The Battlefield Series 5: Breaking Through the Pain (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  “How is Antonia feeling?” he asked him. Cesar’s eyes narrowed a little and he supposed any mention of his woman reminded Cesar of the experience she had when she was assaulted in her own home.

  “She’s doing well, thank you for asking. I think she had some plans to get back into the self-defense training. In fact, I thought I saw Cali head in there a few minutes ago.”

  “She did. She’s working with Fox, I think.”

  “Interesting,” Cesar said and looked that way. He seemed preoccupied with that observation.

  “You seem surprised by it.”

  “More encouraged, actually. It will be good for her. Well, I won’t keep ya. Tell your brothers I said hello.”

  “Will do, Chief,” Culhane said and watched the chief head over to the dojo.

  He got into his truck and headed home, wondering why the chief felt encouraged about Cali doing the self-defense classes. Could she have had some bad experience? Did someone try something with her at the Station? His thoughts began to scatter and then he had to remind himself that he really didn’t care. Yet, thinking that made him feel bad. He didn’t even know her. So why was that expression in her eyes still with him when he pulled his truck up to his house?

  Smith and Wesson came running from the side yard and Warren followed.

  “How’d they do?” Culhane asked, bending down on one knee to pet both dogs hello. He knew that Warren was taking them through a series of obstacle courses and bomb sniffing exercises to keep the well-trained dogs alert. It was imperative to their mental state of mind. Culhane and Warren couldn’t just take the dogs out of the war zone and expect them to adapt to civilian life without making the transitions smooth. Just like soldiers, dogs suffered from PTSD and other forms of anxiety. Allowing them to get rid of that need to hunt, to seek out bombs and explosives by doing a series of military-type maneuvers helped with their transitions.

  “They did great. Smith was a bit overzealous around the tunnel still, but a lot better. Right, boy?” Warren said to the dog and petted his fur. The dog sat at attention and wagged his tail. Culhane smiled. He was relieved they fought so hard to save Smith and Wesson and get the government to let them retire with him and Warren. The dogs saved both their lives several times.

  “How was the dojo?”

  “It was good. I also saw Cesar on my way out.”

  “He ask about us taking that job with Damon again? I swear those guys have been pushing pretty hard.”

  “Actually, he didn’t. He was more interested in seeing Cali go into the dojo and do self-defense training classes with Fox.”

  “Cali? That the young, fairly new waitress Dominick talks about?” Warren asked.

  “Yeah,” Culhane replied and started heading inside.

  “Speaking of the Station, Dominick said a few of the guys are meeting there tonight and invited us. I guess Damon, Jed, Jaret, and Zeke are going. Got a text from Jack. Milton and Marco are in.”

  “I don’t know. It’s a young crowd there.”

  “It’s a combination of locals, young and old. We have been avoiding their invitations. Tonight would be a good night to go. The rest of the weekend is pretty booked up. Sunday we need to head out early for hunting with the dogs.”

  “I guess we can go for a little while.”

  Warren smirked. “Should be fun.”

  Culhane wasn’t too sure. He hated bars and hanging out drinking and shit. He was too old for that, yet there didn’t seem to be many other ways to socialize and act normal. With an odd feeling in his gut, he headed inside to shower.

  Chapter Two

  Cali fell right into professional bartending in no time. Ledger was very impressed with her and how quickly she made drinks and even accommodated the women in the bachelorette parties who wanted drinks he never heard of. “What the hell was even in a Captain Jack Sparrow?” he asked her and she smiled and rambled off the ingredients of rum, ginger ale, and other things. Of course, to top it off, a lot of the guys they were friendly with came in to hang out right in the midst of chaos. Cali bent down to retrieve ice from the bin when a couple of rowdy cowboys whistled at her. A quick slap-to-the-back hello from Mateo and Fox got the guys moving out of the way. Behind them were Warren and Culhane, two big ass Berets and brothers with Dominick and Shimmy.

  * * * *

  “Hey, Cali, what the heck are you doing back here?” Fox asked her, giving her a big smile. She looked up and caught what Fox and Mateo had done to get the two cowboys to stop staring at her boobs. The shirt she grabbed was too small for her breasts, but bagged nice at her waist.

  “What does it look like?” she asked and smiled, then placed four coasters down on the bar. She glanced at Culhane and assumed the other guy was his brother. They looked a lot alike, except the other brother didn’t seem to have tattoos.

  “When did you start bartending?” Mateo asked her.

  “Tonight is my first night. What can I get you, gentlemen?” she asked. They rambled off a couple of Buds and two Heinekens. She grabbed them as Ledger joined them and said hello, then shook their hands.

  She caught sight of Culhane and Warren looking at her and she got a funny feeling in her gut and quickly looked away. A few other guys came up to the bar, calling her name.

  “Hot damn, Cali, you look incredible in that shirt. It fits you perfectly.”

  “Thank you, what can I get you, gentlemen?”

  “If you’re on the menu, I’ll take one of you,” one of them said and gave her a wink.

  “Well, I’m not, so what will it be?” she asked with confidence.

  “I’ll keep working on you, Cali, and by the end of the night, you’ll give me your number,” he said to her. She glanced at Mateo, Fox, Culhane, and Warren and saw their angry expressions.

  “If I said no to you before and while waitressing, why would you think I would say yes now?” she asked as she grabbed the beers they’d asked for.

  “Because bartenders are more sociable than waitresses, and tend to want to please the customer so they spend more money,” he replied and his buddies laughed.

  “Don’t you mean show off more of their bodies to get bigger tips?” the other one asked. They laughed.

  “I kind of like the fact Cali hides her…assets. More to unwrap when I get her to accept a date with me,” Tanner said and they all got quiet.

  “That’s enough. Leave her alone and go take a walk,” Culhane said to them.

  She was surprised. She’d only met him once.

  Tanner and his buddies were young and already feeling their drinks. “No need to get all riled up, old man. We got this covered over here,” Tanner replied and his friends laughed.

  She couldn’t believe they called him an old man. He was older, maybe late thirties, but old? No way. Hadn’t they even seen the size of the man? He was a tank of muscles and badass tattoos.

  “Tanner, cool it. Take your drinks and go sit at one of the tables over there,” Ledger told him.

  “We like the view over here, Ledger,” Tanner stated and winked at Cali. He sure was coming on strong tonight. She started to feel a bit intimidated.

  She walked away and heard Ledger warn them about staying away from her. She took care of a bunch of orders at the other end of the bar, then returned over that way shortly later. At this point only Culhane and Warren were facing the bar, their friends talking to other guys. She heard Lori, her friend and another bartender, talking to Culhane and Warren.

  “I can’t believe that Dominick and Shimmy are your brothers. Are they going to join you for a beer when they’re finished working?” Lori asked. Cali didn’t know why she was listening, but when she heard Culhane say that they were, Cali felt nervous. Shimmy made her feel that way. It was like he didn’t like her and thought she couldn’t do her job. He had such an attitude, she was surprised that Shimmy would even stop to have a beer. He always looked so pissed off at the world and exhausted when he left at night.

  “Hey, sexy, I need another one of those cra
zy concoctions for my friend’s girlfriend. Put the top shelf stuff in it again. She said that shit was good,” some cowboy told her as he leaned against the bar and slightly bumped Warren. Warren looked pissed.

  Lori gave Cali a wink. “You’ll have to climb on up and get a new bottle. This one is almost finished,” Lori told her.

  She looked for Ledger but then thought better of it for him to climb the ladder. Not with his leg. So she pulled the small, four-rung ladder to the shelves of liquor and began to reach up for the bottle.

  She heard the whistles and realized that her shirt had lifted up, revealing her belly and back. She grabbed the bottle and glanced to the left as she heard some flirtatious comments, but her eyes landed on Warren’s. She saw his eyes glide over her body and, feeling shy, she looked away, only to see Culhane doing the same thing. But then the guy who asked for the drink held a twenty-dollar bill in his hand and made a lewd comment.

  “Sweetie, come on over here and I’ll give you this nice tip. You got one hell of a figure, honey.”

  In a flash, Culhane grabbed the guy by his lapels and shoved him against the bar.

  “Shut the hell up. Now apologize to the nice young lady.”

  “What the hell, man? She’s fucking hot,” the guy stated and Culhane did something to make the guy hunch over.

  “Is there a problem over here?” one of the bouncers, Tank, asked him.

  “Only if this asshole doesn’t apologize to Cali. Then you’ll need a body bag.”

  “I’m sorry. Shit, man, I’m fucking sorry, Cali,” he said. Cali was shocked by Culhane’s reaction and the scene he just caused.

  Cali put the drinks down.

  “Let him go, Culhane. He can take the drinks and head back to his friends,” she said to him and heard her voice shaking. The man was a force to be reckoned with and she wondered how that guy wasn’t begging for mercy or running for his life.

  “She saved your ass. Don’t come back over here unless you’re ready to be respectful,” Culhane said, then gave the guy a shove. He walked closer and put down a fifty-dollar bill. “Keep the change, Cali. I’m sorry,” he said and walked away.

  “What the hell is going on over here?” Dominick asked, joining his brothers along with Shimmy, who looked like his usual cheery, exhausted self.

  “Just a little misunderstanding,” Warren said and looked at Cali, giving her a wink.

  She didn’t touch the fifty dollars.

  “What are you doing behind the bar?” Dominick asked.

  “Working,” she replied.

  “What for? You even know what you’re doing? She caused you to almost get into a fight?” Shimmy asked and she was shocked. She couldn’t understand why he was so mean to her.

  “I know what I’m doing,” she replied.

  “Just some guy being a jerk and talking to her disrespectful-like. I have it covered. She’s good now, right, Cali?” he asked her and looked at her like she needed protection. There stood four, big goons of muscle and attitude she hardly knew and they were putting her down and acting like she needed them.

  “You need thick skin for bartending,” Shimmy said to her.

  She started to walk away. “Hey, aren’t you going to take your tip?” Culhane asked her.

  “It’s yours,” she replied.

  “Mine?”

  “It was your show,” she said with an attitude she mustered and went to go help two other patrons at the bar next to Dominick. She heard a few of the other guys chuckle at her comment.

  * * * *

  “Looks like you pissed her off,” Fox said to Culhane, joining the conversation.

  “I was just sticking up for her. That guy was being a jerk.”

  “She needs to be able to take care of herself. I think she’s doing great,” Zeke stated.

  “She’s young. It serves you right for sticking up for her. She was probably causing it anyway. Let’s have a beer and then go,” Shimmy said and Culhane looked at him like he was crazy.

  “She didn’t cause anything. Some guys just can’t handle their alcohol,” Warren told his brother.

  Zeke and Fox smirked.

  “What?” Dominick asked, picking up on their expressions.

  Fox took a sip from his bottle of Bud.

  “Looks like the Perkins brothers are interested in robbing the cradle.”

  Zeke chuckled.

  “She’s a pretty little brunette, and looks like she’s showing more of her personality the more comfortable she gets. If they’re smart, which I doubt, they’ll snag her up before some other brothers do,” Fox added and Zeke nodded his head. The two of them clinked their beer bottles together.

  “Brooklyn is going to get a kick out of this,” Zeke said.

  “Antonia, too,” Fox added.

  Culhane exchanged looks with his brothers, and it was Shimmy that looked shocked before he shook his head and walked away from the bar. His brother had issues, and Culhane understood those issues all too well. They each had a way of handling them, but Shimmy just didn’t seem like he was getting better.

  Culhane looked at Warren and then Dominick, who was keeping an eye on Cali as she worked. He ran his hand along his jaw and then felt the hand on his shoulder. He turned to the right and there was Zeke.

  “Don’t bother fighting it. It’s no use and it hits you out of fucking nowhere.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The instant you see her and know something is different, yet you fight it, try to ignore it, but it gets worse and worse. You’ll see what I mean. You won’t be the only one to stand up for her, get jealous because some dick hits on her.”

  “We know nothing about her and are at least ten years older than she is. It’s not even something my brothers and I discussed.” Culhane was honest with Zeke. They went to high school together. He knew him and his brothers for years.

  “You’ll discuss it now, because it’s pretty fucking rare when brothers set eyes on the same woman.”

  Dominick was now listening in and he locked gazes with Culhane.

  “We’re too old for fucking games, Zeke.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “She’s got young cowboys hitting on her left and right,” Dominick said to them.

  “You saying you don’t got what it takes, old man, to win her heart?” Zeke asked.

  Culhane snorted and then shook his head.

  “You’re trying to push something here that isn’t going to work. We’re not interested in dating anyone and certainly not a woman we could be a father to.”

  Zeke laughed and so did Fox.

  “You can’t be her fucking father,” Fox stated.

  “Sure as shit could be. She’s barely twenty-one,” Dominick stated firmly.

  Zeke leaned closer.

  “I’ll let you two in on a little secret. She isn’t twenty. She’s twenty-four, has a college degree, and is living in an apartment above a garage at Amber’s cousin Marlena’s house, and they aren’t related to her.”

  Culhane squinted his eyes and his gut clenched with questions.

  “Why?” he asked.

  Zeke shrugged his shoulders. “Not a clue, but by the way this town works, I’d say the answers to any questions would be through Cesar, if not Cali herself.”

  “Shit,” Culhane said and took a slug of his beer and sought out Cali by the bar mixing drinks.

  “My thoughts exactly, and it sounds like trouble to me. We don’t need any trouble, not with dealing with Shimmy and all,” Dominick stated.

  Culhane watched Cali set down the drinks for some customers and give a smile. She was a beautiful young woman, with long, wavy brown hair she had pulled back in a ponytail, big brown eyes with thick eyebrows, and long, full eyelashes that looked like she didn’t even have mascara on. She was naturally beautiful, not some glamour girl with loads of makeup and an overkill of perfume. Her lips were full and her nose small, feminine like the rest of her, but she did have definition in her arms, and was definitively
a hard worker.

  He watched as Warren said something to her and thought she wasn’t going to talk to him, but then she shyly pushed a stray hair from her face and leaned closer. When he saw his brother cover her hand with his, and her cheeks flush, something stirred inside of Culhane. He didn’t have to look at Dominick to realize he noticed, too. He sensed his brother’s eyes upon her, and when she glanced from Warren to Culhane, then Dominick, she looked downright scared out of her mind. That didn’t sit right with Culhane at all. In fact, in that instant, he knew things were different tonight.

  Maybe Zeke was right. When they least expected it a woman, a special one, would come into their lives and plans would change, the monotony would stop, and new things would happen. In the back of his head his suspicious, always-on-guard military mentality started asking some important questions. Why had she pretended to be so young and inexperienced when it was obvious she knew how to bartend like a pro, and was older than she let on? What was her story, and did he want to know?

  He looked at her walk away from Warren, who turned to him and Dominick with an expression they had seen before, yet, somehow, seemed instantly more intense. Desire. Their brother desired Cali and if Culhane wasn’t mistaken, Dominick did, too, and Culhane was on board to boot. Then he looked for Shimmy and his gut clenched, his heart raced with the realistic feeling that they couldn’t pursue her without Shimmy on board. He was their brother, their family, and they did everything together. If they were going to get involved with a woman, they would do it as a team, a family. He was frantic to find him and then, as if knowing who Culhane was looking for, Dominick gave his arm a tap. Culhane looked from him to the direction Dominick nodded in, and, son of a bitch, wouldn’t you know it, Shimmy stood by the corner with his arms crossed in front of his chest, a mean scowl on his face, and was in a dead stare at Cali as three cowboys flirted and asked for drinks from her at the bar.

  “We’re in deep shit here, you know that?” Dominick asked him.

  “Ain’t nothing we aren’t used to. Being in deep shit together, I mean,” Culhane said. Dominick chuckled and Warren tipped a beer toward them.