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

  Alex had been hesitant until LC began passing messages in code. The code was one their team thought up in case they needed to communicate and was unable to speak freely. His family was confused, but Alex could not deal with that, too.

  Chapter Four

  This sucked, Alex thought, and looked at the rehab room all of his friends were currently occupying. They remained silent as they each worked and grunted with their exertion. They called the room the torture chamber; it felt like one.

  After this the guys were meeting in the main room, his family may just have provided the lot of them a place to retreat to until they were healed. Then they could figure things out from there.

  Finally, the last of the exercises to help strengthen his stomach muscles, his leg was another story, the wounds were still healing and he was instructed not to push it or he would have a limp for the rest of his life. They had reattached the ligament, and it was still knitting together.

  “LC,” Alex called and waved his pointer finger in a circular motion, then he laughed, yeah, this may work.

  It only took a few minutes for them to assemble in the main room. Alex looked around at the remainder of his team and knew he would do anything he had to in order to make sure they were healing.

  “Rex, one of my brothers, called today,” Alex began then stared for a second. Not that he had a conversation with his brother, it was more like Alex actually answered the phone for fear that Jazz was going to come here. After he answered, Alex remained silent, letting his brother do all the talking, only making small noises into the receiver.

  He had no clue what to say, to them, it was hard because he wanted to talk, but telling Phoebe or Ginny gruesome details seemed wrong, and the guys knew what he was going through, so they gave him space.

  “Dallas and Noah invested in a Ranch in Wyoming—Healing, Wyoming, to be exact. The ranch has plenty of room and is to be outfitted with an exercise room. I figure we can go there, get sorted out, then go from there. If you want to stay, my fathers are offering to sell a portion of the land to each of you. There's a hundred thousand acres. Right now, there are horses and cows on the land. Up to you, I go where you go,” Alex said quietly and waited for his friends to respond. They had all already talked about it, none of them really could deal with going to their hometowns, and since none of them were attached and married, they would stick together.

  LC whistled and looked around at the others and nodded. “Always wanted to play cowboy.”

  “Me too,” Master Chief said.

  Alex smiled as the others agreed, at least they had somewhere to go, and maybe the quiet country air would be the change they needed. Alex was still having nightmares about the bombing, and his ghost friends were getting more and more insistent that he remember something.

  He was becoming frustrated because there was so much going on in his head. Sometimes he just wanted the noise to stop, just stop, for a few minutes so he could gather his thoughts. Healing, Wyoming may be the place they all needed.

  “We can be out of here in an hour, transferred to the VA Hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for supervision,” Alex said and all the men looked. They had been in this hospital for a month, each of them were ready to get the fuck out.

  “We are out of here,” LC said and went to the elevator; he would be able to get the paperwork going. Alex would go and call his fathers and let them know the group was coming. He hoped the renovations were close to being done. They needed to get well but be on their own for a while. The physical aspect of it for each of them was progressing—however the mental—they were a bit behind in. Who could blame them?

  Alex went back to his room to lay down for a few minutes. Just a rest, he thought, and closed his eyes. The attacks he was having were getting worse, and the ghosts where appearing more and more, even when he was awake now. There seemed to be no hiding from them.

  'I’m ‘enry the eighth I am, ‘enry the eighth I am, I am,' Wolf said and Alex groaned.

  He tried to ignore the idiot, but this is what he did when he was alive and Alex ignored him, he sang this stupid song that would get into his head and then Alex would start singing it.

  'Fucker,' Alex growled and looked around the room. They were all there and grinned at him, leaning against the wall with their arms crossed.

  'Dude—stop,' Frog said and pointed at Wolf. Then he pointed at him, 'Your fault. If you would just fucking listen, then he would stop singing this crap-tastic song.'

  'What do you want me to do? We have been over and over this. I have no idea what the hell I am supposed to remember, drugs messed with my memory. I can't do it!’ Alex yelled.

  'I was married to the girl next door,' Wolf sang louder.

  Alex groaned and put the pillow over his ears hoping to muffle the words, but it didn’t help.

  'Just talk to the others, they will tell you,' Emo said.

  'Are you nuts? They will help get the papers signed to put me in the crazy bin, I am telling you, they won't understand,' Alex said. This was another thing the dead men wanted, Alex to bridge the gap for them. They couldn’t talk to the others until Alex talked to them. Explained a few things, and made them aware that these men were waiting for them.

  'We can’t move on until you do,' Dagwood said wistfully.

  Shit, really? The fucking weight of the world had to fall on his shoulders. Why the hell was he the only one who was having dreams and shit, there had to be a reason?

  PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was what the doctors all said the entire group suffered from. That and a perpetual need not to deal with their issues. Well, the last part was true, I mean what the fuck did they expect, a hug-in or something. None of the guys were touchy-feely like that, and yet the therapists tried time and time again to get them to talk. All of them refused.

  If Alex had shared what the hell was really going on with them, they would have been stuck there. And that was not acceptable anymore. Alex, had grown distant with his family, and his teammates, he worried they would find out he was crazy and call someone and have him put away.

  But it was worse than that; the panic attacks were not just about the dreams; although, Alex would love to blame it on them. No, it was a lot of things that had been evident when they had their first outing when in the hospital. Hell, a car backfired and all of them had tried to grab for their weapons. They laughed but all of them had been aware of their issues.

  Then there was dining out. They fought over the chairs that were against the wall and facing the door, needing to feel like they could see everyone in the place in case they were a threat. The waitress had finally given up and allowed them to sit at two tables, all lined up on one side.

  The compulsiveness they all had with making sure the doors and building was secure before they went to sleep drove the guards nuts, but they didn’t care. Although the security office was probably going to have a party when they found out, they were leaving.

  LC had taken more than the paperwork the day they checked out of the hospital and soon he was going to have to tell his friends. But there was time for that, all of them had to deal with the loss before they could deal with the other shit. Soon, though, very soon.

  Chapter Five

  Healing, Wyoming, where the fuck did they get names like these? Alex wondered and watched as the town went by. It wasn’t big; however, he looked out at the main street that actually looked like it had a few stores. One of them a farm supplies and the others were a drug store, and a clothing store, which looked like it only stocked plaid shirts. Interesting.

  They had a diner, and another restaurant and bar that looked a little worse for the wear. It could be interesting living here.

  “Dude, there is like nothing here!” Ice said and Alex nodded.

  “Could be good and could be bad,” LC commented.

  Their leader had been pretty quiet on the trip. Alex was wondering what was going on with him and when he was going to speak up. It sometimes took him a while to think things through.

/>   “Hey, at least there is a bar,” Lobo said and continued to stare out the window. “And some chicks that look nice in their jeans."

  “Nice, we may be hitting the social arena tonight boys,” Master Chief commented.

  Alex laughed and listened to his friends act normal for the first time in a long time. Even in the hospital they hadn’t really spoken about things yet, each of them avoiding the subject.

  “I have their belongings,” LC said quietly.

  Fuck, this is what had been bothering him.

  “Why do you have them?” Voodoo asked.

  “'Cause I wasn’t going to let someone else deliver them when it should be us. We were their families too, and we damn well should be acting like it. I know we are all having issues and shit, but we agreed on this when we became a team, they trusted that we would do what was right, and damn it, we are going to,” LC barked out.

  The tension in the car was enormous and the silence grew. All of them thinking about shit, and no one wanting to put it into words.

  Finally, Alex sighed and said, “Man, pull over.”

  The air was strangling him and he was about to burst, something was there—something was bothering him. In addition, the damn dreams were not helping with the situation. Alex had not slept a full night since he woke up. Sometimes even making he stay up so he would not dream, but then he would have fucking weird ass visions where his friends were standing next to him.

  The first time it happened, Alex thought he was going crazy, and so did his friends. They didn’t really talk about that incident, because then, they would all have to talk about their friends.

  Ice was driving and pulled the large SUV over to the side of the road, they were using a rental for the first few weeks, some of them had vehicles they were shipping along with most of their possessions. Alex only had to have them shipped from Denver, so maybe his truck would be here soon.

  Alex fell out the side of the SUV and gasped for breath, he was having another damn panic attack, so far, he had been able to hide them, but soon he wasn’t going to be able to.

  “What the fuck, man?” Ice said as they all followed him out of the car. They were standing on the side of the road, in the middle of fucking nowhere, and Alex decides that he had to finally talk about it. Now.

  “I can see them,” Alex said softly and looked at his friends who looked confused. “Wolf, Ice, Clipper, Dagwood, Emo, and Raider, I can fucking see them.”

  LC spoke first, “Boyscout… Alex, listen we are all having our issues about their deaths, and yeah, I am probably not the best CO in the whole world…”

  “NO! FUCKING LISTEN TO ME!” Alex yelled at his friends who now looked startled and a little worried. “Since the bomb, when I was in and out of pain and shit, they have been there, trying to get me to talk to them, trying to get me to remember something. I can see them, yes, they are dead—yes, they know it—and yes, I think I am fucking crazy because I can see them. But I can, and they have been bugging me to tell you about this shit, now I am—so there. You can share in the fucking craziness of my world. I SEE FUCKING DEAD PEOPLE!”

  “Dude, like that movie, you know the one, shit, what was its name,” Voodoo said and looked at Alex closely.

  “This isn’t a movie man, this is our friend, and he needs some help," Master Chief said slowly.

  Alex laughed and threw up his hands and began to walk around and mumble.

  “Uh, anyone have a phone?” Lobo said quietly. “We may need to call the dads, man, they said we could if there was an issue, and I think this constitutes as an issue.”

  Alex stopped and glared at his friends and then said, “You don’t believe me? Fine, Master Chief, the last leave we had, you said the night you were gone you passed out on some random chick's couch, remember?”

  His friend glanced around the group and then nodded. Alex grinned and kept going, “Dagwood told me that you confessed to him when he went to pick you up that it was your ex’s house, and you went there and made an ass out of yourself and she took you in. You made him swear not to tell any of us how wasted you were.”

  “Fuck,” Master Chief said and looked around at the guys that were standing there glaring at him. “What? I know, I swore I would tell you and let you stop me from doing that.”

  “Dude, it is humiliating, she is married again," Lobo said and then looked at Alex. “What are they saying to you?"

  “They said we have more missions, we would know what they were when they reminded us, but Wolfman is first. I am supposed to remember something,” Alex admitted. “I can’t remember what they said. I was out of it. They can’t tell me ‘cause of some rule or something.”

  “What is this, the fucking afterlife on a game show!” LC laughed and looked skeptical but didn’t blow him off.

  “I don’t know, but then you said you had their stuff and man, I just about lost it,” Alex said.

  “Okay, when we get to the house, we pull out their stuff and go through them one at a time. I don’t think I can deal with it all in one shot though,” Ice admitted and the others agreed.

  When they got to the farmhouse, they would pull out their lost friend's personal effects and see if they contained a clue of what the hell Alex was supposed to do.

  It went much better than he thought, his friends hadn’t thought he was nuts, well they had, but only for a minute. Now, he was going to make sure he fulfilled whatever the fuck he was supposed to, and then let his friends rest in peace. It was something that had to happen—they deserved it.

  They climbed back into the car. Alex taking a deep breath before he shut the door, the energy was thick, all of them silent and thinking about the ones they lost, and how they were going to deal with all the shit surrounding it. They would do it together, like the other missions they had. Alex knew it, but it was going to be one of the toughest missions of their life. One that would take longer than a month or two to deal with.

  Part Two

  The Road Back

  “The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.”

  Robert Cushing

  Chapter Six

  Slone watched the dirt rise as the trucks drove down the lane. Fuck, they were here. He spoke to Dallas and Noah almost every day. He was glad to be the foreman of this spread. They were heroes, the guys who were coming, helping, taking over, and were healing—this was the perfect place to do it.

  Alex would sure be surprised when he saw his friend from Denver was here. They had kept in touch over the years, and when Slone graduated from college, he was a little lost. Then his father introduced him to the man that would change his life. Dexter Nester was a rancher who needed organization, and Slone had a business degree, along with an Agriculture degree. He wanted to ranch, so for the last ten years he studied and learned everything he could. When the time came, he was going to be ready for his own spread.

  Slone and Alex grew up in untraditional families, and Healing was an untraditional town. Perfect for the life Slone wanted to live. Now to convince his longtime friend it was a possibility for them. He was not attracted to Alex at all; however, he was close to him. When Alex came to Denver, you would have thought they had been together for years after the first week. They just clicked, with their thoughts, and their beliefs. That is what Slone was looking for in a partner, and best friend.

  The large SUV pulled into the front drive and Slone walked over, his worn Stetson low on his head hiding his longer black hair. Slone was built like a cowboy, long lanky legs, and muscular chest and arms, from working in the barn. Being a foreman, especially on a new ranch, meant he had to get his hands dirty.

  The men crawled out of the SUV and Slone lifted his head, looking for his childhood best friend. Since Alex's parents contacted him, Slone had been worried. The last letter he got from Alex, he was stateside for a few weeks, but Slone never knew where Alex went. Of course, with Alex
being a SEAL—he wouldn’t.

  “Hey,” the large man who was driving said. “We are supposed to meet the foreman of the ranch.”

  Slone grinned and looked at the men who were slowly lining up. Alex was slow to get there but ended up at the end of the line. Slone walked to him with a grin and held out his hand. “Alex, welcome home.”

  Alex looked up stunned, and then he recognized his childhood friend and grinned. “Slone?”

  “Yeah, I am your knew foreman, in charge of teaching you SEALs how to be cowboys,” Slone said with a chuckle and Alex grabbed his hand and did the one arm hug.

  “Shit, man, I was gonna call you when I settled in. The dads said you were somewhere in Wyoming, I figured we could meet up. This is awesome, they didn’t tell me,” Alex said with a laugh.

  “When they called me, I said I would be honored to help out, quit my job and hightailed it here. I beat you by a week,” Slone said and looked down the line at the rest of the men. “Hey, I am Slone Brate, the new foreman of the Second Chance Ranch, and you are Thane, Gage, Mason, Drake, Jessie and of course, Alex,” he said, naming each of the men correctly.

  “Stalker?” Jessie asked and looked at him suspiciously.

  “No,” Slone laughed. “Just making sure I know who I am supposed to be teaching. Dallas and Noah filled me in.”

  LC stepped forward and held out his hand. “Yep, you can call me Thane.”

  The others did the same and Alex felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His friend would help teach them ranching, and the men could decide if this was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, or if they just wanted a piece of land to retire on. With their VA retirement for medical reasons, they were able to at least have some money coming in to help pay for things, and since none of them had lived in the country in the last few years so their pay had stacked up to a nice tidy sum.