Authors: Lori King
Tags: #holiday, #collection, #western, #army, #cowboys, #veteran disability, #veteran erotica, #veteran hero, #red hot heroes, #red hot authors
Broken Surrender
Broken Surrender
The Surrender Series
IV
Red Hot Heroes Collection
By: Lori King
Text Copyright © October 2015 Lori King
Art and Logo © Copyright Lori King Books
All rights reserved.
A Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 978-0-9861718-9-5
Edited by: Ekatarina Sayanova
Red Quill Editing
Cover by: Jess Buffett
Jess Buffett Graphic Designs
Published by: Lori King Books
EBooks are not transferrable.
This book is intended for the purchaser’s
sole use. Sharing, or downloading to other individuals or devices
is illegal.
This work is fictional. Any resemblance to
real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental. All Rights
Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except
in the case of quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews.
One bullet made it physically impossible for
Sarah Bryant to fulfill her dreams of a military career. With her
family’s sympathy suffocating her, she escapes to Stone River,
Texas, determined to rebuild a life and maybe find a new dream.
Silas and Jeremy are two brothers who are as
different as Texas is big. One is an adrenaline-fueled former Army
medic, the other a laid back tow truck business owner. The two
things they have in common? They know they want to live life in a
ménage relationship, and Sarah is the woman for them.
Sarah has too many doubts
about herself to believe she can be enough for one man let alone
two. Can these souls find what they need to grow together,
or
will they leave more emotional scars to match their
physical ones?
This Veteran's Day, find home in the heart
of our heroes with Broken Surrender, part of the Red Hot Heroes
multi-author series and stands alone for reading enjoyment.
For the warriors who returned home missing
pieces of themselves.
Thank you.
The melodic sound of Blake Shelton’s newest
country hit, “Lonely Tonight,” echoed out the lowered window, and
drifted on the soft summer breeze. It was muggy in South Texas, and
storms were predicted for later in the afternoon, but at the
moment, the sky was a clear blue without a cloud in sight. From
where Silas White was parked, he could see the crossing guard
helping school children cross the one main road through Stone
River. Beside him, his partner, Colby Bruce, snored loudly in his
seat. It was a normal day, and he was bored out of his mind.
Just once he’d like to have some excitement.
It was part of why he’d become a paramedic—that, and there wasn’t
much else for a veteran Army medic to do in this part of Texas
without more education. When he came back from overseas, he’d had
no interest in returning to school just to receive a degree he
didn’t really want. All he wanted was to help people and feel
necessary in a world that suddenly didn’t need him anymore. He
missed the adrenaline rush of being on the front lines, but he damn
sure didn’t miss getting shot at. Hell, in some cases, being the
medic was the most dangerous job in the military. He was the one
who had to rush to the aid of the injured while bullets whizzed
past his ears.
A bee chose that moment to land on the top
of his ear, and he knocked it away with a curse. If only he could
find something to rev him up. A reason to wake up in the morning
that didn’t have him chugging back coffee like it was going out of
style.
The radio on the dashboard of the ambulance
crackled, and Silas surged to life as though he’d been
electrocuted. He snatched up the handset before Colby could reach
for it and spoke clearly into it. “Bus 14 to base, we’re here.
Over.”
“Base to 14, call out to 104 Spitz Street.
Just outside the apartment, there appears to be a woman injured.
The manager wasn’t sure what was wrong, but he said she was on the
ground next to her car, and she wasn’t moving. Over.”
“Got it, Deanna. We’re on our way.” Turning
the key in the ignition, Silas eased the large vehicle into the
street just as Colby hit the switch for the lights and sirens.
Ahead of them, the school children pointed
and waved as they zipped by, and Silas couldn’t help but smile. At
least someone was excited to see them. Most days, they just sat
around doing nothing until the time clock dinged for them to go
home, but sometimes, they got lucky and got to go and see the kids
at the school. That was always fun.
“Wonder what we’ve got.” Colby sat up a bit
straighter and fixed his sagging badge on his shirt. “Heart attack?
Stroke?”
“Heat exhaustion most likely,” Silas said
with a laugh.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Colby agreed.
“Damned hot even for August.”
They turned the corner, approaching the
address from the east side, and the late afternoon sun blinded
Silas for a moment, making him squint to see the apartment building
they’d been called to. A low-slung building built back in the
seventies, it was one of only three apartment complexes left in
Stone River, and this was the cheapest of the bunch. A stranger
might assume it was a former motel by the way the doors lined one
side, each one with a perfectly matched window next to it and two
parking stalls in front. These tiny apartments weren’t meant to
hold much, but they were always full.
A blue, two-door car that had obviously seen
a lot of miles sat parked in front of the door on the end farthest
from them, and a bald man stood near the back end of the car waving
his arms around to get their attention.
“Hey Bob, what d’you got for us today?”
Silas asked after parking the ambulance and jumping out. Colby
followed with the med bag, and they both hurried to the female now
seated on the ground with her back against the hot metal door of
the car.
“She just fell over. Like something struck
her, but now, she says she’s fine.” Bob Gunderson owned and managed
the tiny apartment building. He was probably one of the nosiest
people Silas knew, but at the moment, that might be a good
thing.
“Ma’am, can you tell us what happened?”
Colby asked.
Silas squatted down next to her, and reached
for her, pushing her chin up with his fingers so that he could see
her better. When she tipped her head back, he felt like he’d been
sucker punched.
“Corporal Bryant?”
“Sergeant White?” Confusion filled her
oversized green eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“At the moment, I’m rescuing a damsel in
distress,” he said playfully, earning a small smile as a
reward.
“I’m not in distress. I’m fine. I just
fell,” she said, avoiding his curiosity by turning her head to
watch what Colby was doing.
“That was an awfully strange fall, Miss
Bryant,” Bob argued. “Looked like you just locked up and then
buckled from the middle.”
“Did you hurt yourself when you fell, Sarah?
Hit your head?” Silas asked, gripping her chin more firmly, this
time to hold her head in place while he used his flashlight to
check her pupils.
“No, not at all. I bruised my pride more
than my ass. I promise you, I’m fine.” She shook her head and
brushed his hands away, her full lips firming into a tight
pout.
Silas exchanged a look with Colby who
shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to put away the supplies he’d
just removed from the med bag. Something felt off about the way
Sarah was responding, and he wasn’t buying her no injuries claim.
If she’d really just slipped and fallen, why didn’t she get back up
and brush herself off? Why sit in the hot sun against an equally
hot car?
“All right. Well, I can’t throw you over my
shoulder and haul you to the hospital, but I can offer to help you
up and back inside.” Silas stood and held his hand out to her.
As expected, she stared at it in horror and
shook her head. “I’m fine right here, thanks. You boys can go on
about your business.”
Planting his hands on his hips, he laughed.
“So to avoid telling me what’s really wrong, you’re going to sit in
the gravel with the sun burning you up to a crisp?”
She rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose.
“I’m telling you, I’m fine—”
“Prove it.” He waited with his hands on his
hips as she considered his challenge. There was fire in her eyes;
the woman he knew from years ago could never resist a dare. For
just a moment, he thought she was going to launch herself to her
feet and punch him in the jaw for being an asshole, but then her
eyes dropped and she shook her head sadly.
“I can’t.” Her words were soft, so he
dropped back down beside her, conscious of the way she kept her
gaze lowered and the responding twitch of his cock in his pants.
Damn, he loved a feisty woman when she submitted.
“Tell me what’s going on, Sarah.”
He saw her grit her teeth and glance toward
Colby and Bob before she hissed, “My back spasmed, and locked up. I
just need to sit still for a bit until the muscle relaxer kicks
in.”
“Muscle relaxer? When did you take it?”
“A few minutes ago when Bob brought me a
bottle of water. I swear I’ll be fine.”
He nodded in understanding. “Does this
happen a lot? Random back spasms?”
“Too often for my taste,” she admitted. Her
phone beeped and she dug it out of her purse, wincing when she
twisted her upper body.
“You know it’s possible you hurt yourself
when you fell and didn’t realize it because of the spasm.” He was
determined to get her to at least let him check her over. Even if
she refused to go to the hospital, it was clear she wasn’t
fine.
“Unlikely,” she said dismissively, glaring
at her phone and then tossing it back into the depths of her
purse.
Colby cleared his throat and turned to Bob,
distracting him with a question about the choice of paint color on
the apartment building, and giving Silas a moment of privacy with
Sarah.
“Sergeant White, I realize you want to help,
but—”
“Silas.” He shifted around to sit next to
her, his shoulder pressing against hers, and his back against the
scorching hot car. “Damn woman, no wonder your back hurts. You’re
gonna have third degree burns from sitting here against this
metal.”
“It wasn’t like I picked this spot for the
view.” she said with a laugh.
“Why won’t you let me help you, Sarah?” he
asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t need help.”
“We all need help sometimes.”
“Not today,” She insisted through clenched
teeth. “Look, Sergeant, I know—”
“Damn it, is it so hard for you to call me
Silas? I’m not in the Army anymore, Corporal Bryant. You don’t have
to address me by my rank.”
She flushed and wrinkled her cute nose up
again. “Old habits die hard, I guess. I know you want to help, but
I’m perfectly fine. In a few minutes, the meds will kick in and I
will be able to get up and go inside. I’ll take a cool shower to
ease the sting of the sun, and then lay down for a nap. Okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed, crossing his ankles and
resting his head against the car behind him.
They sat there for a minute in complete
silence before she huffed and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
“For your meds to kick in. Once they do,
I’ll help you inside and check you over for injuries. If you’re
uninjured, I’ll say goodbye and go on about my merry way.” He gave
her a wide grin when her mouth dropped open.
Her frustration was obvious, but there was
no way she was going to convince him to leave her sitting here
alone. Corporal Sarah Bryant had been one of the best soldiers he’d
had the honor of working with. She was loyal, disciplined,
kindhearted, and she made a damn fine soldier. He hadn’t spent much
time one-on-one with her, because every time he looked her way, his
cock twitched in his pants. That kind of reaction didn’t usually go
over well with the females in his unit. More often than not, it was
a direct turn-off. He’d seen too many guys test their luck against
the battle-hardened ladies and regret it, so he’d kept himself at a
polite distance.