Nothing Special V, page 1
part #5 of Nothing Special Series
NOTHING SPECIAL 5
Published By: Via Star Wings Books
Copyright © DECEMBER 2016
Edited By: Ally Editorial Services
http://allyeditorialservices.com/
Cover Art By: Jay Aheer of Simply Defined Art
Formatting & Illustrations By: Fancy Pants Formatting
http://www.fancypantsformatting.com
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, Adrienne E. Via.
No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without permission from Adrienne E. Via. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights and livelihood is appreciated.
Thank you to all who played a major or minor part in this book. Nothing Special holds a dear place in my heart and I’m so appreciative of everyone’s input to make this book one of the best in the series. Andrea Goodell, my one and only beta. I always need and appreciate your advice. Jay Aheer for a smoking hot cover. Tina Adamski, my editor, this is truly some of your best work yet. Joanna Villalongo, for an excellent job proofreading, Casey Harvell, my formatter, who didn’t mind doing a rush job, but still made the final product beautiful. Thank you Sid Lowell for the graphics and promo material. They’re gorgeous as always.
This is a M/M Romance and contains graphic content. It’s not intended for readers under the age of 18.
Title
Acknowledgements
Disclaimer
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Bonus Chapter One
Bonus Chapter Two
Bonus Chapter Three
Bonus Chapter Four
Bonus Chapter Five
Also by A.E. Via
Nothing Special
Book 1 - God and Day:
Lieutenant Cashel Godfrey (God) ~
Lieutenant Leonidis Day (Day) ~
First Officer Ronowski (Ro) ~
Genesis Godfrey (Gen) ~
Embracing His Syn
Book 2 - Syn and Furi:
Sergeant Corbin Sydney (Syn) ~
Furious Styles (Furi) ~
Here Comes Trouble
Book 3 - Ruxs and Green:
Detective Mark Ruxsberg (Ruxs) ~
Detective Chris Green (Green) ~
Curtis Jackson ~
Don’t Judge
Book 4 - Judge and Michaels:
Detective Austin Michaels (Michaels) ~
Judge Josephson ~
The proposal…
They were all full on greasy triple-meat pizza and hot wings, arguing over what the sports announcers were analyzing on the post-game show.
As they all helped clean up, Day cleared his throat calling for everyone’s attention. The guys started to mumble and groan, waiting on Day to say something ridiculous, as usual. His smirk was crooked, his eyes glittering with humor. God turned and threw his big arm over Day’s shoulder. “What is it, Leo? Who do you want to call out and embarrass, now?”
Day had embarrassing ammo, in the form of secrets, on all the guys, to be pulled out anytime he was ready. They all waited while Day turned slowly and faced God. They watched God drop his arm and look at Day, neither of them speaking out loud and like always, the team wondered what they were saying to each other with those looks.
“Come on, Day. What’s up? Is it about work?” Syn asked.
“Nope.” Day shook his head slowly, eyes still on God.
God frowned, looking confused.
“You want to get together tomorrow?” Curtis asked.
“Nope.” Day put one hand deep in his jacket pocket.
“It’s just really nice to be around my brothers, my family,” Day said seriously.
The team looked on, nodding their heads in agreement, still waiting to see where their lieutenant was going with this.
“Yeah, it is,” Green agreed. “You wanted to let us know how awesome we are and give us all raises?”
The guys cheered, liking Green’s idea.
But Day looked down at the hardwood floor, slowly shaking his head again. His expression was turning more and more serious, and the room was getting eerily quiet while they waited in suspense.
“Sweetheart, spit it out,” God said in his rough timbre, casually caressing the back of Day’s neck.
Day turned to face God, looking up into his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak and had to clear his throat before anything came out. The lieutenant was being uncharacteristically reserved. Day took God’s hand that was resting heavily on his neck and held it in his own. Steeling himself, Day’s voice was calm and confident, but low when he finally spoke. Pulling a black velvet box out of his pocket, he gently stroked the soft fabric, opening the box.
“Cashel… will you marry me?”
God and Day
Day
Day put the super zoom, 3-D recording binoculars to his eyes, zooming in on the American Trans warehouse about ninety yards away. He was crouched low under the grimy window, taking pictures with the high-tech device. When he was finished, he pulled the ratty, thrift store curtains that’d already been in the abandoned two-story home when they took it over to use for their stakeout.
He rubbed his throbbing temple. Once again, that bastard Artist was setting up for a huge shipment of ecstasy into Atlanta. He’d slipped through God and Day’s fingers last year, but it wasn’t going to happen again. Their special task force didn’t like failing. The team had been handpicked from Narcotics by him and his partner, God. A unique collection of nine absolute badasses that were either too damn crazy for any other precinct to handle or too fucking talented for God and Day to let work anywhere else but for them.
“You been doing that all day. Massaging your head and blowing hard every couple hours. Is that stress from being stuck in this house for two days or from God still not committing to a date for you guys’ wedding?” Syn asked, kicking his dark boots up on one of the crates strewn about the room.
Day’s sergeant was a man he trusted with his life and with his confessions. The guy was like the priest of the group. Though only in a confidant kind of way because the man was X-rated as fuck when he was around his hot partner – ex-porn star, Furious. Day could rely on Syn to give him good advice like he did everyone, but he was so fed up with this topic. He’d proposed to God in front of his whole team, and he’d said yes, but anytime Day wanted to talk details God would shut down. He’d be busy, or off to a meeting, or about to start on something, too tired, the list was endless. Actually, the big man had gotten quite creative with his excuses.
For a couple months, Day was pretty silent on the issue, just happy to be engaged for the first time in his life, and feeling blessed to have a partner that understood him, loved him, and fought by his side. A lot of law enforcement officers didn’t have that luxury. When they were on the streets, their team got results for the chief, which earned them special accommodations from the mayor. As long as they kept the dangerous streets of Atlanta clean, thereby helping the man get reelected term after term, them being lovers wasn’t an issue for the bureaucrats.
Maybe God was thinking that if they got married, that’d change the rules for the department. That’s stupid. Day knew he was grasping at straws. If the man thought that, he wouldn’t’ve said yes.
“Why don’t you just tell him how you’re feeling, Day?” Syn said, sitting up higher, his concerned eyes turning darker than midnight.
Syn didn’t like discord amongst the team, especially between the bosses. God and Day’s synchronicity was integral to their successes. As the sergeant, the third in command – not only was he a skilled negotiator and interrogator – it was Syn’s job to ensure everyone was doing their jobs. He took this responsibility seriously. There was very little Syn didn’t know regarding everyone’s life, and Day seemed to be Syn’s number one concern ninety percent of the time. It wasn’t a surprise. Day had been the one to find Syn in Philadelphia and recruit him. His intelligence and compassion rivaled Day’s own.
“I’ve asked him to talk too many times already, Syn. I tried to talk about it over dinner. Next thing I knew, God started eating faster than a soldier in boot camp. I tried to talk to him in bed. He started staying up later than me or accidentally falling asleep downstairs. I tried while on our down time and he’d fuckin’ make an excuse to get busy. I can’t…” Day ran his fingers through his light brown hair, not caring how much of it stood up on his head. “I’m starting to think he only said yes because he didn’t want to humiliate me in front of the guys. That he doesn’t want to marry anyone… marry me.”
“That’s not true. God doesn’t do or say anything he doesn’t mean,” Ro chimed in, coming around to Day and rubbing his shoulders in one of his amazing massage techniques. Ronowski – Ro was his first officer, outranking the other detectives. Ro was God and Day’s point man and strategist, he had a master’s in psychology and was often sought out by other departments to help plan seizes.
The sexy man had been a major thorn in Day’s side when he was in the closet, but when he came out he became the amazing man he was meant to be. He was an outstanding detective and deadly with a shotgun – his weapon of choice.
Day was sure Ro hated seeing him so defeated and frustrated, used to Day being a comedian, the life of the party. He was going to have to get out of this funk. It was affecting all of them and he didn’t want the men worrying about it, causing them to lose focus in the field, which could lead to accidents. He couldn’t let that happen. Perhaps he’d just have to be happy with being engaged, even if it ended up being the longest engagement in history.
“It’s alright, Ro. I’ll talk to him. I promise,” Day tried to reassure the handsome man. Ro had a special connection with his lieutenants. Things had changed after God and Day got engaged, but he knew Ro loved them deeply and didn’t want to see anything happen to his and God’s relationship. Day would fix this soon enough. For now, he needed to focus on their case.
Ro patted him on the back and took the binoculars from Day’s lap, going back to the window. He stood there staring for about ten minutes, all of them silent until Ro asked, “Syn, give me a twenty on the Enforcers.”
“Ruxs and Green are asking some questions at that night club on Donald Lee. Might be done by now, though. God told them to stick close by in case we needed them. They’re probably five minutes away… why?”
Ro turned to face them, his blue eyes wide and serious. “We finally got some activity, boys. Looks like our informant actually came through this time. We got six black Escalades circling around the property.”
Day and Syn were both on their feet, inching open the curtain on the other side of the window. “That’s an awful lot of vehicles. I’m sure our rat said that a couple of Artist’s head guys were coming to meet about where the shipment would arrive.”
“He did,” Syn gritted out, pulling up the audio on their laptop to listen in. The bugs had been planted three weeks ago and had remained silent since then. “All this would be happening on my watch shift.”
“Yeah, this never happens to Michaels and God.” Day smirked. “You got the video rolling, Ro?”
“Of course,” Ro whispered, holding the binoculars as steady as a doctor holds his scalpel.
Day reached in his jeans pocket and pulled out his micro-earpiece and shoved it in his ear. “Tech.”
“I’m here,” the calm voice answered. Detective Murphy was their technology genius. A hacker from MIT who’d been popped for infiltrating the Pentagon’s security software to find his missing brother in Afghanistan. Day got time shaved off his sentence and immediately recruited him. There wasn’t a thing the man couldn’t do from behind his nine monitors. He was the team’s communications hub. Anything they needed – whether emergency or not – went through him.
“God in the office?”
“Yes.”
“Ro has the video running on the glasses. Pull it up.”
“Done,” he replied almost immediately. “You’re on the speaker.”
God could hear Day and see what they were looking at. “We got a lot of activity over there for a simple meeting. I think you should load up.”
“ETA ten minutes,” God answered, his strong, bass-filled voice unlike any other man in that office. “Tech, patch him through to the radio in my truck. Day, do not engage.”
“Ten-Four,” Day responded, still staring at the trucks, which had stopped circling. It was silent on the deserted street; nothing on NW Cairo accept six ramshackle homes sitting across from a dusty field and an undercover chop shop. Dusk was just starting to fall across the sky. It was the time in Atlanta where honest citizens went home to their families and the bad boys came out to play. Day ground his molars; he had a bad feeling about this. None of them made a move in the dank room, understanding the importance of silence in that moment.
No one had emerged from the SUVs. Day looked at his watch. Eight minutes and God would be there.
“Fuck. It’s Artist,” Ro whispered sternly.
Day jerked his head up. Shit! “This is not supposed to be happening right now.”
“Easy. ETA six minutes,” Tech spoke quietly in Day’s ear. “Sit tight, Lieutenant. I’m dispatching all units.”
“Oh no,” Syn murmured.
Day watched as all of Artist’s men began to exit their vehicles. One by one, Artist’s fiercely loyal minions formed a shield around him. Day counted twenty-two of them. His nerves kicked into high gear because he was sure Artist’s crew was heavily armed. He didn’t want any cops to lose their lives out there.
Several men broke off, going towards the warehouse, spreading out in a formation that told Day this wasn’t a meeting amongst colleagues. It was a double-cross. The startled sounds of the men inside confirmed it. He kept watching their every move, waiting for the sound of sirens. Just a few more moments.
Artist, still surrounded by six large men, made his way down the long row of vehicles. The door to the last SUV opened and Day watched as one of the burly men, wearing an all-black suit, yanked a frail, stumbling man out of the backseat. He could barely stand and he had a dark cloth draped over his head.
“What the fuck?” Ro whispered.
The minion yanked the hood off the guy’s head and Day’s stomach dropped. It was their informant. The same one that’d once worked for Artist, who Day had got to turn state’s evidence against the ruthless drug lord. He was beaten badly, but Day could still recognize him, he could almost feel the fear racking the informant’s body. The man in black put a gun to the back of the snitch’s head, but not before turning his evil glare up at the window where they were.
“Our cover’s blown,” Syn hissed. “We gotta get the fuck out of here.”
Day turned, along with his men, and took off to the rear of the house. The sound of the single gunshot – executing their informant – was loud, even from that distance. The cadence of their heavy boots taking the stairs three at a time sounded like the running of the bulls. Day turned the corner and heard Ro’s loud “Get down!” and threw his body to the hardwood floor as bullets riddled the upstairs and the back of the house.
Day covered his head while drywall, glass, and dust rained down on them. There was a two-second break in the gunfire and Day pulled his two 9mms out of his shoulder holster. The bullets started again, automatic pistols firing over their heads as he and his men kept their bodies as flat to the floor as they could.
“Get to that back door,” Day yelled. Tech was quiet in his ear and he knew why. His men all knew what to do. He’d let Day concentrate on staying alive.
