Epilogue
Mac leaned back in his chair and rubbed his knuckles over his lips, staring at the list of names on his computer screen.
One of them might be his wife.
He’d been sober for four and a half weeks—what some people might call a month—but he’d barely graduated from counting days and wasn’t ready to change units again just yet.
It was HERO Force that got him through. Flying across the country collecting his recruits like a child plucking seashells from the shore. These men needed him more than he needed to drink, and for now, it was enough.
All but one of the guys had come easily. Because of the way they were, they didn’t have relationships that tethered them to their towns, no wives or children who needed to move across the country. Families were for men who had something to give, and his shattered SEALs had a whole lot of nothing.
They’d stayed in shape, for the most part. Pumping iron had a tendency to keep you sane when life tried to flush you away. Mac had kept it up, too, during his time in France—exercising between daily hangovers and that night’s drinks.
Yes, he knew from whence they came, and his rules for the men were the same as his rules for himself.
You need to be sober. A couple were on pain pills, but those had to go, too.
It was easy to fall into that trap. The wounds of war were painful, doctors all too eager to prescribe something to take that pain away.
Throw in a good shot of depression and you were lucky more of these men didn’t end up addicted.
Already they were down to twelve. They’d started with fourteen, but two of them lost their shit when it came time for weapons training. Too many bad memories, and Mac knew a thing or two about memories.
He brought the computer screen back into focus. Yes, one of these women might be his Ellie, but then again, maybe not. She could be using her maiden name or an alias that would make it far more difficult to find her.
And what the fuck are you going to say when you do?
Sobriety had a funny way of mocking his good intentions. He pushed back his chair, stood, and moved to the window. The Chrysler Building shone in the distance.
“Mac?”
He turned. T-ball stood in the doorway, a dirty-blond kid with a prominent Y-shaped scar running down his cheek like a zipper. He was a sniper from Mac’s third tour who’d been taken captive by tangos for more than a week. He’d been tortured in ways Mac could barely stand to contemplate.
“Cowboy’s on the phone,” said T-ball. “We’ve got our first assignment.”
Adrenaline shot spiders into Mac’s stomach. He nodded and reached for the phone. “Hi, Leo.”
“Hey, Mac. You ready to get started?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. “Keep talking.”
Thank you for reading Forever with the SEAL by Amy Gamet. If you enjoyed this book, you’ll love book one of the HERO Force spinoff series, Shattered SEALs. Get Protecting his Witness (Mac’s team) now, or keep reading for an excerpt.