When Day Breaks

If the zombie apocalypse ever occurred, they were definitely prepared. The KGI compound could withstand a fucking war. The sheer number of legal—and illegal—shit that was housed behind the walls of the compound would shock the average citizen. Swa

During his captivity, he’d sworn never again to feel that kind of helplessness and fear. He’d accepted the inevitability of his own death. He’d even embraced it. In his darkest hours, he’d prayed for it. It shamed him now, but at the time, death was the ultimate freedom. Escape from his dismal reality.

Thank God for Shea, Nathan’s now-wife, who’d inexplicably reached out to him across thousands of miles, speaking to him in his mind. Helping him and Swa

He absently fingered the scar on his face. A memento from his time in captivity. Insurance that he’d never forget those endless days of torture and starvation. They’d carved him and Nathan both up. They both still wore the scars from their captivity, but Swa

No, he wore that scar as a reminder of what he’d survived.

His sex life had certainly suffered as a result, but sex wasn’t one of his priorities. Not since coming home alive. He threw himself into his job. His new family. He shook his head. He had no family. Not until Nathan. The Kellys and KGI had embraced him. Marlene Kelly, the matriarch of the Kelly clan, had adopted him as one of her own, and she treated him just like he was one of her many children.

Frank and Marlene Kelly had six sons, but Marlene had adopted others into her fold. Rusty Kelly, the sullen teenager who’d broken into her home but was now about to graduate from college, a vibrant, beautiful young lady who had the world at her feet. Swa

And there was Sean Cameron, a sheriff’s deputy in Stewart County. Also adopted into the Kelly fold and treated much like all Marlene and Frank’s other children. It was mind-boggling, the extent of the Kellys’ generosity.

The family had grown and expanded. Joe was the only unmarried Kelly, and he definitely heard about it from Marlene on a regular basis. There were grandchildren aplenty and more on the way.

And here in the middle of it all was Swa

He’d crawled back to the little house he’d inherited from his parents after he and Nathan had been discharged from the hospital. But he’d been restless and . . . lonely. His brush with death, facing his mortality and then his miraculous healing had brought him to Te

And he’d stayed, first adopted into the fold instantaneously by Marlene Kelly and then offered a position with KGI. He’d joined the new team headed by Nathan and Joe and joined soon after by Edge and Skylar. They were his family now. And having family, people who accepted him, felt . . . good.

When he’d served in the army he’d had a purpose. His life had been consumed with the need to protect and serve. After his injuries and discharge, he hadn’t known what else to do. There was nothing for him on the outside. He’d never be happy with a nine-to-five office job or joining the rat race as a civilian. KGI had given him purpose again.

KGI helped people. They protected the i

He’d resigned himself to never settling down, having a family, things most people took for granted even if they weren’t in a hurry. He was surrounded by just those things. Each of the Kelly brothers, with the exception of Joe, had met their soul mates. Even the team leaders, Rio and Steele, had settled into domesticity with an ease that still amused and befuddled the men and women who worked under their command. Hell, even Cole and P.J., two of Steele’s team members, had hooked up and were living in marital bliss, though he imagined theirs was an interesting arrangement since P.J. could kick ass with the best of them. It was for certain she kept Cole on his toes.

But that wasn’t for him, and he accepted that just like he’d accepted everything else. With peace and understanding. He didn’t just have scars on the outside. He was irrevocably scarred—changed—on the inside. He wasn’t sure how Nathan was handling the memories. He was sure Nathan still had his fair share of sleepless nights, but he had Shea to help him, to lean on when the past reared its ugly head. But Swa

They hadn’t been able to break him. He took pride in that. He and Nathan both had withstood all that their captors had dished out and had never broken. Because in the end, that was all they’d had left. Their pride and determination not to let those cocksuckers win.

He had a good life now. No, he wouldn’t ever have a wife or children, and he was okay with that on most days. Every once in a while when all the Kellys got together and he was surrounded by so much love, the Kelly wives and the children, he was instilled with a fierce sense of longing, but he’d long discovered it did no good to dwell on what would never be.

Most women couldn’t even look at him without fear, disgust or pity. Pity was the worst. He’d take fear and loathing over their pity. Although it pained him for a woman to fear him just because of his appearance. He’d cut off his right arm before ever hurting a woman. It made him sick just to think about it. He’d seen enough violence in his life to know it would never be part of his makeup. Except when it came to taking out assholes who deserved what was coming to them.

He was a killer and he suffered no qualms about meting out justice where it was merited. As long as he could look at himself in the mirror every morning with a clear conscience, he could continue to do the job required of him as a member of KGI.

“You ready?” Joe called out, shaking Swa

“Yeah. All packed up. You call Nathan and Sam?”

Joe nodded. “Nathan’s on his way over and Sam is calling Garrett, Ethan and Van to meet us there. I told him there was no need to call in Steele or Rio. This is our mission. Sin is our friend and I’m not letting anyone else head this mission.”

“Agreed,” Swa

Joe nodded. “Let’s get on the road. Nathan can fly us so there’s no need—and we don’t have the time—to call up one of the other pilots.”

Swa