Soldier
Morgan
I didn’t sleep a wink. After having sex for the last time in the shower, because I was starting my damn period, we laid down in bed together. He asked that I never doubt how much I am loved, despite the little time we had together. That if something did happen to him, I should know that he died with all the love a man can have for a woman in his heart. He knew I loved him, and he never knew the love of a woman was the only thing he ever really needed, and I gave that to him.
I made him promise to fight hard and do everything in his power to come home to me. I knew I would always wait for him. I promised I’d raise Addie to know he was her real father. He might not have been her biological father, but he only ever wanted to be her dad. I promised Addie would always know him as her dad instead of Shane Doyle. She would grow up knowing her dad was a good man.
Creed eventually fell asleep, and I stayed up all night staring at him and crying. I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget one thing about his beautiful face. At one point, I even used the flashlight on my phone to look at every scar on his chest and abdomen. He had been through so much during his life, and his body was like a book that told a story about a man that believed so deeply in our country, that he would die for it.
I understood my disappointment when I felt the first cramps of my cycle start. I wanted so desperately to keep him with me, even if it was just a part of him. I had myself fooled into thinking I was pregnant because I was late.
It was around three in the morning when he slowly opened his eyes. Not a word was said as I looked into his and our short but intense history played like a movie in them. From the first time I saw him on that plane, to when I almost bumped into him when I opened the bathroom door at the tavern, and the night he pulled me out of that motel room. I never saw a man so intensely distraught when he thought Shane was going into that ambulance. Through his eyes I could hear Addie screaming for him in that hospital as they took her away. Then there was the kindness I finally saw the next morning when he came back to the hospital and told me I was going home with him. On the morning of my best friend’s funeral, I walked downstairs to find a beautiful man with a new light in his eyes. He stayed by my side every moment, even though it exposed him to his selfish mother. Something he avoided for years. Visions of the first time he kissed me, to looking into my eyes as we made love, the way he held Addie and assured her she was safe. In eyes that once looked empty, the same ones that saw death and rape, were now filled with love and warmth.
He reached over and ran his thumb down my cheek. “This, right here, is how I want to remember you. Your natural state, you’re so beautiful, Morgan.”
I knew it was coming, but I jumped when his alarm went off. It was one of the worst sounds I had ever heard in my life. I didn’t know how I was going to let him walk away from me that day. My heart and soul were already being torn from my chest.
“I will never let go of you.” I whispered. I felt the burn behind my eyes and pleaded with my emotions to please have mercy and not let me break down again in front of him. It wasn’t what he needed, he needed me to be strong.
His thumb rested in front of my ear and his fingers rested behind it. “I love you more than anything.” He whispered as he leaned in and kissed me.
He let go and it felt like he ripped a little more of the life inside me away. He had to turn off the alarm and we had a two hour drive to Ft. Knox ahead of us.
I quickly got ready while Creed said he wanted one last hot shower. Melissa came upstairs to stay with Addie, and eventually Axton arrived, and Magnus came downstairs. It was a somber morning. Not even the coffee Creed taught me to make picked up any spirits.
It was when I heard his boot step on the first step that I walked over and held my breath. I saw one black boot then another. A leg in scorpion camouflage, then another, until eventually a soldier stood in front of me. A young handsome soldier whose eyes teared up as he looked down at me. The vision of him in that uniform made it all too real and my emotions escaped just as my legs went numb. My strong and courageous soldier caught me and wrapped his arms around me. I couldn’t take a breath in as I released every bit of fear and grief I held in, the pain of love, and the reality.
“Breathe Morgan.” He instructed and my lungs finally sucked in enough air that it came in one large gasp. The man holding me wasn’t the rough around the edges biker, or the businessman in Armani, not the President of Creed’s Lake, or the man that feared love more than his own death. No, the man holding me was a hero, a patriot, and the man that was supposed to be my husband, the father of my children and my future. My soldier. My protector. My entire world.
“Please Morgan, I need you to be strong right now.” His voice broke because he was crying. His shoulders shook as he buried his face in my neck. Then suddenly they stopped, and his body stiffened, just before my feet left the ground and he picked me up like I weighed nothing. As he carried me bridal style to the Suburban, he didn’t look at me but straight ahead with tears still falling down his cheeks. He sat me in the back then climbed in before pulling me back onto his lap. Creed held me for two hours, all the way to Ft. Knox.
I hated myself for not holding it together. It was the last thing he needed, but I was weak. He needed to see a strong woman that would take care of Addie and wait for him no matter how long it took for him to return. Instead, he got a woman with a wet face and lips when he gave me one last kiss. He turned once and saw that Magnus had to hold me so I wouldn’t chase after him as he got on that bus. I already failed him, and he hadn’t even left American soil yet.
Josh
It was a familiar feeling. I felt it when we buried Barker, Downs, and Pierce. I felt it when I watched our enemy chain Bolton up in front of us in Afghanistan. It was a feeling of doom, and I couldn’t shake it as he stepped on that bus.
I had to rip Morgan away from Creed so he could walk toward that bus with tears in his eyes. I knew Creed for a very long time. I was held captive with him. I watched as he held a baby as she took her last breaths. I knew him when his dad died, and we had been to hell and back together more times than I could count. But I never saw him cry, until that day.
As I held Morgan, her body shook in an unnatural way. I believed in that moment that she felt the most unimaginable pain a person could suffer and be forced to survive.
Creeds mindset didn’t help things. He said his goodbyes, and he meant them as his last goodbye. I knew the moment I heard he was called up again it was because of something huge, but then to learn they were putting that mission together for years, it something bigger than any of us could have imagined. My assumption for what little I knew, was they had him commanding small exercise missions to prepare for a vital mission that was vital to the entire world. Missions were not planned for years then suddenly deployed. Something happened and I suspected it was what happened in Jordan.
Creed didn’t have to tell us what was happening. We knew that day would come, but nobody expected one of us would ever have to face it.
A few years back, Creed was abandoned in the middle east when the military pulled out. It was the first time he was called back. We jumped into action and formed our own mission the second we heard about it. We formed the team at night and by morning we were in the air. We brought Creed home, and even faced charges in Washington for it. We were civilians that made our way into a war zone to fix what the current administration fucked up. The only reason we were let off the hook was because we held so many military contracts and the government wanted to sweep it under the rug, along with the secrets we already kept for them. Creed was brilliant. It was him that designed and led the mission, it was him that took out the high value target, and it was him they didn’t care to bring home before they pulled out. He led a successful secret mission that neutralized a credible threat against several targets in Europe. Creed changed the trajectory of the way the world was heading. It would never show up in his military record, and he’d never see a metal. Instead, he was left to die with so many others.
Over the years, while we were serving and after, there was some chatter of one major terrorist plan that would hit all over the world at the same time. One that would make 911 look weak. It would take years to plant sleeper cells all over Europe, Africa, North America, and Asia.
The bad news was open borders all over the world. There was no way of knowing where to find those sleeper cells. They could have been your dentist, your child’s teacher, your neighbor, seriously anybody. As non-citizens were able to cross borders without being properly vetted plans were being put into place.
The good news was, they only had to find two men to shut the entire thing down. The problem was finding them. One wasn’t even a leader or anyone all that significant if you were looking in from the outside. One was a hopeful martyr, and the other was the keeper to all the secrets. He had every name and every location of every single sleeper cell. He also had the location of the leaders and their families. We lost 37 service members in Jordan, and I knew that meant we were getting close. Other than that, I was in the dark, but I had a feeling the mission was backed by other world leaders, not just our own. I understood Creed’s need to tie up loose ends. It was the mission that would have made lesser soldiers run away with their tails between their legs. The only one since Osama bin Laden that gave every special ops member nightmares. The one they knew they wouldn’t return from, because it was the biggest terrorist operation since 911.
For the duration of Creed’s deployment, our command center would stay up and running at full staff twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Axton ordered it because he wanted to listen closely for any chatter that would involve Creed. Once the intel was known, we would most likely be contacted by The Secretary of Defense to quietly round up sleeper cells as a backup to our military, CIA, and maybe even some foreign agencies. I had a feeling Creed’s squadron would go dark before they even left American soil and that would be under his orders.
I held on to Morgan until she wore herself out, then carried her to the car. Axton drove while I sat in the back and held Morgan.
Morgan Rossi, damn when I saw her on that plane she was a blast from the past. My brother was in Morgan’s class in school. I noticed Morgan when my parents made me go to the preschool to watch my brother's Christmas program. She was probably about Addie’s age, and I was in the third grade. I still remember the first time I saw her. I thought she was the cutest little thing. The girl with jet black hair and almost clear blue eyes stuck out like a sore thumb.
I was four years ahead of her in school and I could remember her first day of her freshman year. It was when everyone else really noticed her. She was previously on some damn soap opera that nobody gave a shit about, and she hadn’t started her television series yet. There was always talk about a kid in our school system that was on television, but a soap opera wasn’t something most kids cared about so we didn’t think about it much. Then the day came where every single red blooded teen boy noticed. By the end of that year, the television series premiered and suddenly we had the hottest and most desired teen girl in the country walking around our school. Guys hung posters of her in their rooms, and they’d watch the series religiously just to see her in the swimsuits she wore in every episode. For a girl her age she had amazing tits, and I had to hear about it all the time.
Holy crap the girls hated her and treated her like shit. But the guys, lets just say there were boners popping up all over school, and it probably wasn’t just the students getting them. She was drop dead gorgeous, but also shy and kind. There I was, a senior with a girlfriend and I needed to know everything there was to know about Morgan.
She was a cheerleader her freshman year, but was bullied in the locker room. She became a tutor after school for the higher functioning special education kids. If a new kid came to school, she and Callie never let them eat lunch alone. She was the sweetest little thing I ever saw, but I didn’t want to date her. Nope, I was getting pussy from Deanna, the evil bitch.
Morgan was like finding the cutest little kitten. You wanted to adore her, not corrupt her. There was a desire to preserve her and keep her safe. I couldn’t name how many times I protected her from the creeps in school, and she didn’t even know it.
Morgan was a subject of contention between me and Deanna. She caught me staring at Morgan one too many times. I’d find out Deanna did something to Morgan and I’d dump her. Then of course Deanna knew how to suck my dick and make me weak, so I’d forgive her, and we’d get back together. I was a kid and thought with the wrong head most of the time. I couldn’t have cared less about Deanna, but I liked fucking her and just let things with her happen. My fascination with Morgan wasn’t a sexual one, as hard as that might have been to believe it was true. She was adorable, genuine, and she wasn’t like other girls. She seemed fragile and sensitive. Like someone that needed to be protected and respected.
Nobody knew it, but Morgan was the reason I dumped Deanna for the very last time. I heard she jumped Morgan in the locker room and that was what it took for me to tell Deanna to fuck off. I never touched her again. Eight weeks later, I was arrested in front of the entire school for rape. Deanna was six weeks pregnant at the time, but everyone took her word over mine. I was able to graduate with my class because I was out on bond, and that was the last time I saw Morgan. She was at the graduation, and I got one small glimpse of her before I walked out of that school and never turned back.
Deanna was the reason my mom died with a stained reputation. It didn’t matter that Deanna lied and all the charges were dropped against me. The damage was done, and it wasn’t just me that suffered for it. Those closest to me, even my friends, were targets of bullies that just happened to be adults. Deanna was and always would be my greatest enemy. The dumb bitch thought she’d get away with it, until the judge ordered a paternity test. She told her parents she was a virgin until I raped her and got her pregnant. There were several guys that volunteered to testify on my behalf. They had all fucked her and that was proof she lied about her virginity in the police reports. Deanna started to feel the heat. She learned that if she testified with the story she concocted she would be arrested for perjury when the paternity test was done, long after my trial. It was during the fact finding that I learned she was six weeks pregnant when I was arrested. I hadn’t touched her in eight weeks, but I had no way to prove it. I also wore a condom every single time we fucked.
Not only did Deanna destroy my life, but she did hers as well. Since we both were only seventeen when it happened, my parents sued hers and won. I lost every scholarship I earned, and my parents took them for everything they had. It wasn’t about money, it was another way to prove the truth. I also hoped it would teach people a lesson about false accusations. After all that happened, Deanna lost her baby, and her parents threw her out. Her parents were wealthier than most people in our community. They weren’t as rich as Creed or Morgan, but they were comfortable. Her dad was an auctioneer, a real estate broker, farmer, and by the time we were in high school he owned a tractor dealership and a few used car lots in nearby towns.
I felt Morgan become heavier when she fell asleep. Once we got back to Creed’s I helped her inside then up to the bedroom. She was exhausted and needed some rest. I kept Addie occupied for the rest of the day while Melissa made dinner and took care of a few other things. Morgan never left her bed, all day or night. Jake Meadows, the bastard, kept coming around all day. He even went up to her bedroom, but that was when I had to put a stop to it. That bedroom was for Creed and Morgan. I’d never sit by and allow another man in that bedroom. I didn’t care that he was Creed’s cousin and Morgan’s friend. I wasn’t just there to watch out for Morgan and Addie. I was there to watch out for my brother as well
Eventually, I laid in bed and thought about Creed and Morgan. Creed was the most brilliant and diplomatic man I ever knew. He was smooth and skilled in the way he handled others. Rarely showed emotion, in fact, he never really smiled much. Sure, we had a good time, and we could make him laugh, but he was grounded and understood the reality of life. He created Creed’s Lake to help soldiers who probably couldn’t acclimate to civilian life as easily as others.
He was a big guy, but didn’t have the kind of body build that would be intimidating at first glance. He was athletic more than anything, but it was the way he would look at people that felt threatening. He didn’t just have walls built to protect him from his emotions, the man was a fortress.
Then one day it happened right in front of our eyes. It was something that none of us, but Granger ever believed in. It was something to watch, for sure, it might have even been fascinating. All it took was one look at Morgan and Addie for him to transform into a man none of us knew. We would catch him smiling for no reason, we would have to snap him back to reality in meetings because he would get lost in his thoughts, and he was always rushing to get home. All he ever talked about was Morgan and Addie. I even saw him turn down contracts that would keep him in the command center at night. His heart didn’t seem to be in Creed’s Lake so much anymore.
I had heard about couples being consumed in love but never really gave it much thought. I might not have even believed it until I saw all the shit go down with Creed. Maybe he was just as sick and tired of life the way I was beginning to be. My place was quiet at night. Too damn quiet. The girls in the community were getting to be boring. Lockdown was almost unbearable, and I knew I needed more in my life. I just wasn’t sure what more meant.