Double Tap (3 page)

She was gorgeous.

Those gorgeous baby blues widened when she saw me, but it didn’t take her long and she was running.

I widened my stance and caught her as she launched herself into my arms.

She was my world eight years ago, and now, it felt exactly
the same. I wanted her so bad it hurt.

Wrapping my arms around her, I buried my nose into the crease of her neck.

“Nicolas,” she breathed into my neck.

She smelled like the sun, and felt perfect in my arms. Like she was always meant to be there.

Eight years ago, I’d made the first move. Letting her know that I was interested.

I’d waited too long, though.

I should’ve done it earlier, but I was worried about propriety.

I worried that she’d been too young, that I should wait until she was graduated.

Maybe if I’d made my move earlier, she’d have stayed.

But I didn’t, and she’d disappeared.

Then I’d gotten deployed, and we’d lived on the occasional letter to keep in touch.

My favorite letter, the one that’d saved me. The one that was the first thing I’d read after the death of nearly my whole unit. The one I still carried with me to this day.

It was nothing special. Just a short one from Georgia telling me she’d taught a boy, in a park she ran at,
how to do a sliding tackle. But it’d been the words at the end of the letter that had pulled me out of whatever zone I’d been in.

Three simple words: I need you.

The letters had gotten me through a lot of years and a lot of scary days.

She probably didn’t realize it, but she saved my life.

“Georgia.” My roughened voice croaked. “I’ve missed the hell out of you.”

She leaned back, giving me her eyes. “I’ve missed you, too. Did you get the message I left you at your place?”

I shook my head. “No, I haven’t been back there in nearly twenty four hours.”

She frowned. “You work too much.”

I grinned at her.

Right back to telling me what I should and shouldn’t do, and we’d only been in each other’s presence for a little over three minutes.

“Are you here for good?” I asked, setting her back on her feet.

She nodded and led me over to a tree that had been recently cut down.

“Did you do this?” I asked worriedly, staring at the large sections of wood and the chainsaw that was on the ground beside the pieces.

She shook her head, the movement revealing a large amount of red, blue, and purple in her hair.

“No,” she said, nodding her head to the barn
door. “The boys are home with me.”

“So you’ve moved into the loft
with your brothers?” I clarified.

She grinned. “Yeah, we’ve been staying together, on and off, for the last year or so since their adoptive parents died;
their real children never really got along with the boys, so we decided it was time to come home.”

She looked good, really good.

“And you’re okay…with being here?” I confirmed.

She pursed her lips and looked down at her hands. “Yes…no. I don’t know yet. We’ve got a mobile home coming tomorrow. I don’t plan on staying
in the loft, or Granny’s old place on the back of the property. I don’t think I can. But the boys…they were younger. They don’t remember as much as I do.”

“If you ever need a place to stay, I’m right down the road. You know that, right?” I asked her.

She nodded, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears at my announcement.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I’m scared to be here,” she admitted.

My eyes didn’t leave her face for long moments as I stared at her, ascertaining her feelings.

“Have you spoken with anyone?” I asked quietly.

All of these questions were burning on the tip of my tongue. So many things I wanted to know.

She nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t told them exactly what happened, but I have given them the gist. They say I have a mild form of PTSD. One that doesn’t really make itself known until it’s the dark of night. I usually can circumvent any flare ups by leaving lights on, and making sure I can leave a door open…or see the outside.”
Once she said that, she frowned. “Why is it, after eight years of not seeing you, you can still get me to talk? That’s really…really not fair.”

I grinned. “Maybe, if you ever come out to dinner with me like you promised you would, we can compare notes on PTSD. ‘Cause, in all honesty, I have enough PTSD to share with just about everyone in the Kilgore area and still have some to spare.

She looked down at her hands. “I’m not the same girl, Diablo.”

I snorted. “I’m not the same man,
niña
.”

She shot me a quelling look. “I’m not a child.”

I laughed, remembering how much she hated being called that when she was younger, too.

“Why do you think I kept calling you that
then
?” I asked.

She didn’t get the chance to answer because my pager went off.

A-fucking-gain.

“Jesus Christ,” I hissed, pulling it off my belt loop.

She looked at me worriedly.

911
.

“Fuck,” I hissed. “I gotta go. Call me in the morning,
niña
. I have a present for you.”

Without waiting for a response, I started running down the driveway, making it down the half mile dirt road in less than two
and half
minutes.

Not bad for jeans and boots.

The last thing I saw as I pulled out of the driveway was Georgia standing at the top of the hill with a huge grin on her face.

She waved when I held my hand out of the window, and I couldn’t help the stupid little grin that stayed on my face the entire way to the station.

It was also there when I came into the station and walked to the back room where the SWAT team usually met.

I was the last to arrive, the others having been there like I was supposed to be but wasn’t.

Once I arrived, Luke, our boss and leader of the SWAT team, started talking.

“Alright, boys. We have a hostage situation at the Kwik Stop. Man with a gun is holding two older men hostage, as well as the teenage clerk,” Luke said, wasting no time getting down to business.

That was the good thing about Luke, he knew how to handle his shit, and I valued that in a man.

He outlined what we were going to do when we got there, and we were released to get dressed.

It was as I was slipping the Kevlar vest over my chest that Bennett, my best friend, walked up to the locker beside me and shot me a sideways glance.

“The men are talking,” he said as he stripped his shirt off and replaced it with the department issued black one.

I shrugged.

He grinned, “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

I shrugged again. “No.”

He sighed and finished dressing while I sat down and re-laced my boots.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile, man,” Michael, another member of the SWAT team, said from the bench in front of me.

He was lacing up his boots as well, but his eyes were on me and not what he was doing.

I shrugged again. “That’s too bad.”

He grinned, but I just stared at him blankly.

He didn’t take it personally, though. That was just how I was.

My family had me unconditionally, but it took me a while to warm up to peo
ple after my stint in the Navy.
Michael, and the other men on my team, as well as two other men in this world, would always have my back. If I was being honest, I knew they were curious about me.

I wasn’t one to share my feelings with others, though.

I was a private man and had been so my whole life.

It was hard to keep anything private in a family of eight, but I somehow managed it.

It also showed in my everyday life when I didn’t let people in, being let down one too many times to truly rely on anyone.

“Alright, boys. Let’s do this,” Luke called.

I stood and walked out to the armored truck.

Let’s do this indeed.

I put the hot in psychotic.

T-shirt

Georgia

I decided to run to Nico’s place instead of calling.

It was nearly six and I’d been lying in bed for over two hours, too tired to get up.

I’d thought that I had a fairly demanding job in Houston, but now, coming back out and doing the things I’d done every day of my life when I was younger, showed me how truly wrong I’d been.

Running was supposed to work out the sore muscles; and it did, to some extent.

I’d made it to just about half way, having hit the huge oak tree that curved over the road, denoting it as being just a mile more, when I heard footsteps behind me.

My heart started to pound for a reason other than exertion, and I lifted up my shirt just in case I needed to access my weapon.

However, my paranoia was unwarranted as I looked over my shoulder and found Nico behind me.

He was in nothing but shorts and some tennis shoes.

Sweat poured down his beautifully bronzed chest and disappeared into the black waistband of his underwear. The wide band that stated he wore ‘Hanes’ was clearly visible, and I had to fight the urge to lick my lips.

“Little early for you, isn’t it?” I called back to Nico.

It was only six thirty in the morning.

I’d hoped that I’d wake him up, but this worked too.

He grinned
, showing me his perfectly straight white teeth. The ones his mother liked to complain put her in debt to buy
for him.

“I have to get up this early or I don’t get my workout in before shit needs doing,” he said.

I shook my head, feeling my hair swish at the top of my head. What little of it there was sticking straight up in a ponytail. I could feel strands falling out of the ponytail, not long enough yet to stay up. But I loved the short hair and would deal with the mess if I had to.

“What’s with the colored hair?”
He asked all of a sudden.

I glance at him and shrugged. “I wanted it. That’s the only reason.”

“Did they allow that hair at your job?”
He asked in curiosity.

“When I have it down, you can’t really tell that it’s colored. My new job knows that it’s colored, though. They didn’t seem to mind overly much,” I puffed.

His eyes moved from the road in front of us to me. “Where
do you work? Is it not going to be on the farm?”

I shook my head. “No. That’s the boys wish, not mine. I’ll help when I’m needed, but it won’t be mine anymore. It took me eight years, but I finally got my degree.”

“You graduated?”
He asked sharply.

I nodded. “Yeah, last week.”

His mouth dropped open. “And you didn’t tell any of us? We would’ve gone!”

He sounded outraged that I didn’t tell him, and I frowned. “It was online. You wouldn’t have been going to a ceremony. I think they send me my degree in the mail.”

He kept pace beside me as we continued the last mile to his house.

I could tell he was holding back, probably able to nearly double his pace, but he stayed with me out of some sort of courtesy, as he’d done when we were younger.

“What’s your mile time look like now?” I asked out of
curiosity.

When he was in high school, he was able to run the mile in a little more than five minutes. I’d never gotten better than seven.

He winked before answering. “Six and a half or so. More muscle means less speed, unfortunately.”

I snorted. He was still better than my
all-time best, much to my annoyance.

I made it about another hundred yards before I couldn’t do anymore.

“You’ve ran the whole loop, haven’t you?” I asked in suspicion.

He shrugged. “Would have, if you hadn’t stopped.”

I back handed him in the bicep, causing him to laugh.

“So,
what’s my present?” I asked after the silence continued.

“You’ll have to wait and see, now,
won’t you?”
He teased.

I should’ve known he wouldn’t tell me. He was always like that. I’d get him a present every year for his birthday and Christmas, and I’d try to taunt him with it. He never fell for it, though. He liked getting his presents on the day of the special occasion.

He was so weird.

“I saw your trailer getting delivered as I was running by. You brother was outside talking to the man driving the truck,” Nico informed me.

I nodded. I’d known they were coming early, but my brothers were there to handle it. I just hoped they didn’t run over the septic tank…that’d be a mess to clean up.

My brothers, however, had said that they had it, and I took them at their word.

“The cows are being delivered today, too. You’ll have your friends back,” I teased.

Nico’s parent’s
property had bordered ours. Now, I guess, it was Nico’s property
since his parents had moved into the city, according to Nikki. They’d been tired of doing ranch work and wanted to be in town closer to their grandchildren.

Something I couldn’t blame them for. Not one single bit.

We arrived at his house,
finally, and I sighed in relief. My legs were screaming now, and I could really use a drink of water.

He walked me up the steps to his place, but instead of walking inside like he used to, he punched in a code next to the door, then walked in, disarming the alarm once he was in the entrance way.

“What’s with all the security?” I asked in surprise.

He grimaced. “I’ve seen too much shit as a SEAL, and a cop,
not to be a little cynical about my property and life. I won’t ever
not
have it locked anymore. I value the peace of mind.”

The house on the outside looked exactly like I’d last seen it. The inside, though, was totally redecorated.

“Wow,” I said, taking in my surroundings.

He grinned. “I’m not a big fan of the Susie Homemaker shit
mamá
had up.”