EPILOGUE 2 Carson
I walked through the house, staring at the empty spaces, waiting for someone to come along and fill them up. For one week, nearly a year-and-a-half ago, an invasion took place. This house was filled with frilly, pink clothes, dolls, dancing, and singing. It all came wrapped in the package of a bright, sassy, brown-haired, blue-eyed girl who wrapped me around her finger like it was the easiest thing in the world. And I realized how much I’d missed in life. There was just one thing missing.
Then she was gone, and everything returned to normal. I hated it. Peace and quiet had always greeted me when I came home to this house. It had been my oasis. My sanctuary. My solitude. Instead of mourning the loss of what this house had been, I found myself mourning the chaos I’d had such a tiny taste of for that week and the few times we’d thrown caution to the wind since then.
But, today, all that would change.
Today, the man and child I loved more than life itself were moving in.
Roman and I had been together, officially, since the day he showed up on my doorstep, surprising me with the news I wouldn’t have to do without him for a year so soon after we got our shit together.
We’d discussed him moving in then, and that discussion was repeated multiple times over the months between then and now. One thing always stopped us: Margot. We worried with her being so young, she would slip up and say something to the wrong person without meaning to. We weren’t willing to push our luck quite that far.
Since that day, we’d watched, with bated breath, as the black cloud of the last decade and a half got blown out of the sky bit by bit. There were more times than I could count when panic would set in, and one or both of us would question if we’d ever get to live our lives out in the open. But we held on tight to each other and the love we shared only grew bigger and deeper with every day.
Then came that faithful day last December. I was out of the country on a mission. My first since the helicopter crash. It was a sucky fucking op for a multitude of reasons. We’d known it was coming, but the green light wasn’t supposed to come until after the new year. So, I’d been tapped for the op early, and I would miss my first Christmas with Roman and Margot.
I ranted the whole time I packed. Roman had spent the night in my bed, so, he’d been there when the call came in. He must’ve gotten tired of my bitchin’ because he grabbed me and tongue-fucked my throat until I forgot what words were.
I tossed his ass on the floor and fucked him until he was just as stupid.
A week later, we returned to base after yet another empty hole that should’ve been teeming with intel and tangos, and I nearly lost my shit. I stomped and threw shit. Finlay got fed up with me.
“If you want to fecking bitch, call someone who likes listening to your belly-aching.”
He opened the door to the hooch we were sharing and shoved me out of it. I turned to walk away, patting my pockets as I did so. Stopping, I banged on the door.
“You’re not comin’ back in here until you chill your tits. Officer or no.”
“I need my phone.”
He stepped aside, and I walked in, my eyes scanning my side of the tiny room. Catching sight of the phone, I walked back out of the hooch. I didn’t want to aggravate Finlay any more than I already had.
When I checked my messages, Roman’s tear-stained face greeted me. At first, I feared something had happened to Margot, one of our parents, or my siblings, but no. He was holding a sign and the message said: IT PASSED.
I looked through the messages, and he’d sent a link, too. I read every link he sent. There had to be a dozen or more of them. When I closed the last link, I sighed. We weren’t quite out of the woods yet, but the treeline was in sight, and that was a damn sight better than where we were this time last year.
I checked the clock and headed back to the hooch. The door swung open, and Finlay was nowhere to be seen. I grabbed my gear, leaving for the showers. It was still the middle of the night in Virginia. As much as I wanted to call, I didn’t want to wake him. He worked his ass off during the day and was carrying the load of all the plans we made for the holiday traditions we both wanted to start together.
“Ensign Wilcox!”
I turned. Foster jogged toward me.
“We need to talk.”
“What’s up?”
He looked around and pulled me aside. “You were right. We have a spy.”
and Roman’s story has ended but the guys of Alpha Team won’t rest until they figure out who has it out for them.
The search begins in Needing Him.