The Risks We Take Duet Box Set

2. Cooper

COOPER

“ H ow long do you think we’ve got before we’re spun again?” I ask as I look around at my teammates. The adrenaline from the last thirty-six hours is still thrumming through my veins. My SEAL unit, Charlie Team, just finished what was originally supposed to be a six-month deployment.

It ended up being closer to seven months.

And we had to go silent for the last two weeks while we were off base. We had everything under control, but no calls were happening. Those of us with people waiting back home had no choice but to leave them to worry alone.

Everything came together quickly at the end, and Charlie Team was on a plane home a few hours later.

My teammate Axel looks at me with waning patience.

Like I’m a puppy who just peed on the floor.

Sidenote , he’s usually a dick.

Axe is a few years older than me. He likes to play the part of the clown who just follows commands. But he’s a great guy most of the time.

“We got back ten hours ago, Sinclair. Take a breath. It should be a few weeks.”

“Leave him alone, Axe. I remember when you were the new guy. I’d never seen such an ugly fucking shade of green before.” Rook, our team’s number two, taps his bottle of beer to mine as the bartender pours a round of shots. He’s a lot more reserved than Axel. Not much of a talker.

The old wooden door to the Rathskeller opens with a loud crack as the wind catches it and our team leader, Ford, walks through with his arm around his wife, Jessie. Master Chief Ford Walker has been a member of Charlie Team for the better part of the last fifteen years, and the team leader for the last seven. According to him, this bar has always been home to our team. Even if tonight there seems to be an abundance of college kids filling the tables.

Ford looks around to see who’s here as he guides Jessie to a barstool next to Axel and nods at the bartender. “Hey, Brenda. You leave that husband of yours yet?”

“Oh, Brenda, we could be sister wives.” Jessie claps her hands together animatedly.

Brenda snaps her bar towel at Ford and smiles. She’s maybe five feet tall and at least sixty-five, but she’s a tough broad who I wouldn’t want to cross. Ford loves to make her blush, and then she turns into a high-school, shy girl. “Oh hush, you.” She slides two bottles of beer in front of them. “I’m just glad my boys are all home safe.”

She claimed Charlie Team as hers long before I joined the teams. Her son was a SEAL who died in Iraq after 9/11. His framed picture hangs on the wall of the bar, along with a few other fallen brothers. She looks over each of us with watery eyes, then turns quickly and heads to the other end of the bar to help some douche in a pink polo with a popped collar.

Never a good look.

Ford eyes me, Axel, Linc, and Rook. “Where’s Trick?”

“He’s putting Wanda to bed, then meeting us here.” Wanda’s a Belgian Malinois fur missile, who also happens to be the best damn military working dog there is.

“One of these days, he’s going to get in trouble for keeping that dog at the house instead of on base with the other military dogs.” Jessie may be Ford’s wife, but she tends to try to mother the rest of us.

“Come on now, Jessie. Don’t try to act like a hard ass. You love Wanda.” Ford pulls Jessie against him and whispers something in her ear, eliciting a giggle.

“I just want him to be careful. I know his dad pulled a few strings, but former SEAL or not, it makes me nervous. And before you say it, I know he’s also the top MWD trainer in the country and Wanda was one of his pups. But I grew up military, and they don’t bend rules. I just don’t want to see any of you get in trouble.” She sips her beer, ignoring the chatter happening around us.

Axe downs his shot of whiskey, then wraps his arm around Linc’s shoulder. “You gonna be my wingman tonight, kid?”

Jessie laughs into her beer. “You need a whole wing team, Axel.”

“You’re just pissed you settled for the old man next to you before you met me, Jess.” Axe grins like he thinks he’s being smooth, then elbows Linc.

Linc cups the brim of his University of Georgia baseball cap and looks away, distracted. When the teams were drafting from my BUD/S class, Charlie Team picked Linc and me. That was two years ago. But we’ll both be the two new kids on the team until somebody else comes along, and the guys take every chance to remind us.

“Come on, man.” Axe leans down and adds, “I’ll even teach you how to pick up a woman.”

Linc shoves Axel away. “Nah, brother. You’re on your own.” He tracks a beautiful brunette who’s walking toward the bar, then stands to make room for her. “Ma’am.” He lays his Georgia accent on thicker around the ladies.

“Hiya, handsome.” She leans against the bar between Linc and Axel. “Geez, is there a Magic Mike convention in town?”

“No, ma’am.” He offers her his hand. “I’m Linc.”

Her dark blue eyes are nearly purple as they drag over the length of him before settling on his face. The rest of us watch in amusement as she answers, “Emerson.”

“Can I buy you a drink, Emerson?” He steps in closer to her and waves down Brenda. “Brenda, can we get...”

“A hard cider, please,” Emerson answers as an appreciative smile spreads across her red painted lips.

Axel adds, “And another round of shots too, Brenda.”

The static of a microphone hums through the sound system. “How ya feeling, San Diego? I’m Jack, and we’re Six Day War. We’ve got a few guest performers with us tonight, so how about you show ’em how we do it at the Rathskeller? Let me hear you!” None of us are paying close attention to the dude on the mic. We’re too busy watching Linc, the eternally shy member of the team, kicking some pretty impressive game with the even prettier girl.

But then the song starts, and the voice that’s singing...

That voice.

I turn around to take in the stage and stop dead in my tracks.

Because on stage is my Carys Murphy.

My best friend’s little sister.

My new stepsister. Well, not completely new. But thanks to my dad marrying her mom a few years ago, she and her brother, Aiden Murphy, are now family. Never did feel like it though.

Only she doesn’t look like Carys. She looks like a fucking wet dream come to life.

Linc must see it, too, because he elbows me. “Holy shit, man. Isn’t that Murphy’s little sister?”

“That’s my roommate,” Emerson announces proudly. “She’s singing with my brother’s band tonight.”

Linc’s the only one of my teammates who’s met my friends and family from back home.

The other guys have no idea why I can’t take my eyes off the woman on that stage.

They have no fucking clue how hard I’ve tried to look at her like a little sister for the last three years. It was a lot easier before that. She was two years younger than me in high school, and she didn’t hang out with us. But she’s grown up, and she’s not looking so damn little tonight.

“Wait—what?” Emerson screeches as the song switches to an upbeat rock song. Carys’s voice morphs from haunting to powerful as she smiles and leans back against the dude playing the guitar. Linc turns so Emerson can hear him better and whispers something before she turns around and raises a hand to slap my chest.

Her mistake.

I catch her wrist, blocking the attempt before she can come close to landing a blow. I’ve only been in the Navy for a few years, but it’s been long enough to learn I don’t like someone I don’t know touching me. And I don’t like being fucking hit.

She stares at me. “Umm. You can let go now.”

“Ready to keep your hands to yourself?” I quickly glance her way, and she glares at me until I release her wrist.

“Sorry. I wasn’t going to hit you. Just a little shove. I feel like I know you already.” When I give Emerson a what the actual fuck look, she cocks her head to the side. “Seriously. If he’s right, and she’s your stepsister, that makes you Cooper, right? I mean, one of her stepbrothers is old and married and playing for the Philly Kings. That means you’re the Navy SEAL.” Realization crosses her face, and she looks at the group of us with a new interest. “Oh. Now that makes sense.” Her excitement grows, and Linc and I groan. “That makes you all?—”

Ford steps in. “That makes us all military, ma’am. And we’d like to leave it at that, since this fine establishment is full of people.”

Emerson lets that sink in for a minute. She probably has no idea that SEALs don’t publicize what we do for a living, even if the movies like to portray it differently. We don’t have to hide it, but it certainly makes it easier to keep our covers intact later if we don’t brag about it now. “Does Carys know you’re back?” Her eyes are sharp. Scrutinizing. She eyes me carefully and pops a perfectly arched eyebrow. “She didn’t mention anything.”

Before I get the chance to answer or even comment on the fact that this woman knows who I am, Axel jumps in. “You know the babe up there with the fuck-me shoes and suck-me lips?”

I grab the front of his shirt and shove him back against the bar so quickly, the rest of the team doesn’t even realize what’s happening. “Not another fucking word comes out of your mouth about her. Got it?” The words rip from somewhere deep in my chest.

He smiles a shit-eating grin right back at me but places both hands in the air. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Then he looks back at the stage. “Ooh, this is going to be fun.”

“Leave her alone, Axe man. Carys is a good girl.” Linc shoves Axe back a step.

Emerson’s head swivels like it’s going to pop right off her body, and she rolls her eyes toward Linc. “Umm, pretty sure she’d hate being described as a good girl.”

Axe licks his lips, looking like Emerson just handed him the Christmas present he’d been begging Santa for. “Even better. A good girl who wants to do bad things. This is gonna be so much fun.” Yup, and there’s the dick. But it’s not like he’ll actually do anything. At least I don’t think he will. Not once I lay it down.

“Not a chance, brother. Carys is off-limits. Pass it around. Nobody touches her. Nobody thinks about her. Nobody disrespects her. Got it?” The venom in my tone leaves no doubt about the significance of that statement.

He nods his head while he watches me with unreadable eyes. “Yeah, man. I got it.” Then Axel grabs Trick as he walks through the door to go play a round of darts in the back.

“I’m guessing Carys didn’t know you were home. She hasn’t mentioned anything.” Emerson sips her cider as she stands between Linc and me. “That’s definitely something she’d have mentioned.”

I bring my eyes back to the front of the room.

She’s in her element, completely at ease and having fun.

It’s a really good look on her.

She works the audience and owns the stage, commanding the attention of every person in the room.

Including me.

Fuck me .

She turns, and the lights hit her just right, illuminating soft curves a man would kill to memorize. A bead of sweat slides between the valley of her full breasts, and my mouth waters. I shouldn’t notice, but it’s impossible not to. My cock stirs in my jeans, and I try to discreetly adjust myself in the middle of the bar.

This could be a problem.