Derick (Delta Forces Book 3)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Derick

  Delta Forces Series

  By Elizabeth Lennox

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  Copyright 2020

  ISBN13: 9781950451319

  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

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from “Joe”

  Prologue

  Carrie stood in front of the house, ignoring the crunch of the dead, brittle grass under her feet. The house was solid, although one wouldn’t know it from the outside. Sure, it needed a new deck and a fresh coat of paint. The craftsman style bungalow had been built back in the nineteen twenties with interior columns and storage cabinets built into the walls. The kitchen cabinets were tall and made with solid wood and, at some point over the past one hundred years, the plumbing and electrical system had been updated.

  Carrie felt a kinship to the house. It was a little like her. She’d been shoved down and pushed around. Carrie knew that she looked a bit...ragged too. She tugged her baseball cap lower over her eyes, her hand brushing against her dark hair. It was growing long, which helped a lot. She ignored the scratch of her baggy jeans and looked around at the yard. It wasn’t much to look at now. The house wasn’t in a neighborhood, but was stuck out here on the outskirts of the town. There were only two houses on this street, which suited her just fine. Out of necessity, she’d bought another house further out in the more rural areas, but close enough to the city so that if she needed help…. She wouldn’t need it though. Carrie had learned to survive on her own!

  Closing her eyes, Carrie took a slow, deep breath, filling her lungs with the fresh, country air, then holding it for a count of five. A moment later, she eased the air out of her lungs for another five count. Doing that five more times, the muscles along her neck and shoulders slowly relaxed.

  Opening her eyes again, she looked at her new house, then at her only neighbor’s house. The grass there was green and freshly mowed. Several tree saplings had recently been planted. When those trees grew up, the house would be shaded from the hot summer sunshine. The house was similar to hers, in that it was a craftsman, but that’s where the similarities ended. The other house was beautifully maintained. The exterior of the house was freshly painted, the windows sparkled, and there was even a rocking chair and a swing on the front porch. But it was the backyard that captured her curiosity. Most of the grass had been taken up and replaced by a massive vegetable garden.

  Carrie had seen small vegetable gardens in other places she’d lived. But this garden was huge! From what she could see, there were corn and tomato plants, bean stalks, and what she suspected were squash and zucchini but from this distance, she wasn’t sure.

  Just then, a car came down the street, startling her. Over the past two years, Carrie had taught herself to be cautious, and to always be aware of her surroundings.

  She jumped, startled, then twisted to watch as the big pickup truck drove down the street and pulled into the driveway next door.

  “Go inside,” she whispered to herself. But she didn’t. Instead, she stood there among the brown weeds as a big…huge, really…man stepped out of the black truck.

  Carrie gulped as she watched the man come around his truck, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. He seemed to be watching her just as intently as she watched him. Coal black hair, tanned skin, and so many muscles! Good grief, the man had muscles on top of muscles! Hard, uncompromising muscles! He wore those nylon workout shorts that so many men preferred in the gyms, along with a loose tee-shirt that didn’t seem to hide anything! A moment later, he reached into the bed of his truck and effortlessly pulled out a duffle bag that would have toppled a normal person.

  Carrie told herself to look away, but there was something about the man that held her attention. She was transfixed and…and she was sick and tired of being scared!

  She’d escaped from hell two years ago. As Carrie watched the black haired man stare back at her, she wondered if she’d bought a house next to the devil.

  Chapter 1

  Derick watched from his window as the tiny woman in baggy clothes opened her front door. She eyed the paper bag for a long moment before warily approaching it.

  His lips compressed as he watched her, wanting to go to her and demand the name of whoever had put that kind of fear in her! Derick knew when someone was in hiding. He’d seen it so many times over the years. In the past, though, the people he’d watched had been in hiding because they were evil and their survival depended on not being found.

  In his new neighbor’s case, she was too small to be much of a threat. And she moved differently. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but her movements were that of a person trying not to be found – because being found might endanger their lives, not because being found would mean prison. Or worse.

  With a cautious finger, the tiny woman pulled the paper bag open, peering carefully into its depths. When she discovered that it was filled with fresh, beautiful, red tomatoes that he’d picked just this morning, her tense features relaxed into a delighted smile. Immediately, her gaze shifted toward his house, but Derick knew that he was too far back from the window for her to spot him. He’d done this too many times and knew how to keep himself hidden.

  He wasn’t hiding because he didn’t want her to see him. Derick hid himself because he wanted to understand what was going on with his new neighbor. For so long, he’d lived on this street alone and he’d appreciated the isolation. He preferred his privacy, preferred the silence and the freedom to do what he wanted, whenever he wanted. If he wanted to work in his garden early in the morning or late at night, he had the freedom to do that.

  Having a neighbor changed the street’s dynamics. It meant that he had to be considerate. He had to be quiet at night and…hell, he didn’t want a neighbor. Especially a neighbor that tugged at his senses, even from a distance.

  Damn it, he should have bought the house next door just so that he could maintain his privacy!

  With a sigh, he started to turn away…and froze, transfixed by the curve of her butt through the baggy jeans and the way that ridiculously baggy tee shirt suddenly pressed against her breasts as she bent toward the bag of tomatoes.

  His tiny neighbor wasn’t as tiny as he’d originally thought! Damn, his body responded to just the enticing curve of her butt as she bent down to smell the tomatoes! Who did that? Who smelled tomatoes?! And why the hell was he reacting so strongly to her doing it?

  “Hell!” Derick forced himself to turn away and return to his own tasks. He grabbed the electric sander and began stripping away decades worth of dirt and grime from the hardwood floors in his living room. If his gaze occasionally strayed to the neighbor’s house, wondering what she was doing, i
f she was safe from…whatever it was…well, it was just his protective instincts.

  Chapter 2

  “What the hell?!” Derick muttered, frowning at the mason jars filled with…tomato sauce?

  His gaze sliced through the morning mist to glare at the house next door. She’d brought him tomato sauce. The woman with the sexy butt and luscious breasts…she could cook! Damn, he loved pasta. It was his downfall. His friend, Zeke, baked an insane amount of bread and brought it into work, offering it to the teams. And he baked cookies and brownies and…whatever. It was his way of releasing the stress of the day. Zeke baked and cooked, especially now that his wife, an Army Captain and emergency room doctor for the base, was pregnant with their first child.

  As a member of the Delta Force team stationed down here in the wilds of Alabama, each person had their own way of dealing with the stress of their jobs. Some guys drank, others got into drugs when the stress was too much. Zeke lost himself in the science of baking and Derick grew things. Whenever he started to get into his head too deeply, he sank his bare feet into the rich earth, enjoying the feeling of dew on his toes, and running his hands over the plants that produced fruits and vegetables. He’d planted fruit trees in the front yard. He also grew strawberries, tomatoes, corn, beans, green and yellow squash, pumpkins, butternut and spaghetti squash, eggplant, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers…he had dozens of plants growing in his backyard. Hell, he was a freaking farmer according to his friends, Mike, Zeke, and Joe, his fellow officers on the team.

  But his vegetable garden helped him cope with the stress of his job.

  So, what the hell was he going to do about the stress of his pretty, new neighbor? Even as he glanced over at her house, there was no movement. But he knew. Derick could feel her eyes on him. The lights were off in the house this early in the morning, but she was there. And she was awake.

  How the hell had she snuck over here to put these jars on his porch? Damn, he was impressed with her stealth. There weren’t many people, hell, there weren’t any people, who could get by him. Except her, apparently.

  Derick bent down to pick up the three bottles of sauce, looking at them carefully. He hefted one in his hand, as if testing the weight. But in reality, he was using his peripheral vision to see where the little woman was in her house.

  Nothing. No movement. No lights, no shifting of the curtains. Not a damn thing.

  She’d learned well, he thought, gritting his teeth.

  Bringing the jars of sauce inside, he put them in the fridge, then went back outside, still hoping to see the woman. Nothing.

  Getting into his truck he backed out of the driveway and headed into work, sifting through the various ways he might catch a glimpse of the enticing woman.

  Pulling into his normal parking space next to the warehouse on the military base, he looked around, noticed that one of the teams was gone. He didn’t know where they had gone, but he knew enough about the world situation to make a pretty good guess.

  Grabbing the baskets from the back of his pickup, he carried his duffle as well as the fresh produce into the warehouse, dumping the vegetables onto the kitchen counter, then headed over to the workout area to join the others.

  “What did you bring today?” Mike called out.

  Derick pulled his shirt off and grabbed one of the jump ropes to warm up. “Stuff,” was all he said.

  Mike, Joe and Zeke, the only three on the teams that had arrived so far, chuckled.

  “A man of few words,” Mike teased. Derick didn’t respond as he sped up the jump rope, feeling his muscles engage.

  “Tomatoes. Some squash. Gotta get ‘em off the vines early or it gets tough and stringy.”

  Zeke nodded as he hefted the weights over his head. “I brought some fresh bread in today too.”

  Derick smiled, shaking his head. “Rough night for Abby?”

  Zeke grunted. “She had leg cramps last night. It always freaks me out when that happens.”

  Hence, the freshly baked bread, Derick thought.

  Derick started considering surveillance options. What time had his lovely neighbor dropped off the jars of pasta sauce? And how in the world did he know that she was lovely? He hadn’t even seen her face because of the sunglasses and the ridiculous hat that she’d pulled down over her face.

  Yes, surveillance equipment was essential. But would that be an invasion of her privacy? And what about the challenge? He sort of liked the idea of trying to catch her off guard by himself. Technology was a good idea, essential even, when he and his team were out in the field. He’d never put his team in danger by ignoring the value of technology.

  But this was his home. His oasis from the chaos of the real world. No, he’d avoid surveillance equipment and figure out what she was up to on his own. Smiling, he tossed the jump rope off to the side and went over to the weights. Grunting, he lifted and listened as the others around him talked. Mike’s wife, Lexie, was home with their one year old daughter. Abby was pregnant with their first child. Mike had been married for about a year and a half now, while Zeke had been married for about six months.

  Prior to their weddings, marriage had never occurred to Derick. He preferred his solitude. He craved it.

  But he had to admit, there was a certain appeal to the idea of coming home to someone special.

  He paused, as he pictured a petite brunette in his house, cooking pasta and beaming at him as he walked through the door.

  “You okay?” Mike asked.

  Derick grunted with a nod. “Fine,” he replied, and picked up a heavier weight, forcing himself to focus on the moment, on lifting and getting stronger. Unfortunately, he struggled to focus. His thoughts lingered on a cute butt in baggy jeans, wondering what color underwear his secretive neighbor wore.

  Chapter 3

  Okay, at least she recognized the strawberries. Carrie glanced down at the bag again, tilting her head to one side as she wondered what the other stuff was. It was long and red and…it smelled like grass. Had her devil-neighbor given her some sort of weird grass?

  She glanced quizzically at her neighbor’s house, but Carrie knew he’d already left for work. She had no idea what he did for a living, but assumed it had something to do with the military since the Army base was so close by.

  Picking up one of the stalks, she examined it, smelled it, and gingerly tasted it. The bitterness twisted her tongue. “What is this?”

  Scooping up the whole bag, she brought it into her kitchen. Taking one of the strawberries, she rinsed it off, and took a bite. “Oh my!” This was the best strawberry she’d ever tasted! “You must have an odd relationship with Satan,” she muttered as she stared out the kitchen window at her neighbor’s house, “but you grow amazing fruit!”

  With a smile, the first smile she’d experienced in a long time, she grabbed another strawberry and headed into the living room. “Okay, where to start?” she asked the empty room. There were some holes in the walls that needed to be fixed, everything needed to be sanded down and re-painted, and the floors should be sanded and refinished. “Oh boy,” she whispered.

  Heading to the family room where she’d stored her tools, she grabbed the power sander. For the rest of the day, she sanded down the walls, the banister, and the woodwork, making everything smooth and even. Carrie patched up the damaged wood with wood filler, and sanded it down again.

  She also wrote a note, which she wrapped around one of the red stalks, and went back to her neighbor’s house, being very careful not to step on any of the flowers he’d planted, where she left red stalk and note, then hurried back to her house before her neighbor arrived home.

  When his big, black pickup truck pulled into the driveway, Carrie was upstairs in one of the small bedrooms, pretending to read a book. In reality, Carrie was spying on her neighbor, fascinated by the huge brute.

  With stealth and caution, Carrie peered out the window, her back against the far wall, all the lights in her house off. She’d learned this trick a long time
ago and smiled when her neighbor picked up the red stalk, read the brief note, then glanced over at her house. He stared long and hard, obviously trying to see her. With a smile, she pressed her shoulders back against the wall, knowing he couldn’t. Even with the summer sun setting late these days, he wouldn’t be able to see into her house. She felt safe this way. And safe was a pretty nice feeling.

  Derick carried the stalk of rhubarb into the house, chuckling at the note. It wasn’t a note so much as a piece of paper with a question mark on it. “Rhubarb,” he mumbled. “Strawberries and rhubarb.” The combination was one of his favorites, but he was amused that his neighbor didn’t know what it was. The red stalks weren’t something that a lot of people used very often in recipes anymore, but it was a great vegetable.

  Going to his computer, he printed out several recipes, then folded them up and put them into an envelope.

  Then he waited. Standing back from the windows, he watched and waited.

  It took about twenty-five minutes, but Derick had developed patience over the years. In this situation, with this fascinating woman, his patience paid off when he saw movement in one of the upper windows. It was slight, not really a movement, more of an energy or a vibration perhaps. But now he knew where she slept at night. Derick smiled when he realized that she slept in the room that looked out over his garden…and his bedroom.

  Good choice, he thought, then waited until about midnight before moving between the houses. He carefully set the rhubarb stalk back on her front porch with the recipes wrapped around it, then slipped silently back to his house.

  Chapter 4

  Carrie watched the other house as she sipped her coffee the following morning. Then she choked when her neighbor stepped out of the house in just a pair of jeans. No shoes. No shirt.

  Carrie didn’t really care about the no shoes thing. But her devil-neighbor without a shirt? Dear heaven!