The Military Wife (A Heart of a Hero, #1)(23)
The dance floor had turned into a melee, women ducking out of the scrum and men joining it. Bennett waded in throwing elbows to heads to clear a path. Carter was being held by one man while another took a sucker punch.
Bennett let out a deafening holler and grabbed the man who was doing the punching by the back of his shirt, spinning him around and landing a jab on his nose. He went down but had plenty of friends.
Bennett and Noah ended up back to back fending off one man after another. Everyone was drunk and the hits and kicks were clumsy and off target. The adrenaline rushing Bennett like a tsunami eased his restlessness. Not as good as sex but satisfying in its own way.
He laughed and head butted the same guy he’d initially punched. A man grabbed him from behind in a wrestling hold that effectively disabled him. Whoever had him was bigger, stronger, and sober.
He was frog-marched toward the entrance, yelling obscenities and threats along the way. Six feet out the door, the man released his hold and shoved Bennett away. He stumbled before getting his feet under him and turned. Noah, his eyes bright and wild, walked out on his own steam. Hollis wandered in circles, rubbing his neck, and Carter sat on the ground, his head between his knees.
The bouncer planted himself like a tree in front of them. “My brother is serving, which is the only reason I’m not calling the po-po to haul your sorry asses in. Now get gone before I change my mind.”
Sometimes retreat was the best and only option. Bennett grabbed Carter’s collar and hauled him to his feet. “Wise advice. Thanks, man.”
Bennett crossed glances with Noah and gestured his head toward Hollis. Noah threw an arm around Hollis’s shoulders and steered him toward the sidewalk. Bennett followed. Carter was close to passing out, but Bennett wanted to get out of retaliation range from the guys at the bar.
They were in a popular area close to the water, and it wasn’t so late to be deserted. Bennett scanned over their group. All of them looked worse for wear. Blood dotted Carter’s shirt. A tickle had Bennett wiping his own nose, his fingers coming away stained red.
An unoccupied bench sat in a small grassy area, and Bennett steered them toward it to regroup. Hollis and Carter were deposited side by side.
“My car. We have to go back for it.” Hollis tried to get up, but he plopped back down, his balance nonexistent.
“None of us are in any shape to drive. I’ll call a cab.” Bennett stepped away.
Carter leaned over and heaved, puke splattering his shoes.
The call made, Bennett went to stand next to Noah, who was looking out over the water. The artificial lights behind them turned the bay black and fathomless. As his adrenaline ebbed, a rhythmic throb in his face and shoulder gained in intensity. Feeling unsteady, Bennett leaned against the light pole.
“Why the SEALs?” Bennett asked. “Why not college?”
“According to my dad, college is a waste of money. You don’t need a college degree to farm. My choice was the military or farming. I’m the only son and my dad expects me to take over.”
“You don’t want that?”
“Not right now. I’m only nineteen. I want to see the world. Do something important before I get caught up in the day-to-day grind of worrying about the weather and crop prices. You think that makes me a selfish asshole?”
“Nope. Makes you normal, I’d say. But why the SEALs?”
“The men in my family have always served. Had an uncle in the First Gulf War. A grandad in Vietnam. All the way back to the American Revolution. Seemed natural to join, and I wanted a challenge. Recruiter told me SEALs was the hardest.” A small self-deprecating laugh emerged like a whisper. “I didn’t know what I was getting into.”
“Regrets?”
“I was regretting it hard when I landed in that damn mud pit and strained my shoulder. But now?” He shrugged. “No regrets. What about you? Why the SEALs?”
Dammit. If he’d been sober, he wouldn’t have allowed curiosity to get the better of him, knowing it could boomerang back around. “I was adopted by an Army veteran. A drill sergeant.”
It was more than he’d admitted to anyone since he’d joined up. But he wouldn’t go further back than the moment Sarge signed the papers making the adoption legal.
“Geez. Did he make you square your sheets and spit shine your shoes?”
The image was so far from reality, Bennett laughed. “Not hardly. He’d turned into one of those hard-core preppers that live off the grid. The smartest SOB I’ve ever met. Taught me how to hunt and survive.”
“He sounds cool. Why didn’t you go into the Army then?”
“Wanted to get the hell out of Mississippi. Thought the Navy was the best way to see the world. Sarge was just happy I didn’t end up in jail.”
“I’ll bet he’s over the moon you made it into the SEAL program.”
Bennett could nod and leave it there, but more leaked out of his beer-weakened defenses. “He died. A couple of years after I joined up. Massive heart attack. It was a while before his niece got worried and found him, and she buried him quick. I was in the middle of the ocean and couldn’t get back for the funeral.”
Sarge’s niece had changed Bennett’s destiny when she’d put him with her uncle. Then, she changed it again when she’d written to him about her uncle’s death and the money he’d left Bennett. Money he didn’t deserve. It was then he’d decided to go for the SEALs. He had nothing to lose but his life and no one to disappoint but himself.