Page 36 of Trusting the Team

DARI

Scott and Dari continued chatting while Chaos worked on breakfast. Scott sitting down at the head of the dining table with Dari to his left.

“Which one is your man?” Scott asked, a picture of the team coming up on his phone. “Lowell,” she pointed at the tallest.

“That’s a horrible name,” Scott responded immediately.

“It kind of is. His nickname is Cowboy.”

“Like a maverick?”

Dari shrugged, “I didn’t give it to him. You’ve been with Chaos long enough to be one of the oldest spouses in the group.”

Chaos relaxed a bit, focused on cooking. He delivered plates to the table, quickly touching Scott’s hand as he settled a plate in from of him.

“Dari is unusual,” Scott continued after a pause to snag a finger of Chaos’s and squeeze. “I’m half Afghani.”

“Wait,” Scott looked at Chaos to his right. “You helped them out of a cave.”

Dari looked quickly at Chaos, “they didn’t need my help.”

Scott looked between them. “Maybe that’s some official story,” he shrugged it off. “Did you grow up in Afghanistan?”

“No,” Dari answered too quickly. Chaos and Scott looked at her. Realizing she needed to give, “I was young, my father was killed in Iraq. My mother took me ‘home’ to Afghanistan. I was sold by my uncle. I was taken to a cave and brutalized for days. There was a SEAL team there and they took me with them when they escaped.”

“Dari,” Chaos nearly whispered. “You came after us,” knowing she was a badass, but now knowing the internal struggle she went through to be there.

“I thought you hated women,” Dari retorted. Chaos laughed. She turned to Scott, “he’s always ‘mission, mission, mission.’ No one knows this,” Dari’s hands encompassed everything about Chaos’s private life.

“Dari, I didn’t know how this would go over.”

“Maybe not training, but you’re on a team! You would die for each other!” Scott amusingly watched them battle. “They’re going to be hurt you didn’t trust them.”

“Dari--”

“It’s not my place. You tell them. We will let him hang with us spouses if he wants.” She held a hand up and pointed, mocking a secret, “he has a vineyard. He can get us drunk.” Scott laughed.

36

CHAOS

Chaos led Dari to the door when they were done. “I put Scott’s number in your phone. He has yours.” He stopped at the door, “Dari, I had no idea that happened to you as a girl. I‘m sorry you came into that cave.”

Dari half smiled, “Anytime I would do it over. Your team is something I’m part of. But my secret is mine.” She motioned into the apartment, meaning Scott, “yours, I feel like the team has a right to. I don’t have to hide who I am, regardless of what happened. You, are hiding.” Dari turned on her heel and started down the stairs, “I’ll talk to Scott later.”

“She is great,” Scott said as Chaos joined him in the hallway on the way to the bedroom. Chaos clipped him into the wall. His hands on either side, he pinned him there, his mouth roughly meeting Scott’s. Scott met him full force, lust raging through him as he grabbed Chaos around the waist, yanking him closer. Chaos reached for the buttons on Scott’s shirt.

37

HAMMER

Hammer looked down at his phone, “I got to go.”

“Is it the baby?” Chaos asked as Hammer headed for the door.

“Yeah. I’ll call once everything is good.” The team’s eyes met, and they were five steps behind Hammer. Brooke had proven quite calm and capable. She had grabbed a bag with stuff for Asher and gotten a cab to get to the hospital. She had not noticed the tail the cab had enroute. Unfamiliar with the hospital off post, the team stopped at the front desk for directions to the mother baby unit. When they got to the right floor, they found out Brooke had never checked in. “Where could she be?”

“Maybe she didn’t get out of the apartment?” Trey offered.

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