Wild Hearts (Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page B

shame at having made the comment. “Theydidn’t televise the hearings like that Benghazi crap.”
    “Not that it mattered,” Sam said. “That was all a buncha BS. So what’d you all do, Rat, take a payoff from the cartels? Or did the whole team go nuts, like they was saying?”
    Rath leaned against the truck, hoping the thing wouldn’t collapse on him. He would ignore Sam’s misuse of his name, as he always did. “I already told you, I can’t talk about it.” The government had given them each a check once they’d signed the don’t-tell-a-soul-about-it contract. It was somewhere in his duffel bag.
    “That’s what you said on the phone, when they were listening,” Sam said. “But now you’re here, far away from ears.”
    “We weren’t aligned with the cartels. We didn’t go nuts. All I can say is that we were given bad information.”
    Sam murmured, “He fucked up. He just doesn’t want to say, ’cause he’s the big shot in the family. Mr. Navy SEAL, who’s all important and can’t say where he’s going or what he’s doing ’cause it’s
top secret
.” He made finger quotes that perfectly framed his sneering mug.
    When Rath was younger, that kind of shit-talk would have incited him to pummel his brother. But he was thirty-four now, and he’d learned a lot about self-control in the SEALs. Besides, it would piss off Sam even more if he didn’t react. And he did like pissing off his older brother.
    Rath kept his face neutral. “And the top secret stuff hasn’t changed. So now that we got that out of the way, what are you doing with your life? Still slinging hash at the Lazy Diner?” He already knew, because Emily had filled him in.
    “He got fired a couple months ago,” Carlton advised with a big grin. “Now he’s helping Billy James with his lawn service.”
    Rath didn’t need to rub it in that it was Sam’s two thousandth job. He turned to his father. “How’s Blackridge Rifles doing?”
    “Same old, same old. Bert got an order for a hundred rifles couple months ago and couldn’t make the deadline. The order got canceled.”
    Rath tamped down his irritation. Some of the best-made rifles out there, but Uncle Bert couldn’t get motivated enough to make a successful business out of it.
    “Why don’t you go back to working for him?” his father suggested. “The company did good when you were there.”
    Wow, a compliment. Rath tried to keep the shock from his face. “And I was the only one who was doing the work. Put in seventy-two hours straight one time to make an order while Bert and the boys were out turkey hunting. I told him the only way I’m signing on is if I run it. And he won’t agree to that, ’cause he knows I’ll fire the lackeys. Which would be everyone.” It was a sore point, a waste of a good product and able-bodied men. That was ultimately why he’d joined the Navy, to get away from the insanity of it all.
    “So, you gonna stay around for a bit?” his father asked, giving no indication whether he was happy about that prospect.
    “Just a week. I can take care of some of those maintenance projects I’m sure you have waiting to be done.” He’d already cataloged three of them, including the barn door that was hanging half off its hinges. “Then I’m hitting the road with one of the boys on my team. We’re blowing off steam doing Route 66 on our Harleys. Or what’s left of it, anyway.”
    Rath and Julian had made the commitment to ride precisely for an out in case their families tried to talk them into staying. Plus, they needed the time to decompress. And Rath needed to wait until things died down in Mexico. Patience was not his strong suit, but he would wait nonetheless. He’d put in his share of waiting for the okay on a mission many a time. Let his anger simmer. Because when he found the Wolf, he was going to make the guy sing.

Chapter 4
    Saxby Cole hadn’t lost his acute awareness even while lounging in a hammock in his family’s backyard with