20. Declan
20
DECLAN
I walked into the beach house, still trying to wrap my head around everything that had happened in the last week and a half. Hurricane Hayden had taken my world by storm and, if I was being honest, I was reeling but ecstatic. He called to me, and I responded to him in a way I never expected or wanted, but damn if it didn’t feel good.
“You’re back,” Heidi said as she wandered out of the kitchen with a bowl of fruit and yogurt in her hand.
“Yeah, I am.”
I nabbed a berry from the bowl, popping it in my mouth.
“Hey! Get your own food!” she protested, twisting the bowl out of my reach.
It was no use; I topped her by several inches. I reached around her and grabbed another piece of fruit. A large chunk of pineapple this time.
“I hate you. You know that, right?”
Laughing, I licked the juice from my fingers, and her eyes went wide. She grabbed my hand, her thumbnail just below the yellow circle I was still getting used to.
“Someone’s got some explaining to do.”
I pulled my hand from her grasp.
“What’s to explain? I got married.”
“To who?”
“You did what ?”
Heidi’s voice rose half an octave as Walker joined the fray.
“His name is Hayden. He’s a Marine, and I got married.”
“But… you don’t even date.”
“You don’t know what I do.”
She did, but I wouldn’t admit she was right. The look she gave me told me she didn’t need the confirmation.
“A Marine? What division? What’s his MOS? Who’s his commanding officer?”
I turned to him, and he had his cell phone in hand, his thumb flying up the screen. What the hell?
“Okay, Colonel Holt, USMC, retired, put the phone away,” I joked. Surely, he wasn’t texting one of his buddies.
He did not put the phone away. Instead, he looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“Declan, do you know anything about this guy? Does he know who our family is? What kinda assignments you’re a part of now? What sort of missions you’ve done with Holt?”
Was he in fucking sane? As if I’d tell anyone sensitive information about anything.
Instead of poking the bear, I opted to lighten the mode and joked, “Aww. You do love me.”
“Declan!”
“Damn. I knew you were a worrier, but this is excessive, even for you.”
“Goddammit, kid!” he screamed, shoving his hands into his hair. “He could be a spy. He could be a gold digger. How do you know he’s even a fucking Marine?”
“Umm, okay. Now, I know you’re losing it. How about you gimme some credit? Oh, and I’m not a fucking kid.”
You could cut steel with the look in his eyes as he said, “I’ll give you some credit when I don’t get reports from the team in Vegas that you’re wandering the streets drunk off your ass.”
“First, I wasn’t fucking drunk. At least not that drunk. The entire club got roofied!” I yelled. Then what he said dawned. “Wait a minute. You had me followed?”
“You’re damn right I had you followed. I don’t know what’s going on with you. First the mess with the Cagot girl, and now this.”
“Fuck you, Walker. But lemme ease your mind. I know he’s a Marine because he lives on base, and before you ask, yes, I’m sure. I’ve been to his apartment. I’ve seen him in uniform. I’ve met some of his buddies. He’s a fucking Marine. And I’d never give away sensitive info. Never. But if there’s a threat that has you this ramped up, I need to know about it, not be protected from it.”
He sighed, shoving his hands through his hair several times as he paced away from me, only to turn back. He was a trained sniper. He’d help train me to be one. He didn’t get frazzled easily.
“It’s not like you to be reckless.”
He’d lost some of the aggression and animosity, but now I was pissed.
“And it’s not like you to be such an asshole. Guess we’re both set on disappointing people today.”
I grabbed my suitcase and headed to the bedroom, shutting the door behind me and falling back against it. Trying to come to some… something about why he was being such a dick.
Walker and I had always been close. He and his dad butted heads regularly, and he was my dad’s favorite nephew, so he’d been around our place a lot when I was a kid. He’d shocked the family by joining the Marines. We were Navy people. Then, he nearly died on a mission, and he came home to the ranch to recover. He and I got close again. When he started Holt, I moved from the private military unit to his security company to help him out.
We’d worked our asses off together to make the company what it is. He’d tried several times to give me part ownership. I always refused. I didn’t want it. Then he’d offered me a position in upper management. When I refused that as well, he made me a team leader and told me to shut my trap when I said I didn’t want it.
Now I regretted my decision. Maybe he wasn’t asking for me but for himself because he was stretched thin. He had a wife and kids, and I knew he and his son, Jackson, had been butting heads lately. Jackson’s refusal to join the family business hadn’t gone over well. He’d chosen to risk his ass racing motorcycles instead. Not that I could say anything. I’d been the same way his age. Just exchange motorcycles for broncs and bulls.
My phone buzzed. Groaning, I pulled it from my pocket, but the frustration drained away.
“Missed me already, huh?”
Something between a laugh and a groan came through the line.
“What’s the matter, Papi?”
“Something’s come up.”
“I like it when your something comes up.”
“No. Not like that. There’s not much I can say. Fuck. There’s not much I know.”
“What do you know?”
“Our training exercise was canceled. We’re mobilizing.”
Oh, fuck. Okay, I knew this was possible. He was a Marine. They were the first in when there was a problem. Flinging open the door, I moved through the house, looking for Walker. I found him in the kitchen with a drink on the counter in front of him.
“What’s up?” Walker asked.
Holding my hand up, asking Walker to wait, I asked Hayden, “Do… Is there anything I can do?”
He got quiet, so there was something; I just didn’t know what.
“Tell me.”
“Come see me off?”
Oh, wow. That’s not what I expected.
“Absolutely. Tell me where.”
“I’ll send you the info.”
“Okay. I’ll be there.”
“I’ve gotta go, but if you change your mind…”
“I won’t. I’ll be there.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
The call disconnected. When I glanced up at Walker, his brow cocked, but he held his tongue.
“Can you find out why a Marine unit just got mobilized out of the blue?”
I picked up the glass and swallowed the whiskey it held in one go before sitting it down.
“Maybe. I take it that was the new Mr. Holt?”
The attitude in his tone and words grat
“What’s going on with you? You aren’t this guy.”
“Jackson wrecked this weekend. He’s okay, but…”
“But it scared you, and now you’re going balls to the walls trying to protect everyone.”
“That damn kid is going to get himself killed.”
“Yeah, but he could get killed crossing the street. Or, if he’d gone in the service or joined us at Holt, he could’ve been killed that way. We all have a finite amount of time on this planet, Walker. Shouldn’t we make the most of it by doing what we love?”
“I hate when that big ass brain of yours comes online and makes me look like an ass.”
“Eee onk, motherfucker.” I brayed like a donkey as I smirked at him.
He tossed the dishtowel at my head.
“There’s something wrong with you. You know that, right?”
“I blame you. Mama said you bounced my head off a door frame when I was little. More than once, if I remember correctly.”
“Tell me about your Marine.”
“You weren’t wrong when you said I was being reckless. I met him at a club, and we went back to his place. It was supposed to be one and done.”
“But the next morning, I gave him my number.”
“That’s definitely not your M.O.”
“Right? But then he texted me.”
“I’m sure he’s not the first to try for more.”
“No, but he was the first I texted back. We were still texting a week later. So, when he asked me to go to Vegas with a few friends, I agreed.”
“How the fuck did you end up married?”
“That’s a little blurry.”
“It’s been my experience that finding the one will do that to you.”
I laughed.
“I’ll see what I can find out about your Marine. I gotta say, you sure fucked up.”
Rage burned through me like wildfire.
“The fuck you say?”
“Chill your tits, Deckie. I just meant that for someone who didn’t want the U.S. Government… how was it you put it?” he paused, then snapped his fingers and continued, “‘Giving you a prostate exam on the regular,’ you fucked up hitching your ride to a Marine.”
“Well, if you swung that way and saw him, you’d understand.”
He burst out laughing.