Chapter 1
“Zeke! You’ve been shot in the back! You’re going to the emergency room!” Major Derick Jones snapped.
Lieutenant Colonel Zeke Jeffers glared at him. “I’m fine! It’s just a scratch! The bullet only grazed me.” In truth, his back hurt like a mother…bad! He felt wetness and knew that the wound was bleeding, but…he seriously didn’t want to go to the hospital.
Zeke could handle snakes and evil, merciless terrorists. He and his team routinely swam through shark and piranha infested waters when necessary. One time, he’d even walked through one of those bird eating spider webs. Those bird eating spiders were the stuff of nightmares. Those suckers could grow bigger than both of his hands put together – and he had huge hands. In that instance, he’d simply pulled out his pistol and shot the massive spider, then muttered expletives while he fought his way out of the disgusting spider web, all the while, threatening his team members with violent repercussions for their amusement at his expense.
But the truth was, Zeke would rather deal with a bird-eating spider any day than go to the emergency room. Too many needles!
Just considering the possibility made him shudder with horror! And that hurt his back, so he banished the thought of…those things…from his mind.
“You’re going,” Colonel Mike Cain told him, his hands fisted on his hips as he glared at Zeke. “PFC Jones!” Mike barked.
Immediately, a young and eager private first class sprinted over and stood at attention. The enlisted man saluted smartly and yelled, “Yes sir?”
“Take Lieutenant Colonel Jeffers to the emergency room. Make sure he goes inside and sees a doctor.” Mike’s lips curled slightly upwards as he continued. “I want you to make sure that he sees a doctor and, if Lieutenant Colonel Jeffers doesn’t follow the doctor’s orders, I want to know about it.”
The enlisted man gulped as he glanced at Zeke. Zeke was a big guy, well over six and a half feet tall. And he was massively built with muscles on top of muscles. Colonel Cain was also tall and muscular, as was Major Joe Hancock and Major Derick Matlock. But there was just something about Lieutenant Jeffers that…he scared the enlisted soldiers! He was mean and demanding, although he never asked anything of the enlisted men that he wasn’t willing to do himself.
Except go to the emergency room!
“I can manage myself!” Zeke snapped.
Mike wasn’t having it. “PFC, you have your orders,” he replied, not taking his eyes from Zeke’s. “Drive him to the emergency room and…” Mike paused slightly as he smirked. “Make sure he doesn’t get blood on my truck.”
“Yes sir!” the private first class responded with another smart salute.
“Payback,” Zeke muttered to Mike. Thankfully, Mike was able to keep a straight face until Zeke was in the passenger seat of the truck. But as soon as the two men had driven off, Mike turned to Joe and Derrick and burst out laughing!
“He’s going to faint,” Joe predicted, high-fiving his friends.
Mike chuckled. “He wouldn’t dare. Not around Jones.”
They pulled out their wallets, offering the normal amount. A ten dollar bill was retrieved from each person by Derick who pocketed the money until they heard from PFC Jones. The enlisted soldier would report on Zeke’s emergency room visit and that would determine the winner of this particular bet. Unfortunately, that might not be for another few hours.
“So glad Zeke is providing the entertainment as well as beer for tonight,” Derick laughed.
Joe pounded the other man on the back, chuckling as they went to observe the training of the newest potential Delta Force team members.
Mike looked at the group of soldiers who were standing in small groups, shocked at what had just happened. “Okay, gentlemen, how about if we do it again! And this time, let’s not shoot the officers, shall we?”
Thirty recruits from all over the country, the best soldiers the Army had trained, didn’t protest even though they’d been through the complicated obstacle course three times already today, beginning at four o’clock this morning. Since it was now two o’clock in the afternoon, and they were starving, it was going to be a test of their endurance. They’d paused for breakfast and lunch, but this obstacle course was tougher than normal, built to challenge their capabilities, their strength, and their ability to think on their feet. One needed more than just brute strength to get through this course. One had to think, to maneuver, and work together to reach the end. What the recruits didn’t realize was that it wasn’t just a test to finish the course. It was a test to get through the course with every member of one’s team alive and unharmed.
Zeke walked into the emergency room and looked around, irritated that Mike had demanded that he come here. It was just a freaking scratch! He’d endured worse on missions in the past, so why was Mike being such an ass about this now?
“Sir!” a youngish looking nurse hurried forward.
Zeke stared at the woman’s horrified expression and sighed. “I’m fine,” he told her gruffly. “It’s not a big deal!”
The nurse eyed Zeke’s back. “Uh…right..,” she nodded. “Okay. Right. Tough guy. Why don’t you come this way and we’ll…well, I’ll just…” she trailed off, laughing a touch uneasily. “I’ll just clean you up. How’s that sound?”
Zeke liked the sound of that. “I don’t need a doctor,” he told the nurse. The PFC who had driven him to the hospital followed and Zeke rounded on him. “STAY!” he ordered.
Startled, the private backed away, completely intimidated. But he stayed. The nurse chuckled, leading Zeke towards the exam rooms. “This won’t take long,” he decided.
The nurse’s gaze flicked to Zeke’s back, then she nodded. “Right. Just a few minutes.” She led him to one of the ER beds and patted the end. “Why don’t you sit right here, and I’ll just…get a doctor to take a quick peek. Nothing to it.”
Zeke eyed her warily, not sitting down. Instead, he started to cross his arms, but pain shot through his back and he dropped his arms to his sides with a sigh. For a brief moment, he felt a bit dizzy, but told himself that was caused by the creepiness of being in a hospital, which he’d always hated. Doctors, hospitals…everything about them gave him the willies. He hated needles most of all, but even the hospitals were bad. He avoided them like the plague!
At that moment, a woman with lots of beautiful, dark, curly hair piled haphazardly on her head came over to him, led by the nurse that had abandoned him moments ago. “Right here, Doctor Fisher,” the nurse explained. “He says it’s just a scratch.”
The doctor glanced at the nurse, who had that look that silently said, “He’s nuts!”
“Right.” The doctor turned and looked at Zeke and…paused. She was gorgeous! Since she was wearing scrubs, Zeke had no idea what her military rank was, but he didn’t care. Emerald eyes stared from a heart shaped face that looked like she should be on a runway. Except she was a tiny little thing. Being just over six feet, five inches tall, Zeke usually preferred tall women. Women that didn’t force him to contort himself to kiss them.