Unleashed by Jami Alden

him, instead of being stuck at home spinning his wheels as his father fell apart in the wake of his mother’s disappearance. She also knew, even though Danny had never voiced it out loud, Danny’s hope that if he went to West Point, followed in Joe Taggart’s footsteps, his Dad might notice something else in his life other than his single-minded drive to find his missing wife.
    But even if Caroline claimed to understand Danny’s decision, she’d never accepted the reality of what it would be like to be an army spouse, especially the wife of someone in the Special Forces. The long absences where she didn’t have any idea where he was or when he’d be back. His need for periods of quiet and decompression when he came back so he could deal with the blood, the violence, and the death on both sides he faced every time he was sent on a mission.
    In the end, no matter what she said about love and loyalty and their plans for the future, Caroline couldn’t hack it. And just like his mother, when the going got tough, Caroline had turned her back on him and walked away for good.
    Good thing she’d done it before they did something really stupid, like actually marry each other.
    Danny leveled his Glock at the target, took aim and squeezed the trigger. The target shuddered on impact and he squeezed again.
    Derek fired off three rounds, paused, and emptied the rest of his clip.
    “Did you find anything good?” Derek asked after they both removed their ear protectors and Danny punched the buttons to retrieve the targets.
    “You know, if I wanted to chitchat, I would have suggested coffee instead of the firing range,” Danny snapped.
    So much for keeping his cool. But Derek’s question picked at a raw spot. Despite all of his research into James Medford’s murder and a careful dissection of his own mother’s life before she disappeared, he couldn’t find a single shred of information or evidence that indicated they’d ever been in the same room together, much less crossed paths in any meaningful way.
    Then again, there was a lot they didn’t know about the last weeks and months in his mother’s life. Gaps of time when they didn’t know what she was doing while they were at school and their father was at work. Mundane details they’d pieced together from bits of information provided by friends and acquaintances, because none of them paid much attention at all to how Anne Taggart was living her life.
    Danny shoved aside the surge of guilt that came with that reminder. He wasn’t going to waste time wallowing, not when there was a chance to redeem himself for every cruel word and thought he’d had for his mother since she’d disappeared.
    “I still think you should help her.” Derek unloaded his gun and packed it in a locking gun case while Danny did the same. Though they both had conceal and carry permits, neither wore their sidearms unless the job called for it.
    “What the fuck. Just because you and Ethan jacked off to visions of Carrie in a bikini before you could get pussy of your own, you have a soft spot for her.”
    “Ethan and I did just fine on our own without having to spank it to images of your girlfriend,” Derek replied in his annoyingly calm voice. “But I think we should help her out. For old time’s sake. Shit, she was going to be part of our family. That should count for something.”
    Danny slammed his guncase on the ground and threw his ear protectors so hard a piece of plastic casing went pinging through the air. He was sick of his brothers pushing, sorry he’d told them even half of what she wanted. “Yeah, and the only reason she didn’t marry in was because she found out I wasn’t the trust fund kid she thought I was. As soon as she realized she’d have to live on my military pay, she said fuck you to the six years we were together, turned around and found herself a sugar daddy to shack up with. So I don’t owe her shit for old time’s sake, and neither do you.”
    Derek opened his