CHAPTER 1

Reaper

Afghanistan – April 2003

Jesus. It's hot as fuck I thought to myself, lying on my bunk and looking up at the desert-coloured tent. The sand drifted through the opening, covering the groundsheet in a thin layer. Both sides of the tent were open, but no breeze was blowing to ease the heat.

I wished I was back home in the small village I grew up in. At this time of the year, it would be lovely and cool and likely raining. I was so dehydrated that my skin would probably suck up the rain. I was getting heartily sick of the heat and sand. It seemed during the last fourteen years, I had been going from one hot fucking sandy hell hole to another.

I had been having thoughts like those more often, and I was thinking it was time to retire. I had never expected to stay in so long, but after 9/11, most of us had re-enlisted.

The foot that I had resting against my knee was hit hard enough to knock my foot off it, and for it to hit the bed. I opened my eyes to slits knowing it could only be one of my idiot friends that were brave enough to do this.

I was right when I saw one of my best friends from childhood give me a shit-eating grin. Liam Davies, also known as Draco.

"You snoozing on the job, Reaper?" he said.

Draco and his younger brother Milo, or Onyx as we had always called him, because the dude had eyes that were as black as his soul. Marcus Wright, known as Rogue and Drake Owens, he got the name Dragon early in his life because of his temper.

Despite us all being in different arms of the military, somehow, this last week, we had all ended up on the same base in this godforsaken hellhole.

We had all grown up in a tiny village in the New Forest called Feannag, which meant crow in Gaelic, which was fitting as most of the village was owned by my family and our surname was Crow.

The story went that my grandfather, after the First World War, had been in London playing in a high-stakes poker game and had won the manor house and all the surrounding lands from a lord who could not pay his debts. My grandfather Kane Crow who they named me after, and some men from his unit made the crumbling manor house their home. Over the years, they fixed it up, and as some married and had families, they renovated different wings to accommodate their growing families. The single men had refurbished a few of the cottages behind the manor. It was still the same to this day, with upgrades done as time passed.

My grandfather bought up businesses in the local village as they became available, and the family still ran them.

They included the Corvus Pub, Sticky Tricky Bakery, Crow Garage and The Trickster Café and Eatery. Out of the original six army brothers that stayed with my grandfather, they each had a son that grew up with my father much the same as I had with my friends. Only four of them remained now, including my father. Unfortunately, we lost two of the men in the Falklands War.

"Rise and shine, you lazy fucker. The CO wants you," Draco smirked at me.

Sitting up, I groaned and rubbed my face feeling my beard rasp against my hands.

"I'm getting too old for this shit," I muttered, standing up and straightening my uniform. Then, grabbing my hat, I shoved it on my head.

"Do you know what it's about?" I asked Draco, who had made himself comfortable on his bunk.

"Nope, but I need to speak to you when you get back," he replied, eyes now closed, hat covering his face. It looked like he was settling in for a long nap.

I walked out into the burning heat, squinting against the sun and cursing myself for leaving my sunglasses by my bunk. I walked over to the tent that the CO had been using as his office.

Standing in the opening, I cleared my throat before saying, "You wanted to see me, Sir."

The CO looked up with troubled eyes. "Come in, Captain. I have news from home."

Usually, my family contacted me directly, but my phone's battery had crapped out on me. I'd planned on replacing it as soon as I returned home. My CO and my dad had been in the military together during the Falklands, and I guessed they had gone directly above me as they couldn't get hold of me. I had a bad feeling in my gut about the news I was about to receive.

"Dog called. He asked me to tell you that Shep is in hospital. He's in a coma. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but they have asked you to come home immediately. I have you booked on the next transport out. It leaves in an hour. Make sure you are on it," he told me.

I nodded, thanked him, turned around and left to return to my bunk. When I walked in, I found all my friends waiting for me.

Rogue had his phone in his hand, and I could see they had more news about what was happening back home.

"What happened?" I asked, grabbing my duffle.

Going to my locker, I start shoving clothes into it.

"According to Bella, there has been an influx of drugs into the area. Harassment and crime are going through the roof. The police, such as they are, can't get a handle on it.

"Your dad was closing up the pub with Avy. He had gone to throw the trash out. She heard noises coming from the back of the pub and got there just in time to see someone dressed in black take a baseball bat to your dad's head. She hit the fire alarm, which scared the guy off. That happened on Saturday night," Rogue said, filling me in.

"Fuck," I bellowed, throwing my head back and sucking in a deep breath.

Shaking my shoulders out, I looked at my best friends. How we managed to all make it through the last fourteen years with only minor injuries was a testament to how good we were at our jobs.

"The CO has me on the next transport out. I'm going to resign once I'm home," I told them.

"That is what I wanted to speak to you about," Draco stated. "I was going to let you know that I'm done. I'm tired of taking too many chances. I've already handed in my resignation. Within the next couple of months, I should be home."

Looking around, I see the others had all made up their minds. They were all nodding.

"Same. We all handed in our resignations nearly a year ago. We'll all be back soon. Don't do anything stupid. Wait for us. We won't be far behind you, then we will clean up the village," Dragon informed me.

Just then, I felt a body gently nudge me, and a set of feminine hands took my duffle from me, emptied it of its contents, and started folding and repacking it. I didn't need to look to see who it was.

I knew it was Cassie Ford.

She was in an American unit. They had helped us out of tight spots a few times. Her unit was the one that got called in when there seemed to be no hope of finding people that have been taken prisoner.

They had saved our collective arses more than once. They seemed to have a sixth sense about them. None of us asked questions about how they did what they did. We were just glad they were on our side.

Cassie was their medic. She was tall for a woman at just over six feet, broad of shoulder and hip, with long dark hair that she usually kept tied in a bun. She had dark brown eyes that saw straight through me. For some reason, this woman always knew when one of us was having a bad day.

"I'm sorry to hear about your dad, Reaper. We'll be giving you a lift as far as Germany," she said quietly.

Something was off about her voice.

A hand reached over and tilted her chin up to us. We could all see the tear tracks and swollen lids.

"Has he been at you again?" Dragon growled.

His face showed how pissed he was.

Moving her face from his hand, she continued folding and packing, finally zipping it up.

"Cassie!" Dragon barked at her.

She sighed, looking at him.

"Leave it, Dray, just ignore them. I don't have to see them very often. Hopefully not for much longer either," she replied.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked.

"Our unit is resigning. My dad wants to retire, and the others won't work under anyone else," Cassie informed us.

I knew she was getting hassled by a rich little arsehole called Ian, which none of us liked. He was ridiculously entitled. He tried it on with Cassie about three years ago and was publicly shot down by her.

Ian hadn't taken it well. He and his cronies were always throwing insults at her about her height, size, weight, and how she only got as far as she did because her daddy was in charge of their team …. all bullshit. Cassie worked damn hard for her team.

We'd all noticed the slurs he threw at her were not done in front of her team. Dragon had gotten in his face a few times and was always disciplined for it.

At first, we thought Cassie and Dragon had something growing, but while he was protective of her and didn't let anyone talk shit about her, she was equally protective of him. On a particularly fucked up joint mission we had been on, she had thrown herself over him during an attack to save his life. They seemed to have an unbreakable bond, but it wasn't sexual.

"I don't know why you don't just punch the fucker," Onyx muttered.

Cassie let out a deep belly laugh. She had a great laugh. It made you happy just listening to it.

"I can't hit him, not because I fear getting disciplined. It's because I don't think I'd be able to stop, and I may kill him," Cassie said matter-of-factly, grabbing my duffle and tossing it at me as if it weighed nothing.

I grunted as I caught the weight of it. Huh, maybe Cassie was right. She would probably kill him.

"Let's go. Jaq has the plane waiting and ready to go," she said, turning on her heel and walking out of the tent. We all followed on behind her.

She was a little way ahead of us when the little fucker started on his cat calling and jeering. I noticed some of his entourage looked uncomfortable, but none of them said anything or stopped him. As Cassie walked ahead of us, we could see how Ian's comments hit their mark, causing her shoulders to droop. I was just about to say something when, from behind me, I heard, "Hey, fuckface."

I saw a blur move, and then Draco rammed into the little prick's body and took him to the floor before laying into him. When Draco was finished, Ian's face was a bloody, groaning mess.

As we walked past, Dragon stopped, held his hand out to Draco and pulled him up off the ground. Then, leaning over, he waited until Ian's attention was on him and then Dragon raised his eyes to look at the rest of his cronies, that looked like they were ready to shit themselves.

"I am going to say this once and only once. Cassie is off-limits to all of you. If any of us hear you so much as sneezed in her direction, this little beat-down will look like a stroll in the park when we are finished with you." No one said a word. "Do I make myself clear?" he bellowed at them.

We watched as they all nodded frantically, looking like a bunch of bobbleheads. Dicks.

Dragon casually walked over to Cassie, threw his arm over her shoulders and walked with Draco on her other side.

"Pick this piece of shit up and take him to the infirmary," I said, turning and walking away towards the transport, waiting to take me home.

I see Cassie's unit waiting for us, grinning. Jaq, their pilot, was jumping up and down.

"Finally, someone put that ass in his place," she whooped, grinning wildly.

"Thanks for the lift," I said.

"No worries, hop aboard," Jaq replied, climbing into the cockpit.

"Let me just clean up Draco's hands," Cassie said, grabbing her first aid kit.

"Babe, they're good," Draco said, holding out his hands for her to see.

"Just let her do her thing, son," General Ford, Cassie's dad, clapped Draco on the shoulder. "It will be quicker. It's her way of saying thanks."

While Cassie sorted Draco out, I said goodbye to all my friends, making notes of messages for their families back home.

Soon we are in the air and on our way to Germany. I would catch another transport home from there.