Deadly Spurs (2 page)

Remembering a Friend

"True heroes are those who go that extra mile for someone. They put their heart and soul into helping others. True heroes have a HEART OF GOLD! God bless all the heroes."

Sarah Moore

Mason grumbled and ran a hand over his face. It seemed like months since he had gotten a good night's sleep with all the crap that had gone on. The changes were hard. However, once a SEAL always a SEAL, his sleeping habits were still the same. If they were on assignment, they would sleep when they could taking catnaps, but being able to sleep nine hours a night was just too hard of a switch.

“
Wake up,” his mom said and slapped his face. When he opened one eye, he tried to focus. “Why are all these huge sexy men in my kitchen?”

“
Huh?” Mason said.
What the fuck was going on now, his mother was finally losing it
, he thought and opened one eye, closing it quickly when the light caused a pain to shoot through his head.

“
Look, they just showed up and said they were hungry,” his mom insisted. When he opened his eyes again, she was pointing toward the kitchen.
Shit, he was gonna have to get up, she would never let him sleep if he didn’t, a quick check of the place and kick whoever was here out, and he would be back asleep in a few minutes.

Mason sat up in bed and tried to clear his head.
Where was Thane? He was supposed to be keeping watch, how could someone have snuck in?
However, when he reached under the covers for the gun beside him, he turned and looked at the group of guys sitting in front of him.

“
Are you kidding me?!” Mason exploded.

“
What? Should I not be making them gumbo?” his mother said laughing.

“
Food?!” Mason yelled. He was going to find a way to kick his dead friends' asses for this. His mother would never let this go now that they were talking to her and encouraging her, this was a serious FUBAR situation.

“
Brother, we had to tell her something that didn’t freak her out,”
Dagwood said.

“
Freak who out?" his mother asked. “Me?” she snorted and waved the ladle she had in her hand around. “Of course I know you are ghosts, dumbasses, I just never seen a hungry one before, thought it was something new and original. I was gonna call Bea and let her know from now on she had to stock some cookies in her fridge.”

Mason groaned and covered his face. “
This is such a sucky time to be popping in and out of shit, man. Where is Thane?”

“
LC?” his mom said sounding official, she loved to call his teammates by their call sign, made her think she was hip. “He is out front on the steps talking on the phone. Someone called about a chick named Arden.”

Dagwood stood,
“There is a lot you don’t know and just a little bit of time, if you don’t find her—they will and kill them both.”

“
Arden? Who is ‘them’? Does she have a boyfriend suddenly?” Mason laughed. He knew that she probably did and it burned him to think of her with another man. But the facts were the facts. Mason slept with his best friend's foster sister the night before they left to go on the last mission. He had been crazy for her for so long, a little beer mixed with her wearing a smoking hot pair of jeans, and finally cornering him in the bathroom, telling him she wanted him turned into a fucking mess.

Ma
son took a deep breath, there had been three of them from the same state in training. Mason and West Trete grew up together. West’s mother was Bea, his mother’s best friend. And although they hung out from time to time, each were the quarterbacks of the counties two rival football teams. They were constantly in competition, they enlisted at the same time, both had been surprised when they passed the test and made it into the SEALs, then each had been stationed at different bases and hadn’t seen each other in a long time. When they got back together, it was like old times, competing, and razing with other. When Mason met Dag, it was like finding a long lost brother. The three of them hung out, and after the bombing West tried to contact him several times, each time Mason spoke to him it felt strained and he refused to allow his old friend to come and visit. Who would want to see the shell of a man he had become.

Arden's
brother had died without Mason being able to talk to him as he planned. It was supposed to be so simple, then Mason was wounded, and his head was screwed up. He had planned to go back to talk to her. With this shit, he didn’t have a choice now, so if she hated him, as long as she was safe, he would be fine.

“
He is coming, you have to move. Go to Thane, he will understand,”
Dagwood said.

“
Fine,” Mason grumbled. “But I am not going to read the damn letter until we are back. It is just gonna have to wait.”

“
Go!”
Dag yelled as Mason left the room in a huff.

“
Now I don’t think you are being a friendly ghost, but before I cast you into the dark abyss, I will give you a chance to explain,” Mason’s mother said and the fallen team members laughed.

“
Hey, your son is the one with the problem. I'm giving him something to hold on too. Arden is the key, your guilt is eating you alive man,”
Dag scoffed.

“
Please, a chick is not going to be able to cure what ails me,” Voodoo snarled.

“
Oh, I don’t know. Who is this Arden person we are talking about?” his mother asked.

Great now s
he would be harping on me to settle down—again.

“
Someone Voodoo slept with and was hiding from me 'cause she is my baby sister.”
Dagwood laughed when Voodoo turned to him with a shocked expression. It was one of the things he felt guilty about. Never being able to tell his best friend he had fucked up.
“Dude, have you not figured out, my sis tells me—everything. She called me the next day and warned me not to kill you. Chill, but you gotta let this shit go, man, she is your future, and you know it too.”

Fuck
, Voodoo thought, if he would only have had the balls to tell his friend, at least that guilt would be gone. Now he needed to make sure Arden knew it wasn't her fault, it was all him.

Dagwood and Voodoo were partners, since the first day of training for Team TEN they had been drawn to each other. Just like the rest of the team,
as they paired off, nothing was said aloud on whom they were partnering with—it just was.

So, when the pair of SEALs was called for a special assignment, it wasn
’t a great surprise. Voodoo shook his head as he watched his best friend packing for the trip. Most would assume you would take necessities, just as they were taught. Of course, his partner packed the minimum amount those and with the extra room he dry-packed his sandwich, which was always a sub, and snacks.
It was kinda sad
, Voodoo thought as he put the small doll his mother gave him in the waist of his pants. It was to ward off bad auras and seemed to work, so to humor his mother of course, he continued to use it.

“
Strike Two,” the officer called out into the hanger where their team worked out of, gathered, hell—lived in.

Slapping the back of his
friend’s head, he growled, “Move it, Dag.”

His partner grunted a response but slung hi
s bag over his shoulders and followed. The officer led them down the corridor back toward the main building for the briefing. Something was up with this mission—Voodoo could feel it.

“
Briefing in ten,” the officer said and then closed the door behind him as he exited the small room.

“
Dang, I am hungry, had to leave the other sub, now what I am going to do?” Dagwood grumbled.

Voodoo laughed and shook his head, “
Bro, you eat way fucking too much.”

“
Huh?” Dag said and feigned shock. “I am a growing boy.”

“
Right, if you grow anymore, we won't fit in the chopper, man. As it is, your head hits the ceiling anyway. Riding for hours hearing only ‘thunk…thunk…thunk’, is fuckin' annoying, man.” Voodoo laughed.

Dag
rose, bowed his chest out, and said, “You wanna shot at the champion?”

He stood and grinned
evilly, “Champion my ass, all those carbs are slowing you down. Boyscout kicked your ass last week in the five-mile trek. I think the rubber tube around your waist is catching up.”

They circled each other in the small room, this is what they did before a mission to release some of the stress. All of them did it, the C
ommander hated when the whole team went out together since it usually meant new furniture needed to be ordered.

Before they could actually begin their wrestling the
Commander and LC walked in. LC smiled and nodded while the Commander frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

“
Settle down, boys, we don’t have time for this shit,” the Commander said.

Dag and Voodoo nodded but grinned, they would finish in the hanger before the
y got on the helo. Settling back in their chairs, the duo waited while the Commander pulled a file out of his briefcase.

“
We need info and we need it fast. This is the target, and we need his schedule, his associates, hell, even his underwear preference. He is on the Terrorist Most Wanted, listed as Number five. We are sending Team SEVEN in a week, so you have five days to give us what we need. During that time, I expect you will follow strict protocol,” the leader warned. Voodoo and Dagwood nodded, then Dagwood winked at Voodoo.

They were the wildcards of the bunch. It wasn
’t hard to see, especially since they both thought outside the box when they were doing a mission. Something the others had a problem with, but this duo was known as the best of the best when it came to surveillance. Though most would think they would stand out—Dagwood with his bulk and height, and Voodoo with his dark brooding good looks, but they did it amazingly well. They had never been discovered on a mission of reconnaissance.

“
Here is what we know…” LC started the details of the briefing and both men snapped to attention.

Sand, he was so sick of the sand, it was in all of his
sandwiches, which was just freaking wrong. The smoothness of the spread and the processed meat was taken away from the experience. Shrugging his shoulder, he held up the small binoculars and checked to see where the Target was. If Dagwood actually had feelings about his assignments, this guy would rank up with the most disgusting and vile men he ever had to watch.

The way he treated women
, as if they were a piece of meat only put on this world to take his punishment and torture. Shit, it looked like the guy couldn’t get a hard-on if there wasn't pain involved. Dagwood wanted this guy caught, so did Voodoo, especially after last night.

“
Dude, we need to call in an air strike, the Target is planning an attack on US Embassies tomorrow. They are giving the final go head tonight, we ran out of time,” Voodoo said quietly into his comm device.

Sh
it, Dagwood sat up and looked around the building the Target was in. “You sure, man?”

“
Yeah, just tapped into a line in the building,” Voodoo said and then paused. Dagwood knew better than to say anything, it meant Voodoo was very close to the Target. Shit, he wondered if he knew Morse code for 'Clusterfuck' that he could send the Commander.