Page 10 of SEAL of Valor

And I’ll start healing.

Chapter 4

Weston

Country music fills the room of the stuffy bar, but I welcome the noise because it means I get to focus on something other than my own thoughts.

I finish the club soda in front of me, then hold up the empty glass toward the bartender, Mav, who nods in response.

He’s a former Army Ranger turned bar owner on the outskirts of town. While it’s my understanding he doesn’t drink either, he took over the business of a grandfather he barely knew once he returned from his last deployment nearly ten years ago. His place has been the local watering hole ever since.

War changes people, and for Maverick Fargo, it made him so desperate to drown out the past that he fills nearly every moment of his life with insufferable noise.

Something I can understand completely. It’s one of the reasons I come here, even though I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since I joined the Navy. Maverick isn’t one for chatter, and sometimes I need noise without it being directed at me.

“Hey, Cowboy.” Ryker Granger, or Tank as we call him, slides onto the barstool beside me, looking nearly as exhausted as I feel. We served alongside each other for just over a decade, part of which was spent doing things the government would have disowned us for if it ever became public.

Which, of course, is exactly what happened nearly two years ago.

Everything that hides in shadow eventually comes to light.

Everything except me, it seems. I live in shadows. And in shadows, I’ll die.

“How was the job?” I ask.

Ryker has been working for a private security firm out of Hope Springs, Maine for the last few months. It’s a lot of travel, since he mainly does bodyguard-for-hire work all over the country. He doesn’t seem to mind it, though. Doesn’t seem to have the same desire I do to hide out in a hole for the rest of his life.

“Not bad. Abusive ex-boyfriend decided to show his face. I rearranged it for him after he tried to kidnap her from the bathroom of her place of business.”

Maverick slides a new club soda in front of me and a Cherry Coke in front of Ryker, who also has no taste for alcohol. Anything that dulls our senses is too risky when you live a life riddled with enemies ready to take you out at a moment’s notice.

We may have left the battle, but the fight never left us.

So, here we sit, drinking soda and thinking about things we wish we could forget.

“Glad you were there.”

“Me, too. How are you?”

“Peachy,” I reply.

Ryker grunts in response. He’s not much for talking, either, which is another thing I can appreciate. The other members of our team, Zane Knox, Garrison Holt, and Sawyer Maddox, have all found the women they will spend the rest of their lives with, which means these days it’s mainly Tank and me.

I miss my other brothers, but I’m glad they’re happy.

They deserve it.

“How are things at the ranch? Vivian doing okay?”

“Seems to be.” Working for the mother of the only woman I’ve ever loved has been hard, but Reese seems to love her life in the city and rarely comes to visit. I make it a point not to be here when she does.

Vivian will give me a heads-up so I can make sure everything is in working order, and then I’ll take off until Reese is long gone. It’s been that way ever since I moved back to Stormwatch Landing, and it will stay like that until the only remnants of me are a stone marker in the ground.

“Good.”

The minutes tick by, and the music shifts to a slow song. Something about a broken-hearted man and the one who got away. I’d laugh if it didn’t sting of truth.

But I tried to re-open that door, and had it firmly slammed in my face.