Johnny: #2 (Special Forces)
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents depicted in this work are of the author’s imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations, or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2016 Madison Stevens
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs
Johnny (Special Forces #2)
by
Madison Stevens
After a raid on a safe house leaves a good friend dead, Navy SEAL Johnny decides it’s time to return to civilian life. Despite the call in his head to stay with his Navy brothers, he finds a powerful anchor in Maddy, his heart’s true desire.
Years earlier, he pushed her away, believing it wasn’t fair to ask her to wait for him. After all, he might die far away from his home on a mission no one would ever know about.
The SEAL’s sudden return to her life sends Maddy into an emotional tailspin. She thought she was over him, but now he consumes all her thoughts.
Johnny and Maddy want to focus on untangling their hearts and minds, but the SEAL soon realizes that honor and loyalty aren’t the only things keeping him tethered to the Navy.
Chapter One
Hot. Too damned hot.
It was funny how a man could spend most of the summer in a foreign desert and return home to the biggest heat wave in history.
Johnny snorted. It was just his fucking luck. After three months in the sandbox, he’d wanted a little relief stateside. Instead, he got triple-digit temperatures and humidity so high he probably could get his daily water from the air.
At least on deployment, the air was dry. This was like a fucking sauna.
He chugged down a water bottle. Little droplets dribbled out and ran down his chin.
Johnny scratched the beard he had been sporting the past few months. It would help to get that finally shaved off, even if he would miss the thing.
He’d gotten used to having a clean-shaven face. When they deployed the Navy SEAL overseas, they told him to grow a beard so he could fit in with the local people. Although he hadn’t really expected his brown hair to lighten as much as it had, the facial hair served its purpose.
Well, maybe not.
His heart felt heavy in his chest for a moment, the memories of the past week almost too much for him to take at once.
Shit happened. People died. Brothers-in-arms and others who depended on their protection. Everyone who put on the uniform was aware of that painful possibility, but it didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
“Didn’t expect you to turn in your boots,” Clint, his commanding officer, said.
Johnny looked over to the man who he’d put his life in the hands of more times than he could count. And, if asked, would do it again in a heartbeat. For all the crap Johnny had been through, he always knew his CO had his back. He wasn’t there to toss around rank like some insecure desk jockey. He was there to help his men get the mission done.
The older man stared at him not with anger or resentment, but understanding. Clint might not be more than ten years his senior, but he’d seen plenty in his service, defending his country from the known threats and many that most civilians would never even hear about.
Every man who had served under the commander knew his history. A man wasn’t awarded the medals he’d received for sitting behind a desk pushing papers.
“It was a shit deal,” Clint said and rubbed a hand on his face. “I don’t think anyone expected Emir to be taken out like that.”
No, they hadn’t seen it coming. All that time they had been so careful, making sure to meet at the safe house. Never coming or going at the same time and always with additional backup in place. But it hadn’t stopped the terrorist bastards from somehow finding out.
Like any other Thursday, Johnny had shown up expecting to get more information on weapons being moved through the area. The small area of the young Republic of Chotastan, once fly-over country that nobody gave a crap about, had suddenly become the rising black market highway of the Middle East.
Johnny’s group of joint Special Operation Forces had been assigned to aid in finding out why the once quiet area had become such a hotspot. As it stood, the uptick in weapons sales had already led to civil unrest and clashes between tribal paramilitary units, governmental military forces and local police, who viewed the changes as trouble brought in by the Americans. If things kept up as they were, the unrest would soon lead to war, something nobody wanted to see.
Johnny clenched his fist and leaned forward. “Someone fucking sold us out,” he ground out. “You know they did.”
Clint nodded and leaned back in his chair. “We’ve started investigations. It’s not exactly like we can just flood the country with FBI agents or military investigators.”
Johnny took a breath. “It was calculated and planned. They took out the two guards with one shot to the head.”
He could still picture the two Army guards inside the small building, lying on the ground like their lives meant nothing. They didn’t deserve to die like that.
Clint nodded. He’d likely seen the photos.
“They don’t think the shooter had time to interrogate Emir,” Clint said to him. “You likely showed up before they had time to finish the job.”
“Wish the fucker would have stayed around a bit longer.”
Clint sighed and then stared straight at him. “We’ll catch this guy.”
Johnny clenched his fists. He knew his brothers would find justice for Emir. They had all benefited from the help of the Pashto-speaking man and his ability to get into places without much notice.
Although Johnny spoke Arabic, it just wasn’t enough in the ever-changing situation of the Middle East. Emir had been critical to their efforts, and the man had constantly spoken of his desire to keep his country peaceful.
“You know we could still use you,” Clint said quietly.
Johnny knew his skills were an asset to the team, but he just couldn’t seem to find it in him. He’d joined the Navy to protect people. He’d been able to do nothing while his brothers-in-arms were murdered.
His silence seemed to be enough for Clint to understand.
“Well, you’ve got more than enough leave. Take your month,” Clint said. “You can come in tomorrow and fill out the initial paperwork. If at the end of your thirty days you still want out, I’ll make it happen.”
Johnny nodded, not really sure there was much that could change his mind.
“You trying to steal my employee before he even starts?”
A smile took hold of Johnny before he even turned to look at the man in the door.
“Just who’s stealing who?” Clint said and raised a brow, then broke out into a wide smile. “How the hell have you been, Trent?”
Johnny stood, glad to see his former SEAL brother and childhood friend.
“Better now that I don’t have to look at your ugly mug every day.” Trent grinned.
He turned to Johnny and brought him in for a hard hug. When he pulled back, Trent stared at him for a bit.
“Well, you didn’t get your ass blown off without me. That’s a near miracle.”
Johnny rolled his eyes. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
Trent grinned. “Not a chance.”
Johnny sighed. Despite it all, it was good to see his friend. When Trent took a hit to the leg, and it fractured the bone, that had been it for the SEAL. He knew it near killed his friend’s spirit to leave the SEALs but was glad Trent had found some peace with his new business as a security contractor for hire and his soon-to-be wife Lisa.
“Better get him out of your hair,” Trent said to Clint when someone knocked at the door with paperwork.
Clint locked eyes with him. “Come in tomorrow, and we can get the paperwork going. But remember what I said.”
Johnny nodded. He and Trent made their way out of the office and down the hall. It wasn’t until they were outside that he asked what he’d been wondering from the beginning.
“So where’s Mason?”
Not that he wasn’t glad to see his friend but had been expecting his brother to be the one to pick him up.
“Tori and Lucy got the flu. He’s been home taking care of them and asked if I could come pick your sorry ass up.”
He nodded, still confused, since he was supposed to stay with Mason and his family while he figured things out.
Trent climbed into his Jeep and tossed his duffel bag into the back
“Pop wants you to come stay with him,” Trent said, as if reading his mind.
Johnny swallowed hard. He thought the world of Rich, but staying there didn’t seem like the best idea.
“What about Maddy? I can’t take anyone’s room.”
Trent started the Jeep and pulled away from the building before heading down the road to the base gate.
“She’s got her own setup over the garage. I think Pop is really looking forward to you being there.”
Johnny swallowed again. It might not be so bad if she was not even staying in the house. How often would they even have to see one another? She probably had her own life to worry about with going out with friends and parties. That sort of crap.
Besides, their encounter was a long time ago. He was sure she’d gotten over it ages ago.
His stomach flipped at the idea. All those missions, all the danger he’d been exposed to, and she still made him feel this way. It wasn’t good. Not even a little.
Cautiously, he glanced over to Trent as they pulled up to two Masters-at-Arms in a guardhouse. Trent handed their IDs to one of the men. The MAs looked back and forth between the men for a moment before waving the IDs over a scanner and then handing them back.
Johnny resisted taking a deep breath. There was no way Trent knew what had gone on with Maddy. He doubted he’d be alive if the man did.
Trent pulled through the open gate and smiled at him.
“It’s great to have you home.”
Chapter Two
“No,” Maddy said as she dumped the water and noodles into the colander. “There is no way in hell I’m going to cancel my date tonight. It’s the first time in ages I’ve been able to go out with David.”
Her father sighed loudly.
He was just going to have to get over it. Just because Johnny was coming home and was thrust on them didn’t mean she had to cancel all her plans. Especially not for him.
“Well, maybe you could invite him over for dinner,” her dad said.
He was really trying to find some way for it all to work out.
Maddy shook the extra water off the noodles and turned to look at her father as if he had grown wings. She would really have to drive the point home, apparently.
“After the last time he came over for dinner?” She turned back around to the noodles. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”
“Look, honey, I know Trent was a little hard on him—”
She dumped the noodles back in the pot and poured some olive oil over them.
“Hard?” she said and tried not to stir it in as hard as she wanted. “No, hard is not even close to the word I would use.” Maddy blew a stray blond hair out of her face. “The first thing out of his mouth was that he is an ex-SEAL and knows forty-seven ways to kill a man.”
“I know it didn’t start off so well, but—”
She slapped some noodles into the bottom layer of the casserole dish. “Then he proceeded to go into detail on how you go about killing a man forty-seven different ways. Who does that?”
Her head whipped around at the sound of a snort. He quickly covered his face, but she could see the smile in his eyes. He had enjoyed it just as much as Trent did, stupid testosterone crap.
She pointed the wooden spoon from the meat sauce at him. “It wasn’t funny,” she said and turned back to the task at hand. Good thing she’d made lasagna about a million times before, so she could practically do it in her sleep. “I had to hear for a week about it from David.”