No Man Left Behind (No Fail Heroes #6)

1. Leave No Man Behind

Chapter 1

Leave No Man Behind

M arcus Ramirez hoped he wouldn’t have to think about the process of walking for much longer. According to the physical therapists, his new prosthesis required active thinking for the first few weeks. Improvements in technology meant changes in the device and the way his body reacted to it. It hadn’t taken him long to get used to the original, so he hoped this upgrade would be the same. At least it was his left foot, so the drive back to Vermont didn’t require extra thinking.

Instead of heading straight to his home when he arrived in town, Marcus parked in the central lot on Phail Way. As always, the name made him smile. Phail might be a terrible name for a town, but it had grown on him. At least he didn’t have to put up with Phail for a surname like his buddy Troy.

Because Marcus had been gone for a week to get the new lower leg and foot, the town had been with no law enforcement. He’d asked deputies in neighboring towns to be on call, but he hated asking for favors. He preferred to be on duty so he could deal with any issues himself. But he wouldn’t mind some permanent backup.

Extra officers had become a necessity. The town was growing, in large part due to the improvements initiated by his army brothers. The six of them had spent nearly a decade together, moving from one hot spot to another. They’d rebuilt towns, dug wells, aided the wounded, and taken down scum.

Now, Troy had convinced the entire group to move to his hometown, named after Epic’s family, of course. It was amazing to have his team together, and Marcus was glad to have his friends close. If something had gone wrong while he’d been getting his new prosthesis, he knew they could handle it, with or without the support of nearby deputies.

There’d been rumors of new government funding announcements coming soon, and he hoped Phail was on the list. It was past time to get an actual police station, along with more officers.

Marcus’s steps slowed as he reached the end of the sidewalk on this side of Phail Way Park. There were paths that wandered from the park into the woods beyond. The town had been adding benches and bridges to cross the small waterways as money and time allowed. It was a great area to walk, but that wasn’t his intention today.

Instead, he studied the final building on the street. It had originally housed the town’s telegraph office. Its most recent incarnation had been a bookstore, obvious from the faded sign listing on the porch and the rows of bookshelves that lined the main floor. Edie and Jane had decided to sell their books so they could play on the beach year-round and the building had been empty for a few years.

Marcus wanted this building to get a new life as a police station when that funding came in. He currently used the back room of Phail General as his office. He and the town had outgrown it.

Over the past years, it had become obvious the town needed two separate holding cells rather than the small one installed in his current office. He also wanted privacy for conferences and interviews. A space to speak with victims without criminals in the cell hearing every word. Storage space for evidence, and a secured area for anything dangerous. An actual office with a door would be great, too.

He’d get the key again and walk through the space with Sean Falcone. His buddy Falcon ran a construction business and could estimate the cost of upgrading the store to a real police station.

Marcus hoped to renovate the second floor as living spaces for new recruits. He needed funding for two or three people. Having a space where new officers could live while they figured out town life would be a bonus.

His wish list for the building held dozens of items. All prioritized. He didn’t need everything on his list, but he wanted them. Wanted to attract quality candidates. Small-town law enforcement had perks and downsides. He didn’t want to be searching for new officers every few years. He wanted people who would stay, and who would love this quirky town.

If getting all of that was out of reach of the funding, Marcus would toss in some of his savings and a lot of his sweat equity to get this building. He could count on his buddies to help him out as well.

His stump ached from standing in the new prosthesis, so Marcus turned to walk again. He kept stump socks in his office, car, and at home. The injury never slowed him down, but the leg swelled and shrank during the day. Keeping extra socks on hand to accommodate that helped. Right now, he needed to peel off a layer to be comfortable. Sitting would help, too.

For a moment, he considered trekking through the woods behind the bookstore. His house sat on the next street over, which was another mark in the plus column for buying this building.

Deciding to check in with his friends instead, Marcus headed to the Saloon. Falcon and his partner, Branna O’Dea, ran the pub. It had quickly become a gathering place for the town. If anything untoward had happened in his absence, Marcus bet he would hear about it within a minute of stepping inside. His friends would have told him if anything serious had occurred but they’d have kept some things quiet if they could. They were always on him to take time off.

Luck was on his side as the entirety of his team and their ladies sat at one of the tables. They waved him over with a chorus of welcome back and how’d it go ?

He took the chair Troy pulled out. “All good. Any problems while I was gone?”

Troy laughed. “Seriously, Arrow? Two words before you ask about your job?”

He raised an eyebrow at Epic until the man rolled his eyes. “Man, you gotta get yourself a life right along with the job.”

The others nodded at that comment, but Marcus turned his expression to serious. “My job is to keep your asses safe. You’d think you’d be a little more appreciative.” He even managed to keep a straight face while he said it.

As expected, the entire group laughed, including Sean, who arrived to place a beer in front of him. “Welcome back, Arrow. The town survived just fine. A dozen families moved out, a flash flood took out the farms, and a small volcano popped up behind the brewery. You know, normal stuff.”

That had Marcus grinning as he sipped the beer. This one was Scooby’s Sweet Porter. Good, but he was looking forward to the stout they would be brewing soon.

As a way of luring the team to town, Troy had come up with the idea for the six of them to build and run a brewery together.

Marcus hadn’t believed the idea would work, but now, the six of them lived in Phail. They all had other careers and worked at Phail Brewery around their schedules. Levi even grew the hops for their beer. Troy’s vision had come to life. All five of Marcus’s friends had also found women they wanted to spend their lives with. Those women had careers that helped the town as well.

Marcus was the odd man out on the romance side of things, but that wasn’t a problem. He hadn’t given much thought to that part of his life since that horrific day overseas when he’d lost his lower leg. They’d lost Garrett’s K-9 partner in the explosions. The German Shepherd had been instrumental in saving the villagers and his team. The target had been a school for girls because some idiots didn’t like that.

The assholes had burned the fields and attacked the school, unaware that Marcus and his team had arrived. The insurgents had been run off, and the people saved, but the decimated fields meant most had been forced to move elsewhere, including the woman who had been teaching the kids.

As he often did, Marcus wondered what Elina was up to these days. He’d avoided searching for her online. Not that he’d have gotten far, as he didn’t even know her last name. He’d required a lot of hospital care to save his life and then get his prosthesis. She’d probably forgotten him by now.

Still, he wondered where she was and how she was doing.

E lina Vasquez soaked up the scenery as she drove from Albany to Vermont. She’d enjoyed her week in New York’s state capital, exploring art galleries and flea markets. Not that she’d bought anything. Without a permanent home, she didn’t accumulate physical items.

But she did accumulate memories and images. Albany’s galleries boasted incredible exhibits, including animé and Renaissance. She thought she could survive solely on the joy of those images for a week or two.

Well, as long as she had her tablet so she could keep up with her comic strips. And chocolate. And kahwa tea. Or chai. Okay, so she wasn’t exactly living life without the finer things.

Those thoughts brought her right back to Afghanistan. The village of Suraih and the people she’d worked with for a few years. Those people hadn’t had an abundance of physical things, but they’d had the important stuff. Love, work ethic, family. Every home had pots of tea prepared, ready to share with guests. It had been a wonderful village until the insurgents had attacked and changed everything.

So many hard memories of that time. She refused to let them blot out the good ones. The villagers had been wonderful people. She’d enjoyed living there and helping to educate the children. The girls had been thrilled to be included, and teaching had been a joy. But she couldn’t go back to that life. She wasn’t brave enough.

Her current mission was to find Arrow. The man had saved her life, along with those of the girls in the school. He and his team of soldiers hadn’t ever used their real names, so finding Arrow was difficult. But she wanted to make sure he was doing well. That he’d not only survived the wall caving in on him but that he was thriving.

He’d been unconscious, and his leg had been crushed when the helicopter had lifted him out. Blood had poured from his body in terrifying amounts. His team had been devastated but they’d stayed on, helping the villagers gather what they could. Their crops had been burned in the attack, so they needed to find a new home.

The attack had taken the heart out of Elina, and she’d planned to ask the remaining men on Arrow’s team if they could assist her in getting back to the States. Unfortunately, they’d been called out to a hotspot, so she’d moved on with the villagers.

She shook her head to clear it. There was no point in remembering what had happened after that. She’d survived and was back in her home country. Had been for years.

And if she couldn’t find a place to settle, that was on her. Instead of moping about it, she’d decided on her months-long mission to cross the country to find Arrow.

One person in a country of over three hundred million. When she didn’t have a picture or a name. One of the helicopter pilots had slipped and called Arrow Mar… before cutting himself off.

Elina wasn’t sure if it was a first name or a last name. Mark. Marco. Marshall. Marvin. Marconi. Martin. So many possibilities.

Arrow and his teammates had been visiting Suraih for a few years, and the villagers had trusted and respected them. In conversations over that time, she’d learned a little about all the men.

The man they called Epic had often talked about getting his teammates to move back to his hometown after they retired from the army. She didn’t think he’d ever mentioned the town name or even the state, but it had been somewhere with winter. Elina hoped she would one day find Epic and his town. And maybe even Arrow himself.

Would he think she was weird for searching him out? Maybe. But it was something she needed to do. She wanted to thank him. And she wanted to see him again.

He’d always helped her feel safe. Protected. She patted her Accord’s steering wheel. “And let’s not forget the chemistry. The man pretty much exuded the stuff.” Her cheeks flushed at the thought. They’d never exchanged an inappropriate word or touch, but she’d wanted to. And if she hadn’t mistaken the look in his eyes, so had he. They’d had a definite connection. The strongest one she’d ever felt.

The man was probably married now with the requisite two point five kids but she wanted to see him, anyway. To ensure he was happy. She tried to convince herself that was all she wanted.

At a rest stop, Elina bought a chai tea latte and a sprinkled donut to get her through the next stretch of the drive and to decide on a destination. The large map outside the restaurant showed the surrounding area.

She let her eyes roam the map, searching for anything that sounded familiar or intriguing. It amazed her how many towns and cities used similar names. London. Jamaica. Dublin. Springfield. But none of those reminded her of anything connected to Arrow or Epic.

Phail. That was a name she’d never seen anywhere else. And it niggled something in her brain. Jokes made by Arrow and the others when they’d talked about Epic’s hometown.

Where you go to fail.

Fail isn’t an option.

Doomed to fail.

Had they been making jokes because the town’s name was Phail? And why would anyone choose a name like Phail for a town? Even spelled with a Ph instead of an F, it had a terrible connotation.

Excitement buzzed through her veins. This was a good lead. Even if it didn’t work out, how could she resist a visit to a town named Phail?