Mason took a deep breath, he knew what his friend as saying was true, if they were in, they were all in. It was their personality. But what if he failed them again, what if he didn’t have it in him to give Arden everything she deserved?
“Man, I see the wheels turning, you can’t run from this, neither of us can. If for nothing else—we need to find out if this is what we think it is. We know we can share, not a problem. However, you need to begin to heal, and the first step is realizing that not every bad thing that happens in the world revolves around you. From the sounds of it, Arden may have been in danger long before we came into the picture, the difference is now she has us, we are on her side,” West said.
Mason sat silent and West allowed his friend to stew. He knew he'd come to the right decision, he had to. Finally after what seemed like an hour, Mason spoke.
“Well, let’s go and help our lady then, she sounds like she is working herself into a state. We need to take care of her,” Mason said and West wanted to punch a fist in the air, he felt like a door had opened and they were walking through to a bright future. A lot of things still needed talked about but right now, Arden was what mattered. They needed to get her through this.”
“Wait,” West said and stopped his friend. “We need supplies.”
Mason frowned and then listened as his friend explained what he had in mind and smiled. Of course, two birds—one stone.
Arden lay sobbing, but she couldn’t seem to stop, all of the shit she had been through in the last few months was finally coming out. She had cried when she was told about John, but she had never grieved. It was as if she had been hoping they were wrong, then she saw Mason, and she realized everything with her brother had been true. It had all been told to her from some nameless, faceless voice on the phone, then the notifying members who came to the door.
Now she was letting the past eight months of tears and pent up grief come out. Not just her brother, his friends, the ones who were hurt by what had happened. Also for her relationship with Mason, that tenuous first few weeks where you just don’t know if it is going to work out. Would he leave the seat up, scratch his crotch when he was watching television, think she was there to serve only him. It was a dance, one she'd missed out on—one she'd craved. As she lay crying, all the loss and turmoil came out, leaving her body in the tears that flowed. Talk about a cleansing, she only wished it had happened sooner because right now, if she had to gauge where she was at, it was in the month after her brother's death, she had seven more to cry through. The flat tire she had and picked up the phone to call John, the night she turned on the television and heard a report about another terrorist bombing. There was so much more, all the anxiety. Damn, she was a fucking head case, she thought and then began laughing and crying at the same time.
Possibly, she was having the mental breakdown she always feared. When she was younger, she thought she was crazy, she had no connection with her parents, not like her friends. At least she found out later that it wasn't her but her freaking crazy ass parents. If she had only know then, but seeing it as a child had been bad enough, as an adult, she knew her parents were involved in something terrible. Arden had no clue what, but John seemed to think the tiny hard drive she had packed with her when she left, seemed to be a clue.
Originally, she had taken it because she just wanted to piss her dad off. Now, she looked back and she knew she had taken it for another reason. Even the child had seen there was something more to her parents than met the eyes. Sucking in a deep breath she sat up, pulled the pillow in front of her, rested her head on it, and thought.
Years later when she was moving into her new apartment, John had helped her. When they were going through old boxes trying to decide what she could get rid of, they had found her small box. An old cigar box, she'd decorated with girly designs. John had teased her about it. When they opened it, she told him about everything she had saved from her previous life.
She had a picture of her and her parents. She looked pissed off at the world and they stood together with their arms around each other, smiling at the camera while she looked awkward and out of place. She remembered the day it was taken, something big had happened for her father, they were celebrating. The picture was taken on their back patio with a hundred or more close friends drinking and eating along with them. They were always so wrapped up in each other, they had little time for her. Arden actually hated the picture and John understood why, he tore it down the middle leaving her parents in the box. Then he went and grabbed a picture of Arden and himself, and put it in the box as well.
The picture was from the day they were taken to the zoo, both of them had been excited, it was the first time they had gone. The foster family fed them hot dogs, ice cream, and cotton candy until they thought they would burst. It was the best day of her young life. The day her and John had made their blood oath.
Arden smiled through her tears as she remembered the two young kids, using a pop can top to cut their palms. When she looked at herself, she could still see the scar.
Then they promised to be with each other forever, they were family now, their blood mixed. When someone asked, the kids would say they were blood relatives.
She had laughed at John when he said the picture showed the before John life, and the after John life. She loved it. She also had the first concert ticket she had ever been to. Loverboy, she had been so in love with the lead singer. A rabbits foot, a small container of her favorite lip-gloss and finally, the tiny little drive. When John asked her, she had shrugged and told him what she had done. They left the box and continued packing, but when she was settled in her new apartment John had come over with a six-pack.
“Hey, I know I should have asked you first, but I did a little digging. Have you ever looked to see where your parents are?” John said casually.
“Not for the last five years, I know where they are living, the same place I grew up in. As far as I could tell from the newspaper reports, doing the same thing as they had done when I was growing up. They travel, have parties, and focus on each other.” Arden had shrugged.
“But do you know what your father did as a job?” he persisted.
“Uh…yeah, he owns his own shipping agency. You know, they take stuff to third world countries to deliver medicine and shit.
Like they were so noble, whatever. He made his money off government contracts and then a year before her twenty-second birthday she had read they were increasing their trade, shipping to military bases all over the world for the government. He had gotten some huge contract with the military.
“Right, but if you dig a little bit you can see there are some inconsistencies. Normal people wouldn’t know it. Heck, I didn’t even see it at first until a date jumped out at me and then I went back and looked. A few days before a terrorist bombing your father's company made a delivery to a non-profit organization in the same country. He claimed on his insurance that part of the shipment was stolen by rebels. Funny thing is—there are very few rebels in that particular area. It is one faction against another. They leave everyone else alone but each other. A long going war, nothing to do with shipments and according to this it was medicine. Why the hell would they want to take that? The organization they were shipping to helped both sides,” John said.
“I'm confused, they are running an insurance scam?” she said thinking about what John was saying.
“I don’t know, all I can figure is he is not on the up and up. Regardless, he was responsible for the shipment of military items, could be guns, I don’t know. Can we look at the drive?” John asked, looking at her intently. He would never do something she disagreed with, especially when it had to do with her family.
Arden shrugged, “Whatever I felt died a long time ago. If they are doing something wrong, especially against our military, then they have to be stopped. My father is ruthless. I know that first hand. Let me get the drive.”
Arden and John had loaded up the information she had stolen, it was encrypted, but John kne
w how to get around it. It only took them about an hour, and two beers to get into the drive. John had been stunned.
“These names are some of the biggest terrorist that we have. He is supplying them with American weapons and making three times the amount of money from the contract, he reports some of them stolen. It would make sense, he reports to the correct people, receives insurance settlements, then government receives a message saying the rebels in the area have been threatening to over throw the government, or something along those line. Our government wants to make sure that doesn’t happen, so they send more weapons. Your dad makes out like a bandit. He gets paid from the government, from the terrorist, and from the insurance company all for the same box,” John said.
“I have to show this to the Commander, but I was called out, we leave in the morning. Can I take this and keep it safe. I will make sure to call when I get back. We can go to the Feds together,” John said.
Arden had agreed and forgotten about it when she heard the news about John. Now it made her wonder, had someone found out they had the info? Had John spoken to someone about the contents of the drive? Shit a lot of questions were running through her head. Her sobs had dissipated and she was sitting in the middle of the bed when Mason and West came in slowly.
Chapter Ten
They brought out the big guns. Everything a woman could want when she is going through a crisis. Both of the moms had given them ideas and then they had called Sable and Jolie. All of the woman had been thrilled to find out Mason and West were declaring their intentions to a woman.
At the same time they had briefed Boyscout and Master Chief about what was going on. Apparently, Thane had already called but they still wanted to hear what was going on from them.
“We have put feelers out everywhere. Even to all of our snitches we have ever used, we contacted to see what the chatter had been about on this. So far, nothing, but we are hopeful that we will find something to tell us who is behind this. All of our missions, all of our briefings are being poured over to find a connection, any connection to why someone is coming after us. Our last mission, we are searching for names in the database, maybe somehow we stumbled upon something in our surveillance that we weren’t looking for. Commander is pulling every role of film we took. It is just going to take a bit, we have to go through the correct channels," Gage said.
Mason growled in the phone, “Okay, in the meantime we need to figure out who else was involved in this family support thing. Whoever they talked to is a target. Hell, if we have to find an island and put them all on it, we will. I know we are talking about a lot of people, but seriously, they need to be notified.”
“I agree, which is why Sable and Jolie are helping with that. We don’t want to frighten them into running. It could make the bastards suspicious, it is all we need for them to disappear, right now, they think they are winning, that they have control. Let them. I don’t give a shit, the only thing we need to worry about is getting people safe. We have some of the other SEALs helping,” Master Chief said.
“Fine, we will lay low here for now, at least until you give us the all clear to get the moms and Arden back,” Mason gritted out. “We may need help.”
“Rex, Drew, and Jazz are on their way to California, they had an entire floor of a hotel on reserve and Jolly and Steve sent men to help. They can always divert,” Gage said.
“Cool, I will call later,” Mason said.
“Yeah…okay call in the morning. I don’t want to hear your happy ass after you get laid,” Gage said.
“Whatever, kiss Sammi for me, tell her Uncle Mason will be home soon.” Mason laughed.
"Blah, blah, blah, the child is spoiled,” Gage grumbled good-naturedly.
Mason knew Gage was the one who did most of the spoiling. He went out to get something came back with a stuffed animal, or his favorite, a new horse. He was just complaining because he was bored. He would deny Sammi nothing.
Now they stood outside of the door that separated them from Arden, both of them were nervous and a little afraid of how she was going to react. They could only hope it would go like they wanted it to.
Mason took a deep breath and nodded. West put his key in the door and pushed it open. Both of them walked into the room, not knowing what to expect, but what greeted them almost broke their hearts.
Arden sat in the middle of the bed, her face swollen from crying and her eyes still had tears that were now running down her face. When she looked up, she looked devastated.
“Darlin’,” Mason said and set down the tray he held and went to her, sitting on one side, while West sat on the other.
Arden sniffed and looked up at them and tried to smile. “Sorry,” she whispered and both of them shook their head.
“No need to apologize, you have had to deal with some pretty heavy shit, babe,” West said softly, putting a hand on the back of her head, and smoothing her hair down as he comforted her.
“I agree,” Mason said and put a hand on her leg. She felt the connection between the two of them. Damn, she didn’t want to give this up, but she had too.
“No, I am sorry I put you two in the middle of this mess. My head is so screwed up, I think it would be best if you just took me somewhere and left me, let me get my head on. When this is all over, I will leave you guys alone. I promise,” she whispered.
“No,” Mason said firmly. “It's not working like that.”
“Not only no, but hell no. You are with us, where we can see you and take care of you. If there is an issue, we work it out together,” West said firmly.
“Huh?” she said, confused and desperate to get away from the two of them.
Mason stood while West pulled her back so she was leaning against him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, offering her comfort. She watched Mason as he grabbed a tray and brought it to the bed. She wanted to cry all over again when she saw what was on the tray.
“This is for your first step, bath salts and candles in your favorite scent, vanilla,” Mason explained and showed her the things they had brought her. Her breath hitched and tears grew as she realized they were serious. “This is your second step, a nice juicy burger, some fries, and a chocolate shake. Followed by a chocolate sundae, which is being delivered when you are ready.” He picked up the remote, turned on the television, went to a soft romantic music channel, then turned back to her. “This is your third step," he said, holding up a bottle to show her, "Lotion that West and I will rub onto your back and massage you until you're relaxed and comfortable.”
Arden smiled, “And the champagne? And chocolate cream pie?”
“That is for us as well,” Mason said and looked at her closely. “The champagne is to start this relationship off on a good note, and the pie is for West and I to eat, hopefully from where ever on your luscious body we decide to put it on.”
Arden looked at him with wide eyes. What the hell was he talking about? She leaned over and looked up at West who nodded and Mason continued, “Babe, we are declaring our intentions, we both want you. We know ménages work, I know you know about them because ma told me she found a book in the back of your Hummer. One she'd read too, which freaks me out a little that you and my mom have the same taste in books. But I can get over it. We are gonna be honest. West and I have done this once before, but we hadn't had feelings other than lust for the woman, a one-night deal. Afterwards we realized it hadn't bothered us sharing, what bothered us was the fact we hadn't felt a connection. However, we agree we feel it with you. Hell, it is all encompassing when we are together our need to make you happy, to take care of you, love you.”
Arden looked back at them confused and said, “Uh…so you have feeling for each other?”
‘No!” Mason said and leaned back.
“Babe, I have brotherly feelings toward Mason, and while I may be okay with seeing him naked, even bumping into to him a little, it's not like that. I don’t have sexual feeling toward him. For you, I do. It is different. Now, we talked and we know it
is unusual, but we want this. It feels right,” West said.
“So what, you want to share me? I don’t understand. You can both find good-looking women of your own. Why do you want to share?” Arden asked, trying to think about what they were saying. She was on overload, yet again. However, this was different, she felt a kernel of hope in her chest.
“We know what it takes to be a military spouse, we've been there. I trust West with my life, I can see me having a future with all of us together. Taking care of one another. Listen this will not be simple, of course we will screw-up, probably have to sleep on the couch a time or two. But seeing my friends work through this, knowing the love they have. I want that. With you,” Mason said.
“Can I think about it?” Arden asked, biting her lip.
“Of course, we would never do anything you didn’t want to. But think about this while you are weighing the options. Two men to talk to, two men to take care of you, make you safe. And two men to hold you at night, touch you, love you, make love to you. All of our focus would be on you, anything you want,” West said.