Page 10 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Angie! Enough!” The lineman pushed himself off the sidewalk and stumbled over to Landon and his sister. “If you don’t put a sock in it, I’m going to tell Ma that you missed church last Sunday because you were hungover, and not because you were serving food down at the mission like you told Daddy.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” Finally, she uttered something in a reasonable decibel.
“Try me,” her brother said as he pulled her out of Landon’s arms. “I’ve got her from here.”
“I want my stuff.” She pouted as her brother set her on the ground.
“She’s not allowed back in my house.” Landon peered at the three siblings. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
“Aren’t you going to hit him? He disrespected me,” Angelique whined. But this time she sounded like a young woman and not a hyena on meth.
Kostya watched as the brothers gave each other a look. “Angie,” the one named Earl started. “You need to stop doing this. The last time you called the cops, they sent the sheriff, and you know Rayleen; she said she’d put your ass in jail. Remember?”
“But he’s a SEAL. Sheriff Rayleen would report him, and he’d get into trouble.”
“Anyway, Rayleen used to babysit you, there’s no way she’d believe any of your bullshit.”
“But Ilovehim,” she wailed. “I want him in jail.”
Aw, fuck. How messed up was she?
“You really are stupid.” Earl gripped her arm and opened up the truck door to hoist her inside. “The last thing you need is the Navy pissed off at you.”
“What about my car?”
“We’ll come and get it later,” her other brother said.
“What about my stuff?”
Landon jogged down the sidewalk with a pink zebra-striped overnight bag and a purse covered in rhinestones. He thrust it at Earl.
“Here.”
“Sorry about your stuff,” Earl murmured to Landon as he got into his truck.
Landon shrugged. He watched as the two brothers drove off, then turned and looked at Kostya and sighed. He was shaking his head when he walked back to Kostya, but he looked him in the eye when he stood in front of him, which Kostya appreciated. Kostya waited for Landon to start, and the kid didn’t disappoint him.
“Lieutenant, I don’t want to be kicked off your team, but I know you have every right to do so.”
Kostya nodded and waited for his man to continue.
Landon looked over his shoulder at the catastrophe in his yard. “I don’t know what happened. I really don’t. One minute Angelique was calm as a cucumber then she turned into a woman I’d never seen before…she was…she was…hell, I can’t even explain it.”
“I was here, no explanations are necessary.”
Kostya waited for Landon to continue. When he didn’t say anything, Kostya shook his head and started speaking.
“Kelly, I don’t care how good you are, if you aren’t available when I need you, you’re useless to me, and what’s worse, you’re no good to the rest of your teammates.”
Landon nodded. He didn’t offer any excuses, which Kostya appreciated.
“You’ve been a member of Omega Sky for four years now. In the last six months, you’ve let me down three times. This is your last shot. You got it?”
Landon nodded.
“Do what you have to do and get your ass to base, pronto.” Kostya didn’t wait to see how his man responded. Instead, he turned to his vehicle and left.
