Marcus

 

It’s been a long, hard day on the road. I want nothing more than to have a nice hot shower and call my girl to see how her day was. Having to drive down our road, with her outside sending me off was hard on me. I wanted to grab her up and put her in the truck with us. Logically, I know she couldn’t come with me, but that piece of me that has to go days without her, longs to have her with me at all times. We make it all the way to New Mexico before we call it a day. We still have about eight hours of drive time before we make it to the border of California.

“So, you’re making an honest woman out of Emory, huh?” Jensen asks me as we settle into our hotel room.

“As soon as possible,” I respond.

“So this isn’t going to be one of those long, drawn-out engagements then?”

“Absolutely not.”

“So when do you think this shin-dig will take place?”

“Like I said before, as soon as motherfucking possible.” He smirks at me and I know he’s not going to let this go until I give him a date. I grab my phone and call my woman.

“Hello,” she answers, and I’m instantly hard at the sound of her voice. We’ve been going at it like rabbits lately, and you’d think he’d need a damn break, but no, not with her.

“Hey, baby,” I say, pressing down on my hard on, hoping to alleviate it just a little.

“So, I have a problem,” I say, not meaning the one in my jeans.

“What problem would that be, handsome?” she asks huskily, causing my eyes to cross. I can’t believe just the sound of her voice could cause me to be in so much pain.

“Damn, Emory,” I moan out, and hear a chuckle from beside me. I punch him in the arm and give him a fuck off look.

“What’s the issue, Marcus?” she asks again, this time with laughter in her voice, the damn minx.

“Jensen’s being a dickhead and won’t give me a moment of rest until I give him a date.”

“Date for what exactly?” I can hear the laughter in her voice, she knows what fucking date I’m talking about.

“Woman! You know what I’m talking about.”

“I know, but it’s fun to hear you squirm a little.”

“Sassy mouthed little minx,” I say to her.

“Keep it up, and Jensen can keep bugging you, and we won’t discuss this until you get home.”

“You’re a brat, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told,” she saucily replies.

“Minx.”

“Asshole.”

“Diva.”

“Don’t you know it,” she says making me laugh out loud.

“God, I want you,” I say to her, meaning every single word.

“You always want me,” she tells me.

“I can’t seem to help myself, beautiful.”

“Good to hear, back to that date.”

“If we must,” I say, wishing I were alone so I could have a little phone sex with my woman. “You know it doesn’t matter to me, baby, other than hoping it will be sooner rather than later.”

“Well, I was going to talk to you about that. I would prefer something small and intimate. Just family and close friends. I don’t want anything fancy nor do I want to spend a fortune. I want it quaint and memorable, I thought maybe we could do a courthouse wedding and have a reception at the lodge.” The lodge she’s referring to is an old barn that was transformed into a rental place for receptions or family reunions…things of that nature.

“That sounds perfect, except we can go ahead and have the wedding and reception both at the lodge. That way we don’t have to juggle two places and everyone we want there to celebrate with us will already be present.”

“I’ll call the lodge in the morning and see what dates they have available.”

“Take the soonest they have,” I inform her.

“Yes, sir,” she smartassly replies.

“Talk to you later, baby, I need to shower and get this road grime off of me,” I tell her.

“Okay, love you.”

“Love you too, baby. Call me before you and Shy go to bed for the night, need to tell my girls goodnight.”

“Will do, I’m heading to pick her up now and we’re going straight home.”

“Sounds good, that will give me time to shower and order a pizza or something to be delivered.”

“Talk to you soon,” she says before hanging up.

“Did you hear that fucker?” I ask Jensen, knowing he never moved an inch since I called her.

“Heard it, I better be your best man,” he says, heading towards the bathroom.

“Hey! I called first shower,” I call out.

“You snooze you lose,” he calls back through the closed door. Fucker! He distracted me, this was his plan all along. Payback’s a bitch, and I’ll make sure he gets his tenfold. I’ll order the pizza right before he comes out, then make him pay for it!

 

 

It’s been two days of searching and tracking down people. I swear, if one more person slams a door in my face, they’re going to experience what it’s like to eat wood. I can’t stand flat out disrespect, and that’s all we’ve come across. Here we are going on day three, and we’ve finally tracked down where our company commander has moved to. I find it bizarre and a little unsettling that everyone has moved, and those whose families have remained, are very uncooperative. We pull up to Commander Austin’s house, and see him sitting on his front porch, that’s not unsettling, what is, however, unusual is the fact that he has a twelve-gauge shotgun in his hands.

We get out of the vehicle slowly and call out to him, “It’s Marcus and Jensen, sir. May we please come up and speak with you?”

“Thompson, Addison, come on up here, sorry about the welcome, I’ll explain to you once we’ve said our hello’s.” We both cautiously walk up his walkway and open the fence that will lead us to his front porch. He still has the gun firmly within his grasp and Jensen and I look at each other and we both are wearing a ‘what the fuck’ face. Neither of us understand yet why he’s acting so strangely.

“Take a seat,” he says once we make it up on the porch. My eyes never leave the shotgun that is now placed in his lap. He’s wearily watching us, which puts me on guard. He’s never been like this, even overseas when he had a group of men he was responsible for.

“What’s going on, Commander?” Jensen asks the question that has been on the tip of my tongue since we arrived.

“Branson escaped Leavenworth and is taking out our old crew and our families,” he says, as if he was telling me what day of the week it is.

“Repeat that,” I growl out. Suddenly, I have a wave of nausea hit me. If he’s out, then we’re all in danger, Emory and Shyann included.

“You heard me, boy, ain’t nothing wrong with your ears.” No, just my sanity I want to say, but keep my mouth closed.

“How did he escape?” Jensen asks, and I’d like the answer to that question as well.

“There’s an ongoing investigation, and apparently I don’t have the clearance to get the information. Trust me, I’ve been trying my damndest to get as much information as I can. I just keep hitting a brick wall every time I make an inquiry.”

“We’ve had the same problem since we found out Sherry was killed in a road side bombing,” I tell him.

“I don’t know how, I can’t figure it out, but I’m positive that Branson was somehow involved with that. I don’t know how he got over there, but my intuition has never led me astray, and I know in my gut he was involved in that.” I get an eerie feeling that he’s right, and somehow his wife became a victim as well. I tell the commander about Sherry’s wife and the fact that I now have custody of Shyann.

“You need to keep that precious baby safe, Thompson. I have a bad feeling that others are going to lose their lives before he’s found.”

“How many are we talking about here?” Jensen asks him.

“How many what, son?”

“How many men and families have we lost, sir?” I ask.

“The three of us and Branson are all that’s left of our old unit.” The fuck did he just say?

“That’s not possible, why haven’t we been informed?” I ask, of no one in particular.

“It’s like pulling teeth getting information from the government.”

“Hear that, why don’t you two stay for a while, and let’s think of a way to get him out of the shadows, we may have to be the ones who put an end to him.”

And this is how we spend the next four hours.