Men Out of Uniform: 6 Book Omnibus

by Rhonda Russell

  Payne’s gaze sharpened. “What are you saying?”

  Guy stilled, studied him for a moment. Any trace of humor vanished from his gaze. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

  Jamie nodded. “She’s...it,” he finally finished, releasing a pent-up breath. And he’d blown the hell out of any chance with her. After a moment, he laughed bitterly and said as much. “I’ve screwed up. I should have told her and I didn’t. And she was right. I’ve had plenty of time, I just...” He gestured wearily.

  “You just thought she’d never have to know,” Payne finished.

  “Stupid bastard,” Guy chimed in. “Granted I am not the authority on women that you are, but even I know they appreciate honesty and don’t like being lied to.”

  Payne peered out the window. “Or made a fool of. She thinks she fell for an act, and the longer she ruminates on that, the harder it’s going to be to change her mind.”

  He was right, Jamie realized. Whether she’d wanted him to leave or not, by walking away he’d just made himself look all the more guilty. What the hell had he been thinking? Had he lost his freaking mind? He didn’t retreat, dammit. He’d been a Ranger, for chrissakes. He didn’t back down. He’d never walked away from a fight in his life and wasn’t about to start now. Not when he had so much to lose.

  Namely her.

  Jamie sprang up from his chair and headed toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Guy asked, startled.

  “I’m taking that hill,” Jamie said, referencing the old adage, because he was prepared to die on it if need be. His lips quirked with bitter humor.

  And considering Garrett wanted to kill him that was a distinct possibility.

  CHAPTER 15

  “I don’t give a damn why you did it, Gramps. It was wrong,” Audrey told him, giving him no quarter.

  “Well, I never said I was right,” he replied with a self-righteous sniff. “I said I did what I thought was right. There’s a difference.”

  Though she was angry and aching, Audrey felt a smile pull at her lips. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be an attorney, because that sounds like a load of crap to me?”“Young lady,” he scolded.

  “Save it,” she replied firmly. “You’re not going to ‘young lady’ me on this. You had no right to do what you did. All of this could have been avoided if you would have merely asked me if I was going to marry Derrick. I would have told you.”

  He blinked as though the idea had never occurred to him.

  “Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.” She stood and pushed a hand through her hair. At this point she just wanted to be alone with her thoughts and properly nurse her wounds in private. “Come on,” she said. “I’ll put fresh sheets in the guest bedroom.”

  “Oh, I’ve got to go have a little chat with Flanagan before I go to bed,” he said with an ominous chuckle.

  Audrey drew up short. “No you don’t. I forbid it.”His eyebrows soared up his forehead. “You forbid it?”

  “That’s right. No more meddling.” Honestly, Jamie deserved nothing better than a load of brimstone from her grandfather, but she needed to set a precedent here and that was that the Colonel had to start butting out. “You are no longer permitted to meddle in my personal affairs.”

  “But--“

  For the second time that evening, a knock sounded at her door, then someone burst through.

  Only this time that person was Jamie.

  Evidently used to it by now, Moses merely lifted his head, saw that it was Jamie and lay down once more. Her grandfather, however, wasn’t so courteous.

  He scowled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” he demanded.

  His face a mask of determination, Jamie pointed a finger at him. “Stay out of it.”

  “What? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”

  “My former boss,” Jamie replied smoothly. “And I didn’t come here to talk to you.” His gaze tangled with hers, causing the fine hairs on her arms to stand on end and an unwelcome bittersweet pang of joy to rattle her aching heart. “I came here to see you.”

  “Get out,” the Colonel ordered.

  “Hear me out, Audrey,” Jamie said. “That’s all I ask.”

  “You either get out or I’ll put you out,” Garrett ordered, advancing on him.

  “I love her, dammit,” Jamie snapped, rounding on him. “Either shut the hell up or I’ll shut you up.”

  Audrey witnessed a phenomenon she’d never imagined to see--her grandfather speechless.

  “Give us a minute, would you, Gramps?”

  Though he looked like he wanted to argue, he didn’t. “All right,” he grumbled. He stalked to the back of the house, mumbling something under his breath about ‘mouthy upstarts’ and ‘in my day...’

  Had she really heard him correctly? Audrey wondered, shooting Jamie a questioning glance. Had he really just said he loved her? A hopeful sprout of happiness grew in her chest.

  For the first time since he’d charged back into her living room, Jamie looked unsure of himself. It was curiously endearing.

  “Audrey, I’m sorry,” he said simply, the sincerest form of an apology. Regret painted his face with worry. “I’m not proud of going along with this. I just--“ He paused. “I just wanted out the military and your grandfather helped make that process easier than it should have been. I owed him. I agreed to a favor.” He shook his head and his intense gaze tangled with his. “But I never counted on anything like this, and I damned sure didn’t count on coming up here and falling in love with you.” He took a step toward her and grasped her shoulders. “I love you.” A helpless laugh bubbled up his throat. “You are-- You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I know I was wrong, but-- But don’t cut me out over it. This evening you offered me an open invitation. Don’t take it back. Please.”

  Audrey considered him a moment. “Why did you make love to me when you’d already gotten the answer to the question you were sent here to get?”

  Another helpless laugh rolled out his mouth. “Because I couldn’t not make love to you. I need you.”

  A tremulous smile shook her mouth. That had been the answer she’d been hoping for. And she completely understood it because she needed him, too. She needed that crooked grin and those sexy twinkling eyes. She needed his warmth and his strength and his loyalty and integrity. All of the qualities which had made him a good soldier also made him a good partner. He’d charged up the hill and taken on her grandfather for her, Audrey thought with a silent chuckle. Now that took courage.

  Jamie caressed her cheek, sending a wave of warmth and longing washing through her. Her lids fluttered shut, absorbing the feel of him.

  “Whaddya say, Audrey? Can you forgive me?”

  Audrey moved into the safe circle of his arms, wrapped her arms around his waist, then looked up and pressed a kiss to his jaw. She smiled up at him. “Haven’t you heard? I’m anything if not forgiving.”

  Jamie chuckled, then lowered his mouth to hers.

  “No, you’re anything if not mine.”

  EPILOGUE

  Washington, DC

  Three months later...

  “I wish you could have met him,” Jamie said with a somber sigh. He and Audrey stood in Arlington National Cemetery, next to a plain white marble cross which marked the spot where Danny had been buried. More than year later and he was still grieving, but thanks to his wife--God, he was proud to call her that, Jamie thought, still in awe--he was allowing himself to mourn instead of blaming himself.

  He glanced over his shoulder at Guy and Payne who were standing a few markers down with the Colonel. The Colonel seemed to be in deep conversation with Payne and, judging from the unhappy look on Payne’s face, he wasn’t enjoying what he was hearing. Welcome to my world, Jamie thought, smiling. He didn’t always enjoy his conversations with the Colonel either.

  Garrett had received a commendation this morning and they’d all flown in to be there for him. Despite the interfering way he’
d handled things, Jamie still owed him. The man had inadvertently introduced him to the love of his life, after all.

  “I wish I could have met him, too,” Audrey sighed. She squeezed his hand. “Daniel Garrett Flanagan,” she announced matter-of-factly.

  “What?”

  “If we have a boy,” she said. “We should name him after your friend and my grandfather.”

  It was a nice thought, but... Jamie grinned down at her. “I like it, but shouldn’t we worry about that when you actually get pregnant?”

  Audrey chewed the inside of her cheek, but didn’t say anything.

  Jamie stilled as hope leaped inside him. His heart began to race. “Audrey,” he said slowly. “Are you?” he asked.

  A huge grin spread across her lips and she nodded.

  Jamie whooped with joy, snatched her up and whirled her around. My God, he thought. He was going to be a father. It was... It was... He shook his head. There were no words.

  Except for these. “She’s pregnant!” he bellowed to his baffled friends.

  The Colonel beamed at them. “Audrey?” he asked for confirmation.

  She nodded again. “Behave yourself and we’ll name a boy after you.”

  Guy and Payne sidled over and slapped him on the back. “Congratulations, man,” Guy said, smiling. “We’re honorary uncles, right?”

  Jamie grinned. “Definitely.”

  Payne looked happy for him, but oddly distracted. And The Specialist rarely became distracted. “Is something wrong?” Jamie asked him, concerned.

  “It’ll keep.”

  “No,” Jamie insisted. “You can tell me now. What’s wrong?”

  He glanced at Audrey, seemed to hesitate. “He just called my favor in.”

  So that’s what they’d been talking about. “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know. He’s going to brief me on the return flight.” He cast Audrey an uneasy look. “There aren’t anymore unattached women in your family I need to know about, are there?”

  Audrey smiled. “Not that I know of.”

  Jamie laughed and wrapped an arm around Payne’s shoulders. “Man, all I can say is, I hope you’re as lucky with your mission as I was with mine.”

  Payne grimaced. From the look on his face, he hoped differently.

  MAJOR PERFECT - Sneak Peek!

  Here’s a sneak peek of Brian Payne’s story, MAJOR PERFECT!

  PROLOGUE

  Feeling a bit like a puppeteer master about to pull the strings, Colonel Carl Garrett shifted in his roomy first class seat and gratefully accepted a tumbler of Kentucky bourbon from the pretty flight attendant currently smiling down at him. “Thank you,” the Colonel murmured.

  Brian Payne, his puppet de jour and a former Major under his command sat next to him, his face an impassive mask of patience...but Garrett knew better.

  Payne might appear patient, but that was the extent of it.

  In exchange for pushing Payne’s end-of-service papers through--when Garrett just as easily could have made things very difficult for them--Payne and a couple of his other friends had agreed to grant him one favor. Garrett had already collected from former Major Jamie Flanagan. His lips quirked.

  And gotten way more than he bargained for.

  He’d sent Flanagan to Maine to prevent his granddaughter from marrying the wrong man and Flanagan had ended up marrying her himself. Though that hadn’t been the Colonel’s original intent, he had to confess that he’d been secretly pleased with the outcome. If he’d searched the world over he couldn’t have found a better man--a better partner--for his granddaughter. In seven months she’d be delivering their first child--his first great-grandchild--and if the child was a boy, they’d promised to name the baby after him. He didn’t know when anything had delighted him as much.

  Of course, if Payne succeeded on this next “favor”--and considering the man had never failed at anything, Garrett had no reason to suspect that he would start now--he’d be equally delighted, though for completely different reasons. Even the recent commendation for meritorious service--his expert handling of a hostage situation, specifically--as rewarding as it was, wouldn’t compare to owning a piece of history, a piece he had secretly searched for and coveted for years.

  He’d let him stew long enough, Garrett decided. Besides, waiting Payne out was a futile effort. Garrett instinctively knew he’d lose.

  “I’m a big Civil War buff,” Garrett told him conversationally, a mild understatement. He wasn’t merely a “buff.” According to his wife, he was obsessed, but there were worse obsessions. “Did you know that?”

  Though he hadn’t so much as blinked, the Colonel felt Payne go on alert. “No, sir.”

  “Oh, yes.” Garrett lifted his glass and studied the amber liquid within. “I’ve walked every battlefield, studied every strategy, read hundreds of letters from soldiers-- mostly Confederate, of course--and even collected many. It was a fascinating time in history,” Garrett ruminated. “Fascinating time...and yet, there’s no man who was a part of it who is more fascinating to me than General Robert E. Lee.” Another mild understatement. Lee was brilliant, possibly the best strategist and tactician in history, American or otherwise. We he able to walk the valleys of time and had the liberty to choose to meet any of the men who’d gone before him, with the exception of Jesus, Robert E. Lee would be first on his list.

  Payne quirked a brow, a silent indicator which told Garrett to continue.

  “Did you know he was asked to lead the Union army first, but turned it down?”

  Payne inclined his head. “I seem to recall hearing that.”

  “In a letter written to his sister he said, ‘With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home.’” Garrett sighed. “No one talks that way anymore. Lee had passion, Major. He was a great man.”

  Payne acknowledged this proclamation with the usual silent nod.

  “You’re going to Gettysburg,” Garrett announced without further preamble.

  Gratifyingly, the first notable flicker of interest sparked in Payne’s annoyingly impassive gaze. “Gettysburg? What will I be doing in Gettysburg?”

  “I want you to find something for me.”

  He waited, presumably for him to elaborate, Garrett concluded, quite perturbed. Payne was supposed to be more interested than this, dammit. Garrett frowned. It was quite unsporting of him. “Don’t you want to know what I’m wanting you to find for me?” he asked, swallowing an impatient huff.

  “I’m assuming at some point you’re going to tell me,” he replied mildly.

  Fine, Garrett thought. There was no point in playing cat and mouse with a mouse who didn’t want to play. “Lee might have surrendered at Appomattox, but scholars agree the battle was really lost at Gettysburg. The Confederacy never fully recovered from that defeat. Furthermore, Lee lost more than the war there. It’s rumored that he lost a pocket watch as well.”

  “Rumored?” Payne repeated, seemingly interested now. “You’re cashing in your favor on a rumor?”

  It was a gamble, Garrett had to admit, but one he was willing to make. After sifting through countless letters--though none in Lee’s own hand--Garrett was convinced that the watch did exist. It reportedly was engraved with the inscription “Lighthorse”, meaning that it had most likely belonged to Lee’s father, Harry.

  If it existed--and he thought it did--then Garrett wanted it.

  And if anyone could find it, then Brian Payne--aka The Specialist--could.

  Operating on the belief that the watch had never made it out of Gettysburg, over the years Garrett had kept feelers out at various antique dealers and pawn shops and, while up to this point they’d yielded frustrating leads which had arrived at dead ends, Garrett thought he’d finally received a viable clue. He scowled.

  Unfortunately, so had another rival collector.

  And this rival collector
was also a friend, one who’d had the nerve to bet him--only one of many wagers over the years--that his rebel rule-bending girl could find it before Garrett’s Specialist could.

  Hogwash.

  Granted Garrett knew enough about Emma Langsford and her service in the military not to completely discount her, but a worthy opponent of Payne? One of his Project Chameleon protégés? Hell, Payne had been part of a secret unit that couldn’t be found in any file, computer-generated or otherwise. He and his friends had been the best. Emma Langsford a match for Payne? He thought not. Since Emma had recently left the service as well, he imagined that he wasn’t the only person cashing in a favor, so to speak. No doubt Emma owed Colonel Martin Hastings as well. He couldn’t imagine any other reason the woman would agree to go and look for the watch.

  Garrett had debated whether or not to tell Payne about Emma, but ultimately decided against it. In the first place, Payne needed to stay focused and if he was worrying about keeping up or even one step ahead of Emma, then he wouldn’t be able to properly utilize that eerily pragmatic brain of his.

  And secondly, somehow he didn’t think Payne would appreciate being the object of a bet between friends. He’d undoubtedly take exception to his manipulated part in this wager. Naturally Garrett wanted to win, but he wanted the watch more.

  Luckily, he had every confidence that he’d have both.

  “I have what I believe is a solid lead in Gettysburg,” Garrett finally told him. “According to a local auctioneer, a watch with the same inscription as what’s rumored to be on the one Lee lost at Gettysburg was recently sold in an estate sale of an elderly woman who was an avid collector of well...junk. She most likely didn’t know what she had.”

  “What was the inscription?”

  “Lighthorse, after Lee’s--“

  “--father,” Payne finished, displaying a gratifying knowledge of Confederate history. “So if you know it was sold at auction, then there should be a record of who bought what and for how much, and you shouldn’t need me to go find it.”