Hazard (Mike Bravo Ops #5)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE_

DECAF

There comes a point in every person’s life where the past comes back to bite them in the ass. An ex reappearing at the most inopportune moment, embarrassing photos from a misspent youth, or someone finding that thing you buried a long, long time ago and calling the cops.

None of those things compares to the blast from my past staring me in the face. The face of my best friend. The man who was once my rock, my support, and my family all in one.

It’s a good thing I’m sitting down in this moment, otherwise I’d be on the floor of our war room along with my jaw.

I lost Jesse Hazard twenty-two years ago.

Twenty-two years and ninety-eight days, to be exact.

It was a mission gone awry, a moment in time I’ve relived over and over again in my dreams, my thoughts, and the folder in my brain labeled “Regrets.” I watched on helplessly as he broke orders and intervened in a situation on foreign soil.

I also watched, frozen in fear and under strict orders not to move, as he was gunned down.

My mouth dries and fills with the metallic taste of blood. I’m brought back to the present by my teeth breaking skin in my cheek.

I try to blink Jesse away, because he can’t be here. He’s my past. He needs to stay in my past.

It’s not until my boss says, “Everyone, this is the new guy, Haz,” that I realize, no, I’m not hallucinating.

No, Jesse didn’t come back from the dead.

And no, the man standing in front of an entire room of elite badasses is not Jesse Hazard.

But Little Haz has grown up to look exactly like his father right before I lost him.

When I came into HQ this morning, I was excited to meet the new team member. We’ve needed someone for a while, ever since our last 2IC left, but him?

No. Flat out, nonnegotiable no.

Something primal echoes in my throat. A scream, a command, a protective war cry. Something.

“Haz?” the smartass, Zeus, says beside me. “As in, has he even graduated high school?”

As the shock of seeing a ghost wears off while my brothers in arms bicker and joke, I can spot the subtle differences between Jesse and his son.

I haven’t seen Corey Hazard since he was about nine months old.

Right around the time his mom told me to get out of their lives forever.

After that deployment, when I came home, Sharryn was my support, and I was hers.

That lasted all of three months until she read the official report on Jesse’s death.

Even with most of the information redacted, she could read between the lines.

Jesse was on his own out there, and I did nothing to help him.

I couldn’t save him, and I was the reason she had become a widow.

Haz can’t be here. My chest hurts just looking at him. Not only that, but there’s something deeper there. The urge to take him in my arms. Hug him like I used to hug Jesse. Look at him like I used to look at Jesse.

My draw to him is instant, but my overwhelming need to protect him is stronger.

When I speak, that primal echo makes my voice gruffer than usual. “His name is Hazard. As in, hiring him is a fucking hazard.”

Iris snarks something at me about not having enough coffee. And even though he might be right—I’ve never had enough coffee because the limit for coffee doesn’t exist—his words merely buzz around me like annoying flies. The same goes for the other smart-assed remarks from others.

I’m laser focused on my best friend’s child, who’s now smirking at me.

“This has nothing to do with coffee,” I say. “Haz is too young, and this job is too dangerous.”

“Come on, old man,” he says. “Why don’t you tell them exactly how you know me?

” His words are confident, laced with attitude, and if I wasn’t sure whether or not he knew who I was, it’s obvious in his tone that he does.

And if I know Sharryn the way I think I do, there’s no way she would allow her son to be anywhere near me.

Grown-ass twenty-three-year-old man now or not.

That means she either doesn’t know or has sent him here to take me out. And not on a date.

If he is here to kill me, I might not even try to stop him. I’m the reason he grew up without a father.

“It doesn’t matter how we know each other because you’re not working here,” I growl.

Trav barks something, but like the buzzing noise of snark, his authority is drowned out by flashbacks of Jesse’s blood being splattered all over the dirt road, memories of me not moving an inch from where I lay hidden in tall reeds, and the images of the woman and child he tried to save as they were slain next to him.

“Decaf.” Trav’s voice finally pulls me from the darkness. “My office. Now.”

Good. This is what I need—to tell Trav exactly why Haz is not going to work for Mike Bravo.

Only, as my feet charge toward the doorway, so do Haz’s.

We get to the door at the same time and stop where we are, standing toe to toe.

Haz is a couple of inches shorter than me, but he’s stacked.

Muscles for days. They probably only took a week of training to look like that too.

It’s that easy when you’re in your twenties.

Up close, his blue eyes shine in the same way his father’s did. Like he knows all my secrets.

I wonder how many of my secrets Little Haz has uncovered.

I’m about to tell him that Trav only asked for me and to let the grown-ups talk when Trav says, “You two coming?”

It’s entirely possible I didn’t hear anything before Trav said my name, but how am I supposed to tell Trav the truth with Haz standing right there next to me?

I don’t want Haz here because his father was the only person from those pivotal young-adult years who ever truly loved me for who I was. When I sat back and did nothing while he died, I betrayed him. It might as well have been me with the gun.

I don’t talk about Jesse. I can’t. I especially can’t with his son in the room.

“Okay,” Trav says, taking his seat. “Who wants to go first?”

I don’t need to turn my head to know Haz is waiting for me to talk first, but without wanting to straight up admit what happened between his father and me, I’m reluctant to go into too much detail.

“I served with his father, and he would be rolling in his grave to find out his kid went into this line of work.” Which is true.

After Little Haz was born, Jesse made me promise that no matter what happened, if he didn’t make it, I would always look out for Corey. I would save him from military life. Toward the end, he was getting over the political bullshit that came with being military.

He was a couple of years older than me and was on the officer path. I had enlisted, so I always looked up to him. We both joined to serve our country, but the longer we stayed, the more corruption we saw.

Jesse defying orders that day he was killed had been coming for a while. I just wish he hadn’t done it in a lose-lose situation. He paid with his life, and all these years later, his ghost still haunts me.

And now, so does his living son.

“Anything you want to add to that?” Trav asks Haz. “Why did you seek Mike Bravo out, and why weren’t you forthcoming about why you’re here?”

Haz folds his arms across a wide chest that looks way too big on his skinny neck.

His head looks like it’s being held up by a popsicle stick.

“I didn’t lie about why I’m here. I need a job after leaving the army because military life didn’t suit me.

Finding out Denton also worked here was a coincidence and a fact I learned after you’d already offered me the job.

I wasn’t even sure if he’d know who I was, but it’s obvious he does.

” His blue eyes meet mine. “What I want to know is what his problem is with me. According to my dad’s journals, this guy is apparently my godfather.

” He points his thumb in my direction. “He’s not much of one, if you ask me. ”

Trav’s stare bores into me. “Is that true?”

“That I’m his godfather? Yes. Technically. Or it was until …” My mouth dries.

“Until what?” Trav asks.

“Until his mother told me to get out of their lives because she didn’t want him to follow in his father’s footsteps. And now look at him—”

“I was going to join the military with or without her permission. Just like I want to join Mike Bravo with or without your permission.”

“Does she even know you’re here?” I ask.

He sucks his bottom lip inside his mouth.

That means she doesn’t know, so I’ll keep that in my back pocket in case he flat out refuses to leave.

Sure, I could look her up and contact her right here and now, but …

I will leave that as a last resort. I haven’t seen or spoken to the woman in over twenty years.

Not much scares me, but that woman does.

“As much as I don’t have the time or the fucks to listen to this family drama,” Trav says, “we need someone, Haz is more than qualified, and if it means putting you on separate missions for the time being, then so be it. But being his godfather isn’t a good enough reason to kick him out on his ass. ”

“It’s too dangerous,” I say.

Trav stands. “Definitely keeping you on separate missions, then. Last thing I need is you throwing yourself in front of a bullet to save the kid and you both getting killed.”

My heart sinks, my gut wrenches, and I swear I’m going to throw up.

“Decaf, get yourself together. You look like you’re going to pass out. I’ll get someone to bring you some coffee.”

“I don’t need fucking coffee.” Not everything is about caffeine. Just 99 percent of things. Haz being here is the other one percent.

“Have some anyway,” Trav says and stands. “Haz, you come with me. I can send you with Zeus on his job, and you can jump right in with both feet.”

I swear I yell, “No!” but all that comes out is a raspy dying sound. I’m crippled by my fear. He can’t work for Mike Bravo. I can’t be responsible for another Hazard losing their life.

They leave the room before I can officially protest. Not that I think Trav will listen to me anyway.

My legs crumble, and I almost fall to my knees, trying to catch my breath. Exactly like his father used to do, Haz unlocks a side of me that I thought I locked up a long time ago. My feelings for Jesse come rushing back, only this time, they’re directed toward his son.

I suddenly begin to hope Haz is here to kill me because I might not survive having him in my orbit.