Forged in Fire (Delos Series Book 3) Read online

  Forged in Fire

  Lindsay McKenna

  Praise for Lindsay McKenna

  “A treasure of a book … highly recommended reading that everyone will enjoy and learn from.”

  —Chief Michael Jaco, US Navy SEAL, retired, on Breaking Point

  “Readers will root for this complex heroine, scarred both inside and out, and hope she finds peace with her steadfast and loving hero. Rife with realistic conflict and spiced with danger, this is a worthy page-turner.”

  BookPage.com on Taking Fire

  March 2015 Top Pick in Romance

  “RUNNING FIRE … McKenna’s dazzling eight Shadow Warriors novel (after Taking Fire) is a rip-roaring contemporary military romance with heart and heat. McKenna elicits tears, laughter, fist-pumping triumph, and most of all, a desire for the next tale in this powerful series.”

  —(starred review) Publisher’s Weekly, 3.23.2015 on Running Fire

  “… is fast-paced romantic suspense that renders a beautiful love story, start to finish. McKenna’s writing is flawless, and her story line fully absorbing. More, please.”

  Annalisa Pesek, Library Journal on Taking Fire

  Ms. McKenna masterfully blends the two different paces to convey a beautiful saga about love, trust, patience and having faith in each other.

  —Fresh Fiction on Never Surrender

  “Genuine and moving, this romantic story set in the complex world of military ops grabs at the heart.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Risk Taker

  “McKenna does a beautiful job of illustrating difficult topics through the development of well-formed, sympathetic characters.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review) on Wolf Haven

  One of the Best Books of 2014, Publisher’s Weekly

  “McKenna delivers a story that is raw and heartfelt. The relationship between Kell and Leah is both passionate and tender. Kell is the hero every woman wants, and McKenna employs skill and s empathy to craft a physically and emotionally abused character in Leah. Using tension and steady pacing, McKenna is adept at expressing growing, tender love in the midst of high stakes danger.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Taking Fire

  “Her military background lends authenticity to this outstanding tale, and readers will fall in love with the upstanding hero and his fierce determination to save the woman he loves.

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Never Surrender

  One of the Best Books of 2014, Publisher’s Weekly

  “Readers will find this addition to the Shadow Warriors series full of intensity and action-packed romance. There is great chemistry between the characters and tremendous realism, making Breaking Point a great read.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “This sequel to Risk Taker is an action-packed, compelling story, and the sizzling chemistry between Ethan and Sarah makes this a good read.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Degree of Risk

  “McKenna’s military experience shines through i this moving tail … McKenna (High Country Rebel) skillfully takes readers on an emotional journey into modern warfare and two people’s hearts.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly on Down Range

  Also available from

  Lindsay McKenna

  Blue Turtle Publishing

  DELOS

  Nowhere To Hide

  Tangled Pursuit

  Forged in Fire

  Coming soon…

  Broken Dreams

  Harlequin/HQN/Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  SHADOW WARRIORS

  Running Fire

  On Fire—eBook

  Taking Fire

  Zone of Fire—eBook

  Never Surrender

  Breaking Point

  Degree of Risk

  Risk Taker

  Down Range

  Danger Close—eBook

  THE WYOMING SERIES

  Wolf Haven

  High Country Rebel

  The Loner

  The Defender

  The Wrangler

  The Last Cowboy

  Deadly Silence

  Deadly Identity

  Shadows From The Past

  Coming soon…

  Night Hawk, December 2015

  Out Rider, April 2016

  Forged in Fire

  Copyright © 2015 by Nauman Living Trust

  ISBN: 978-1-929977-09-3

  Kindle Edition

  Excerpt from Broken Dreams

  Copyright © 2015 by Nauman Living Trust

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Blue Turtle Publishing, PO Box 2513, Cottonwood, AZ 86326 USA

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Blue Turtle Publishing

  www.lindsaymckenna.com

  Printed in U.S.A.

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to book three of the Delos Series, Forged in Fire! I’ve spent five years creating this new saga-series and I’m excited to share it with you. Those readers who are familiar with Morgan’s Mercenaries (45 books strong) know that I wrote about a military family and their security contracting business, Perseus in the 1990’s. You and I fell in love with the Trayhern Family. It was the right tone for the tenor of the time.

  Today, we’re global. Those who have Internet can be halfway around the world in the blink of an eye. There are no longer boundaries, as we’ve known them before. We are a huge melting pot of humanity, warts and all. I wanted to create a global family this time that reflected the world we live in 2015. With this in mind, I created three families from three different parts of the world who hold all life sacred and important.

  The Culver family is from Alexandria, Virginia. The Kemel family is from Kusadasi, Turkey. The Mykonos family is from Athens, Greece. And like today, family members meet, fall in love and marry a partner from another country. There is a mixing of blood, experience, knowledge, philosophies and an emphasis on what is important to each of them.

  This is Matt Culver’s story. He is the fraternal twin to Alexa Culver. He was born first, so he considers himself the “big brother” to his twin. There is loving rivalry between the two, but Matt is a protector by nature.

  His mother, Dilara Culver, had a powerful vision while six months pregnant with them. She knew they were a boy and a girl and her vision was about the boy. In her vision, she saw a huge golden-maned lion, which had always been part of her powerful family’s crest, leap out of a red and yellow shield. The lion came up to her son who had just been born, licked him all over and claimed him as his own. And then, she saw the lion take her son and assume the infant boy’s form.

  Dilara woke from the vision, knowing that her son yet-to-be-born, carried the blood of the warriors in him. Her family’s history could be traced back to the eleventh century when Turkey wasn’t even a country yet. The men of her family were either warriors or sailors. They believed the lion portended that her son would become a warrior. She shared her vision with Robert, who agreed that their son would likely go into the military and be, just that, a warrior.

  Dr. Dara McKinley, a resident pediatrician, volunteered a week of her time to Hope Charity in Kabul, Afghanistan. She and h
er younger sister Callie, had agreed to do belly dances for the Thanksgiving USO show at Bagram Air Base for a crowd of four-thousand men who were not going home for the holiday. Later, as they avoided the men who wanted to meet them afterward, Dara’s life changed. A tall, bearded Army Delta Force operator with amber eyes and arresting brown and gold streaked hair met them at their escape door. Dara was mesmerized by the quiet, respectful warrior who asked to escort them to their van.

  Matt Culver felt his entire life transform the night Dara McKinley performed her belly dance. He’d lived his entire twenty-seven years of life on his powerful animal survival instincts. Golden haired beauty Dara grabbed his heart and never let it go. He plots and plans on how to meet her, how to get time alone with her. Wanting much more than just her incredible body, Matt found himself falling in love with this gentle, quiet healer whose world was to dote upon babies and children placed in her care. But when their world upends at a safe Afghan village where she is to give her medical services, he finds himself fighting to save their lives … and their love.

  I enjoy the freedom of being an “Indie” (independent) writer. In July 2016, a novella, Never Enough, will be published. It will be a continuation of the Matt and Dara’s story and their burgeoning life with one another. This will be available only in eBook formats. You’ll go deeper into their individual stories. I have always wanted to write beyond the main book, but in brick and mortar publishing, it was almost impossible. Now I can do it. Please drop me a line and let me know if you like these novellas.

  Let me hear from you about the Culver Family and the Delos series. Please join my newsletter at www.lindsaymckenna.com. Keep up with the latest, exciting happenings with my series.

  For a quote book on Forged in Fire, go to lindsaymckenna.com/2015/05/forgedinfire. Please share this quote book. It’s free, fun and a modern-day comic book!

  Happy reading!

  Warmly, Lindsay McKenna

  Dedication

  To all my readers who loved the Morgan’s Mercenary saga-series! Now there is a new one … the Delos series! May you enjoy this vibrant, exciting global family!

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Praise for Lindsay McKenna

  Also available from Lindsay McKenna

  Copyright Page

  Dear Reader

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Excerpt from Broken Dreams

  The Books of Delos

  Everything Delos!

  CHAPTER 1

  “Hey, Culver, come on. There’s a Thanksgiving show over at the main chow hall,” Beau Gardner drawled, grabbing his best friend by the upper arm. “Get your sorry ass up and let’s go.”

  Matt gave him a cranky look. He sat on a bench in the locker room of CAG/Delta Force HQ at Bagram, pulling his scarred, dusty boots off his aching feet. “You go,” he muttered, “I’m not up for it.”

  They’d just come off a bitch of a three-day mission chasing down Taliban near the Af-Pak border. The rest of Matt’s five-man team was now cleaning their weapons, then storing them in their lockers in the building’s cramped quarters.

  “All I want is a hot shower, food, and a bunk,” Matt groaned. “I’m wiped.”

  Beau, who was naked and getting ready to shower, said, “It’s three days to Thanksgiving here at Bagram, and none of us are goin’ home for the holiday, bro. The charity girls are joining the USO folks and are putting on a talent show over at the chow hall for all of us.” He punched Matt in the arm. “Hey, it’s women! At least we can sit and slobber, even if we can’t touch ’em.”

  Matt pushed his dark brown hair streaked with gold off his brow and grumpily looked up at his tall, lanky buddy. He and Beau had been in Delta Force now for five years and had forged a solid friendship. “I’m done in,” he said. “All I want is to shower and get about three days’ worth of sleep.”

  But Beau wasn’t about to give up. “Hey, I’ve heard there’s a lot of good-lookin’ women over there. Come on, grab a shower and let’s go to the chow hall, eat, and take in the show.”

  Growling, Matt shoved off his boot and tipped it over, sand spilling out onto the concrete floor. “Jesus, Beau. You are a total pain in the ass. Now get off my back, damn it, so I can take my shower.”

  Chuckling, Beau said, “Hey, you’re our team leader. You gotta be there to represent us.”

  Like hell, Matt thought. His back was stiff from a twenty-foot fall he’d taken off a cliff in the middle of the night. He’d been wearing NVGs, night-vision goggles, but was running after a fleeing Taliban group and hadn’t seen that the hill they were on suddenly dropped off. He wasn’t alone in taking a tumble, either. But right now, his hips, knee joints, and elbows were so stiff that all he wanted was to feel some steaming shower water to massage the pain away.

  The small locker room was unusually quiet, probably because most of the Army sergeants in his team were as exhausted as he was. Except for Beau, of course, who was a friggin’ Energizer Bunny. A West Virginia hill boy, he always came off these brutal missions in far better shape than the rest of his team.

  One of the guys turned on his iPod and plugged it into two small speakers. Suddenly, the room was filled with Christmas music. A nice idea, Matt thought, but all it did was make him miss his family more.

  His older sister, Talia Culver, was a Marine Corps captain. She led a sniper recon group here at Bagram, and right now, she was out on an op. His fraternal twin, Alexa Culver, was an Air Force Warthog combat jet pilot. She was flying a mission somewhere around here near the border, dropping ordnance. None of the Culver clan would be making it home for Thanksgiving this year. But what else was new? Matt hadn’t been home for the holidays in a couple of years, and frankly, he was sick of this place. He was looking forward to Christmas leave.

  But the black ops drums were beating loud and strong, and the Army needed every Delta Force operator in Afghanistan. At least he was up for Christmas leave, as were his sisters. They’d all get to go home to Virginia for a big family holiday, and man, was he looking forward to it.

  Matt quickly got out of his filthy, foul-smelling clothes and dropped them on the bench, then grabbed a clean towel from his locker. He avoided looking down at his hard body because he knew what he’d see—a whole new set of bruises, scratches, and swellings from this last op. Moving down between the rows of green lockers, he joined several other operators. They had the showers going full blast and as hot as they could stand it.

  As he thrust his head beneath the spray, he poured some Afghan lye soap into his hand to wash his long, thick hair free of sweat, grit, and sand. Matt closed his eyes, appreciating the feeling of that hot water pounding on his shoulders and back. And again, his thoughts turned to the upcoming Culver family holidays in Alexandria, Virginia.

  His father, Robert Culver, was a U.S. Air Force general. His Turkish-Greek mother, Dilara, would be inviting her relatives from Kuşadası, Turkey, to fly over and join the festivities for the coming Christmas celebration. Her cousin Angelo Mykonos and his wife, Maria, would fly over from Athens to join them.

  Matt loved his family’s American-Greek-Turkish holiday celebrations. Aunt Maria made the best Greek baklava he’d ever tasted. His three Turkish uncles, Berk, Ihsan, and Serkan, always brought meals created by their chefs. Even now, just thinking about the aromas in his mother’s kitchen made Matt’s mouth water.

  Growing up, Matt had loved spending time
with his crazy, lighthearted, spontaneous family during the holidays. Sometimes it was at Thanksgiving, sometimes at Christmas. Other times, his relatives would fly in at Easter, which was always fun when they were kids. And he knew from Skyping with his mother that this year, everyone was coming to Alexandria, Virginia, for Christmas.

  Matt rinsed his hair, scrubbed his beard, and then quickly washed the rest of himself. Just getting rid of the sweat and the fine, gritty sand that found its way into every crevice of his body felt fantastic. Since becoming a Delta Force operator, Matt appreciated showers more than ever. At twenty-seven, he was in his prime, thrived being in black ops, and was damn good at it.

  The noise in the shower rose as the men cleaned up, their bodies gleaming with water that ran off their sore backs and shoulders. Matt dried off. He pulled on an olive T-shirt followed by desert camouflage trousers, green socks, and his other, better pair of boots. Everyone was going to the chow hall, starved for real food instead of those damned MREs. He might as well join them, now that he was feeling half human.

  It was cold out in the desert in late November, so he grabbed his heavy camouflage jacket, his olive-green baseball cap, a dark green knit muffler his mother had made him, his gloves, and finally his drop holster with a .45 in it. No one went anywhere on this base without a weapon.

  There was a Humvee waiting for the guys in front of their one-story concrete building. Overhead, the stars were so bright and close they reminded Matt of Christmas bulbs hanging from an invisible tree in the sky. It was a moonless night, and the wind was gusty, sharp, and cutting. Anyone who thought a desert was always warm was wrong—especially in winter. It had rained two days earlier, and the air was still heavy with the scent of earth and moisture.

  Matt heard the Apache helicopters spooling up to take off over at the terminal. At the fixed-wing terminal, jets were thundering down the long runway, heading out to drop bombs on some targeted Taliban. When the breeze changed, he smelled the kerosene used to power the helicopters.