He cleared his throat. “Cam
,
buddy
,
this is Stavros.”
Cam’s voice turned cold.
“
Fuck off and don’t ever call this number again.”
Stavros sighed
when the call disconnected
and hit redial. This was not going to be easy.
”
Can picked up again. “Who
e
ver the hell this is
,
I will fucking find you and strangle you with your own tongue for speaking his name. You’re one sick fuck.”
“It’s me Cam, Stavros Bravo Echo Four. That’s my emergency call sign
.
I’m sure you didn’t have to change it since you thought I was dead,” Stavros said quickly. “Don’t hang up
,
man
.
Y
ou guys thought you lost me in that fucking shack in Iraq. I held on the lead wire so Casey could go home to Nia. Casey went back shit crazy, Zander and Zane had to drag him out before it went
off.
P
lease believe it
’
s me.”
There was silence on the other end for the longest
time
before he heard Cam speak and his voice cracked. “Stav? We buried you
,
man, we fucking buried you.”
“
It wasn’t me…” Stavros began
,
and emotion closed his throat and he had to clear it yet again to speak. “Listen
,
I need to come in
.
I need help
.
S
omeone kidnapped a friend
…
well not a friend
,
a woman that I love.”
“
Of course,
I’ll get you hooked up and let the others know
.
S
hit
,
did you call Casey?” Cam asked.
“I tried… I’ll just see him when I get there. It
’
s better I explain in person anyway
,
” Stavros replied. “I’m flying in
to Raleigh
,
or are you getting transpo
rt
to Bragg?
”
“We privatized
.
W
e’re in Georgia now
.
W
e have our own facility,” Cam replied. “A lot ha
s
changed since you’ve been gone, Stav. I’ll have a private jet waiting in Anchorage for you at three a
.
m
.
Y
ou need to head there now.”
“Private jet
,
huh? It seems that a lot
has
changed.” Stavros chuckled.
“I heard a female laugh when I called before.”
This time it was Camden who laughed. “That’s my wife
, Sable
.
W
e’re all married now.”
“Wait
,
even Malachi?”
“Oh yeah, that big bear is a puppy now around Mae
.
” Cam laughed and then
the laughter
drifted away. “God
,
Stavros, we all died a little when we buried you. You’re going to have a fucked up time trying to explain why you didn’t come back
,
especially to Casey and Zane.”
Stavros sighed. “
I’ll take my licks when it comes to them. As long as I find Amari and she’s safe
,
I can take anything.”
“
Gimme her full name so I can start a search by the time you get here,” Cam
suggested
.
“Amari Montgomery,” Stavros replied. “I’ll head out now and see you in a few hours.”
“God
,
it will be good to see you man,” Cam replied.
“
You too… Find her for me man
.
” Stavros swallowed hard. “I need her in my life.”
“I got you man
.
Army
B
easts all the way,” Cam said.
“Thanks.”
Stavros hung up and went downstairs. He made sure to lock the bottom lock of her door and headed to his truck. He head
ed
toward
Anchorage
,
and from there back to
the life he
left
a year ago. He had a lot of ap
o
logies to make
,
and
a whole lot of making up to do to his friends. Worrying about Amari
,
along with Casey and the team
,
filled his thoughts as he drove the dark roads heading away from Hiko
,
where he
’d
met the love of his life.
He took the blue piece of stretchy cloth from his pocket and inhaled her scent again. She was coming back to him, he would make certain of it.
* * * *
Ok
ay
here it goes
.
Stavros took a deep breath outside the conference room in the new Army Beasts facility. The hours that it took him to get there seemed to fly by quickly
,
hurtling to
ward
the people who thought he was dead.
He looked around again to the sleek walls and the
gleaming marble fixtures along the
h
all. This place made the old building the army stuck them in outside Fort Bragg look like a dump. This building was made for CEOs
and high-powered executives. Yet
he could see Casey running things here as easil
y as in his office from the old facility. Someone saw the worth of the Army Beasts, more so than the mi
litary big wigs that were scared of who they were. Still
,
they had no problem with sending them into every
dangerous situation.
He couldn’t stand out there any
longer,
musing over the past
.
I
t was time to face the music. Stavros opened the door and stepped inside. There was an audible gasp when he stood before the people that made up his unit. They were all their
:
Casey, Zane, Zander, Camden, Kale and Malachi. Nia stood next to Casey
,
and
Stavros
could see how he gripped her hand like it was his lifeline. Their eyes met and held
,
and he saw the turmoil and anger in Casey’s
gaze
. Nia wrenched her hand away from Casey and rushed over to hug him. Her movements seemed to break the tense silence.
She cupped his cheek with tears running down her face. “I heard you… Stav
,
you were gone.” She hugged him again. “Oh
,
thank god you’re alive.”
“It’s good to see you, Nia,” he said with a smile. He
’d
had a genuine fondness for her
from
the time she joined the team
.
“You have a niece
,
you know
.
S
he’s almost a year
.
” Nia gave a watery laugh. “Damn you for making me cry.”
“I’m so very sorry for causing you pain,” Stavros replied. “I can’t wait to meet the baby.”
Casey stood and moved toward Stavros. It
seemed like everyone held their breath waiting to see what would happen next. Nia stepped away and Stavros faced the man who
had been
his best friend for so many years. There was only silence
,
and then without warning Casey threw a punch that caught him on the side of the jaw and made Stavros’s ears ring.
“What the fuck, Casey!” Zane shouted.
That catapulted the rest of the team into action. Zane held Casey back
as he
fought
the arms
that
bound him. Stavros lifted his head and wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I guess I deserved that
,” Stav
ros said. He could feel his lip
beginning to swell.
“You deserve that and so much more,” Casey shouted. “How the fuck could you let us think
you were
dead
?
”
“I’m sorry, Casey
.
I was broken and
fucked up so bad, I th
ought I was going to die
.
” Stavros shook his head
.
“
That
’s
what I crawled away to do
.
I barely managed to shift into tiger form and I thought
that
was it for me.”
“How did you get out man?” Zander stepped forward from the group
,
and
he became
the second one to give
Stavros
a hug.
The action
actually surprised Stavros
,
because Zander never se
emed the type to reach out on any level of emotion.
“Some Russian mercenaries found me
.
T
hey had a ship of
f
the coast
of
Turkey,” Stavros explained.
“
The one guy wanted to keep me as a pet. I jumped off the boat in my shift form when they passed close to the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. I thought for
sure I would drown
,
but some how I
made it to the coast. Floated into the rocks more that
swam.
”
H
e gave a husky laugh. “I guess I wasn’t meant to suck salt water. I made it to civilization
,
accessed my accounts and bought a cabin.”
“In all that time you didn’t think to call us?” Casey bit out.
“Which account
did you access? N
o alarms went out. I would have known if
you took money,” Camden said.
Stavros gave a laugh. “You have the information for all but one
.
I was raised to keep secrets.
”
He
turned his attention to Casey. “This is why
I
didn
’t contact you, to have
any of you pity me
or
feel obligated to take care of me. It was better for me to die than to put you through that. I
was raised like that
.
Y
ou know how fucked up my life was. A wounded tiger dies honorably.”
“That’s a load of bullshit and you know it,
”
Casey practically gro
wled and threw his arms wide.
“
N
one of us would have felt that way and you know it. You didn’t die honorably
,
you took the coward
’
s way out. We’re family
.
Y
ou do this kind of shit to your family
?
”
“I know that now,”
Stavros replied.
“
Old habits and training die hard
,
and even before I trained with you I was trained by a fucked up man who thought he
was
some kind of leader.
When the only thing he could claim was that he was an abuser who like
d
to knock his kid around. Amari tried and tried over the last year to get me to call you guys
,
a
nd it took her walking out
and being kidnapped for me to see the truth. Do you think I like that
?
I called you a few times and hung up
.
I just didn’t know what to say.”
Everyone was silent
,
and he sighed and pulled out a chair from under the long conference table and sat down heavily. His leg began to throb painfully to match his head. He was worried about Amari
,
and this reunion was taking its toll as well. “Listen
,
I’m not asking you guys to take me back into the fold, I know you feel hurt and betrayed. But help me find her
.
S
he’s in trouble and I love her. To lose her would be like dying
,
and I don’t want that anymore.”
Casey sat in a chair next to him
,
and again no one said anything until he spoke. “Like we would ever throw you out. Family does stupid, idiotic things sometimes
,
but it doesn’t mean we love them any less. I’m still fucking mad at you
,
but right
now
looking at your ugly mug
,
I’m just damn happy you’re not in a grave.” He held out his hand and Stavros clasped it. “Welcome home
,
Stav.”
Zander smiled.
“
Look at me
.
I’ve done more bad that good in my life, they still find me redeemable.”