The Omega Team: Ethan's Promise (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Men of Mercy Book 7) Read online

  That sense of unease returned full force as Ethan felt the cloying grips of claustrophobia snake its way around his lungs. “This is your family’s house. Why the hell am I here?”

  “Holden needed somewhere for us to bunk close to the plantation. Noni’s house was the closest so I volunteered.”

  “This is your grandma’s house?”

  “Sure is. Got a problem with it?” A strong female voice came through loud and clear from behind Aaron and both men turned to see a very petite woman standing in the room. Her snow white hair and colorful apron clearly stated this was the famous Noni.

  “No, ma’am, your house is very nice, but I can’t say here. I’ll find a motel.” Ethan grabbed his bags off the floor and slung them over his shoulder. He couldn’t stay at a place that embodied family life. He didn’t even have a family, he’d grown up on the streets, an orphan. Everything about this place was wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

  He might be one of the few men on the planet who preferred solitary bunk beds in the barracks, but at least there Ethan knew his place. Family homes that smelled like a Betty Crocker commercial were out of his league.

  “Not before you eat some of the soup I’ve been slaving over all day.” Noni crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. Ethan realized he must have offended her, not that he had enough practice with family interaction to be sure.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to offend you, but I’m here for work not a vacation.”

  “I realize that young man, which is why I cooked my famous homemade soup. You’ll need it for what you’ve got to do. Whether you stay here or not is your business, but you would highly offend me if you left before eating.”

  Ethan’s gaze cut to Aaron, who offered absolutely no help whatsoever. “Man, you got to try it. I promise you won’t regret it. Besides, there is nowhere else within thirty miles to eat.”

  Ethan sensed a trap, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what it might be. Reluctantly, he eased his bag to the ground.

  “Great, glad you decided to join us. The food’s ready.” Noni disappeared around the corner.

  A few minutes later Ethan polished off the second helping of vegetable beef soup with homemade cornbread and then leaned back in the kitchen chair to groan. Noni’s cooking made military food taste like shit. No, worse than that, the shit that grew on shit. He’d just had the most heavenly meal ever created on planet earth. “Ma’am, I’m going to have dreams about this food every night for the next month. It’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

  Aaron went to the stove for a second bowl. “You think Noni’s soup is the best? You have no idea what’s next.”

  “I can’t imagine, ma’am.”

  “While I appreciate your good manners, please stop calling me ma’am. Just Noni will do.” Noni turned back to the sink and slipped another plate into the water.

  Ethan recoiled. “Noni” was for the people in her family and he sure as hell wasn’t part of this family, let alone any family. But he didn’t want to offend her or her hospitality, so he kept his mouth shut.

  Aaron shoveled down another bite and then said, “Col. Grey is in the shower and the rest of the team should be arriving throughout the day. You’re the first one here. Rowdy’s coming, and I asked Celine if she was interested.”

  “Celine Latimer? The salon girl from Mercy?”

  Aaron shrugged. “Yeah, Holden needed a stylist for Kate and the senator’s daughter so I kind of volunteered her.”

  “And this would have nothing to do with the fact you can’t stay away from her?”

  “Didn’t say that.” Aaron took another bite. “It’s all part of the master plan. Got it stored up here.” He tapped his head and nodded.

  “My grandson is finally deciding to settle down? I don’t believe it,” Noni said.

  “I am nowhere near settling. This is just a girl I kind of like.”

  Ethan crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. “Tell the truth, you really like her or you wouldn’t hang around her so much on your off time.”

  Noni clapped and came over to squeeze her grandson’s shoulders. “It’s about time. When will she be here? What does she like to eat? I’ll make her something special.”

  Aaron glared across the table and Ethan’s grin grew. “Celine’s gonna be so excited to meet your grandma.”

  “Well? What’s her favorite food?”

  “I don’t know, Noni.”

  “How can you not know your girlfriend’s favorite food? I’m disappointed.” Noni wiped her hands on her apron. “I taught you better than that.”

  “She’s coming for the mission more than for me, Noni.”

  Ethan snorted. “I doubt that. The girl stares at you every time you’re in the same room. It’s kind of sickening, to be honest.”

  “I knew it! I’m making my fudge.” Noni yanked the half-eaten bowl of soup from Aaron. “Out of the kitchen, now, I need space.”

  Noni executed an about face and started gathering supplies from various cabinets. The whole kitchen was a picture perfect image of what Ethan imagined a real family home looked like. Painted cabinets, various ceramic roosters and chickens along the countertops and decorating the windowsill over the sink and a refrigerator covered top to bottom in pictures.

  “We better get out of her way. Go grab your bag and I’ll show you your room.”

  “Woah, I didn’t say I was staying. I’ll find somewhere, give you more room for everyone else.” Ethan rose from the table. He’d find a hotel somewhere.

  “Nope. I wasn’t joking earlier, there is nowhere else. The closest hotel is over an hour away, plus Kate’s coming here. I’ve already got your training area set up out back.”

  Ethan glanced through the window into the back yard and the large blue mat spread out on the ground. Shit. He didn’t want to be here. Bad enough he was on this babysitting mission in the first place while TF-S was gearing up to go after Mr. J. Now he’d be forced to stay around all this…family stuff.

  “Fine. Show me my room.” He turned back to Noni, “Thank you, ma’am, for the soup.”

  Noni pursed her lips, adding even more wrinkles to her weathered face. “You’re welcome.”

  Ethan went to the living room and stopped in the middle to turn a slow circle. Every spare inch of wall space and table top was blanketed in family photos. “When you told me you have a big family, I had no idea.”

  Aaron walked over to a cluster on the wall above a small antique side table and scratched his beard. “Yeah, four sisters, three brothers, about forty cousins. I think, unless Uncle Vince has found another younger newer wife, that could be off by a few.”

  The number sent Ethan’s mind whirling, surrounded by a foreign vortex of love and happiness. He’d grown up on the streets, never knowing his own parents. He’d fought for himself since youth, picking up odd jobs where he could, learning how to survive by relying on his own skill.

  Aaron stepped forward and tapped an old black and white photo. “That’s Pop, Noni’s husband, in front of his F4U Corsair in WWII. He flew over one hundred missions and still made it home to her.” Aaron pointed to the next photo, a soldier in solid green, framed by jungle. “That’s Dad when he was in Vietnam. And then that handsome strapping man in the next picture is me. I tell you, they should have put me on the cover of Military Magazine.”

  Ethan snorted. “Yeah, I think you may be waiting a long time on that call.”

  Aaron continued, completely unfazed. “That is from about twenty years ago, when we were all young. The last picture we have of Noni and Pop together with all the grandkids.”

  A younger Noni and Aaron’s grandfather sat on chairs in the yard, children in their laps, standing beside them, on the ground sitting in front. Ethan rubbed the dull ache in his chest. He’d never have that, wasn’t meant to. He’d resigned himself to the life of a nomad years ago and knew he’d walk this earth alone.

  So why did his damn heart feel like Aaron had just hollowed it
out with a dull spoon?

  “Got to hit the head. I’ll be back in a few minutes and show you to your room. You can just chill here.” Aaron nodded and strode past Ethan down a long hallway off to the right of the living room.

  Ethan stared at that last picture, the one of the couple obviously in love surrounded by their offspring, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t place himself there. That life wasn’t for him. He knew exactly how his own life would play out. He’d stay in the Special Forces until he was either too injured to stay active or he’d die on a mission. He told himself that was his only choice. Besides, he didn’t know how to live any differently.

  The picture of Pop in front of the fighter plane, that he could put himself in easily. Ethan sensed a presence and glanced down at Noni, her weathered gaze fixed with longing on that photo.

  “They called him the Eagle. He flew on more missions in that one tour of duty than most men do in an entire lifetime. He said he couldn’t stand staying on the ground and leaving his men unprotected.” She sniffed and traced a bony finger over her husband’s face.

  The dull ache in Ethan’s chest grew. No one would ever stare at his photo with longing.

  “When they recruited him for the Kamikaze Brigade, I cried for a month straight. Out of the fifty volunteers who flew into the heart of Germany, only my husband and two others survived.”

  “I learned about the Kamikazes in Air Born School. They were hands down the most famous and badass pilots in history.” He didn’t tell her the part about the survivors being rumored as mad men. They’d had a mortality rate of over ninety percent, making them not only the most famous, but the deadliest.

  But the proud grin and glint in Pop’s eye was the same wild look Ethan saw every time he looked into a mirror. “No offense, ma’am, but why did he settle down? I mean, that kind of adrenaline rush…” was for legends.

  Not fathers and husbands.

  “You know Johnny always told me he planned to die in the war. Didn’t think he’d live to see his twenty-fifth birthday, but he had something to live for. Me. I never understood and never tried to really figure him out. I never asked him to give up the service either if that’s what you’re thinking. After Aaron’s father was born I asked Johnny why he’d chosen me and he said, ‘When I saw you, I knew. I knew the rush of being a fighter pilot could never measure up to holding the love of the greatest woman I know.’” She sniffed and wiped away a tear. “I still miss him every single day, and I know when my time’s over, I’ll be joining him again. He was the greatest man I’ve ever known.”

  Noni eyes were red and watery, and Ethan had to fight not to cringe away from her emotions.

  “You’ve got that same rangy lone wolf look Johnny used to have, the way you’re staring at all my pictures. Feeling trapped, are you?”

  Ethan’s throat closed off completely and he couldn’t answer her question or argue with her intuitiveness.

  “Well there’s hope. I promise you that. And you’ll know it when you meet her.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Mom, I’m not moving back home.” Kate rolled her eyes and took the next turn at what had to qualify for reckless driving. Her jeep skidded sideways on the gravel road, tossed back a fresh spray of gravel and dust, and then righted itself. Not that she would mind slamming into a tree right now if that would effectively end this broken record conversation with her mother.

  “But darling, Matt asks about you every day. All he can talk about is how much fun you two had together. But then you had to go and join that dreadful clan.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. Only her mother would refer to the United States CIA as the ‘clan.’”

  “Why you insisted on breaking my heart, I’ll never know. For the life of me I can’t think of anything I’ve ever done to make you want to hurt me so much.” Her mother’s southern accent slipped through the phone, sweet as honey but tinged with arsenic. At twenty-seven, Kate felt that same burning sense of guilt when she knew she disappointed her mom just like she had when she was eight years old. Just like she disappointed the CIA.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? It’s nothing you did. I don’t make my decisions based on what other people want. I’m a grown-up. And guess what, I was just offered a new job, this one paying twice my former salary. I’m really excited about it. Can’t you just be happy for me this one time?” Kate could practically picture the way her mom’s lips turned down into a perfect frown, the kind that clearly communicated with just the slightest movement her devastating disappointment in her.

  Just like she could picture her dad in the background shaking out his newspaper and rolling his eyes. Kate smiled. He, of all people, had been on her side the whole journey, and for the one time Kate could recall, he’d stood up to her mother when Kate enlisted.

  A deer ran into the road, froze and stared at the oncoming vehicle and then leapt into the woods. Her heart rocketed up into her throat and she slammed on the brakes. “Jesus Christ!”

  Kate dropped the phone, came to a complete stop, dropped her head to the steering wheel and tried to suck in enough oxygen to stay conscious.

  “Katherine Elizabeth!” Kate jerked her gaze to her lap, having momentarily forgotten all about her mom. She snatched the phone back to her ear in time to hear her rant continue, “You do not use the Lord’s name in vain. I’m going to have to add you back to the prayer list at church, and all the ladies at Bible Study will be asking me what you did this time.”

  “I almost had a wreck, Mom.”

  “Not an excuse. There are plenty other nice young ladies out there who don’t use curse words when they’re upset.” If Mrs. Georgia Elise were ever held up, she’d probably lecture the person holding her at gunpoint on manners.

  Maybe her mother was right. No, Kate pushed that disturbing thought back as soon as it reared its ugly head.

  Aside from an imminent deadly terrorist attack or news that the world was ending, those were words that would never pass Kate Richard’s lips. She wasn’t dying, although the upcoming training with him was enough to make her wish she had.

  But facing Ethan and his snarling wasn’t as bad as following her mother’s Betty Crocker recipe for life. Start with a solid wealthy man from her hometown, mix in a wedding and a couple of kids, sprinkle on becoming president of the PTA, then bake in the oven at 300° for a cookie cutout way of life according to Georgia Elise Richards. Unfortunately for her mother, her youngest daughter had been sour milk to begin with, so Kate mixing with the perfect man had been doomed from the start.

  Maybe Kate should’ve played with more Barbie’s growing up, instead of helicopters and plastic army tanks. That would’ve statistically increased her chance for liking the color pink and oversized hair bows by 15%. Which could have led to her focusing more time on makeup and teenage crushes than studying for the SAT and having an intense Tom Clancy novel obsession. Which could have prevented her mother’s undying look of shame and horror when Kate had announced to the family a month after graduation that she’d joined the military.

  Time to nip this conversation in the bud. “Mom, listen—”

  “Are you okay? You didn’t really have a wreck, did you? Do I need to send your father?”

  A little bit of her anger melted. “It’s okay, it was just a deer.” Kate accelerated, this time with caution.

  “There should be a law against those animals. Your sister had one actually run into the side of her car last week. Little Robbie was in there too, scared my poor grandbaby to death. Nearly gave us both a heart attack.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “No, thank heavens. They’d just pulled to a stop.”

  Kate fought to keep her mouth shut. Her mother freaked out about a deer hitting her sister’s parked car when Kate could’ve died. She sighed…and so the world turns, her mother would never change and Kate would never be the perfect daughter.

  “Anyway, the reason I called was to tell you that your sister is pregnant! Isn’t that wond
erful? I’m going to be a grandmother.”

  “Mom, that’s her fourth kid. You’re already a grandmother.” Her little sister had done the dutiful thing, marrying a nice local farmer and settling down a mile from her parents’ house, proceeding to pop out kids left and right and stay home and raise a family.

  Georgia huffed. “Oh Kate, if you had children you’d know that every single one of them is special and precious and the most wonderful gift God could ever give us. Why you must deny me that joy, I haven’t figured out.”

  Kate shut her eyes for a moment, trying to block out her mother and her desires. If only she’d been born complacent and happy with her lot…

  Her eyes jerked open and she yanked the wheel to the right. If a damn deer didn’t cause her to have a wreck, her mother would. Kate opened her mouth, ready to cut the conversation short, but she had no hope of stopping this roller coaster. Her mom had already started the downhill swoop and she wouldn’t stop until she hit the end.

  “Your sister’s husband won Farmer of the Year for Cleburne County, and you know what? They come over to eat every Sunday after church. I get to see them all the time.” Her mother’s voice wobbled and Kate sighed. “And I don’t stay awake at night worrying about her safety.”

  Kate bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. She’d have to ride it out or hang up on her mother altogether, something that would earn Georgia’s unending animosity.

  Kate glanced at her surroundings. She was lost, in the middle of nowhere, lucky to even have cell phone service.

  Lucky?

  “Mom. There. Can’t. No. Service.”

  Why hadn’t she thought of this before? Being lost in the woods in southern Mississippi offered one and only one perk.

  “Katherine, please be careful. Please, call to let me know you’re safe.”

  “Love you, Mom.” Kate disconnected the call. Her mom should get national recognition as the Grand Master of Guilt.

  Kate had never married. She’d broken off an engagement to a good boy back home, breaking her mom’s expectation to marry and stay home to pop out a herd of children like her sister. And then she’d gone and committed the ultimate of all betrayals: she tried to join the military.