Free FIRE (Elite Forces Series Book 2) by Hilary Storm, Kathy Coopmans Page A

harder and faster. I can’t imagine how he feels, what he’s thinking, or god, the heartache he must’ve felt to be abused, taunted, and have his heart tossed into a damn blender by someone who should love him.  This makes me sick.
    And no wonder he hasn’t said a damn thing about this having to do with his brother. From what little he told me, he’s a drug user, who has never gotten his life together.  A sick excuse of a man, who has done nothing but bring heartache to his own mother and family.
    “Jesus Christ. You have to be shitting me, man. That’s where he ran off to? It wasn’t enough he pumped every goddamn poison out there into his veins?  Is he selling the shit now too? And to top it off, he took this shit out on you? Is that what the hell is happening here? Fucking hell. I’m going to murder that lowlife motherfucker.” I jump as Pierce’s hatred escapes him, his jaw clenching tight as he paces the floor, wearing his anger on his face.
    I’ve never seen him react to anything like this before. Not when Kaleb was taken from us. Not when we all saw him hanging from that tree. I don’t know the man well, but he does not strike me as the kind of guy to lose control. I can’t speak for fear I’m going to mesh my words with tears. Kaleb squeezes me harder.
    How ironic the phrase ‘Life can change in a blink of an eye’ is. Life will gut you, spit you out, and leave you hanging on the edge of a cliff. Kaleb is dangling there right now. A moment ago, this room was filled with our outpouring of love for another. And now, it is filled with hatred for a man so evil that blood or not, he is not Kaleb’s brother. His true brothers are all in this room.
    “Kaleb.” I push off the bed, using the strength in my feet, unable to look at him right now. Instead, I look to Harris, who looks almost defeated. All of them do as I scan their faces one by one. Someone needs to say something other than spitting angry words out. How the hell I’ve all of a sudden become the sensible one here beats me. I’m usually the hardass, the bitter bitch, but shit, we need to find out if we killed that asshole. If Kaleb’s brother is dead. I have to ask, whether it hurts him more or not.
    “Does anyone know if he was one of the men we took out the other night?” I hate to be blunt, especially when I know that no matter what has happened in the past between Kaleb and his brother, he has to still love him. To have your own family try to kill you has to be one of the most devastating, emotional turmoils to have to deal with.
    “I got the footage from when I scanned the area.  All of our recordings can be watched to see if we can locate him as one of the fuckers we killed.”  Pierce stands wider as I can see his thoughts running through his head.  He’s hungry for this to be the case.  I don’t know if I hope I shot him in his dick, or if he was the one who got the ass shot and then a bullet to his head.  Either way, I hope he’s gone. I hope he took a bullet through his black-as-coal heart.  Anyone who can do something like this to Kaleb should be dead and rotting in the farthest recess of hell, as far as I’m concerned.
    “Great.  I was hoping to relive that moment over and fucking over.  Don’t get any bright ideas about teasing me about that shit.  I’ll repay your asses in a way that’ll make your dicks draw up and hide.”  Kaleb looks at all the guys before he begins to tell us everything he remembers. While I remain still, while anger and sadness pound away at my bleeding heart.

CHAPTER NINE
KALEB
     
    I can’t share every fucking detail that happened.  There’s no way I’m telling these guys, or hell, Jade for that matter, about the depth of the shit my brother put me through.  I pissed him off when I fought back and head butted him.  He was out for a few minutes. Then my life became hell.  I decided in that moment I wasn’t going to try that again unless I knew I could kill him. He beat me so