Chapter Nine
Sledge
Sledge watched as Beth and his son walked out of the kitchen - with Viper. He was pissed. Livid. What the fuck was that asshole doing with his family? No. Damn it! Beth wasn’t his, he had to remind himself. Shit! His head was so fucked up.
“Seriously Devin! What the hell were you thinking?” Amber demanding, drawing his attention.
“What?” he asked.
“You have your son sitting next to...” she started, but Zander interrupted her.
“Peaches, it’s not your place,” he told her. Amber turned her gaze to Reaper and Sledge felt sorry for the man. Holding his hands up in surrender, “Okay, I’ll shut up.”
“As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted...” she looked at Reaper, then continued, “You had your son sitting next to you, his mother in the same room, and you allow Candy to paw all over you! Have you lost your fucking mind?” Sledge couldn’t remember ever seeing his sister this pissed off, at least not at him.
“Candy brought me a plate of food. There was no pawing. And what difference does it make? She had Viper all over her!” he demanded, his own temper rising.
“You’re a fucking idiot!” He watched as Amber stormed out of the kitchen. What the hell just happened? Looking to Zander, he watched as his VP, best friend, and brother-in-law, shrugged his shoulders.
“Want to hit the gym?” Reaper knew just what he needed. Nodding his head, they both cleaned their table of the trash and left.
The guys walked into the gym, changed into gym clothes, and got to work. Machine after machine. Sledge was a man on a mission. He had to get Beth out of his head, but did he really want to? Damn it! Why was this so fucking complicated, he shook his head. He was royally fucked!
“Talk to me, Devin,” Reaper said.
Sledge didn’t even know where to begin. His head and heart were in a constant battle. With a heavy sigh, he started at the beginning. Good a place as any, right?
“Eight years ago, Beth and I dated. It was serious, man. I had the ring in my pocket and everything. I loved that woman with everything I was. And one day, one night, she ripped my world apart.”
“What happened?” Reaper asked. Sledge could tell he truly wanted to know.
“The night before our last mission, I went to her parent’s anniversary party. I could tell something was wrong. She acted different. Cold. Distant. And then she called it quits. No explanation. No nothing. Ran away from me, never returned my calls, never replied to a text message. Just nothing.” Sledge felt the ache in his chest, like he was reliving the event all over again. It hurt to breathe.
“Has she told you why since she’s been here?” Reaper asked.
“She said that her father demanded she break off the relationship with me. He threatened my career and my life. Said something about how easily accidents happen during times of war or some shit like that.” He relayed, “But what could he have possibly done to me, Z?”
It was in that moment that something clicked in Sledge’s mind. He looked at Reaper, and knew he was thinking the same thing.
“No... You think?” he was shocked to the core. Could her father have been the person who specifically requested his team to go to Afghanistan? Could her father have been the government leak who told the Afghan forces when and where his team would be landing?
“Call Jackson. Now!” Sledge ordered. “I want a fucking name. Tell that fucker, he either finds the information or we are done doing government cleanups.” Sledge was on the verge of losing his shit. If her father was responsible for the ambush that got two of his men shot, he would kill the bastard with his bare hands!
Reaper put in the phone call and relayed the message. “Jackson will get back to us in twenty,” he said as he hung up the phone.
Sledge needed to talk to Beth. “I’ll be upstairs. I need to speak to Beth.” He didn’t even wait for a reply; Reaper would find him when Jackson called him back.
Walking to her door, Sledge knocked lightly. He didn’t want to chance waking up Derek. When she didn’t answer the door, he slowly opened it and walked inside. He could hear the water running in the bathroom and knew Beth was in the shower. Sledge walked over to the bed, and looked at the sleeping form of his son. In one day, he became the life force that pumped through Devin. He couldn’t imagine his life without him.
Sledge heard the water turn off and knew Beth would be out soon. He braced himself against what he might see when she walked out of the bathroom. As the door opened, it was like an angel walking through the doorframe. The fog from the steam haloed around her. She was stunning! As always, she took his breath away.
“Oh my God! Devin, you scared the shit out of me!” she gasped, “What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think something is wrong?”
“One, you’re in my room in the middle of the night. Two, I can tell by the look on your face.” She was always good at reading his moods. Apparently, that had not changed, he thought.
“We need to talk, but not here. Will you come over to my room?” he asked. Seeing her hesitation, he explained, “It’s about your father and I would rather not have Derek wake up and hear this.”
Beth started walking towards the door; so Sledge followed. Walking into the hall, she quietly shut the door. Sledge stepped across the hall. As he opened the door, Candy called his name.
“What do you need?” he asked her. “I am a little busy.” He couldn’t hide the irritation if he wanted to.
Candy looked between Beth and Sledge. “I was wondering if you wanted company for the night?”
Sledge didn’t miss the change in Beth’s demeanor. But he really was not interested in Candy. “No thanks. Not interested.”
“Are you sure? We could have some fun,” she purred. But it did nothing for him.
“Listen Candy, I am not, and never will be interested in having sex with a club girl. Not to mention, the mother of my child is standing right here,” he pointed to Beth. “How about showing her a little respect. Have a little bit of class.” He opened the door wider for Beth to pass through, placing his hand on her lower back. He walked into the room behind her, and closed the door.
“You didn’t have to do that. Not for my benefit.”
“Not for your... Woman are you crazy? I wouldn’t touch a club girl with Diesel’s dick!” Sledge told her. “Anyway, I told you, I needed to talk to you.”
“About my father... What is it? Does he know Derek and I are here?” he could hear the panic in her voice. Crossing to her, he wrapped his arms around her.
“No honey, he doesn’t know. But I was talking to Reaper after dinner and something clicked in my head. When you broke off our relationship...” but she interrupted him.
“I told you, I was sorry about that. My father...” now it was Sledge’s turn to interrupt.
“Beth, please just listen.” When she indicated she would, he continued, “When you broke off our relationship, you said it was because your father threatened my life, right?” He watched her nod her head. “Well, that next morning, I received a call from the Admiral. My team was requested for a mission. Specifically, MY team,” he emphasized. “We were to infiltrate an Afghan compound that was holding four high ranking US officials hostage. But when we landed, we were ambushed. Two of my men were shot. Zander was almost killed because the bullet nicked the artery in his leg. It was later determined that a government official leaked our mission, but an investigation couldn’t conclude who the person was.” He stopped talking, giving her time to process what he was saying.
Sledge knew the moment Beth realized what he was saying. Her face turned white. Sledge reached for her, afraid she was going to faint.
“It was my father wasn’t it?” The question came out as a bare whisper, but Sledge still heard it.
“Zander and I believe so. I had him put in a call to the Admiral to find out who requested us. We should have an answer any minute now,” he told her as he helped her sit on the side of his bed.
“He went after you after I already did what he wanted... Why?” he watched as tears slid down her face.
This time, Sledge reached for her cheeks, and wiped them away, only to have more take their place.
“I lost everything, for nothing...” he knew she meant for that to be said in her head, not out loud; so he didn’t reply.
A knock on his door took his attention away from Beth. Crossing the room, he opened it to find Reaper. “Come in.”
Reaper looked at Beth, then back to Sledge, but Sledge said nothing. What could he tell him? She was as shocked as they were. He could tell her reaction was real.
“What did you find out?” but Reaper didn’t answer, he looked back to Beth. “Talk Zander! What did you find out?” he put authority in his tone. He didn’t have the time for this. Beth would find out sooner or later, so might as well get it over with. Ripping the bandage off, or whatever that saying was.
“Jackson called back,” he said. “The request was made by Texas senator Jonathan Andrews.”
Sledge heard Beth’s gasp and the same time he lost control of his temper. One minutes he was standing in front of Reaper, the next his fist was punching a hole through the wall. “Fuck!” he roared.
Quickly, Sledge found himself pinned against the wall by Reaper’s weight. “What the fuck, Devin!” he demanded. “Calm the hell down! Look at her!” he pointed to Beth who had moved to the other side of the room, huddled in the corner.
Seeing her scared, of him, had the same effect of someone dropping a bucket of ice water over his head. Immediately, his temper died.
“Shit!” he muttered under his breath. He pushed away from Reaper and slowly he moved towards her. “I’m sorry, Beth. Come here honey,” he held his arms out to her. Cautiously, she stepped into his arms.