Danny's War (Rolling Thunder Series Book 3) Read online

  DANNY’S WAR

  PJ FIALA

  Booktrope Editions

  Seattle, WA 2015

  COPYRIGHT 2015 PATTI J. FIALA

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

  Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

  Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

  No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

  Inquiries about additional permissions

  should be directed to: [email protected]

  Cover Design by Chelsea Barnes

  Edited by Wendy Garfinkle

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional.

  PRINT ISBN 978-1-5137-0461-6

  EPUB ISBN 978-1-5137-0511-8

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2015915904

  Contents

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  DEDICATION

  OTHER TITLES BY PJ FIALA

  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

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  MEET THE AUTHOR

  MORE GREAT READS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank everyone who has read my book and loved it. Without you all, my books wouldn’t exist. Thank you.

  Thank you to my amazing husband, Gene. Babe, you are my life and you’ve made me the woman I am today. Thank you for being you and helping me become me. Thank you for not minding that the house isn’t always clean and dinner isn’t always made. Aw, who am I kidding? Never. Dinner is never made, by me anyway.

  Thank you to my children. You guys are amazing and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the people you've become. You should all be very proud of yourselves. Know that I am proud of you.

  Thank you to my friends for always being there for me. I love you guys.

  Thank you to my beta readers—Mitzi, Maureen, Danni, and Terri. Your suggestions and support have made this story memorable. Your willingness to read and critique are invaluable to me.

  Thank you to my Booktrope family. Your hard work and dedication to authors is fantastic.

  Thank you to all the veterans in this world. My grandfather, father, brother, two of my sons, and one of my daughters-in-law are veterans. Needless to say, I’m proud. Proud to be an American and proud of the service my amazing family has given. Thank you all for your sacrifices. I love you.

  To my husband, Gene,

  who has been a constant support in my life.

  Always encouraging me and loving me all the way.

  Thanks, babe. You’ve made this thing called life an amazing adventure.

  To my children,

  who have helped shape me into who I am today.

  Thanks guys, you mean the world to me.

  And, of course, thank you to all the men and women

  who serve in the various branches of the military.

  Thank you for your sacrifices and your devotion.

  The tag line in my email is:

  We are the land of the free, because of the brave.

  I believe this whole-heartedly.

  Words cannot convey the gratitude I feel for all you do.

  Thank you.

  OTHER TITLES BY PJ FIALA

  Second Chances Series

  Designing Samantha’s Love

  Securing Kiera’s Love

  Engineering Jessie’s Love

  Rolling Thunder Series

  Dog Days of Summer, Book 1

  Rydin’ the Storm Out, Book 2

  Gunnin’ for You, Book 4

  CHAPTER 1

  DANNY TRIED TO BREATHE through the pain of his heart slamming into his chest. Trying to clear the fog in his head, he listened to the sounds around him, trying to remember where he was. His skin wore a fine sheen of sweat as he swallowed rapidly to moisten his throat. His leg hurt and the ringing in his ears made him nauseous.

  Nothing but the fucking ringing in his ears. Breathe, just breathe. A sharp slap on the face had his eyes flying open, looking into Lex’s face. Lex was yelling at him, but Danny couldn’t hear a word. His mouth was moving, the chords were standing out in his neck, his eyes were wild…something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Danny’s eyes darted behind Lex to see Coop and Dirks looking down at him. They wore blood and dirt and they looked scared shitless. Danny closed his eyes. Think, dammit, think. What the fuck happened?

  As his heartbeat began to slow and the ringing subsided, a whirring sound caught his attention. His eyelids were heavy as though something weighed them down and he struggled to open them. Then he remembered, he was deaf and Lex couldn’t talk. Fuck! Did someone drug him? Danny’s heart rate picked up as he fought against the fog in his brain. Trying to sit up, he felt strong hands push at his shoulders.

  “Easy, Sergeant, take it easy, we’ve got you now. It’ll be fine.”

  Danny looked up into dark brown eyes peering through a full face helmet. The man looked to be about his age, maybe a little older.

  “It’s going to be okay, Sergeant, we’re flying you to base in Kandahar and from there, you’ll be flown to Germany. Try and relax, we’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Danny looked to the man’s left and saw a pole holding several bags of liquids and tubes running down to his arm. Behind the pole, he saw the sky and felt the pitch and sway of the helicopter. He tried sitting up again, but the man gently held him in place. “You’ll need to lie down, Sergeant, we’re almost there.”

  Finding his voice, Danny said. “My leg hurts. What happened? Where are my men?” He licked his lips and looked into those brown eyes, close to the color of his own. Pleading silently for information.

  “Your unit hit an IED. One casualty, two injuries. You were hit in the leg, the rest of your men are back at camp. The other injury is flying right behind us.”

  IED, that’s right. Pot or water was the usual question before going out on a mission. Pot was a primary crop in Afghanistan and the insurgents usually didn’t blow up their own crops. So they were most often safe if they walked through the pot. Water meant slopping through trenches where IEDs were seldom placed. But today, they had to fucking walk into a camp and check out the res
idents living there. Fuckers lured them in by pretending to be in need of assistance. He remembered watching Reed and Janus walk up ahead. They’d been laughing at a joke one of them had told when the explosion blasted the camp.

  Danny flew through the air and landed in a heap, the wind knocked out of him, his heart racing, ears ringing. Fuck.

  “Am I gonna lose it?” He waited with his breath held while the medic’s eyes turned pitiful.

  “Sorry, Sergeant, you already did.”

  Danny closed his eyes. Don’t cry. You can do this. Don’t cry.

  ***

  A slight beeping sound invaded his sleep. What the fuck was that irritating noise? Slowly opening his eyes, Danny was assaulted with the smell of alcohol, not the drink, but the other kind. Across from him were a row of beds, each one holding a patient covered with bandages in various places, and lines running from IV bags into their arms. Moaning could be heard coming from some of the men. The low murmur of female voices was reaching his ears and growing louder. Danny turned his head in the direction of the voices and saw two nurses walk into the room, each carrying medical supplies.

  The cute little blonde looked over at him and smiled, “Good morning, Sergeant. How are you feeling today?”

  How the fuck do you answer that? Better to go with the usual, “Fine, ma’am. Thank you.”

  The redhead with her smiled and walked over to a cabinet. She unlocked it with the key she was wearing on a band around her wrist and began laying her supplies in their proper places. The blonde set her supplies on top of the cabinet for the redhead to put away and made her way over to Danny. She was tiny, maybe five feet tall. Short blonde hair and cute little dimples. It made him feel inferior. No woman would ever want him now, he was damaged goods.

  Danny watched as she pulled a thermometer from her scrubs’ pocket, slid the disposable end on it, and then pushed a couple buttons on the electronic unit attached to the thermometer. She looked up at him and smiled. “Need to take your temperature, Sergeant.”

  Danny opened his mouth to allow her to slide the thermometer under his tongue. As soon as he closed his mouth, she grabbed his wrist and looked at her watch, taking his pulse. He watched her look up when another woman walked into the room. Her little dimples creased her cheeks and her full lips formed into a smile. “Good morning, Doctor Rae.”

  “Good morning, Risa, how are you today?”

  “Very well. The sergeant here has managed his fever and his pulse is normal. He’s looking good today.”

  “Wonderful.” Dr. Rae walked over to the side of Danny’s bed. “We were worried about you, Sergeant, you’ve been out for a couple of days.”

  Danny’s eyes registered surprise and Dr. Rae smiled. “Not uncommon after the trauma you’ve been through. I think you’re finally on the mend. We’ll remove the bandages in a little while and take a look at your injury. I won’t lie; you’re going to be in quite a bit of pain for some time now. You’ll need extensive therapy and in the end be fitted for a prosthetic, but there’s time for that.” Dr. Rae picked up Danny’s chart and reviewed it. She checked the IVs and looked him square in the eye for what seemed like minutes. Danny became uncomfortable with the doctor’s close scrutiny and fidgeted with his blanket. Dr. Rae smiled softly and set the chart down as she said, “Your color looks good. Your eyes are clear. I’m impressed.”

  Danny had no response so he nodded slightly. As Dr. Rae walked away, Danny closed his eyes and sank back into the pillow. The pain was getting worse. He would need pain medication soon or he’d sound like the moaners across the room. Fuck.

  ***

  Winter turned to spring and spring turned to summer, and now fall crept in.

  “Okay, so I’ve changed your linens, cleaned the house, and stocked the refrigerator. I have a casserole in the oven and more in the freezer, all you have to do is heat them up.” Janice Schaefer fussed with the pillows behind Danny on the sofa and then stood to her full height of five foot six. She wiped her hands on her hips and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out.

  “Honey, please come home and stay with me for a while longer. I worry so much about you. I promise I won’t be in your space all the time.”

  Danny’s lips formed a straight line across his pale face. His eyes held the pain and suffering of every soldier who’d dealt with losing a limb and dealing with the months of pain and rehab. He was tired. Tired of everything, worry, pain, guilt, and the feeling that his life was changed in a way he couldn’t begin to comprehend. When he left for the Army, he’d been dating Kathryn Keeting. A week after he got home, she broke up with him. She didn’t blame it on his leg, said she’d changed and the distance of the past year and a half had made her rethink their relationship. Danny knew that was bullshit. He saw the look on her face when she first walked into the house and saw him sitting in his chair. He tried to not blame her, but he’d been reduced to nothing with their break-up on top of everything else.

  “Mom, please. Don’t.” Sucking in a deep breath at the worry on his mom’s face, he shook his head. “I’m sorry and I don’t want you to worry, but I’ll be fine. I just need this for myself. I need to move on with my life and I can’t do it at your house. You’ve been great, but…I need this.”

  Janice wiped her face with her hands, trying to wipe away the worry. “I know you do, honey. I’m sorry I worry so much, it’s just…” At a loss for how to finish the sentence, she dropped her hand and shrugged.

  Danny gripped his crutches and, using them for leverage, stood on his one leg. Janice walked the two steps toward him and he hugged her while leaning on his crutches. “I don’t mean to make you worry. You and Paul can come over every day if you like. I’m not depressed. I just want to start my life on my own. I don’t want to put it off any longer. It’s been nine months of therapy, doctors, and rehab. I need to move forward.”

  “Okay, well I’m coming over tomorrow morning to plant flowers in your garden so when you sit on the front porch you can see them. You have a beautiful home and the gardens have been calling for something pretty. Call me early if you think of anything you need. I love you.”

  “Love you too, Ma.”

  Listening to the front door open and close, Danny took a deep breath and looked around the living room. Now what?

  CHAPTER 2

  “GOD, I’M SO DAMN STUPID. I’m sick of being stupid.” Tammy flopped on the sofa next to Molly, exasperated.

  “You’re not stupid, you trusted the asshole and he… well, he took full advantage. That doesn’t mean you’re stupid.” Molly took a sip of her tea and watched Tammy pull her long, sandy-brown hair into a ponytail.

  “Well, good thing I wasn’t all that emotionally invested in him. Jerk. But, what am I going to do now? Gawd, this is embarrassing. My life is over.”

  Molly smiled and patted her friend on the knee. “You deserve so much better. You’ll find someone great, don’t you worry. You’re amazing. As for the other thing, well, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You’re beautiful. Actually, I think I’ve heard the word, hot, several times.”

  “That doesn’t help, Mol. Gah, this is disgusting.” Tammy pulled at her newly-created ponytail.

  Molly stood to leave. “Gotta go, Tam, taking pictures today for a kid’s birthday party. We can go out later if you’d like.”

  “I can make us supper here if you don’t mind. It’ll give me something to do when I get home from Stateside. Pizza?” Tammy stood and shoved her hands in the pockets of her worn jeans. “I don’t want to go out in public for a while.”

  Molly threw her purse over her shoulder and smiled. “Sure. I’ll be here around six. Why are you going to work on a Saturday?”

  “I want to work on my mural. We’re looking for financial benefactors and I want finish as much as I can.”

  Tammy walked her friend to the door and locked it behind her. She watched out the window as Molly got into her car.

  Walking back to the kitchen to clean up the breakfast dishes and put a
way the leftovers, she made her plan for the day. She decided to go to the grocery store on her way home from the veteran’s home. She loved working there. Her grandfather used to live there, and when she was little, her parents would take her there to visit. She grew up wanting to work there with the veterans, to be a part of making their lives better. She didn’t consider it “going out in the public” in the sense that she wanted to avoid being seen. Most of the veterans were older, so she doubted they would know of her indiscretion.

  ***

  “Hey there, Gerry, how are you today?”

  “Well, Tammy, it’s great to see you. You working on the mural today?” Gerry’s kind, blue eyes sparkled as he smiled up at her from his wheelchair.

  Tammy wrinkled her face and let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I think today will mostly be touch-ups here and there.”

  “I’ll stop by in a bit. I’m setting up a mean card game for later on. You want in?”

  Tammy smiled. ”Not this time, I’m afraid you gentlemen would have all my money in no time. Besides, Molly’s coming over for supper tonight. Which reminds me, she’s photographing that big veteran’s ride Rolling Thunder is putting together. Have you heard of it?”

  “Veteran’s Ride? I’ve heard about that ride. You know, we should get a bus and go see the bikers take off.”

  “Actually, that’s a great idea, Gerry. Rolling Thunder Motorcycles has this ride every year. From what I’m told, the proceeds they collect go to help local veterans with their various needs.”

  Gerry’s smile spread across his face. “That’s perfect for us. I’m going to talk to Diane in activities and see if she can organize that. Maybe we can help in some way. See ya around, Tammy.”

  Gerry turned in his wheelchair, and, after a quick wave goodbye, rolled himself down the hall. Even in his sixties with no family, he was always in good spirits and trying to organize activities for the other veterans. Tammy watched him roll away, amazed at his zest for life. He’d been through so much. He lost his wife and only son in a car accident fifteen years ago and still maintained a happy disposition. She could learn something from him.