No Man Left Behind: A Veteran Inspired Charity Anthology by Elizabeth Knox (black authors fiction TXT) 📕

“Who are you?” I ask in a really high-pitched voice. “Did you seriously offer to have him killed?”

“Just kidding,” he replies but I’m not convinced. “We’ll trail him the first week or so and see what he’s up to. Of course, it’s best if we catch him coming after you but we’ll intercept and discourage him as needed.”

“I suppose this is a good time to ask about your fee structure?”

“It’s on the house.” He shrugs off my question as his eyes continually track the emotions washing over my face. “You need to let me know immediately if he calls, emails, or mails you anything. Another route would be to reach out to his family, let them know little Anthony is up to his old tricks.”

“Will you stay for dinner?” I ask, immediately regretting the question; knowing it’s neither high on my list of skills nor my kitchen.

“As long as Owen cooks.” Keith grins, letting me off the hook. “How’s he doing with his therapy animal, anyway?”

“Good. I thought I’d resent this situation a little more. Besides cutting the line, we normally choose applicants with mobility impairments over mental health issues but it’s easy to remind myself how many veterans will be served with the donation that was made.”

He tilts his head in almost a hybrid mixture of ‘I understand your point’ and ‘that’s how life is’ but once I realize he’s not going to say anything else, I excuse myself to go wake Owen.

“Hey,” I softly say as I nudge Owen’s foot. Getting nothing but a grunt, I nudge it again. Duckie gets more of a response when he sits up and lies on top of his thigh.

“What time is it?”

“Close to dinner time and I accidently invited Keith to eat with us.” The words roll off my tongue as I enjoy the sleepy, little boy expression on his face as he wakes up. It fades so quickly I almost think I imagined it. “Come to think of it, I invited myself also.”

“Come here.” His deep voice rumbles out.

Taking his hand, I let out a squeal when he pulls me on top of him. “Don’t talk so much when I wake up.”

Owen softens his words by kissing my forehead and holding me to his chest, Duckie comes up to investigate and he kisses me, also, making us both laugh.

“I thought we already decided you were staying?” he asks and I nod. “Okay, so the only problem I have is that I have to get up to fix dinner rather than go for round three with you.”

“That’s a very serious problem, soldier,” I say as sternly as I can while rubbing my finger in a circular motion around his nipple. Grunting, he pulls my finger up to kiss it before sliding me off of him.

“Let’s see how sarcastic you are after I wear you out tonight.”

I lie back, enjoying the view of his ass as he walks to the bathroom, even after hearing a bark of laughter from Keith.

“He’s going to break my heart in the best possible way, Duckie,” I softly confide in the furry beast beside me. That’s a problem for another day though.

Dinner is more fun than I ever could have imagined. I might even go so far to say that Keith was funnier than I expected, although he didn’t always mean to be. He graciously went along with Owen and I making fun of him and knew when to take a hint that we wanted to be alone before it got much later.

It’s their conversation while I start the dishes that gets my attention.

“I ran into Missy when I was in Atlanta the other day,” Keith says in a quieter voice than normal. “It was a coffee shop so I was hoping she’d mind her business but, well, do you even want to hear what she wanted you to know?”

“Wanted me to know?” Owen sounds incredulous.

“No other reason for her to speak to me, she knows how I feel about her,” Keith answers, then continues. “She said she’s engaged, he’s stationed at Dobbins, and flashed a ring.”

“Great, let the tag chaser get what she wanted as long as she ain’t my problem anymore.” Owen’s voice is low and angry when he responds.

“You dodged a big fucking bullet there, brother,” Keith whistles before adding, “you know what you’re doing now?”

“Hey Lucy!” he calls out, though he’s smart enough to know I was listening. “What’d you say they call it now? Instead of ‘friends with benefits’?”

“Netflix and chill,” Keith and I answer at the same time as I come behind Owen and thread my fingers through his hair.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” Keith says, standing as he thanks Owen for the meal. “Lucy, you remember to call me if you have any issues with Anthony. We’ll keep him on our watch list though.”

The door is barely closed behind him when Owen turns to me and pulls his shirt off. I laugh and run toward his bed but he catches me and brings me to the couch instead.

“Time to learn how to ride a man, baby,” he says as we start making out and somehow, I feel more confident in his arms than with the other two men I’d been with.

Sometime later, as I’m slowly riding his thick cock, and he’s looking at me with pure lust, I know I may have made some mistakes along the way but this is how a woman should feel when she’s with a man.

Chapter Six

Owen

The following weeks, mostly spent with Lucy, are the happiest I’ve been since my early days in the service.

Duckie is with me constantly and at some point, I stopped thinking of him as a therapy animal. He’s got a personality all his own but understands when I need him—from rolling into my side when I’m having a nightmare to times like this, at the grocery store and wanting to shove my knife into the