Chapter Five
Blade
T he passenger door opened.
My Sig was drawn and aimed before the humidity hit the interior of the rental.
Alpha slid into the front seat.
I holstered my piece.
Not saying dick, he scanned the shit neighborhood.
“ Christ ,” I muttered. “Spit it out.”
“Sole Survivor Policy. You took the out.”
I turned to glare at him. “You’re not active duty anymore or my CO.” Not that he didn’t have connections coming out of his ass. “There’s only one way you’d know about that.”
“Two, actually. But you’re referring to the letter your mother sent before her death.” He tipped his chin at my SOB holster. “You forgot to turn in your weapon.” Then his gaze cut pointedly to my NWU Type II camo pants I’d changed into after the funeral.
Pissed off, I lied about the 9mm. “Not fucking regulation issued.” It was. Every SEAL got a Sig P226 Mk 25.
Alpha called me on my bullshit. “The engraved anchor on the slide says otherwise.” He scanned the street again. “But that’s not why I’m here.”
Fucking asshole. “Let me guess, you make a habit of tracking down newly discharged SEALs to recruit them for your defense contractor bullshit.” Reflexive, I followed his gaze.
“No.”
I glanced back at him.
Alpha met my glare with his usual unreadable mask. “I do that before they’re discharged.”
Adam “Alpha” Trefor had been our Team leader before he’d taken a few rounds too many in his shoulder. Fully operational after they stitched him up, but not having complete range of motion in his arm, they’d offered him a desk or a medical discharge. He took the latter, and Alpha Elite Security was born. Three years later, his company was killing it.
Still. Fuck him. “You knew about the letter.”
He didn’t deny it. “I did.”
“She sent it to you?” Ballsy move on my mother’s part.
“One to me and one to your brother’s Team leader.”
Christ . “Of course she did.” Probably right before she offed herself. “Covering all her bases was her specialty.” She’d single-handedly held down the fort and raised three unruly sons while my old man took deployment after deployment—the fucking dick. “Can’t blame her.” Not after what happened to my youngest brother. “But I’m fucking offended Church’s Team leader got one.” Not that my mom would’ve known who was going to kick it first, but I was the logical choice.
“She was a practical woman.”
I glanced at Alpha to see if he was fucking placating me.
Staring straight ahead, he wasn’t.
I leaned back in the driver’s seat and embraced the suck. “What’d the letter say?”
“You didn’t see it?”
“No.” I’d purposely avoided reading the damn thing. “What’d she do? Type that shit up and sign my fucking name?” Standard protocol mandated that I had to request the sole survivorship discharge. I hadn’t. Turned out, the Navy didn’t care.
Alpha let loose with a rare half smile. “She didn’t forge your signature. But it was a colorfully worded letter.”
I smirked. “She lived with my old man her entire adult life.” Then suffered through three sons who all took after him. Jesus. “She was a fucking saint.”
“With a last wish,” Alpha replied somberly.
“Yeah. A last wish to get my ass out of forward deployments, cripple my chances of operating, and strap me to a goddamn desk if I didn’t take orders. Like I said. Fucking insulting.”
Trefor knew better than to comment.
For two minutes we sat in the rented SUV as the AC blasted. I stewed over the same goddamn thing I’d been zeroing in on since I’d gotten in the rental. Who the fuck knew what my former Team leader was thinking.
Alpha glanced at the bar I’d parked in front of. “Drink?”
I scanned the outside of the shithole. “No.” I didn’t need to fuck with my headspace any more than I already had.
“You want me to infer why you’re here?”
Fucking Alpha. “You can take the SEAL out of the Teams, but you can’t take the Team leader out of the SEAL.”
“Something like that.”
Done with this conversation, but knowing he’d tracked me down to Florida for a reason, I didn’t bother saying shit else, but I also didn’t kick him out of the rental.
Alpha clocked a hooker on the corner, an old man pushing a folding grocery cart, and the front of the bar before he spoke up. “Your brother.”
“Which one?” I knew who.
“Church.”
I didn’t comment.
Alpha nodded toward the shithole. “He frequented this bar.”
Maybe, maybe not. Church had claimed this was where he was when he’d called me. Newly civilianized, I didn’t have the resources to verify. But Alpha did, and it wasn’t a coincidence he was here. “Your dog and pony show.” I wasn’t tipping my hand.
Turned out, I didn’t have to.
Alpha looked at me and once again proved why he’d been the best Team leader the SEALs ever had.
“You don’t believe Church is dead.”