible to dig into a spook or whatever the fuck the guy is. And though we're all agreed he's our kind of people, it's still not easy for us to just put ourselves in someone else's hands; especially not when the storm was raging all around us. For the women though, it was probably the best move. Not that we couldn't protect them, but with everything else we had on our plate and as far reaching as the shit seemed to be, it might be good to have a little extra help while we hunted assholes. Ty came back inside with the baby who'd calmed down to the sniffles. He was still looking at Zak like he wanted to shoot him when he took his set with baby Zak on his lap. She said some shit to him that he understood and he put her down after wheedling a kiss from her. The guy is such a sap. She made her way to her daddy on toddling legs and stood at his knee. Zak pretended not to see her as she clasped her hands and peered at h
The uncle I was forced to live with for the four years before joining up hadn't helped matters any. I think the fucker only took me in for the sole purpose of tormenting me for whatever slight he believed my parents guilty of. After dealing with his special brand of care after their passing and I was left at his mercy, I'd grown a new hard shell. That shit was titanium and nothing was ever getting through it again. I'd locked my heart off from ever feeling anything resembling love again. It took me years to realize that that was just anger and pain from my loss. After these fucks had sledge hammered my walls and wormed their way into my good graces it was a wrap. I laughed along with them and their silly arguments now, knowing that it was just their way of letting off steam and taking a load off from the hell we've been dealing with just lately. This too was something new I was learning to get used to. It was a side to them that I'd never seen before,
I leaned back against the steps of the CO's mansion with my eyes closed and the hot Georgia sun warming my face enough to distract from the ass-fuckery that was going on inside my head. The others should be coming back from lunch soon and even though they'd been gone for over an hour, it still wasn't long enough. That feeling beneath my skin had now become a raging inferno. The sense that I needed to move was strong but I still had no idea where the fuck I was supposed to go. The longer it lingered the more positive I became that the shit was personal. If we were in the middle of an Op I could whittle shit down if I wasn't shown where the danger laid outright. It's rare, but every once in a while my 'gift' likes to fuck with me and leave me guessing. In those cases I could usually work my way around to the truth but there were two things hindering me this time around. One, I was absolutely certain that this had nothing to do with what we were
I'm afraid if something doesn't give soon, there will be hell to pay. And on that thought, I finally sat up and gave him an answer. "Nothing Dev, I just feel...off. Like that feeling you get before the other shoe drops." He clapped me on the shoulder and took a seat next to me. "You wanna go for a run?" Yeah, maybe some physical exercise might clear my head. Somehow I didn't think so though, and besides I didn't feel like leaving the grounds, not until I got a handle on things. Not until I was sure where the danger lay. "No, I don't want to leave the others unattended. I need to stay close to home today." That was the only thing I was sure of. Which only added to my unease. I couldn't see the threat, but I knew it was close to home. I won't leave them unprotected. My brothers had their attentions divided between ending the threat posed my the Desert Fox and their pregnant women. I can do no less than to stand guard over all of them. To stand between t