Page 100 of SEAL of Valor

“Not if they know what’s good for them,” Ryker comments.

“What’s the plan, Cap?” Sawyer plops down on the arm of the couch, and all eyes turn to Zane. It’s not at all difficult for me to see him as a leader. Even when we were kids, he was always so natural at taking the lead.

Honestly, I’ve always wondered if that wasn’t part of what drew Tessa to him when we were young and she’d been determined to avoid attachments. His calm calmed down the storm within her.

“He made it clear that if we go after Brenda on our own, we’ll be prosecuted. With our backgrounds and Caldwell’s position, that likely means we’ll be tossed in a pit and never breathe air as free men again.” He looks around at everyone. “I’ll gladly walk into that battle with you, Brothers. You stood by me when I was on the line, and if we vote, and majority decides we go in, then we go in.”

His words settle over me like a noose around my neck. They strangle me, removing my ability to draw breath.

Prison sentences?

A pit?

How is that fair?

“She came after Weston and Reese,” Ryker says. “She threatened everyone here and your families. I don’t see how we don’t handle this. We’ve seen so-called ‘justice’ like this before. They get let out on some technicality or the promise of delivering someone worse, and then they manage to slip right through any kind of actual jail time. Do we really let her get away with this?”

The room is quiet for a moment as Ryker’s words settle over all of us.

Just the thought of Brenda, Max, and Ash getting away with what they did to Weston sickens me. That image of him, hanging from the ceiling by his arms, beaten, bruised, and bloodied, will haunt me for the rest of my days.

But these men have families.

Weston has me.

What if they do this, and they get caught? What if Brenda manages to kill one or all of them?

Tears prick the corners of my eyes, but I close them tightly, refusing to let those tiny reflections of my internal pain fall. “If you’re considering it on my account, please don’t. It’s not worth it.”

“We have different definitions of what your safety is worth,” Weston says, his tone grave. “But I do think that maybe this is one fight we sit out. Until we can’t.”

“Really?” Sawyer questions, his shock evident in his wide eyes. “You of all people should see the risk letting her walk away holds.”

“It’s not worth risking your families. Look, if she comes here, then we handle her. But otherwise, we need to let Caldwell do his job.”

“And just what happened to you wanting to draw her out?” Ryker crosses his muscled arms.

“Draw her out?” I demand, whirling on Weston. “You wanted to use yourself? Why are you always chasing death?”

“On the contrary,” he replies. “For the first time, I have something to live for. But Jones made it clear what the consequences will be if we take action. What good is living if we’re all doing it from jail cells? You have families to consider,” he says.

“You’re family, too,” Garrison says. Every man here looks torn between duty and love. Between what they know they should do and what they don’t want to lose.

“Like I said, if Brenda comes here, we handle her. They can’t fault us for that. Otherwise, we let Caldwell do his job and hope she gets put back where she belongs before too much damage is done.”

Chapter 30

Weston

After filling grain buckets, I step back and stretch my aching muscles. I know that my body likely needs a whole lot more rest than I’m giving it, especially the still-healing wound on my abdomen. But working with my hands is the only way I know how to manage.

When I was a kid, I had to function even on days after my drunk father had taken out his frustrations on me for stepping between him and my mom. I even played football with a fractured wrist and what felt a whole lot like a couple of cracked ribs.

I became really good at hiding pain. At pushing through it.

Which is exactly what I need to do now.

“Do you really think I’m so easily fooled?”