Zeke
Delta Forces Series
By Elizabeth Lennox
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Copyright 2020
ISBN13: 9781950451302
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any duplication of this material, either electronic or any other format, either currently in use or a future invention, is strictly prohibited, unless you have the direct consent of the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
Excerpt from “Derick”
Chapter 1
“Zeke! You’ve been shot in the back! You’re going to the emergency room!” Major Derick Jones snapped.
Lieutenant Colonel Zeke Jeffers glared at him. “I’m fine! It’s just a scratch! The bullet only grazed me.” In truth, his back hurt like a mother…bad! He felt wetness and knew that the wound was bleeding, but…he seriously didn’t want to go to the hospital.
Zeke could handle snakes and evil, merciless terrorists. He and his team routinely swam through shark and piranha infested waters when necessary. One time, he’d even walked through one of those bird eating spider webs. Those bird eating spiders were the stuff of nightmares. Those suckers could grow bigger than both of his hands put together – and he had huge hands. In that instance, he’d simply pulled out his pistol and shot the massive spider, then muttered expletives while he fought his way out of the disgusting spider web, all the while, threatening his team members with violent repercussions for their amusement at his expense.
But the truth was, Zeke would rather deal with a bird-eating spider any day than go to the emergency room. Too many needles!
Just considering the possibility made him shudder with horror! And that hurt his back, so he banished the thought of…those things…from his mind.
“You’re going,” Colonel Mike Cain told him, his hands fisted on his hips as he glared at Zeke. “PFC Jones!” Mike barked.
Immediately, a young and eager private first class sprinted over and stood at attention. The enlisted man saluted smartly and yelled, “Yes sir?”
“Take Lieutenant Colonel Jeffers to the emergency room. Make sure he goes inside and sees a doctor.” Mike’s lips curled slightly upwards as he continued. “I want you to make sure that he sees a doctor and, if Lieutenant Colonel Jeffers doesn’t follow the doctor’s orders, I want to know about it.”
The enlisted man gulped as he glanced at Zeke. Zeke was a big guy, well over six and a half feet tall. And he was massively built with muscles on top of muscles. Colonel Cain was also tall and muscular, as was Major Joe Hancock and Major Derick Matlock. But there was just something about Lieutenant Jeffers that…he scared the enlisted soldiers! He was mean and demanding, although he never asked anything of the enlisted men that he wasn’t willing to do himself.
Except go to the emergency room!
“I can manage myself!” Zeke snapped.
Mike wasn’t having it. “PFC, you have your orders,” he replied, not taking his eyes from Zeke’s. “Drive him to the emergency room and…” Mike paused slightly as he smirked. “Make sure he doesn’t get blood on my truck.”
“Yes sir!” the private first class responded with another smart salute.
“Payback,” Zeke muttered to Mike. Thankfully, Mike was able to keep a straight face until Zeke was in the passenger seat of the truck. But as soon as the two men had driven off, Mike turned to Joe and Derrick and burst out laughing!
“He’s going to faint,” Joe predicted, high-fiving his friends.
Mike chuckled. “He wouldn’t dare. Not around Jones.”
They pulled out their wallets, offering the normal amount. A ten dollar bill was retrieved from each person by Derick who pocketed the money until they heard from PFC Jones. The enlisted soldier would report on Zeke’s emergency room visit and that would determine the winner of this particular bet. Unfortunately, that might not be for another few hours.
“So glad Zeke is providing the entertainment as well as beer for tonight,” Derick laughed.
Joe pounded the other man on the back, chuckling as they went to observe the training of the newest potential Delta Force team members.
Mike looked at the group of soldiers who were standing in small groups, shocked at what had just happened. “Okay, gentlemen, how about if we do it again! And this time, let’s not shoot the officers, shall we?”
Thirty recruits from all over the country, the best soldiers the Army had trained, didn’t protest even though they’d been through the complicated obstacle course three times already today, beginning at four o’clock this morning. Since it was now two o’clock in the afternoon, and they were starving, it was going to be a test of their endurance. They’d paused for breakfast and lunch, but this obstacle course was tougher than normal, built to challenge their capabilities, their strength, and their ability to think on their feet. One needed more than just brute strength to get through this course. One had to think, to maneuver, and work together to reach the end. What the recruits didn’t realize was that it wasn’t just a test to finish the course. It was a test to get through the course with every member of one’s team alive and unharmed.
Zeke walked into the emergency room and looked around, irritated that Mike had demanded that he come here. It was just a freaking scratch! He’d endured worse on missions in the past, so why was Mike being such an ass about this now?
“Sir!” a youngish looking nurse hurried forward.
Zeke stared at the woman’s horrified expression and sighed. “I’m fine,” he told her gruffly. “It’s not a big deal!”
The nurse eyed Zeke’s back. “Uh…right..,” she nodded. “Okay. Right. Tough guy. Why don’t you come this way and we’ll…well, I’ll just…” she trailed off, laughing a touch uneasily. “I’ll just clean you up. How’s that sound?”
Zeke liked the sound of that. “I don’t need a doctor,” he told the nurse. The PFC who had driven him to the hospital followed and Zeke rounded on him. “STAY!” he ordered.
Startled, the private backed away, completely intimidated. But he stayed. The nurse chuckled, leading Zeke towards the exam rooms. “This won’t take long,” he decided.
The nurse’s gaze flicked to Zeke’s back, then she nodded. “Right. Just a few minutes.” She led him to one of the ER beds and patted the end. “Why don’t you sit right here, and I’ll just…get a doctor to take a quick peek. Nothing to it.”
Zeke eyed her warily, not sitting down. Instead, he started to cross his arms, but pain shot through his back and he dropped his arms to his sides with a sigh. For a brief moment, he felt a bit dizzy, but told himself that was caused by the creepiness of being in a hospital, which he’d always hated. Doctors, hospitals…everything about them gave him the willies. He hated needles most of all, but even the hospitals were bad. He avoided them like the plague!
At that moment, a woman with lots of beautiful, dark, curly hair piled haphazardly on her head came over to him, led by the nurse that had abandoned him moments ago. “Right here, Doctor Fisher,” the nurse explained. “He says it’s just a scratch.”
“Right.” The doctor turned and looked at Zeke and…paused. She was gorgeous! Since she was wearing scrubs, Zeke had no idea what her military rank was, but he didn’t care. Emerald eyes stared from a heart shaped face that looked like she should be on a runway. Except she was a tiny little thing. Being just over six feet, five inches tall, Zeke usually preferred tall women. Women that didn’t force him to contort himself to kiss them.
“Doctor Fisher?” the nurse asked, gently nudging the doctor. The woman jerked slightly, looking around, then realized that she’d been staring and pulled herself together.
Pity. Zeke hadn’t minded staring back at her. He couldn’t remember ever seeing such a pretty face before. Oh, he’d seen beautiful women, but there was something about this one that…something about her called to him.
The nurse took the doctor’s elbow, leading her around the bed to Zeke’s back. For a moment, Zeke considered pulling her back around so that she was facing him, but then the reality of the situation came back to him. The sooner she looked at his back and, okay, maybe cleaned up whatever felt so sticky, then the sooner he could leave. And the sooner he could call her up and ask her out for dinner! Hell, if he’d known that a doctor this pretty was working on base, he would have gotten shot a long time ago!
Doctor Abigail Fisher eyed the man’s back, slightly impressed. She’d seen a lot in the years since gaining her medical degree, but this was a new one. The bullet had left a shallow gouge across the man’s back from armpit to armpit. The wound wasn’t that deep, but since he didn’t have an ounce of fat on his body, the blood vessels were very near the surface. In other words, he’d bled like a stuck pig!
“Hmmm…” she said, keeping her voice calm and relaxed. “Cathy, I think we’re going to need to clean the wound before I can see what needs to be done. Would you mind…?”
“I’m on it,” the nurse replied eagerly.
Abby frowned at the nurse’s back as she hurried away to get the cleaning supplies. Then again, she didn’t blame her. This guy was…hot! As a doctor, Abby could testify to the man’s amazing physical fitness. If all of her patients put this much energy into their fitness, she’d be out of business! As a woman…Abby gave herself a mental shake. She was here as a doctor. Only a doctor.
Cathy returned, loaded down with supplies. “Ready,” she said, slightly breathless.
Abby rolled her eyes, and collected his chart, sighing as she noticed Cathy hadn’t finished filling it out. For obvious reasons.
“I’m going to have to cut your shirt off,” Cathy announced, pulling scissors out of the box of supplies.
The man, an officer, she realized, according to his chart, didn’t seem to mind the cleaning.
“As long as that’s all it is, go ahead,” he said, his voice deep and gruff.
Abby looked at the man, then down at his chart. “It appears that you’re due for your tetanus shot. Do you want…?”
“No!”
Abby smiled professionally. “Right,” she replied, marking something off on his chart. “Don’t like needles, huh?”
He hissed when Cathy pulled his tee shirt away from the wound. “I’m not a fan, no.”
She grinned at that. “Right. So…” she didn’t mention that she suspected that the wound across his back was going to need stitches to in order to heal properly. Lots of stitches! “Okay, so, we’ll skip the tetanus shot for now. But can you tell me how this happened?”
The guy sighed, drawing her attention to his deliciously broad shoulders. All of the soldiers on base worked out several times a week. But Abby could testify that none were as…well developed as Lieutenant Colonel Zeke Jeffers.
He flinched slightly, trying to peer over his shoulder, which meant Abby needed to distract him. “So, you were in a training accident?”
“Not me,” the guy replied firmly. “Another guy. We’re training for the team to find new recruits. Some idiot decided to aim around a tree with his M16 and…”
“Around?” she interrupted. “But…!”
The guy snorted. “Exactly. Around.” He shook his head in disgust and Abby watched as Cathy pulled back the bloody tee shirt. “He swore up and down that bullets could curve if they were shot correctly. He said some BS about how every object has its own gravitational pull and that a tree could pull a bullet into its gravitational orbit if he shot it close enough.”
Abby swallowed a chuckle. “I see,” she replied. “So…?”
Behind him, Cathy paused, fascinated with the story.
“So, he decided to prove his theory. And he shot his rifle towards the target, but going around the tree in front of him. Since I was over at the obstacle course, evaluating the potential recruits, I didn’t see the idiot fire. It wasn’t even supposed to be live fire today. We wouldn’t have been on the obstacle course if there had been. Too dangerous. But this guy…!” Zeke shook his head in obvious disgust. “He had some live rounds in his pocket and wanted to prove what a hot shot he was. Hence, my back.”
Abby laughed. She just couldn’t help herself. It was such a ridiculous story, the idea of a bullet going around a tree and curving because of the tree’s gravitational pull. “Okay, so…the guy…? Is he going to make the cut?”
The man snorted. “Oh, he’s going to get cut, all right. Right to a court martial!”
Abby fully agreed. “Glad to hear it. This is one for the books.” She sighed and clasped the chart to her chest. “I hate to tell you this, big guy, but you need stitches.” Abby moved behind the man now that Cathy had finished cleaning the wound. Abby checked the edges and realized that it wasn’t as ragged as she’d anticipated. “But I think I can do a pretty good job of…”
Zeke didn’t want to hear it. Stitches meant needles. He didn’t do needles. Period.
“No stitches. It’s just a scratch!” he insisted. “I can barely feel it!” That was an absolute, bald-faced lie. It felt as if his back was on fire.
She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. “Okay, I’m hearing you aren’t a fan of needles,” she said carefully. Zeke appreciated her not maligning his masculinity by asserting he was afraid. He was! But that didn’t mean that he wanted that fact advertised.
“I’m going to use some Novocain spray on your back first. Then you won’t feel what I’m doing. Will that work for you?”
He sighed, but even that slight movement hurt. “It’s just a scratch. All I need is a band aid and…”
She touched his shoulder again, this time it was bare and he felt her touch echo through his body, centering in his groin. Yeah, other men might be able to control their libidos when in pain, but they hadn’t been around this doctor before. She was just that gorgeous!
“I’m sorry, but this is going to require more than a band aid. And what’s more, you’ve lost a lot of blood. I’m going to need…”
“I’m fine,” Zeke interrupted. He saw the worry in her eyes and suspected he might be acting like an ass. Still, the thought of needles was just…no. He hated them. “How about if we make a deal?”
She frowned warily. “I’m not in the habit of making deals with my medical services, Colonel.”
He grinned, thinking she was cute. Was he being patronizing? He didn’t think so. He was just a man interested in a woman and Zeke wasn’t the kind who waited for a perfect situation. “I’ll let you do whatever you want to my back, if you’ll agree to go out to dinner with me.”
The woman froze. He could feel the seconds tick by and a soft lock of her hair slipped out of the loose knot, dancing beside her cheek before she impatiently tucked it behind her ear.
He heard her sharp intake of breath and could tell that she was attracted to him. He could also see the pulse throbbing at the base of her neck, saw that pulse speed up after his question. Yeah, she felt it too.
“How about if I treat your back, and then we can discuss dinner?” she offered.
He didn
’t buy it. “Agree to dinner first, then fix my back.”
She laughed, but apparently, she was at the end of her negotiations. “No. Now shut up, Colonel and let me do my job.” She moved behind him and pulled on a fresh pair of gloves. Damn it, he wanted to feel her fingers against his skin. Not the damn gloves!
The doc gave several instructions to Nurse Cathy who hurried away. Zeke ignored the dizzy sensation and straightened up. There was a touch of fire along his back, then a cooling spray. A few moments later, the burning pain vanished and he breathed a bit easier.
“So, what’s your name?” he asked, determined to get something out of this miserable situation.
“Doctor Fisher,” she replied. “Or you can call me Captain Fisher. That works too.” He could tell by her tone that she was concentrating hard, but since she was behind him, he couldn’t see what she was doing.
Abby worked quickly, tightening up her stitches carefully while Cathy continued to sponge away the blood. As she closed the wound, the bleeding slowed. Since the wound was so long, he needed a lot of stitches. Not to mention, it was pleasant to work on a man with this many muscles. Every touch of her fingers against his skin was warm.
She gave Cathy more instructions and Cathy moved quickly. She was an excellent nurse and Abby enjoyed working with her. She was knowledgeable and efficient, and also a genuinely nice person. She was married with four kids, and the stories Cathy told cracked everyone up. With four boys in the house, Cathy was always on her toes. So coming to work in the emergency room was an escape from the chaos of her home life.
Still, Cathy kept shooting Abby pointed looks, the traitor! Abby didn’t attempt to interpret those glances. Instead, she concentrated on sealing up the wound with careful stitches, not wanting anything this long and horrific to mar the man’s perfect body.
Thirty minutes later, Abby straightened and admired her handiwork. “Okay, that should do it,” she announced. The man twisted slightly, then hissed as the pain in his back began to return. She removed her gloves, tossing them into the appropriate receptacle. “You’re going to be a bit stiff and sore over the next few days as your body heals. But I was able to stop the bleeding.” She looked at the rest of his back, stunned by the other wounds. None of them were as long, but there were several! This man had seen some action, she thought!
Zeke (Delta Forces Book 2) Page 1
