BELONGING: Hope, Truth And Malice (Beauty 0f Life Book 3)
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Dan looked well rested and relaxed, too—as if he was comfortable. Dan was never comfortable. He always had a bit of a defensive edge to him. Something had happened—something had changed—and it was good to see. So they all smiled and got back to their workouts.
As he started his bag workout, Dan was silently musing. He had slept so soundly with Lexa in his arms and no nightmares intruded to wake him in the wee hours of the morning. He wasn’t sure if it was another one-night stand or not. Although, he hoped that Lexa was willing to take the risk and see where things might go. Friends with benefits would be a safe place to start.
His attraction to her was undeniable and his realization last night that it felt so right with her—something he’d never felt with another woman—well, that staggered him. Could Lexa be his one? Dan knew that Broderick males only married once. They waited until they found the one that completed them—their soulmate, some would say. It was something Dan knew despite his estrangement from the family.
Could Lexa be his one? It was a scary thought—it would mean choosing between her and the team. Dan wasn’t sure he could do that. He’d just gotten to the point that he felt he belonged here and that they accepted him—he’d just gotten a third chance at having a family.
He glanced at Bram—family. If only he didn’t keep losing family. His attraction to Lexa was so strong and it felt so right. He decided to take it slow, there was no need to rush things. Lexa was clearly confused—he’d never heard her that unsure of her words before. Yeah, he would take it slow—friends with benefits and see where it led them. He smiled as he thought that coming to TRF had been the right decision. He felt at home here—this place, these people, he belonged here.
His phone that he set on the bench started to vibrate. He stopped punching and went to the bench wondering if it was Lexa—maybe she wasn’t able to find her second set of keys and needed him to come get her after all.
Dan’s face darkened a moment as he hit ignore. There was no way in hell he was taking a call from the General. He’d let the General interfere in his life for far too long.
Resuming his workout on the punching bag, his hits were harder as his mind drifted back to the call from the General that had ended up with busted phone in the Pond. Dan still couldn’t figure out why the General would withhold his mail. Why would he do that? Then he wondered why no one from the family had contacted him and if his mail had gotten through to his cousins.
These questions might be answered if he actually answered the repeated calls from the General. But he let every single one of them go to voicemail and then deleted the messages without listening to them. He was sick of letting the General have any power over his life. It was time to move forward and make a new life for himself outside the General’s reach.
For now, that meant that he needed to keep his distance from his extended family. He couldn’t stand it if his cousins or uncles tried to talk him into returning to the military. It was the way of life for Broderick males—but it wasn’t his way of life now. He needed to be a different man, he needed to save lives instead of taking them. Dan needed to rebuild his life.
He grinned as he punched the heavy bag. He was building a life here—the pieces of his life were falling into place. It was amazing what changes could happen in a year. Last year he had walked into this building a broken man who was hanging on by a gossamer thread. He’d been met with disdain and rejection. He was the unwanted seventh member forced onto Alpha Team.
But all that had changed. They had reached out, given him solace, and kept him from falling off the edge into oblivion. Bram, Lexa, Loki, Ray, Nick, and Jon were the reasons he was alive today. Jon especially. When Jon had taken his ivory-handled pistol with him on May twenty-sixth, Jon had prevented him from taking his own life that night. Alpha Team was now his chosen family and Dan believed that the beauty of life, that ephemeral thing Brody said existed, might just be within his reach.
Dan stopped his silent musing as he realized that in addition to Lexa not being here, Loki and Ray were not in the gym, either. He stopped his workout again and looked at the Boss. “So, it looks like I’m not the only one late today. Where are the others?” Dan asked, even though he knew where Lexa was. He hoped she’d found her second set of keys and didn’t have to take a cab. Although doing that might help strengthen her excuse for being late.
Sergeant Nicholas Pastore had averted his gaze in time so that the rookie didn’t know that he’d been studying him. Nick has seen the flash of anger cross Dan’s face when he looked at his phone. And, how hard Dan was hitting the bag afterwards. He was glad to see the smile return to Dan’s face.
Nick slowed his pace on the treadmill as he replied, “Lexa called to say she’d be late, something about having a problem starting her Jeep. Loki and Ray, well it’s their day for a coffee run. They must be stuck there.”
Dan grinned. So she’d used the excuse he suggested. Good, it was the truth, she would’ve had trouble starting her Jeep without keys.
Abraham De Haven, Bram to his friends, piped up from the treadmill, “So, Danny boy, you’re the only one without a good excuse.” Turning to Jon, he jokingly asked, “Does that mean Danny boy gets extra cleaning duty? Maybe counting the ammo for the next month?”
Jon smiled and cocked his head as he continued to lift weights. “Maybe, depends.”
Dan just shook his head. He’d count ammo from here to eternity if he could spend his nights with Lexa. He pushed that thought down. It had no place at work—he couldn’t risk letting the Boss see thoughts like that—he’d lose everything again if that happened.
At that moment, Loki, Ray, and Lexa all rounded the corner into the gym. Alexandra McKenna, team profiler and sniper, instantly noticed the thousand-watt smile on Dan’s face. His smile lit up his whole face. He was devastatingly handsome when he smiled. Lexa had never seen one quite like that on his face before—it was a beautiful sight to see.
Something inside Lexa wanted to believe that she had something to do with that smile. Maybe she had … last night replayed in her mind. The pull was strong. Maybe … just maybe … she might risk it all to be with him. But it would have to be a secret because there was no way she was giving up Alpha Team—they were her family and she wasn’t about to lose a second family. Losing her natural family had nearly broken her. She didn’t think she could bear losing her chosen family.
So if—that was a big if—she decided to continue a forbidden friends-with-benefits relationship with Dan Broderick, it would have to be a well-kept secret. The team could never know.
Striving for normalcy, Lexa asked, “What depends on what?” as she smiled at them and moved to a treadmill.
“Well, you see …” Jon allowed his gaze to go from Dan, to Loki, to Ray, and finally to Lexa. “All you young pups are late on the same day. None of you could get your butts in here on time. No one respecting my authority as tactical lead. So I have to decide what punishment to dole out,” Jon sternly said.
The effect of Jon’s stern voice and steely gaze was totally ruined by the amused smirks on Nick’s and Bram’s faces. “Aw guys, you two are worthless, thought you’d have my back on this,” Jon chuckled.
“It’s certainly a unique situation. Don’t think it’s ever happened before. It’s extremely rare that anyone’s late and I don’t think we’ve ever had more than two late on the same day. But I know we’ve never had over half the team late. Jon, we might be slipping. Might be worth instilling a little more discipline, everyone who was late scrubs the floors, what’d ya think?” Nick laughed as he ran a towel over his head to sop up the sweat that dripped down into his face in steady rivulets.
Before Jon could reply, Dante Baldovino’s excited voice cut in, “Maybe it’s an omen that today will be totally awesome and unique. Could be something so profoundly different and life altering than we’ve ever experienced? How cool would that be?”
Raymundo Palomo just shook his head at his best friend’s animated antics. Loki was like a littl
e boy sometimes—it was endearing and one of the things Ray liked best about Loki. Ray asked, “Who wants their coffee?” Then he handed out the coffees to everyone and there was a collective sigh as they all took their first drink.
The team happily bantered with one another as they continued their workout. The conversation that ensued was light and fun as they offered up suggestions on how a day could be profoundly unique for a TRF team. Loki was currently on a rant about maybe aliens would pop up and his bomb sniffing robot, Lucille, would save the day.
Dan smiled. For him, something profoundly different had already happened today. For the first time in, in so long, he was truly and deeply happy. This was his chosen family and he felt accepted and cared about. He belonged. It felt good to have family again. To have people that would cover his six or as the Boss liked to say, ‘to have my hand on your back’.
His smile grew as he transitioned to the treadmill. He had family again. He had risked opening up after losing a family twice before. He’d been alone and lost—so alone that it almost physically hurt. Both times Dan lost his family, it was his fault—both times he was responsible for the death of the most important person to him and everyone blamed him, including himself.
Dan glanced around the room. Alpha Team—Sergeant Nick Pastore, Tactical Lead and fellow sniper Jon, profiler and sniper Lexa, entry specialist Bram, information officer Ray, and technical and explosives expert Loki—were now his chosen family.
Here, this place was definitely good. Dan was profoundly happy for the first time in a very long time. Dan vowed that he would do all in his power to protect the people he cared about. He hoped that fate would be kind to him—that he wouldn’t fail again and lose his family for a third time.
Nick, Jon, and Bram shared a knowing glance with each other. Their unvoiced conversation conveyed that, ‘Today was a unique day—a good day’. They all recognized that something had finally changed in their rookie. There was an actual light in his bright sapphire blue eyes this morning, the ever-present dark smudges under his eyes were completely gone, and there was a genuine smile on his face.
There was subtle shift in their team, too. Their family had grown and everyone had finally fully accepted a very talented young man into its fold. Dan was now and forevermore a valued and loved member of this family.
Fortunately, it had finally happened. Unfortunately, it had taken a lot longer than it should’ve and that was their fault. As leaders and senior members of this team, they shouldered that responsibility.
Nick cut his workout short, he had some paperwork to review in order to prepare for his meeting with Dan today. It was the rookie’s one year anniversary and Nick needed to have a conversation with Dan and do his first-year assessment. A year gave a rookie a good understanding of what it took to do the job. This job wasn’t the right fit for every officer and Nick needed to check in with the rookie and see how he felt about the job.
As he headed out of the gym, Nick nodded to Jon and got a grin in return. They had spoken last night and he’d gotten Jon’s inputs on Dan’s performance—they were all positive with the exception that Jon still felt the rookie took too many unacceptable risks. That was still a bone of contention between the tactical lead and the rookie. But Nick knew eventually the two of them would work it out.
Chapter Four
July 15
Ottawa – National Defense HQ – Naval Intelligence – 5:30 a.m.
Master Seaman Marquise Tate entered Lieutenant Scott Broderick’s office. He was struck yet again with how much the Lieutenant looked like Dan. They could definitely pass for twins. The only differences he could see close up was that the Lieutenant was a bit older. He was also the picture of health, unlike Dan had been when he last saw him.
When he’d met Dan back in October, he’d looked like shit. Dan was way too thin, pale, and had dark circles under his haunted eyes. Marquise was glad Jarmal had slipped sleeping pills into Dan’s meals. The guy really needed some rest back then. He was also pleased to find out from Jarmal last night that Dan was doing a lot better.
Marquise came to attention and waited to be acknowledged.
Scott looked up and said, “At ease. Do you have the file that I requested?”
Relaxing and holding out the file, Marquise responded, “Yes, Sir. I also pulled all other details on the surrounding area and included it in the file.”
Taking the file and opening it, Scott quickly perused the details. “Good work. This will speed things along.”
He then looked up at the Master Seaman. Scott had seen him a few times since he took over. His predecessor had good things to say about the young man. Tate was intelligent, insightful, and went the extra mile. Scott could see this man had a good career ahead of him.
Scott asked, “What’s your take on this issue?”
Marquise was surprised. The Lieutenant was actually asking him for his opinion. Wow! Marquise found his voice and stated, “Looks are deceiving. It looks like a real threat on the surface, but I don’t buy it. It has earmarks of being a prank.”
“How so?” Scott asked intrigued. He held the same opinion, but needed facts to support it.
Marquise launched into his reasoning. The two of them discussed all aspects of the supposed threat to the Halifax Naval base in Nova Scotia. After forty minutes, the conversation came to a conclusion and Scott now had the facts he needed to discuss it with the Commander and make his recommendations.
Scott stood, held out his hand to the young man, and said, “I appreciate your insight. I see a bright future for you. I have an opening coming up shortly in my team. Are you interested in a transfer?”
Marquise beamed, he couldn’t help the huge smile that appeared on his face. “Yes, Sir. Absolutely.” Then it slipped out, “Boy, you’re as good a man as your cousin Dan. I swear, Brodericks are lucky charms for Tates.”
A stab of pain coursed through Scott at hearing Dan’s name. But then curiosity intruded quickly. “You know my cousin?”
“Sure do. Through my brothers, D’Ante and Jarmal. Mostly Jarmal. I bet you’re happy that Dan is looking better lately. Man, he was in such a bad headspace when I met him in October. He looked like he’d been keelhauled. But Jarmal said he’s looking much better now.”
Scott was whirling inside. He’d been looking for Dan for a year now, ever since Uncle Will had said that Dan had left the military after killing his best friend Brody Hunter in a friendly fire incident. Uncle Will had been tight lipped on the details. Scott knew that security had to be maintained, but the total blackout on Dan afterwards was maddening.
He highly suspected, but had no confirmation, that Uncle Will had invoked blackout protocol on Danny. But for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why. Surely Uncle Will knew that after something like that, killing Brody, Dan would need the family’s support more than ever. It felt like Sara’s death all over again—when Uncle Will had taken Danny off to the Yukon base. Sure, the psychologist recommended Dan be away from where Sara died, but Danny was cut off from the rest of the family in that frozen wasteland. It wasn’t right then and it wasn’t right now.
Scott kept his emotions in control as he calmly asked, “Where’d you see him in October?”
Marquise smiled, “In Toronto. My brothers still live there. Jarmal opened a restaurant. He saw Dan after a police situation. Said that Dan looked like shit on a shingle. That’s when Jarmal found out Dan had lost his best friend. Dan’s Sergeant asked Jarmal to watch out for Dan for a few days.”
Sergeant? Was Dan still in the military? Was it a ruse that Dan had exited? CFB Borden was just outside Toronto. Could Dan be in a safe house there? There were so many questions running through Scott’s mind. He finally asked, “Do you know the Sergeant’s name?”
Scrunching up his face, trying to recall, Marquise took a few moments to answer. He grinned when it popped into his head. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was Sergeant Pastore. Yeah. Nice guy, Jarmal said. He was real concerned for Dan’s health.”
Scott thought it would be strange for the Sergeant to ask for outside help with blackout protocol active. He probed a little further, “Why did the Sergeant want your brother to look after Dan?”
Marquise sighed then said, “Jarmal shared with me that Dan had a rough time integrating with his police TRF team. They had a rough call. It affected Dan somehow and he took off running after punching the shit out of the brick wall. His Sergeant sent two of the constables on his team to go get him after the tactical leader was put in a car and taken off to be interviewed. I guess the tactical lead had to take a lethal shot. Jarmal took care of Dan for five days. Slipped him some sleeping pills to quiet the nightmares so he could actually sleep. Made sure he ate too—he was so thin and pale. Jarmal said Dan looked worse than when he’d first met him years ago, when Dan was recovering from some significant injuries.”
He stopped his rambling. Surely, he wasn’t telling the Lieutenant anything he didn’t know already. With that thought in his mind, Marquise was surprised by the black look that settled onto the Lieutenant’s face. The Lieutenant’s blue eyes darkened and Marquise could feel a cold fury building in the man—the room suddenly felt twenty degrees cooler.
Marquise sucked in a breath and unconsciously took four steps backwards as the smile on his face disappeared. Lieutenant Broderick was pissed off and Marquise had no understanding as to why. But he knew he didn’t want to be in the path of the Lieutenant when he let loose that fury. He swallowed the lump of fear that was forming in his throat as he tried to think of what he might’ve said to produce this reaction.