Her Dominant SEAL(67)

They had just checked their microphones, and now everybody was sharpening their knives when Karen walked into the study. Dammit, he’d thought he’d locked the door.

“Dammit, you should have locked the door, Bella could have come in,” Karen admonished fiercely.

All of the men looked up.

“You’re right, that’s on me. I was the last one in,” Drake admitted.

“We don’t have to do this, we can wait for the DEA,” Mason said.

“I just wanted to let you know that there was fresh coffee,” Karen backed out of the office with one last look at Drake.

“O’Malley. Stanton. Why don’t you go grab a cup of coffee,” Mason suggested. They were out the door before he was done talking.

Drake and Mason stood looking at one another.

“Are you sure you’re doing this for the right reasons?” Mason asked softly.

Drake stood looking out the window at the snow.

“Tell me what the wrong reasons would be,” he finally asked.

“I was over here sharpening this knife of mine, thinking about getting a chance to cut your father. I keep thinking about what he must have done to you and your sisters growing up. I haven’t felt this much rage since the stuff with Sophia went down.” Mason swallowed. Drake could hear it in the quiet room. “I want to hurt him, and I can only imagine what you’re feeling.”

“That time with Piper, it was the first time he went after one of the girls. It was always me. Which was fine. I was a boy, I could take it.”

“You were a kid.”

“Didn’t matter. As long as he didn’t go after the girls, it was fine by me.” And it had been. He would have done anything to protect his sisters. “It’s not going after my dad that has me twisted up, it’s my mom. I’m worried about her out in the snow. I’m worried about her being mad and sad again when he goes away. How sick is that? Like I should care when she already threw me to that wolf. Pretty pathetic, huh?” Drake didn’t look at Mason. He couldn’t. He was stupid.

He almost jumped when Mason put his hand on his shoulder. “I wouldn’t expect any less of you. You’re constantly trying to save womankind, right after you’ve managed to offend them, all of it because you care so damn much. Hell man, out of all of us, you’re the one who cares the deepest, that’s the reason for the mask.” Mason paused, letting his words sink in. “So, what are you going to do?”

Drake turned and looked at his friend.

“I’m going after dad. But I have a bad feeling. If mom is part of this shit with Piper, whatever it is, then she’s going down too. My sisters come first.”

Mason nodded.

***

This time Drake went down Hemlock street. Seemed appropriate that it would be named after poison. It was three streets behind his familial home.

“Okay, guys. I’m going to take you through some backyards to get to my old house’s backyard.”

“How come I think this won’t be the first time you’ve done this?” Darius smiled.

“Just remember, you’re in Tennessee, lots of dogs in the backyards. Hopefully, because of the snow, the owners will have them inside, but still, some of them could be outside, so we need to bypass those yards, and try not to rile them.”

“Rile them? What language are you speaking?”

“Fuck you. Do you understand that language, Dare?”

“Can it,” Mason said. “Let’s go.”

Years fell away as he passed through yards that he remembered from childhood. It wasn’t until he got to his own backyard that his smile left. It was big, and there was a broken-down swing set that was barely discernable underneath all of the snow. Lights were on in every window, as well as in the carport. Small shrubs littered the yard making it easy to creep up to the house. Darius took a left near the master bedroom, Mason the right near the carport, and Drake went up the middle to the kitchen window again.

“Fuck.”

“What?” Mason asked into the microphone.

“Mom’s in the house with Dad, but the good news is, it’s only the two of them in the kitchen. Dad has a gun in a shoulder holster. There’s a sawed-off shotgun on the kitchen table.”

Shit, shit, shit. Why hadn’t she gone?

They’d already had a plan for entry. The back sliding glass window in the dining and kitchen area. The side door through the carport, and the window through the master bedroom on the first floor.

“Keep with the plan. Let us go in first, you go in last Drake. We’ll see if there is anybody to flush out.”

“Yep.” Drake’s eyes were on his parents. Again, the window was cracked to let out the cigarette smoke.