Page 1 of Assigned

Chapter One

Lucas

Dark gray clouds surround the last bits of blue in the sky like a predator circling its prey. A startling low rumble rings out as fat droplets rain down from the sky, cold and sharp on my head and shoulders. I turn up the collar of my jacket to keep it off my neck. The clouds close in, devouring the last of the blue, and with no break in the gray above, the chance of a letup is slim to zero. It’s going to be a rainy day and no amount of pleading with God is going to change that. Best get used to it.

Besides, the weather fits perfectly with the way the week had been going. Mere minutes after arriving CONUS—back in the contiguous United States—life had smacked me upside the head like an angry mama with a misbehaving brat. Arriving home months after being deployed is never easy, but this, yeah, not what I had in mind.

“Lucas, are you even listening to me?” My ex-wife’s voice cuts through my ruminations on the unfairness of weather fronts. I know the tone. I’m on her very last nerve.

I grind my molars and try to focus. “Lisa, what am I supposed to do? You decided to move while I was gone, and now I’m expected to come up with a miraculous way to fix Mason’s behavior issues?”

Mason.

My eight-year-old son. The tie between Lisa and me that would never bend or break, even if most of the other ones had. While I’d been gone, he’d moved to a new school, gotten in two fights, and been sent to the principal’s office for talking back to the teacher. Lisa was at her wit’s end and dumped it on me the second my feet hit American soil.

A loud groan cuts over the line. “I’m expecting you to get involved. To step in. No one said it was up to you alone to fix the problem. I’ve never done that to you.”

My fingers tighten around the phone as my foot lands heavily into a puddle that has formed on the concrete walkway leading to the building my commanding officer is in. The cold water seeps into my boot. I swallow hard, knowing my next words will either start a fight or frustrate my ex-wife. Or both. “I have to go. I’ll call you back once I’m done with my meeting.”

She huffs. Frustration, it is. “Unless you’re sent on a mission and then who knows when we’ll talk again?” There’s a long pause before she continues, and I sense the sigh on the other end more than I hear it. “But that’s the way things go. I get it.”

Without another word, she disconnects the call. My chest tightens. Nothing like failing those you care for. Again. Being a SEAL, I don’t have the flexible schedules those in other careers may have. I can’t push off a meeting with my superiors to discuss my son’s behavioral issues in school. Those things have to wait, or Lisa has to handle them herself. And she has been. And she’s getting kind of pissed about it.

I yank the door open to the three-story brick building that stretches across the center of the base and make my way to Captain Redding’s office on the second floor. My stomach tenses as I trudge down a hallway lined with photos of former commanders. Today was supposed to be my day off, but for whatever reason, Redding needed to speak with me. ASAP. So here I am.

The secretary greets me with a nod as I walk in. The door to my commanding officer’s office is open and he waves me in.

“Captain Redding. Sir.”

“At ease.” My C.O. places the papers in his hand down onto the big oak desk and leans back in his chair, looking me up and down with his dark eyes as if he’s taking measurements. At fifty, Redding is still intimidating as fuck. Don’t even think I’ve seen the man smile.

Ever.

He gestures to the two chairs in front of his desk. “Take a seat.”

I ease into the one to my left, plant my feet solidly on the industrial-grade carpet, and wait for my commanding officer to continue. With the day I’ve been having so far, I don’t need a verbal ass whooping to boot, but I’ll take it if I have to. And since my best friend, Anthony Martinez, has been away at officer candidate school, George Redding has yet to find another person to dole out his frustration on. Though, let’s be clear, Martinez was the cause of most of that frustration. I might just be guilty by association.

“Heard great things about your performance. You’ve earned a significant number of duty performance points. Between those, some vacancies, and your test scores, a promotion is in order.” Redding tapped his pen on the papers in front of him.

Well, fuck. Maybe this day ain’t so bad after all.

“Lucas, you work hard. You’re a good man. Sure, when you and Martinez are together, Stephens may want to run for the hills, but there is a lot of potential in you, son.” Redding drops his hand to rub his knee beneath the desk. We all pretty much have an injury or two that won’t ever fully heal. It’s part of the job. Redding is no exception. Rumor has it he blew the knee out in an op in Afghanistan, pulling a local out of a building that was about to collapse.

“Thank you, sir.” I fight the urge to squirm in my chair. Redding is a man who would sooner swim naked through shark-infested waters than dole out compliments. So, something must be up.

“How’s time home been treating you so far?”

And there goes the ray of sunshine. Poof. Like everything else on this rainy day. “Some things going on with my son since my ex-wife moved to Chesapeake with her fiancé. Trying to take care of it while I’m back home and have some time.”

Redding nods. “Lisa’s a strong woman. A shame things didn’t work out between the two of you. But this job takes us away from our families a lot, so do what you can while you can.”

I can’t help but glance behind his desk at the framed photo of an older, attractive African-American woman with a younger man and woman in Sunday-go-to-church clothes on either side of her. Smiles light up their faces, and not the fake ones people put on for a picture. True, genuine smiles. Redding’s walked the walk to keep his family happy.

“Yes, sir.” I shift forward in my chair to stand when Redding raises his hand and signals me to stop. Crap, there’s more.

He pulls a manila folder from the left side of his desk to sit in front of him and opens it. “Before you deployed, we had a conversation about you joining the Issued Partner Program.”

Oh.

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