Scorched

Shane stood tall, watching as the staff began disassembling the protective tents they’d put up in case the sky decided to pour down its own sorrow.

His men stood wordless by his side and behind him, none of them leaving until he began to walk away. They were close, and they’d been lucky, until now, not to lose one of the team.

“Grayson!”

Shane turned to see his commander approaching. The man was only about fifteen years older than Shane, but he’d seen a lot in his years in the military, more than Shane ever cared to see. There was a hardness to the man’s voice and tone that bespoke authority and grim experience.

The men followed him, always with no questions asked.

“Yes, sir?” Irritated at the quietness of his own voice, Shane stood even taller and squared his shoulders more fully. It wasn’t OK for him to show weakness in front of his commander — even weakness caused by the loss of a teammate.

“Your team did well. The girl has been safely returned to her family, and the diplomat is extremely pleased. I know you’re all having a difficult time with this loss. I am truly sorry. River was a good man.”

“Thank you, sir. We’ll feel better if we can just get back to work,” Shane said, desperate to go into battle, to shoot something or someone. He needed to vent his rage, his frustration and the feeling of free-falling that had been running through him for too long now.

“That’s a negative, Grayson. Your team is on leave as of right now. No one is cleared for duty until the doc gives his OK.”

Shane’s gaze narrowed just the slightest, and his commander narrowed his own in turn, making Shane back down immediately. Never once had he shown disrespect to a superior.

“Sir, I don’t think that’s necessary. We know the risks we take in the field. We know it could be any one of us at any time. This call-in was supposed to last a month,” Shane said, keeping his tone neutral. He was skirting the line here.

“Well, the call has been suspended, Grayson — for all of you. You’re to see the doc next week. Follow me over here. I want to speak to you privately for a moment,” he said, and Shane walked away from his men. He stood at attention and waited. “Grayson, I’ve thought of you as more than a soldier for a lot of years now. I respect you. Like you. I don’t say that to a lot of men. May I be frank with you?”

Shane couldn’t imagine what the man wanted to say. “Of course, sir.”

“You’ve been finished with this life for a long time, Shane,” he said, using his first name for the first time that Shane could ever recall. “You do know that if you decide to retire, you do so with honor. You have a life outside of the military, which is something a lot of us can’t say. Maybe it’s time you embrace that, get out of this before it destroys you the way it does so many.”

The commander didn’t give him time to respond before turning and walking away, leaving Shane standing there unsure of what had just happened. His commander was right: he was finished with military life — he just didn’t know how to make the final break.

Slowly, Shane walked back over to his men, who had waited for him, and he looked each of them in the eyes before he gave an attempt at a smile.

“You all heard the commander; you’re dismissed,” Shane said. Each man clapped him on the shoulder before taking his leave. They didn’t ask what the commander had spoken to him about. They knew he didn’t want to talk and they respected him for it. They most likely felt the same way.

Rage and sorrow tore at his heart as Shane cast a long last glance at the open grave. The casket had been lowered, River laid to rest.

He’d been so young, had so much life ahead of him.

Now, he had a widow and a child left behind with only memories.

Lifting a loose clump of dirt in his hand, Shane watched as it sifted through his fingers before he tossed it on top of the casket, looking so final as it sat six feet below the surface of the earth.

“Goodbye, River.”

Shane clenched his jaw and turned away. It was time to go home — time to decide the rest of his life. He couldn’t do that without speaking to Lia.

She was his life.

All the rest of it was meaningless if she weren’t with him.

It was time to claim his bride.

Chapter Nineteen

“It’s been a week. I know we were all for allowing Rachel time to figure this relationship out with Adriane, but I’m starting to worry. If she truly wants to be there, wants to work things out with this guy, then why hasn’t she called anyone?”

Ari and Rosabella watched Lia walk slowly about the room while voicing her alarm. All three of them were uneasy with their role in this matter. Each one of them had spoken to Rafe, had talked him into giving Adriane a week to win Rachel’s heart.

“I agree, darling. I think it’s time we go and see her,” Rosabella said, a worried frown settling between her eyebrows.

“I just hope she doesn’t hate us for talking Rafe out of flying in and bringing her back,” Ari said. “What if things have been really bad for her?”

The women fell silent as they thought for a moment about Rachel and her circumstances.

“So what do we do now?” Lia seemed so lost, so downtrodden, which was the opposite of how the normally confident woman always appeared.

“We go over there. If her entire family descends on the palace and she’s being held against her will, then he either hands her over or we begin a war.”

Both Lia and Ari looked at Rosabella with their mouths agape. She was such a small woman, always quiet and respectful. They’d never imagined something like the word war would come from her mouth.

“I’m with you, Mom,” Lia said, a small grin making an appearance on her face.

“Where did this fire come from?” Ari asked, unable to help herself.

“I usually have no reason to get riled up, Ari darling. But, when I can’t speak to my child, I will willingly go into battle. I wasn’t always just a mother. Did you know I once served in a volunteer organization that traveled the world doing service work and teaching young women self-defense? We went to many countries and the places I saw opened my eyes to the tragedies people encounter. It was why I was so insistent with your father that you children be taught humility. Just because we were always blessed with money didn’t mean that’s how the rest of the world is. Too many wealthy children have no idea of how many kids go to sleep at night with a hungry belly.”

“I didn’t know that, Mom,” Lia said as she looked through new eyes at the woman who’d raised her. For her mother to leave the comfort of her home for an extended period of time to help others was impressive. Lia felt selfish as she sat with her mom and waited for her to continue.

“Yes. My family was well off and I thought I would go with this group and save lives while also seeing the world. I was humbled pretty quickly. It wasn’t all glory, all sitting ensconced in a nice, safe hotel room. We stayed in the impoverished areas with these families, lived in the conditions they lived in, learned why and how they were there. Sometimes, it was as simple as they’d been born into it, and sometimes it was because life had just been hard, but no one chooses to sleep in the streets. They do it because they have nowhere else to go. I will never judge the world again in the way I did when I was a young teen.”

“Where did you go?” Ari asked, mesmerized by this new information.

“My favorite place was America. That was a culture shock for me back then. Before that time, all I’d known was our small village. Your grandparents had a beautiful garden that we ate from all summer long, that we appreciated and we used it all. In America, I was shocked by the abundance of everything, but shocked more by how so many still went without in the midst of plenty.”