Mike

  Mike

  Delta Forces Series

  By Elizabeth Lennox

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  Copyright 2020

  ISBN13: 9781950451296

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any duplication of this material, either electronic or any other format, either currently in use or a future invention, is strictly prohibited, unless you have the direct consent of the author.

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt from “Zeke”

  Chapter 1

  “What can I get you guys?” Lexie asked, smothering another yawn. It was only about eight o’clock and she had at least another century to go before the bar closed for the night.

  “Just a pitcher of beer,” one of the men replied.

  The deep, sexy voice startled Lexie. She looked up from her notepad and looked into the darkest, most amazing eyes she’d ever seen. Dark, sexy eyes that perfectly matched the man’s low, husky voice!

  “And four glasses.”

  Oh, if she could bottle that voice, she thought. She could…a dark eyebrow went up and Lexie suddenly realized that she was staring.

  “Right!” she gasped, jerking her eyes away from Mr. Sexy Eyes. Lexie shook herself, and smiled. “Pitcher of beer and four glasses. Do you want Miller, Coors or…?”

  “You have Blue Moon on draft, right?”

  She had to smother a sigh as his wonderful voice sent additional shivers of happiness down her spine.

  She nodded, feeling weird for her fan-girl staring-blip, and stepped back from the table. “Yep. A pitcher of Blue Moon and four glasses coming up.” Turning on her heel, she wove her way through the bar. It was eight o’clock on a Friday night. Living near a military base was a bit different than living in other cities. It was a bit dirtier. A lot louder. And significantly more male. This was one of the nicer bars in the small town situated just outside of the base, but no one would mistake it for The Ritz.

  Lexie realized that she had no idea what Mr. Sexy Eyes looked like beyond his eyes. Thinking to rectify that, she slipped behind the bar so she could spy surreptitiously on the table.

  “Hey, Tim. I’ll get this order,” she said to her manager who was hustling behind the bar, filling drink orders.

  Tim grabbed several more glasses, looking more than slightly frazzled. “It’s a bit crazy tonight,” he grumbled.

  As she positioned the plastic pitcher underneath the Blue Moon draft nozzle, Lexie scanned the crowd, pretending to be casual, but her main goal was to find the guy at the corner table and see what he looked like. One table at a time, she let her eyes move past until…!

  “Wow!” she whispered.

  Instantly alert, Tim looked up and followed her gaze. “What? Is there a problem?”

  Georgia, one of the other waitresses, stepped behind the bar to collect her order. “Who are the hot guys over at the corner table?” she demanded breathlessly.

  Georgia and Lexie were friends, but for a moment, Lexie could have scratched the woman’s eyes out! She wanted to tell her to stop looking at her man but…but she couldn’t pull her gaze away from the big guy sitting in the corner, his chair tilted back on the back two legs and…and he stared back at her. Stared at her as if he knew exactly how she was mentally undressing him! Wow!

  “Watch it!” Tim snapped at Lexie.

  The liquid pouring over her hands was the second clue that Lexie wasn’t paying attention. Jerking back to the present, she looked down to realize that the pitcher had filled up and was now spilling over.

  “Oh!” and she turned off the tap, hastily grabbing a bar towel to clean up her mess. “Darn it!” she muttered. “Sorry Tim.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said, and reached over to pour two more beers while she wiped up the spilled beer.

  Lexie tossed the wet towel into the laundry bin, grabbed four chilled beer mugs and hefted the pitcher with her other hand. Taking a deep breath, she headed towards the table again, bracing herself and hoping she didn’t feel so…wowed…this time.

  “Here you go, gentlemen,” she announced, pasting on a smile as she set the pitcher of beer down in the middle of the table. She’d moved to the opposite side from the big guy with the dark eyes and deep voice, needing the space. But as she stepped back, she glanced up at him and…sure enough, he was staring at her, a knowing look in those incredible eyes.

  One of the other three men said something, but Lexie didn’t hear their comments. Wiping her hands on her apron, she muttered something that she prayed was intelligible, then backed away, almost tripping over a chair behind her. Righting herself, she glanced over her shoulder and…darn it, he was still watching her!

  Thankfully, there wasn’t amusement in his eyes. Curiosity, yes. Interest? Well, Lexie couldn’t really say because she wouldn’t look back at him.

  Moving along to her other tables, she took several more orders, checked in with the others, and then moved back to the bar to fill the newest requests.

  “What’s his name?” Georgia asked.

  Lexie jumped about a foot in the air and Georgia pulled back, her eyes wide.

  “Sorry!” Lexie gasped, putting a hand on her chest. “You just scared me.”

  “Ditto, honey!” Georgia laughed. They reached for glasses and started mixing drinks for their customers. “So, what’s his name?”

  Lexie didn’t even look up from her mixing. She grabbed the vodka bottle, the gin, and the mixers. “I didn’t ask.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t care,” she asserted and grabbed the bourbon, looked at it, forcing herself to remember the orders her customers had requested, and then put the bourbon back. With a shake of her head, she finished preparing the various drinks, poured five more mugs of beer, and set everything on her tray.

  “You do too care,” Georgia laughed, going through the same routine for her tables, although Georgia was faster at mixing than Lexie today. Normally, they were equally fast and efficient, getting the drinks mixed in record time. Sometimes, they even competed, just to make the night go by a bit faster.

  “I don’t,” she repeated in a singsong voice, then hefted the tray, carrying it through the increasingly dense crowd. At this time of the night, there were mostly military men and women who had drifted in at the end of a hard week of training. The civilian ladies would make their appearance soon, they preferred to arrive a bit later. The military guys would be well lubricated by then, and would be more generous with their drink offers and compliments.

  In other bars, there would also be arguments and fist fights that might or might not be broken up by the local police or the military police depending on the severity.

  This bar was, thankfully, tamer than most. But that didn’t mean it didn’t have its problems.

  “At least the boys are behaving tonight,” Georgia muttered as she sidled up beside Lexie later that evening.

  Lexie laughed. “So far!”

  They shared a chuckle, grabbed fresh beers and hustled back to their tables to deliver the latest round of drinks.

  By eleven o’clock that night, Lexie was feeling pretty happy about the evening. The tips were good, the customers were behaving, the music was loud, and so far, no one had chosen any of the more obnoxious songs on the jukebox.

  That’s when she spotted the ladies coming into the bar. Obviously, Georgia saw them as well as she walked past Lexie. “Look out,” she muttered, looking grim and Lexie understood.

  “I’m with ya,” Lexie replied. “Think it will be…?” She trailed off as the four ladies in question, who showed up pretty much every weekend, spotted the four men in the corner. Her men, Lexie thought with rising jealousy.

  “They’re after your guys,” Georgia hissed. “Should I run some interference?”

  Lexie stiffened and looked away, wishing those women were somewhere, anywhere, else. But Lexie couldn’t show her jealousy. It wasn’t her place and those men, the one in particular, she had no claim to. With a sigh, Lexie shook her head. “No. Why would you do that?”

  Georgia’s only reaction was to roll her eyes as she picked up her tray of drinks and set off to deliver them to her patrons.

  Mike watched the pretty waitress, wondering what it was about her that kept drawing his eye. Besides her figure, which was an obvious allure. And her cute features. Her brown hair was pulled up into a pony tail that hung down to about her shoulders. He suspected that she had blue eyes, although he wasn’t sure in the dim lighting of the bar. But every time she walked away, his eyes were drawn to her legs. The woman had great legs! They were currently encased in a tight pair of jeans that hugged every inch of her luscious curves.

  The pitcher of beer they’d ordered was empty and he looked around, trying to spot the pretty woman. But instead, his eyes collided with a brash blond woman in a too tight red dress and way too much red lipstick. Her hair was curled and primped into a huge, gravity-defying cloud around her head. Lots of makeup, skin tight red dress, huge earrings that nearly touched her shoulders and…he shuddered with horror…a determined, man-eater look to her eyes that were laser focused on him.

  “Oh boy,” he muttered in disgust. His c
omment garnered the attention of his friends and teammates, who eyed the heavily made-up ladies making a beeline for their table.

  “Aw hell,” Joe groaned. “They look like trouble!”

  “Agree,” Derick grunted, the front two legs of his chair dropping onto the wood floor.

  Zeke remained silent, his eyes narrowed, although Mike wasn’t sure if that was caused by interest or disgust. One never knew when it came to Zeke. The guy was a mystery when it came to women. Even after years of friendship, Zeke kept to himself, never commenting about women one way or the other. Some wondered if he was gay. But Mike knew that Zeke was as heterosexual as he was. Something in Zeke’s past still haunted the man, although Mike never asked and Zeke didn’t tell.

  “Make ‘em go away,” Joe muttered, staring determinedly at the floor to avoid eye contact.

  Mike chuckled softly, shaking his head as if Joe’s suggestion was even a possibility. As an Army colonel and the highest-ranking officer in the group, they would follow his orders without hesitation. But Mike wasn’t inclined to help out his fellow officers in this case. Especially since their pretty waitress was definitely showing signs of jealousy.

  “They’re gonna eat us up,” Joe grumbled. “Mike, don’t you have…”

  “Hi fellas,” the blond with huge hair purred, putting her hand on Joe’s shoulder and leaning over the table.

  Mike almost laughed at the pained look Joe shot him. It was an, “Ick, get it off,” expression. Mike had seen that look only once before. They’d been in the jungle on deep cover and a snake had slithered over Joe’s hand. Joe could handle just about anything. He’d gone into situations that would leave other people mentally and emotionally shattered. He’d destroyed terrorist strongholds, single handedly carried a grown man out of a hostage situation – while firing his weapon at the same time. And Mike had seen Joe take apart a computer with lighting fast fingers and install a secret bug, then put the whole thing back together without anyone the wiser. But snakes really freaked him out!

  Right now, Joe looked as if a snake was crawling over his shoulders. In reality, it was only the long fingers tipped with red talons of a woman who, if she hadn’t been wearing an inch of makeup and about a gallon of hairspray, might have been pretty.

  “Ladies,” Mike nodded.

  “Wanna buy some lonely ladies a drink?” the woman asked.

  Mike cringed, but then spotted their waitress over by the bar. If looks could kill, the ladies would have been splattered all over the wall. Or maybe it was him that she was shooting that angry glare at.

  He chuckled at the death glare, but since she’d been avoiding him all night, he turned back to the woman. “Sure. Why don’t you ladies pull up a chair?” he offered.

  “What?” Joe snapped, but with a look from Mike, he shut his mouth.

  Mike shrugged. “Why not?” he muttered under his breath as Zeke walked over to grab four empty chairs lined up against the wall, bringing them to the table. But instead of putting an empty chair between each of the men, Zeke lined up the chairs right next to Mike. It was an obvious signal that Zeke didn’t want the company of the overly made up ladies either.

  At the irritated look in Mike’s eyes, Derick leaned back in his chair. “Your fault,” he laughed.

  The blond didn’t like the set up either, but she wasn’t sure how to change it, especially since Derick, Zeke, and Joe all scooted their chairs closer together on the opposite side of the table in order to make room for the four additional chairs, leaving Mike surrounded by the ladies.

  Mike rolled his eyes, his dark gaze promising retribution. “You know, I’m in charge of PT tomorrow,” he warned.

  Joe and Derick snorted, not alarmed in any way.

  Zeke lifted a shoulder in dismissal. “Bring it on, old man.”

  For the next two hours, the four men pushed back from the table, allowing the ladies to entertain them. Meanwhile, Mike watched the waitress. She was cute, he thought. Definitely not his normal type, but he liked her soft, brown hair and…the more he watched her, the more he thought that her eyes were blue. Irish blue. And her legs were incredible! She had a slender waist, but he couldn’t see much about her breasts since her tee shirt was too big.

  Although, it wasn’t her figure that kept drawing his attention.

  Okay, her figure definitely drew his eyes! But it was more than that. There was an energy about her, something bright and alive and…almost innocent. Her eyes were filled with happiness, her smile, when she greeted her other customers, was genuine. When someone complimented her, she waved it aside. But she was nice about it.

  Not to mention, his body was alert to her presence. It was similar to the sensation he got when he knew that the enemy was close by, although this wasn’t a malevolent sensation. No, this was the opposite. He was aware of her, as if she were essential to his world. As if she could…okay, he was starting to sound like a romantic sap!

  “Honey, why aren’t you paying attention to me?” the blond woman whined petulantly, her lips brushing his ear.

  Mike immediately wanted to wipe the red lipstick away, wondering if he might get rabies from her saliva.

  Shifting further away, he smiled politely at her. “I’m fine.”

  The woman, whose name he couldn’t remember, even though he was pretty sure that she’d introduced herself as well as her three friends, was undeterred by his less than enthusiastic response.

  “Forget Lexie,” the blonde whispered, moving closer so that her ample breasts brushed his arm. “She’s not interested. I am.”

  “Lexie?” he asked, glancing at her, then pulling away when he realized how close the woman was. Damn, she was scary!

  “The waitress you keep staring at. Her name is Lexie and she’s a complete prude. I’ve never seen her leave with a guy.” Her red lips curled into what she probably thought was a sexy smile, but to Mike, just looked predatory. “I’d leave with you right now if you say the word.”

  Mike didn’t want to know what “word” might give her a signal that he was interested, so he kept his mouth shut and pulled away, frowning at his friends-slash-traitors.

  “Guys, we have training tomorrow morning,” he announced to the other three, all of whom were sitting on the other side of the table with their arms crossed, looking pissed off.

  Before he was even finished, the other three were heading for the door.

  Mike frown at their retreating backs. “Don’t worry about the tab. I’ve got it covered!”

  Only Zeke lifted a hand in acknowledgement, but he didn’t slow down.

  Mike watched them leave as he extricated himself from the blonde’s clutches. “I’ve got to head out, ladies,” he said.

  The blond pouted, but her red lips were too glossy for the expression to be effective. “Why don’t you come back to my place tonight?” she offered. “I could convince you that training tomorrow morning can be delayed.”

  Mike didn’t even bother to laugh at the absurdity of her statement. Right now, the way his body was primed, a good, hard training day was exactly what he needed. And his body definitely wasn’t primed for the blond. It was the cute brunette that had him all fired up.

  “Maybe another time,” he replied, but with a tone that warned her that there wouldn’t be another time. Ever!

  She sighed, crossing her long legs in a way that nearly flashed her panties since the dress was so tight and short.

  Mike refrained from rolling his eyes as he walked over to the bar. With a nod, he caught the brunette’s attention and she approached warily.

  But before he could ask her for the bill, another guy roared with laughter, waving something in the air.

  “Guys! Look at this!”

  Mike realized it was a book. And from the bare-chested, muscular man on the cover, it appeared to be a romance.

  A small, angry noise caught his attention and Mike realized that it was the cute waitress, fuming, her cheeks flushed and…hell, she looked ready to punch the guy. Over a book?

  “Who reads this drivel?” the guy holding the book asked, and several other men laughed. The guy with the book flipped through the pages, obviously trying to find something in the text that he could read out loud. “How about this…” and he was just about to read something when Lexie rushed over and snatched the book.