The Airman's E-Mail Order Bride (Heroes of Chance Creek Book 5)

By Cora Seton

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Copyright © 2015 Cora Seton

Kindle Edition

ISBN: 9781927036617

Published by One Acre Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The Airman’s E-Mail Order Bride is the fifth in the five volume series,
The Heroes of Chance Creek
. To find out more about Mason, Regan, Austin, Zane, Colt and other Chance Creek inhabitants, look for the rest of the books in the series, including:

The Navy SEAL’s E-mail Order Bride (Volume 1)

The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 2)

The Marine’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 3)

The Navy SEAL’s Christmas Bride (Volume 4)

Find out where it all began with
The Cowboys of Chance Creek
Series:

The Cowboy Inherits a Bride (Volume 0)

The Cowboy’s E-mail Order Bride (Volume 1)

The Cowboy Wins a Bride (Volume 2)

The Cowboy Imports a Bride (Volume 3)

The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire (Volume 4)

The Sheriff Catches a Bride (Volume 5)

The Cowboy Lassos a Bride (Volume 6)

The Cowboy Rescues a Bride (Volume 7)

The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Volume 8)

A SEAL’s Oath

A SEAL’s Vow

A SEAL’s Pledge

A SEAL’s Consent

Visit
www.coraseton.com
for more titles and release dates.

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.

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July

S
taff Sergeant Colt
Hall squatted in the darkness on a rocky outcrop high in the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. His father, Aaron, crouched silently beside him. Dawn would come soon, but for now the valley was full of shadows where anything could hide.

“Tough country.”

“Got that right,” Colt said. He knew his father shouldn’t stand watch with him while the rest of his team slept; he knew something was odd about Aaron’s presence there at all, but he couldn’t quite work it out. Colt had served with this small band of Navy SEALs for the past year in his position as an Air Force combat controller, and he needed to stay alert and not be distracted by conversation—or conundrums. This hour of the night was lonely, though, and he appreciated his father’s company, even if they were breaking the rules.

“Hard to make a living from that land.”

“They grow ’em tough as nails around here,” Colt agreed. He didn’t know how the Afghans eked sustenance out of these hills year after year, lifetime after lifetime.

“You’ve got some good land waiting for you back in Montana.”

Colt shifted. He knew that. He could just about taste summer in Chance Creek, but he chased all memories of Crescent Hall, his family’s ranch, from his mind. “I’ve got a job to do here.”

“I think your stint here’s about finished, son.”

Finished? His job was never finished. If it wasn’t the Taliban in Afghanistan, it was drug lords in Central America, or an earthquake in Haiti. “I don’t think so.”

“Someone’s waiting for you. Don’t let them down.”

Waiting for him? Colt turned his head to look at his father, all the time knowing he had to keep watch on the valley below. They could be ambushed at any time, especially in these hushed moments between night and sunrise.

His father’s expression held love, compassion and something else—something… wistful. He set his hand on Colt’s shoulder.

“Time to go home.”

Colt reared up from sleep with a gasp so loud he woke his three companions and sent their lookout scrambling for cover under the nearby trees. His father’s voice rang so clearly in his mind he jerked around to find him, but all he saw was the rocky escarpment on which they’d made camp. A hint of the coming dawn eased the dark grays into lighter shades in the east. Otherwise, all was as bleak and grim as it had been when he’d gone to bed.

“What the fuck, Colt?” Tanner Hudson hissed close by his side.

“Just a dream,” Colt managed to say. But what a dream. He still couldn’t believe he’d been sleeping instead of standing guard. It had felt so real—especially Aaron’s hand on his shoulder.
Time to go home.

Colt eased back to rest on his elbows. Aaron had been dead for over a decade and Colt had never had a visitation like this.
Not a visitation
, he reminded himself.
Just a dream
. Just his mind playing tricks on him.

He hadn’t wanted to go home since Aaron had died and his family had been forced to leave Chance Creek and go to live with his aunt in Florida. Even now that his brothers had begun to move back to claim their family’s old ranch, there were too many memories he didn’t want to face, especially the ones that had to do with his father.

Colt had joined the Air Force just as soon as he’d turned seventeen. His brother, Austin, had already decided to enter the military and the rest of them had joined up when it became clear their mother, in her grief over their father’s death, couldn’t support them. Colt had worked his way up the ranks and now his job was to aid this advance party behind enemy lines by calling in airstrikes and relaying coordinates to the pilots and rear crews.

Time to go home.

Why had his father been so insistent? And who could be waiting for him?
Don’t let them down
. Colt settled back and pulled his covers around him, his heart rate slowing. He’d already let his father down the day Aaron died. The last time he’d seen his father alive, he’d been in too much of a hurry to slow down and talk to him. His family had still owned Crescent Hall back then, the old three-story mansion and the ranch that shared its name. Colt, just sixteen and on fire for Heather Ward—his new girlfriend and his brother Austin’s ex—had met Aaron on the path between the house and the barn.

“Hold up a minute,” Aaron had called out. “You off to cause trouble?”

“No.” But he hadn’t met his father’s eyes as he raced on by.

“You know what you’re doing isn’t right!” his father had shouted after him.

Colt hadn’t answered. Hopped up on adrenaline and hormones, he’d done exactly what his father had feared he’d do: slept with the girl who only weeks ago had dated his brother. He’d regretted every last illicit minute with Heather ever since. Before he’d even reached the woods and his meeting place with her, his father had died from an aneurysm. Colt didn’t learn of it for hours. His tryst with Heather marked the last few moments of what he now knew was a glorious childhood, and introduced him to the wonders of making love. But the nightmare he’d come home to had wiped any joyful memory from his mind. He couldn’t think of that day with anything but horror.

He’d killed his father while betraying his brother. Aaron must have worried so much about the rift he knew was coming between his sons that a vein in his brain had burst and felled him instantly.

Colt swallowed against the nausea that rose in his throat. His older brother, Zane, was the only one who knew that he’d been with Heather at all, and no one knew about the words he’d exchanged with Aaron on the track between the house and barn. No one would ever know. He’d never been with Heather again. Had broken off all contact with her as soon as he learned his father was dead—even before his family was forced to leave the ranch a scant two weeks later. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done, especially since none of it was Heather’s fault. All the blame was his. He was the one so caught up in lust and love that he hadn’t heard the sense in his father’s words.

Heather Ward. Colt turned over, knowing soon it would be time to get up. Around him the others settled in again to try to glean a few last moments of rest. Once he thought he’d marry Heather and live out his days on the family’s ranch, but that was so long ago it didn’t matter anymore. Four months ago, he and his brothers had been given another chance to win it back. He’d scoffed at Mason, Austin and Zane when they’d agreed to his Aunt Heloise’s crazy conditions for inheriting the place, but when they’d pressured him he’d agreed to do his part. Heloise had insisted they fix up the buildings and stock the ranch with cattle. In addition, all four of them had to marry, and one had to have a child.

“I won’t leave the Air Force,” he’d told his brothers, and they’d agreed it wasn’t necessary. All they needed was for him to find a wife.

The dream about Aaron had cracked a fault line through his resolution to stay away. The truth was he’d never felt worthy to go home—not after what he’d done. Maybe the aneurysm would have struck whether he raced by or stopped to talk to his dad. Still, he couldn’t help think that losing his father and the ranch all in one blow was divine retribution for his sins.

But if his father wanted him home…

It was just a dream
, he reminded himself.

“It’s time,” Brian Leyton whispered from several feet away. The others began to stir and prepare to move out for another day’s reconnaissance. As Colt got to his feet and silently stowed his gear in his backpack, he felt again the pressure of his father’s hand on his shoulder.

Time to go home
. He stood still amidst his team’s activity, and took a long look around him. Mountains stretched in every direction. He’d never been in such a starkly beautiful, empty place. For a moment, the sounds of his companions fell away and Colt stood alone under a sky so large it seemed to recede from him. The details of his mission emptied from his mind and he gave himself up to the beauty of the sunrise in a strange land so far from home.

Someone’s waiting for you. Don’t let them down
. The words were only an echo from his earlier dream, but the message sliced through all Colt’s defenses straight to his heart. He missed Chance Creek with an ache he’d lived with so long it had become part of him. Maybe his father was right; maybe it was time. Time to confess to his brothers what had happened the day of their father’s death. Time to apologize to Austin for his tryst with Heather. Time to find a wife, get married, and take his place on the ranch with the rest of his family.

Colt let out a breath and the world came rushing back in. Small birds peeped in the brush around them. His teammates, as quiet as they could be, still rustled as they moved. Tanner edged up to him. “Ready?” he asked, voice low.

“Yeah,” Colt said, taking one last look around. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

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