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“And Rush? Have you already talked with him?”
“Not yet. But I’d like us both to do that.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
Aziel tracks my gaze to see the same thing I do—a piece of heaven waiting for us in my bed.
“I want the peace you see on Rush’s face right now. I want to wake up to more than your ugly fucking mugs seven days a week. I don’t want to worry about not coming home. We are not getting younger. We wait much longer and we'll end up like my uncle and his friends. Old bastards with no one to love them.”
“Damn it.” His expression is a bleeding reminder that life can go by in a flash and when you finally look up it’s all over. I curse harshly. “Fuck. Okay, I hear you, man. I hear you,” I gruff out a laugh.
Glory and honor shouldn’t be a motivator in life. The first years of our military service was just that. Wild adventure, travel, and knowing you made a difference. Hero shit you never got to write home about.
Now, just a few years short of forty I’m having a hard time justifying my need for adrenaline rushes. Especially when I can get that right here with my brothers and one lovely Belle.
I track Aziel’s movements across the deck and back to bed where he tucks in behind Belle. And I kid you not, her breathing grows easier and from the looks of it there’s an upward tilt to the corners of her lips.
I never thought I would see the day a woman held the possibility of making us completely whole, but she’s in my bed with my brothers right now so I know it’s real.
Those two let emotions drive them. Hell, maybe I do too. But more times than not it’s usually in the opposite direction.
We grew up on the same street, went to school together, went into the military together and became SEALS together. I know what they want, what drives them. And they know me. We forged a bond long before the military. Shedding blood together and for one another only made that connection stronger. Maybe it’s what holds us together.
A year back Aziel nearly died while working to take down a cartel leader. A real nasty piece of work who sold anything that could turn him a profit. Drugs, sugar, avocados, women, children, men. And drugs. Lots of fucking heroine, fentanyl, and a new drug that has hit the streets. Some designer shit that is still killing people called Euphoria.
It took us nearly losing one of our trio to learn our connection went deeper than just friendship.
It goes soul deep. And if you ask me, it is the only reason Aziel pulled through though he flatlined three times after taking a direct hit from an exploding IED.
It should have killed him instantly. No way in hell do I think it was sheer luck that he didn’t die. The doctors and nurses are full of shit in that department.
It was us. Rush and me.
I watch my brother in the arms of our woman and give a silent prayer that he’s still among the living. It’s the millionth one in the time since that day.
After wrapping up the mission, Rush and I dropped everything to be by his side. The days we were away I barely ate and Rush, I don't think he slept from the worry. We secured our target and that is when a miracle happened, according to the doc.
For a week he danced on the edge of death. Fuck, this is going to sound nuts, but hear me out. Within mere hours of us arriving at his bedside, the man who flirted with the reaper for nearly eight days regained consciousness.
Shocked the holy shit out of all of everyone.
Everyone except Rush and me.
The doctors called it a miracle. To us it sealed our fate. The first time we saw the blue of Aziel’s eyes Rush and I knew our lives were connected in ways none of us could ever describe. But we knew we would share everything in our lives: our home, our pain, our joys and even the women we take to bed.
After a couple of crash and burns with a few ladies who thought we were freaks, we decided relationships were not for us. No woman will ever understand our bond. It’s better to leave it at that. Besides, if we get killed that will only leave someone heartbroken and I don't need that on my shoulders.
The first night Aziel walked out of the hospital we made a pact: Live together, love together, die together. We catch shit about it from the boys back on base, but we don’t care.
Thunder echoes over the vast waters of Lake Michigan.
When we get her on stage and between us it will be beautiful to see her discover what I suspect is a wilder side of a very woman who is just beginning to discover herself. My mind wants to take my thoughts deeper and wonder if her soul will seek out and forge with ours. So I let it wander through the fantasy as shadows grow long overtop the cabin. The sun relents control to the bursts of lightning flashing across the horizon.
I only hope the storm rolling in isn’t an omen of what’s to come.
Nine
Belle
