The Squad

With that thought, my mind went to my uncle Mike. He’s going to worry if I don’t check in soon. The thought made my stomach hurt, and I felt the need to get out of there even stronger. Uncle Mike is the closest thing to family I have left. Mom’s family had pretty much disowned her when she married my dad and moved here, and dad didn’t have any family to speak of when they met.

When I came along, it was just the three of us, and uncle Mike who had been a regular at the dinner table on Sundays and could always be found hanging out in the garage with dad when they were stateside. After dad died, uncle Mike had spiraled into a downward trend that left him homeless and destitute, and for a while there, we’d lost all contact.

Mom had found him living on the streets not long after, a shell of the man he’d once been. I remember even though I was a kid, how he’d averted his gaze, didn’t laugh and tease me like he usually did, and how he kept saying he was sorry he hadn’t been able to save dad. I never blamed him for my dad passing away in the life of duty. It’s something every soldier’s daughter knows can happen to her daddy. That the last time she kissed him goodbye might be the last time.

But uncle Mike seemed to take his death personally, something I never quite understood as a kid. It’s only when I got older and made my escape and went in search of him that I got the whole story. He was in even worst shape than the last time I saw him ten years ago, but what he had to say as soon as he saw me is something I will never forget.

I found it strange and sad that he was in the same area where mom had found him all those years ago and mentioned it to him. “I was waiting for you kiddo. I figured if you should come looking, this was my last known address.” He’d said it with a smile that was a mere replica of the one I remembered from my childhood. But then his words sunk in, and the story that followed only made my need for vengeance burn brighter.

I came back to the here, and now when a plate of steaming hot food was placed in front of me, the scent tantalizing my nose and making my mouth water. Hottie shoved a fork in my hand and commanded, “Eat” before taking a seat next to me at the kitchen island where I’d been sitting staring into space for the last half an hour while he cooked.

“Hey lover boy, you only made enough for two? How selfish.” The big guy with the tattoos came into the room first, followed by the others that had been in the room earlier. One of them came close to look down at my plate, and Hottie growled. My head came up and around at the sound since it was so out of place.

It wasn’t a normal human growl of displeasure, it was more like something you’d expect to hear in the wild, and I could’ve sworn when I looked at him that his eyes had dilated like an owl’s one independently of the other. Something about the way he was acting made my heart speed up more and not in fear.

My pulse raced, and my nipples hardened seconds before he snapped his head around to look at me. He growled at the men, and I thought he was going to fly out of his seat and go for their jugulars. What the hell is wrong with him? The big guy with the tattoos was the only one to speak. “Everybody out!” He ordered the grown men in the room who all without question turned on their heels and left.

Lyon

“Oh shit! We’ve got a problem on our hands.” I know trouble when I see it, and that boy is in deep shit. That shit is funny as hell, though.

“I’d say.” Logan dropped down on a chair as the rest of us found our own.

“How do you want us to handle this, Colt? Mancini wanted us to debrief her at least before bringing her to the island. With the way the kid is acting, I’m not too sure that’s gonna happen without a fight.”

I noticed that these military fucks are programmed or some shit to follow anything or anyone they deem to be an authority. From the time Mancini had his little word vomit slash TMI overload, they’ve been asking me what the fuck to do like I birthed them or some fuck. Since it was my boy Ty asking, I decided not to go off on their ass this time, but the very next one…