Above All Else: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 2) (21 page)
Read Above All Else: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 2) Online
Authors: Gemma Hart
Epilogue
Eight Months Later
“No wonder you never want to stay longer in L.A.,” Emilia said with a wry smile as she looked out the window at the dusky wide Wyoming skies. “Who’d want to stay in L.A. when you have
this
waiting for you?”
Xander chuckled as he popped open another bottle of wine while also grabbing two more beers. He handed one of the beers to Hawk while refilling mine and Emilia’s wineglasses.
“Feeling the country pull, baby?” Hawk teased his fiancée.
Emilia turned around and smiled. It was as clear as day to anyone that the two were clearly in love. Her eyes glowed with humor as she gave a shrug. “I dunno. I’ve never fallen asleep to anything except police sirens and drunken hobo shouts.”
Everyone laughed.
“This might be
too
peaceful for me,” Emilia said ruefully. She turned to me with friendly curiosity. “It has to be an even bigger adjustment for
you.
”
I could tell by her awkward pause at the end of her sentence that she had been tempted to say ‘Your Highness’ even though I had insisted she call me Sofia.
I squeezed her arm good-naturedly.
“It was in the beginning,” I admitted. “But now, it’s as much home to me as it is to Xander.” I winked at her. “I can do with a little peace and quiet, personally.”
Hawk and Bear chuckled while Emilia shook her head in wonderment.
“I still can’t believe what you went through,” she said, marveling at me. “It sounds like something out of a movie. A runaway princess. An evil minister. A dashing mercenary.”
Hawk pouted. “Not
that
dashing,” he said.
Emilia and I burst into giggles.
“You’re right,” Emilia corrected. “Definitely not as dashing as
another
mercenary I know.”
Now it was Xander’s turn to pout. “I would think that you’d want to come to my defense here.”
Emilia and I laughed and exchanged exasperated looks. “How are both of you more sensitive about your looks than the women here?” I demanded.
Hawk patted Xander’s shoulder comfortingly. “Another way of saying she agrees with Em,” he said pityingly.
Xander gave his friend a glare and a playful jab in the ribs while Emilia and I burst into peals of laughter.
“Besides, none of it is more dramatic from what it sounds like the both of you went through,” I said, smiling. Xander had filled me in on their history. “A war-torn country. An earthquake. A medical epidemic.” I shook my head. “Sounds like these men have a knack for finding women in danger.”
Emilia grinned at me before looking over at her fiancé with eyes glowing with love and tenderness. “And I think it’s a good thing for us that they do.” She said with a soft rueful voice.
Hawk smiled back at Emilia with a loving warmth that was only matched by the look Xander was giving me.
I smiled at Xander and he winked at me. “Just don’t expect any
more
dashing mercenaries,” he warned with mock severity. “You get one a piece. That’s it.”
“Yeah!” Hawk added, giving his fiancée a stern look.
Emilia and I burst out laughing again. Fearing another round of questions on who might have the better hair or the better gun, I led Emilia towards the living room while Xander led Hawk out to the back porch.
We dropped onto the couch with a sigh, both laughing at each other as we got comfortable.
I gently touched Emilia’s left hand.
“It’s a beautiful ring,” I said, admiring the glittering diamond.
The doctor’s face softened as she looked down at the ring. “It is,” she said. Her voice was tender and soft as she thought about the strong mercenary who was madly in love with her. “I can’t help but smile every time I look at it.”
I sipped my wine, contemplatively. “You know,” I said, “I’m sure I could still borrow some of the Royal Jewels. Would you like a tiara for your wedding?”
Emilia’s eyes widened before she burst into a fit of giggles. “Wow! A royal tiara for my wedding!” she said, unable to stop laughing. “I
never
would’ve imagined a doc from east L.A. getting such a treat! Thank you so much for the offer. Really. But that’s okay. I think I’ll be happy with just a nice veil.”
I grinned. Emilia was the first woman friend I had ever made who truly felt like a real friend.
Both Hawk and Emilia were like Xander. They made no moves to take advantage of my past and tried to gain nothing from me except friendship. It was so heartwarming to see my little circle of friends grow.
Emilia’s eyes suddenly took on a sharper, devious glow as she gave me a sly look. “What about you?” she asked, her lips turning up at the corners. “You and Xander must’ve talked about weddings as well.”
I smiled as I took a sip of wine.
“We have,” I said. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?” she asked, surprised. “I would think Xander would want to drag you down the aisle so he can make sure he has you forever.”
I laughed.
“Well,” I started, “so much has happened over the last year.” I thought back to my uncle’s death, my kidnapping, my abdication—I felt like I had had enough excitement for a lifetime. “Most of the time we’ve had together has been under this cloud of tension. There was always some kind of reminder in the back of our heads of all the terrible things that was happening in Loranza. This is now the first chance to really get to spend time together without having to worry about anything else except each other. I think we’re just enjoying that.”
Emilia nodded understandingly.
“I can see that,” she said. “I can see where you’re coming from.” She took a sip of her wine before patting me on the arm. She grinned conspiratorially. “I’ve never seen Bear as happy as he has been when he’s around you. The man looks at nothing else when you’re in the room.”
I blushed hearing her words but I couldn’t stop smiling. I also couldn’t look at anything else when he was in the room.
My Bear.
My Xander.
“Chaos and trauma can overwhelm a relationship but they can also cut down to the core of one as well,” Emilia said. “You learn real fast what kind of person someone is when they are placed in a dangerous, life or death situation.”
She spoke with firmness and authority and I remembered Xander telling me about Qunar and the dangers Emilia and Hawk had faced while there.
There was a sisterhood I felt with Emilia because of our similar experiences. We both had lived through harrowing and dangerous situations. We both loved men whose jobs it was to
work
in those harrowing and dangerous situations. There was an understanding and closeness between us that existed without us even speaking because of this shared factor.
“That’s true,” I agreed. “I think he knows me and I know him in a way most people don’t know each other.”
Emilia’s eyes glittered warmly. She smiled and her expression deepened as she listened to me. She understood exactly what I was saying. After all, she shared those same feelings with Hawk.
“And what is it that you’ve learned about him?” she asked softly, knowing that the words I spoke would echo the same words in her own heart.
I looked down at my hands, remembering Xander’s touch. His deep eyes, his broad chest, his incredible physical presence—they all rang through my mind. But so did his protective nature, his loving heart, his teasing sense of humor.
I smiled to myself.
“That he sees me,” I said softly. “He sees all of me and at the end of the day, still loves me.” I looked up at the kind and beautiful doctor. “And he knows he will always find that in me as well.”
Emilia smiled back. A river of warm understanding ran between us. Sisters through our men. Our brave, fierce, bloody, dangerous men.
“And how wonderful is that,” she said with a smile, raising her glass towards me in a toast.
I clinked it softly with mine.
“Wonderful,” I said, smiling back, knowing the future for once in my life felt full of love and potential.
The End
If you enjoyed this title,
sign up for Gemma Hart’s
mailing
list and be the first to be notified about new titles while also enjoying chances at free previews, stories, and giveaways!
You can also follow her on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/GemmaHartReaders
If you enjoyed reading
about
Xander and Sofia, check out the first in the Easy Team series:
And meet Hawk and Emilia!
I’m sure they’ll take your breath away!
Here’s a sneak peek of their action packed romance:
What I Fight For
Gemma Hart
Copyright 2016 Gemma Hart
All Rights Reserved
This work is not bound by DRM, which allows you as a reader to enjoy this story on any digital platform you choose to use. But please respect the work of this author. No part of this book may be reproduced or copied without permission.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Any similarities to events or situations is also coincidental.
© 2016 Gemma Hart
All Rights Reserved
Dedication
To literally the BEST readers in the world!
Once again, you’ve given me the chance to let my imagination run wild and I love that I can share it with you!
Author’s Note
Within this novel are two fictional countries. Although they are fictional, I hope that I have done a good enough job to render them as realistically as possible so that you will enjoy the story without disruption.
But, just in case I haven’t done that good of a job, help a writer out and let your imagination run free with the story!
Either way, just know, this is a love story for you, my wonderful reader!
If you enjoy this title,
sign up for Gemma Hart’s mailing list and be the first to be notified about new titles while also enjoying chances at free previews, stories, and giveaways!
You can also follow her on Facebook:
Chapter
One
Emilia
“Just think of it as medicine,” Tammy said as she tipped the shot glass towards my lips. “Shoot it down and think of all the good it’ll do you!”
I scrunched up my eyes as I tipped back the burning liquor down my throat. I gasped as the tequila rushed down towards my belly, leaving a flaming path in its wake.
“Woooo!” chanted everyone at the table.
Through watery and now quickly hazy eyes, I gave them all a tender look of gratitude.
“I know it’s probably the cheap tequila talking—” I said, my words only slightly slurring.
“Hey!” Doc Jones interrupted in mock offense. “What are you calling cheap! I’ll have you know I’ve spent a whole fistful of pennies on that drink!”
I touched my chest in exaggerated gratitude. “And I appreciate it, Doc,” I said. I looked around the table at my friends. “It means a lot to me that you guys would keep me company as I drown my sorrows…and my embarrassment.”
Doc Jones leaned back in his chair. “Well, someone’s gotta make sure you don’t literally drown in all this booze.” He gave a quick glance over the table which was littered with empty beer bottles and shot glasses.
Joey leaned forward on the table and reached for my hand, giving it a squeeze. Although a resident doctor, he had the face of a thirteen year old boy. But an angelic thirteen year old boy. No wonder all the older ladies always preferred him over the rest of us.
“Don’t worry, Em,” he said with a cherubic smile that dimpled at the ends. “You’re way prettier than she is. It’s his loss!”
“That’s right!” Tammy agreed emphatically as she pushed another shot towards my lips.
“Ha!” I said, dribbling some tequila down my chin as I made my exclamation.
Doc Jones clucked his tongue at me as he wiped a thumb across my chin, his warm gray eyes looking at me with frustration. “Swallow first, yeah? Remember how drinking works?”
“Who cares about looks?” I said, ignoring Doc. “She is the head of her department and getting courted and wooed by all the major national pharmaceuticals. How does some no-nothing ER doctor compare to that?”
“You’re not no-nothing!” Tammy reprimanded.
“Give yourself more credit there, hon,” Margie said with understanding reproval. A veteran floor nurse, she had a stern no nonsense expression constantly etched into her face. But her eyes were understanding and her lips molded into a soft smile. There was nobody else that was more capable or efficient in a medical emergency than Margie.
I shook my head though, ignoring their words as I stared blearily into my empty shot glass.
It had only been three weeks since I had broken up with Edward. After two years together and one and a half of those years spent cheating on me, I had finally had enough. I had screwed up the courage and had demanded he come clean with me. It was either me or her, I had demanded.
That was all the incentive Edward needed to make his break. Head of surgery, he was a highly sought after man. One of the youngest doctors to reach such a prestigious rank, the nurses all fawned over his soft blonde hair and his cornflower blue eyes. They admired his graceful hands that worked like lightening magic in an OR.
And for all those reasons and more, I had stayed with him for two years. Despite the fact that I knew he was constantly cheating on me. But we had met during residency. We had history. He knew me when I was still struggling with catheters and IV lines. I thought that all meant something.
But no, it didn’t. Not when Catarina Milson was involved.
The beautiful and slightly inappropriate hospital pharmacist had caused waves when she had entered our hospital. Always wearing dresses that were just an inch too tight and too short, she soon began marketing herself in a way that caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised.
But it worked. Major pharmaceutical companies heard of her and were wooing her to come work for them.
Head of surgery and a head pharmacist, both young and attractive? It only made sense. At least, it did for Edward.
Three weeks after we had ended our long and rocky relationship, Catarina had shown up to work, her dark eyes glowing with satisfaction as she whipped out her left hand. A giant three carat diamond ring sat glowing from her fourth finger.
I had had to spend the morning meeting watching the other doctors congratulate Edward on his engagement and choice of wife. I was literally sitting four chairs away from him as he smiled and thanked the well-wishers, laughing about what a lucky man he was.
Immediately, my friends had scooped me up and taken me to the nearest bar and poured drink after drink down my throat to ease my pain.
Doc Jones, head of the ER and one of my early mentors, sat watching me with a mix of pity and worry.
“I never did like his eyebrows,” he said. “Too thin.”
I snorted. “He plucks,” I answered, now realizing I didn’t have to keep that little beauty regiment a secret anymore.
Doc Jones’s eyes gleamed as if finally feeling vindicated. “I knew it!” he whispered.
Tammy, a relatively new nurse. She was small in stature at barely over five feet but what she liked in height she made up in sweet and caring energy. She and I quickly became fast friends. “Don’t you worry,” she said sincerely, squeezing my arm. “He’s going to regret this in a matter of moments. I’ve heard stories on
Catarina
.”
Tammy said the name as if it left a bad taste on her tongue. “Apparently, there’s a trail of cheated men and broken engagements in her past.” Tammy squeezed my arm again. “He’ll regret it.”
I shook my head. It didn’t matter if he regretted it.
I
regretted it. I regretted allowing myself to stay in such a horrible and unsatisfying relationship for so long. And for not leaving when I
knew
I should’ve!
And yet…and yet….
Even though I knew all of that, I still couldn’t help but cry over that pang of hollowness in my heart. That empty pain that left my entire body numb and detached.
I squeezed my eyes shut. The heartache, the pain, plus the three shots of tequila, the whiskey sour, and the beer someone had poorly recommended all began to swirl in my head, making me feel like I was on a carousel on steroids.
“I’ll grab the next round,” Joey said, getting from the table. I was about to mumble something to stop him, or to at least tell him to just get me a juice when I heard multiple pagers go off.
I looked around the table and watched everyone grabbing their waist to check the number.
“What the hell?” Doc Jones muttered. “None of us are on call!”
He immediately got up from the table as he simultaneously dialed the hospital from his cellphone.
Joey looked down at his own pager, his brow creasing slightly in confusion. “Do you think this was a mistake?”
Margie shook her head. “Something’s wrong if they’re calling all of us,” she said. She looked at me, worriedly. “Did they page you too?”
I had taken off my pager as soon as I had left the hospital, confident in my day off and wanting as much separation from me and the hospital as possible. I didn’t think I could ever go into work again, knowing both my ex-boyfriend and his new fiancée were there.
I dug into my purse and pulled out the slim little device. I squinted as I tried to see through my blurry gaze. “I think so,” I said. Tammy saw my struggle and grabbed my pager, checking it herself.
Tammy turned to Margie, nodding. “Yup, Dr. Lyon got called as well,” she said, reverting back to hospital speech protocol.
Doc Jones returned at that moment, his face grim.
“Turns out those two new residents didn’t show up. Again,” he said, his frustration clear in his voice. “And Dr. Thompson is overwhelmed right now. A dozen gunshot victims have just been admitted and he has no one on duty to help him.”
Gunshot victims weren’t too unusual around here. Working in a hospital near East L.A., gang violence was part of our medical repertoire. Some kind of fight must’ve broken out and now the victims were being wheeled in.
Doc Jones looked over at Joey. “How much have you had to drink, Dr. Dwight?”
Joey’s eyes widened in surprise and then he stood up quickly. “Not much, sir. But I thought with us having had even just a sip of alcohol, we—”
“Right now,” Doc Jones interrupted, “it’s a bit of a crisis mode. The ER was already overwhelmed earlier today with that pile up from the 5 freeway. Now we have these gunshot cases. It’s all hands on deck.” Doc Jones turned his sharp eyes onto Margie.
“Marg? What about you?”
Margie was already grabbing her purse. “Let’s go,” she said. “I can drive. I was designated driver anyhow.”
Doc Jones looked at Tammy. As a new nurse, she wasn’t crucial to the team just yet but with this kind of emergency, every pair of hands mattered.
“Dr. Lyon clearly cannot come in,” he said, quickly taking in my swaying form. “Do you think you can see her home and then report to the ER immediately afterwards?”
Tammy nodded, her eyes wide with nervous energy. “Yes, doctor,” she said quickly in a breathless whisper.
“No, take her with you,” I said, still able to grasp the situation in my alcohol blur. I couldn’t believe how quickly everyone was moving. I realized they had really just come to keep company and to watch over me as I drank myself into a stupor. None of them had had nearly as much to drink.
“I can find my own way—”
“Don’t be stupid,” Doc Jones interrupted me sharply. “Tammy will see you home and then she can join us.” He gave me a piercing look. “I don’t want another ER case on my hands, if you get my meaning.”
He squeezed my shoulder briefly before leaving the bar, the rest of them following him out, leaving only me and Tammy at the table.
There was a beat of silence between the two of us before Tammy slammed her tiny fist on her thigh. “Oh shit!” she muttered.
“What? What?” I said, licking my lips and hoping my words hadn’t sounded as slurred aloud as they had in my head.
“We parked on Carmichael,” she said, her brow furrowed in worry.
That was right, we had. Having gotten off work sooner than everyone else, Tammy and I had driven to the bar first with Margie driving everyone else later.
But the closest bar to work was a dive bar. Our hospital was already in quite a sketchy part of the neighborhood and this bar did no favors in making the area safer. Only a few of the hospital doctors dared to visit the place.
The only reason we were even here was because Doc Jones and the bartender were good friends after Doc had stitched him up. A bar fight had led to the beefy old man getting a good slice up his arm, requiring twelve stitches. Since then, Doc Jones, who always enjoyed time away from hospital folks (excluding us), had always had a seat here.
But even still, we knew it was better to be safe than sorry.
We usually parked several blocks away to avoid carjackers and the occasional street fight that populated the area around the bar. Then we walked back in groups to the car.
I looked at Tammy. I could see the dilemma. Tammy was 5’2 if she stretched herself. Petite and tiny as a fairy, there was no way she could support a stumbling me down the several blocks to our car. Plus, having a girl stumbling about at night in this part of the neighborhood was not a good idea in general. There were too many people who could see that as a ripe opportunity to be exploited.
“But you can’t go alone,” I said, gripping her arm. “It’s late.”
Tammy bit her lip as she tried to think up a plan. “It’s not that late. We came here pretty early.” She looked over my shoulder at the bar. “Listen, Reggie is still here. He knows us and he knows you. I’ll ask him to watch over you while I go get the car. I won’t be more than ten minutes!”
I kept hold of her arm. “No, Tammy,” I said, insisting. “I’ll go with you. I can walk. I swear.”
But whatever credibility I might’ve had about my sobriety, I ruined it when I hiccupped in between the last two words.
Tammy gave me a dry look. “No, it’ll be riskier to have you walk outside than to stay in here for ten minutes. You heard Doc Jones. He doesn’t want another ER case on his hands and if you stumble out there now, you’ll break an ankle in the very least and god knows what else at the very worst.”
Tammy stood up, grabbing her things.
