Danica St Como [The Men of Sanctuary 01] A Strength of Arms [Noble] (pdf)

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Lucian knew Adam's history, since he'd been there for nearly all of it.
* * * * *
It had been the first day of second grade at the Marine base school in Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina. Adam, the quiet new kid, watched a spindly little boy
energetically protecting an even smaller red-haired boy with glasses who was being
bullied. The bullies were twice the blond boy's size, and there were four of them. Adam,
strong for his age even then, quietly came up behind the attackers and put three of them
out of commission. When the head bully saw his gang on the ground, he spun back
around right into the blond boy's small bony fist. Bingo, another bully hit the dust.
Good guys, 4. Bullies, 0.
The seven-year-old champions collected the little freckle-faced boy's books,
repacked his knapsack, found his glasses, and sent him on his way. Then the two boys
solemnly shook hands.
"I coulda handled those losers, but thanks anyway. Who are ya?" the blond boy
demanded, still pumping the other boy's hand.
"Um, Adam Stone." The dark-hair boy was not accustomed to such directness
from another kid.
"Cool. Lucian Duquesne, but everyone calls me Radar. I know things." The boy
was quick to grin. "I have four sisters," he announced in his soft southern drawl. "I can
fight, too, and even wrastle. I can git outa all sorts of wrastlin' holds 'cause I'm such a
wiry little fella, that's what my daddy says. I'm slicker'n monkey snot on a doorknob,
that's what my sisters say, but our Mom don't like 'em tellin' folks that. She says it's
rude, crude and socially unacceptable whatever all that means." He shrugged thin
shoulders.
Adam shrugged as well, not knowing what all that meant, either. "My dad's a
sniper."
"Wow, way cool! My dad's Recon. He trains other Marines to do wicked stuff."
Adam nodded. "Okay."
The two boys immediately bonded, merged, and melded without conscious
thought, instantly inseparable. They became closer than brothers and the quiet dark-
haired boy was never alone again.
Adam had been there to back up Lucian's outrageous shenanigans in high
school. Lucian booted Adam's tail to grudgingly finish two years of college. Adam
finally shook off all things academic and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, which had
been his primary goal since grammar school. True to their childhood blood brother
oath, where one went, so went the other.
Adam's life felt solid. He and Lucian had a good business enterprise going. They
did what they wanted, when they wanted. When they desired female company, it was
always available. Give Lucian time to make a few phone calls and the two men were
guaranteed an interesting evening with attractive single women who knew the drill and
weren't clingy.
Then NCS Special Agent Lorelei Anne Randall came crashing into his well-
ordered existence. For the first time in his adult life, Adam couldn't handle a situation.
The usual protocol the protocol that had kept him and Lucian alive for years
consisted of mapping out the logistics of a given situation, planning for every
contingency, then working that situation to its final solution. It's sure as shit not working
this time.
Adam slowed to a walk, pulled fresh woodland air deep into his lungs. He
finally stopped, and perched on a log railing along the trail. What the fuck was he
supposed to do when his best friend was part of the confusion ripping the sharp ache in
his gut?
* * * * *
"Adam runs when he's pumped up. When he needs to think."
Lucian sat at the edge of the pool, his feet dangling in the water. "When he's
really jacked up, he can do miles and miles before he calms down. I prefer to swim. It's
sexier, and there's less sweating involved."
In the water, Lorelei hung next to him at the edge of the pool. She grinned. "Yes,
definitely less sweating involved." She kicked her legs out behind her and floated, her
fingertips on the tile border. "Does it work for him, the running?"
"I guess."
She saw a scar on his thigh and smoothed over it with a finger. "Bullet?"
"Nah, shrapnel. Didn't go to ground fast enough."
Lorelei moved closer, ran her hand down his thigh to his ankle. More scars. She
let the water drip from her fingers and run down his leg.
"What's with Adam's chronic bad attitude?"
Lucian spread his legs further apart in response to her touch.
"He didn't have the happy loving lunatic upbringing I did, even thought he spent
more time at the Duquesne asylum than anywhere else. His mom didn't have time for
him. She always worried about where his dad was, and what his dad was doing and
who he might be doing it with. I overheard the grown-ups talking about it one night. I
snuck outa bed and climbed down the trellis, and listened to them jawin' on the front
porch. Mrs. Stone sorta pulled back from livin' that's what Mama said."
Lorelei floated over so she was between Lucian's knees. "And ?"
"Not much else to tell. I became a right sweet pain in the ass more than usual
and fussed so much that everyone was totally miserable until Adam was allowed to live
with us. That left his mom free to move from base to base to follow his dad my family
thought his dad was a really good guy. The little time that Adam spent with his mother,
she sorta ignored him or confided in him like he was a girlfriend. Our Aunt Lila said it
wasn't good for a boy to live like that, and to be so serious it wasn't natural, she said.
So he mostly stayed with us. He had his own bed in my room. We were brothers."
Lucian turned over the palm of his right hand, pointed to a small scar. "We were closer
than brothers we were blood brothers."
Lorelei nodded. "Since you know about my love life or apparent lack thereof
do either of you have a serious relationship? A special girlfriend?"
"Nope."
"Wow, not even one?"
"Nope." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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