Keel (Delta Force Protection #3)

Chapter 1

Logan “Keel” Reis needed this break. Going hard was in his nature, but sometimes he just needed a moment to be on his own with his thoughts.

He pulled into the parking lot of Link’s condo close to ten.

He’d meant to leave base earlier, but Link and Ansley had finally bought a new couch and wanted help moving it in, so he’d agreed to help after work.

Ansley had just finished repainting her office after the drywall had been fixed, and the place looked great. If you didn’t know their house had been shot up in a weird terrorist plot, you would just think they’d updated the place for kicks.

Link had offered him the condo for the week after he’d spent the last few weekends helping them put their house back together. The drywall had been the worst part. Now it was done, and he was here at the beach for a week of relaxation.

He was tired from work and everything else going on.

After the thing with Garnet, they’d ended up spending two weeks in Europe taking down another terrorist cell.

Then they’d gone to Indonesia to do some work.

He also had a special project he’d been working on, which meant he’d been going nonstop for over a year. This break was desperately needed.

The condo was the perfect escape. He didn’t want to fly overseas, or go to Hawaii, or anywhere far away. Driving a few hours to be alone and sit on the beach was the perfect solution to his exhaustion.

He stepped out of the car and sighed. The sound of the ocean waves spoke to his soul, calming the voice raging inside. Once he entered the condo, he dropped his bag and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, thankful whoever had stayed here last time had left a six-pack.

He drank half of the first bottle and went out on the patio that faced the ocean.

His thoughts turned to what had him so up in his feels.

His ex, Shana, had decided to start posting videos, talking about him.

She didn’t mention his name, but he’d stumbled across one of the videos by happenstance and knew it was about him.

He wasn’t into social media and didn’t have accounts, except for one Facebook account that he kept up with his siblings and their kids. Their parents were both gone. Otherwise, he guessed he would have leaned on his mom to get him updates about his four sisters and two brothers.

The video from his ex had been playing on some woman’s phone in a booth behind him. The restaurant wasn’t loud, so he could hear her very distinctive voice. He would be lying to say his ass hadn’t clenched along with his heart when he first heard Shana’s voice on that video.

He’d turned to make sure she wasn’t right behind him, and that’s when he saw the video playing on the girl’s phone.

Luckily, the two women, who were maybe teenagers, had been sitting beside each other, so they didn’t see him turn and glance at them.

They didn’t turn down the volume on the video or regulate their comments.

In the nearly ten-minute-long video that felt like it lasted an eternity, Shana had little nice to say about him.

He should have gotten up and left the restaurant the second he’d heard her voice, but he’d stayed.

Maybe he wanted to punish himself, or maybe he just wanted to hear what she had to say about him years after they split.

Shana told stories that had enough of a hint of the truth that he knew exactly what she was talking about, but the details that backed up the story were complete lies.

What bugged him the most was that each time she ended her little two-minute-long story about how much of a fuckup he was, the two women stopped the video and discussed in depth how much of a screwup he was.

The video had wedged itself into his thoughts, bringing him down, making him doubt everything.

He blew out a harsh breath and got up to go inside, but the sound of a guy yelling stopped him. Sure, couples got into fights, but this yelling seemed out of place at the beach in the dark, nearly in the middle of the night.

Keel turned his head, trying to figure out where the yelling was coming from.

He moved into the unit, and the yelling grew louder.

When he’d first stepped in, he’d cracked the window beside the door a few inches to get the breeze to move through and air out the rooms. Through the opening, he could make out every word the guy was saying. It didn’t sound good.

He moved to the door, not wanting to get involved, but he wanted this guy gone. Maybe no one was in the unit next to him. The dude was going off, and it could have been to an empty condo.

The dude started pounding on the door, yelling curse words.

Keel was done with the idiot and pulled open the door.

He stepped out, taking in the man. It was apparent to Keel that the guy probably never worked out, or at least hadn’t in the last five years.

He wasn’t overweight. Instead, the man’s arms looked pencil-thin.

Keel crossed his arms over his chest, squeezing his biceps to hold his hands in place under his arms. The last thing he needed was this jerk saying that he threw hands.

“What are you doing?” Keel asked in his deepest, most commanding voice.

Pipsqueak turned and looked at him, sneering. “Go back inside, Grandpa.” The guy started banging on the door.

Keel wasn’t old. He’d just turned thirty-five last week. Certainly not grandpa age. “Are you staying in that unit?”

The guy spun, his hands on his hips. He had more spunk than sense, which was the best thing Keel could think about the guy.

“Listen, old man, shut up and go back into your place. This doesn’t concern you.”

“You should leave.” The last thing Keel wanted was to be kept awake by this idiot, who’d shown up close enough to midnight to wake up the neighbors and keep them up.

“Mind your own business.” The man turned and pounded on the door again. “Open the fucking door, you bitch.”

Keel drew in a slow breath and let go just as slowly. He was about to say more when another door opened down the hall, and a guy stepped out.

“Shut up. People are trying to sleep.”

“Fuck off and fuck you!” the jerk yelled.

The new guy was in his boxers and looked pissed. He also looked slightly drunk. “Don’t yell at me. Shut up, or I’m calling the cops.”

That was when everything went to hell. Pipsqueak reached back and grabbed something at his waistband. Keel knew that move, knew what the jerk was doing.

As the jerk whipped the gun up, Keel stepped forward, stopping the man’s movements, disarming him in about two seconds. Luckily, the jerk didn’t get a shot off.

Pipsqueak spun, his face red. “Give me back my gun!”

Keel emptied the clip and the chamber as the guy yelled at him. The man in his boxers had stepped back into his condo, which was probably a wise move.

The sound of sirens grew louder, and Keel let out a heavy sigh. This night was going to shit, and all he wanted was some sleep.

The cops pulled up and started their climb up the three flights of stairs. Keel dropped the gun behind him and kicked it hard enough that it skidded about five feet away. The last thing he wanted was for local cops to think he was going to shoot someone.

Pipsqueak didn’t wait for the police to make it to their floor before he started screaming about Keel stealing from him. The two cops looked annoyed, and one of them took Pipsqueak down the hall, where he continued to scream.

“Did you steal from him?” the second officer asked.

Keel grunted. “The kid was pulling a gun on the guy down the hall. I disarmed him, emptied the clip and chamber, then dropped the gun back there.”

The officer looked around Keel, his eyes going wide. A door opened behind Keel, and he turned to see an older lady stick her head out.

“He isn’t lying. I got it on video.” The woman pointed to the security camera above her door.

He’d seen that camera earlier and had just been a little annoyed by it. It wasn’t his place, and he guessed Link wasn’t bothered by having a camera pointed at his door. It made sense to have added security, and now it would help him prove his innocence.

“Can I see the video?” the officer asked.

Keel stepped back and let the officer move to the woman’s door. She held up her phone, showing everything from the minute the jerk had arrived until the cops showed up.

The officer asked the woman to email the video before he turned to Keel and met his gaze. He shook his head.

“Thank you. If you hadn’t disarmed him, we would probably be investigating a murder, or at least a shooting.”

“You’re welcome. I’m going to get some sleep.”

The officer nodded. “Probably a good idea. You here for the week?”

“I am.”

“Could I get your phone number? Just in case we have follow-up questions.”

“Sure. I’m stationed—”

“Let me guess, Fort Bragg?”

“Yes, sir,” Keel said as he wrote down his phone number.

“I was in the Army for four years. It wasn’t a career for me. I’m much older than you, so this was decades ago. I was never stationed at Bragg, but I’ve been there a few times. Big place.”

Keel nodded. “I’ve run all over that sand patch. It’s not a beautiful place, but it’s home.”

“Good luck with it, and I hope you have a great vacation.”

“Thank you.” Keel stepped into the condo and locked his door. It didn’t look like he was going to have a great vacation. He’d shown up thinking he would relax and have fun, but this was not starting off well.