Boots, Chaps, and Cowboy Hats (Taming Team Ten (Book One))

  “Alex?” he heard his mom say, wait, his mom, why was she here? How was she here?

  He couldn’t open his eyes, no matter how hard he tried. He licked his dry, cracked lips. Damn he must be hurt bad for them to have called his parents in. Okay, think.

  He was in the Middle East. They were supposed to be capturing a man they had been looking for. Almost ready to go in, and—BOOM!

  The last two weeks had sucked, well every time he had to go on a mission in this particular place sucked. The safe house had been their primary place for the last three years. Alex and his team knew everything about the neighborhood.

  He had gone to his superiors, with some of the other guys, after listening to the abuse some local women were putting up with. The area was depressed, money, food, everything was scarce. They just wanted to help, but their superiors had denied their formal request.

  When the Master Chief smiled at him in the secretive way, Alex felt a deep sense of pride. They would help the women, just not formally. That is what they did when they arrived overseas on this latest mission. They were going to help the women move to safety. Damn he hurt.

  Chapter Two

  “Where are they?” Bailey said and paced the floor. Her husbands, Noah and Dallas, stood silent as they waited for news of their adoptive son. It was a parent’s worst nightmare, getting the call in the middle of the night. Being in the Elite Navy SEALs, Alex was dedicated to his job. Since he came to them when he was fifteen, too smart for his own good, and a genius with computers—they always assumed he would find something in the electronic field.

  They should have known, growing up around Rex, and the others, the possibility Alex would have a calling to join the military would have been strong. Bailey just assumed he would be a paper pusher. But, like the rest of things that Alex did—he wanted to be the best.

  “The doctor said they were still in route,” Dallas said. “Have you called everyone?”

  He was referring to their loud, often too large, and extremely untraditional family.

  “They are on their way.” Noah nodded.

  They were currently in a hospital in Ramstein, Germany, waiting for word about their son. The trio had been traveling with their other children when the call had come. The others were meeting them and were on their way now. Dallas diverted their private plane and beat the military medical transport to the base. Riley, their oldest daughter, who was eleven, and basically thought she knew everything because she had and IQ of 155, was making sure the twins, Braden and Benjamin, stayed out of trouble with the nanny, who was watching them. The twins seemed to think hiding rubber rats and spiders in the nanny’s luggage was hilarious.

  “What did they say exactly again?” Bailey asked as she walked to the large window, hugged herself around her middle, and looked out. Noah sighed and went to stand behind her.

  “Just that there was an incident and he was injured,” Dallas said coming to the side of both of them and putting a hand on each of their shoulders.

  “This sucks,” Bailey whispered and felt the tears gathering in her eyes.

  Both of the men remained silent because they agreed but didn’t want to upset Bailey, they had been through a lot as a family. Discovering she was working for the mob set them on a three-year emotional roller coaster ride that led them to their untraditional and huge extended family. Senior Digrossi, although evil, he had brought all of them together. He was the late and great head of the Digrossi mob family, and also Alex’s birth father. Which gave him a title that Alex refused to use, because the only parents he claimed were Baily, Dallas, and Noah, and that was the way it was going to be.

  When Alex came to live with them, he had been fifteen, smart, and had a very crusty shell. Since then, he had opened up and had become an amazing young man. He went to college before joining the military to be a forensic psychologist. Dallas and Noah had been proud when they found out the CIA’s Special Operations Group was recruiting Alex. They all encouraged him to continue his training. Bailey can still remember the day he graduated from SEAL training, and was assigned to Team TEN. He had been excited because of the men who were in the team already and the ones who were going with him for training. In the last year he had become close with each of them, so had the family. Bailey insisted on sending care packages of baked goods, no matter how old Alex was.

  When the call came there had been an incident, there was no question about them flying to meet Alex. Bailey would not rest until she saw for her own eyes that he was fine.

  “Ambulances,” Bailey whispered and turned to her husbands. They had a non-traditional relationship and none of them cared or hid it. Alex was open with all of his friends about his family and he would go toe to toe with anyone who made a comment about his parents.

  “Should be them,” Dallas said and slowly counted the box transports as they drove into the entrance quickly. There were eight, and fourteen on the team. Shit, Dallas thought as he watched the flurry of activity down below.

  Bailey and her husbands made their way to the entrance of the emergency room. The first gurney rolled in and Bailey gasped, it was LC, she thought, what the fuck had happened?

  Next she saw Voodoo, Ice, Lobo, and the Master Chief, where was her son, there was so many injuries and so much blood. She was silently crying as she watched her son’s friends being wheeled by her.

  When the final gurney came in, she saw her son and her breath caught in her chest. The blood on his clothes made her want to scream loudly. He had an oxygen mask on, so she couldn’t see his face. She wanted to see his face, and the need pulled her forward. Trying not to get in the way, Bailey ran next to her son’s gurney as they wheeled him into the trauma room. Thank God, Dallas had already checked in with the staff and as long as they didn’t get in the way, they would allow them to be in the room.

  He was so pale. She wanted to grab him and run. Her motherly instinct was kicking in, and she was fighting the urge of becoming an overbearing parent.

  The doctor came in and grimaced, “Surgery, NOW!” he exclaimed when he checked the wound that was in his stomach.

  Bailey held back a sob and stepped back when the nurses moved quickly to get him hooked up to machines, and whisked him away. Bailey turned to her husbands, who both had tears streaming down their face, fell into their arms, and allowed them to comfort her. Sobs racked her body as the storm of emotions released.

  “Prain-Strout?” Bailey heard a voice say.

  “What are they saying?” Bailey asked when Dallas came back to where everyone was standing waiting impatiently. They had gotten a private flight to bring them over; thank goodness, they were already planning to meet, just in Italy.

  The women, Bailey, Calli, Ginny, Jazz, Phoebe, and Lily were huddled together waiting for news, each of them thought of Alex as their son even though Bailey and her husbands had adopted him. Hell, he was their son, their brother, and their friend all rolled into one man.

  “Internal injuries, they are taking him for immediate surgery, all we can do is wait,” Dallas said grimly.

  Bailey nodded and then turned to look out the window. Calli put her arm around her shoulders. “He will make it,” her best friend said quietly.

  Bailey nodded and a fresh wave of tears came. “I feel so helpless.”

  Rex stepped up and pulled Bailey into his arms, it was his brother, and the thought of losing him brought him to his knees when he got the call. “We all do, but he will need us, they all will,” he said strongly.

  “What about the others?” Bear asked quietly. They knew what it was like to be waiting like this, being in the military for ten years before getting out and working for the FBI, he had been in this situation before.

  “I wasn’t able to find out much, but there were only eight men brought in. They are making notifications; it was posted on the family board in the Family Support. Let them know where we were,” Dallas said and then they began the long vigil waiting for word.

  “I will try to make phone calls, if th
eir family wants to be here, we will send the jet back,” Trent said firmly.

  “I can make some calls to the company, then have them make some calls,” Jolly kissed his wife’s head and turned. It was giving them all something to do.

  Chapter Three

  'Dude, open your fucking eyes.' Wolfman laughed.

  What? Alex thought and opened his eyes. His friends were there, smiling at him, sitting around the safe house.

  'Man, you need to wake up,’ Clipper said seriously.

  'I am awake,' Alex frowned.

  'No, you are sitting in this fucking white space, you need to go back.' Frog laughed and threw a rock that materialized in his hand against the wall. It made no noise as it hit and fell to the floor.

  'What the hell is going on?!' Alex yelled.

  'You know what is going on man, I just need you to wake up and remember you promised—remember the letter,” Wolfman said, leaning forward.

  'Fucker—I told you not to talk about that!’ Alex shouted.

  'Just remember, okay? Now open your eyes, man,' Wolfman said softly.

  'No,' Alex whispered. 'If I do, you will be gone, won’t you?'

  Raider waved his hand, 'Bro, you know we will still be here. I told you if something ever happened to me—I would haunt your lazy ass.”

  'It should have been me,' Alex said and looked at his friends. 'I was supposed to check the Intel. I must have missed something. That guy should not have been there.'

  'No one can predict fucking crazy people, it was our job, man, don’t take that away from us. We died doing what we loved—with men we loved like brothers—to protect and serve our country. Don’t you fucking take that away!” Dagwood said quietly.

  Alex looked at them. Dagwood was right. Alex needed to honor his friends.

  'What do I do?' Alex asked, feeling an empty hole forming in his chest as he thought about his friends and their sacrifice.

  'We will be with you man, just open your eyes, and remember. There'll are other missions we have to complete. We will be here—we got your back,' Emo said. 'Wolfman's is first, remember.'

  Alex frowned, missions, shit, he was pretty sure that he was in bad shape.

  'Tell the others it is okay,' Wolfman said and all of them stood. 'Now open your fucking eyes, Boyscout.” his best friend said then walked to him, and slapped him on the head.

  “Mom,” Alex said quietly and tried to open his eyes. His voice didn’t come out like he thought it would, a croak would be the better term for his voice.

  “Alex?” he heard her say and he struggled to open his eyes.

  He wanted to talk, ask what the fuck was going on but he didn’t have the energy. His leg burned, it felt heavy as he tried to lift it. His stomach hurt like a son of a bitch. Fuck, the bomb, his team. Alex struggled to get to the surface. He needed to know what happened.

  “Wolfman?” Alex managed to say.

  “Son,” Dallas said.

  Shit, it was bad when his dad said that.

  “You need to focus on getting better,” his dad said.

  Avoidance, they didn’t want to tell him. Shit, he could remember the damn dream, were they all gone?

  Alex finally managed to open his eyes, and he saw the crowded room, they were all here. “Tell me,” he said a little stronger.

  Dallas looked like he wanted to hit something as Alex tried to focus his eyes. He was in and out of consciousness for days. After the surgery, he got an infection from the shrapnel. The high fever had been intense and trapped Alex in its grips until yesterday. Finally, Bailey had been able to breathe when the doctor proclaimed the infection gone and the healing process beginning.

  The group had been to each of the other men’s rooms, it was sad that most of them didn’t have family to even contact and bring here. Although, there were a lot of women asking after the Master Chief. They had all taken turns making sure the guys had someone sitting with them. They were all on the same floor with rooms right next to each other. This was good since all of them had surgery and their conditions after were all still serious.

  Dallas sighed and looked around the room, Rex and Dante nodded. “’Wolfman, Dagwood, Clipper, Emo, Frogman, and Raider didn’t make it.”

  Alex closed his eyes and screamed his agony in his head, he would not do it aloud, his mom would freak out. He lay their silently thinking back over the time he spent with these men.

  He heard his mother trying to talk to him and he blocked it out. He couldn’t deal with them and the situation. It was too much, he loved his family, but they were just a bit overwhelming when they were all together.

  His friends, his teammates, were dead, how did you deal with something like that? Just laying here thinking about it made him want to scream. It was so unfair.

  'Would you stop this whole whiny thing you have going on. We told you that we were fine and still with you,' Wolfman said with an impatient tone.

  'What the fuck?’ Alex said and opened his eyes. It was not the same; he was in the white room dream again. Damn it, they probably gave him meds to sleep.

  'No, you are not on drugs! Emo said and laughed. 'Nor are you awake and talking to your family, although I have to say, seeing Jazz again is worth the whole haunting thing.'

  'Dude,' Raider said and looked at his friend, 'Have some respect, you don’t talk about people's sister-in-laws like that man.'

  Emo rolled his eyes and then looked at Alex again, 'You are talking to us because we need you to help us finish some stuff, we told you earlier, you have to remember.'

  Alex shifted in his sleep and looked at his friends. He wished this were true and they were all around sitting and talking to each other, shooting the shit. Knowing they were gone and dead sucked. He wondered how the others were doing and if they were having this strange shit happen.

  'No, the others can’t see us yet, it is not time.' Dagwood laughed. 'Can you imagine LC seeing us, he would freak out. Nah, we had to come to one of you first and then the others, it some sort of rules or something. Hell, even dead we have to follow the Regs.’

  Wolf laughed and then looked at Alex with a serious stare. 'You have to remember what we said.'

  'Man, just tell me again,' Alex said and looked around, he could remember a bit of their conversation, but the pain had been intense.

  'I told you he wouldn’t remember shit,” Clipper said.

  “Boyscout, we already told you what you had to do, another one of those fucking rules. You have to remember, we can’t tell you again," Wolfman said and Alex frowned.

  'You can swear where you are?' Alex asked.

  'Yeah, not really, but we are what we are, you know, the whole old-habits-die-hard thing. We are adjusting,' Frogman said.

  'Still not dreaming, man, just open your eyes, and remember what I said. You have to deal with this shit, we are counting on you,' Wolfman said.

  Alex opened his eyes but didn’t talk to anyone. He couldn’t, every time he started it seemed the lump in his throat got bigger, so he listened. Rex and Drew tried to draw him out. Alex just mumbled and shrugged through most of the conversation. Then came the therapist from the military, Alex refused to talk to him, especially when he wanted Alex to walk through what happened.

  “No,” Alex said and looked out the window.

  “You need to talk about this,” the therapist said.

  “I will talk, to my team,” Alex replied and almost laughed, yeah, dreams of his teammates counted.

  The therapist had tried, but Alex still refused. His stomach was healing, and he found out his leg would need extensive rehab. The shrapnel had broken his thighbone and he didn’t want to think about what that meant for his Military career. It would probably mean discharge. According to his family, the rest of the team had not fared any better. They were all probably going to have to leave their jobs, where they were going was another question. Losing everyone, well that—was not an option. It was bad enough with the men who died, but never speaking to his other teammates was too much to thin
k about.

  In the blink of an eye, his life had completely changed. Of course, they had all talked about what would happen if one of them left or was wounded. They had never talked about this situation. One fucking bomb taking out half the team and injuring the rest to the point they would be discharged. It was so fucking unfair.

  'Damn, I never picked you for a whiny asshole,' Wolf said to him for the tenth time in three days. 'We are the ones who died, you are alive, and still have missions. You have a purpose—we gave it to you. Stop whining about having to get out, and shit, and get on with it.'

  Alex rolled his eyes and refused to speak to the ghost again.

  'Being a stubborn asshole is not going to work, you know,' Wolf insisted. Over the last few days, his friends had remained silent and Wolf had become more insistent.

  'Just leave me alone,' Alex yelled at his friend.

  'Can’t,' Wolf said and folded his arms across his chest. He looked smug, like they had been playing a game or something.

  'Why?’ Alex said.

  'Cause this is important,' Wolf commented. 'Remember.'

  Alex threw up his hands and opened his eyes.

  Damn it, having these dreams, or whatever, were grating on his nerves. He was beginning to think he was crazy. Of course, he had not told anyone about his conversations with the men who died. They would have sent him to a psych ward. The way it was, Alex was ready to check himself in if they didn’t stop.

  “You are leaving for a therapy hospital,” the doctor explained to him.

  “All of us?” Alex said, still waiting to actually speak to his teammates.

  “Not all but soon,” the doctor replied and Alex wanted to argue.

  They should all be together, and he knew the others felt the same way, yesterday they had all been yelling at each other, trying to get the nurses to let them see each other. The nurses had not been amused and so they started to exchange messages with each other through his family.