Rafe (Wounded Sons #4) - Leah Sharelle Page 0,2

our bedroom, down the hall and out the front door to my car. The sobs of my wife ringing in my ears the whole way.

FOUR YEARS LATER

“Private Walsh, mail for you.”

I took the thick yellow envelope and stared at it with an expressionless face. I knew what it was, the multitude of phone calls with Angie the last few months coming to a conclusion with the appearance of the envelope.

“Thanks, mate,” I replied, breaking tradition and not using the mail clerk’s rank.

“No worries, Rafe, I see from the address on the top this isn’t the news from home I like to deliver.”

“Shit happens, mate. It has been a long time coming; being married and spending more time in foreign countries does not make a successful marriage.” Truer words had never left my lips, and in the last few years, I had done a lot of talking. Going home to a wife who hated my job, fighting more than we made love, then leaving again all pissed off and angry at each other meant this envelope was actually more welcome than disappointing, to me at least.

Angie didn’t divorce me four years ago when I left for basic training, but she was now. To be honest, we should have done it after I finished my commando training and got accepted into Team FIVE. Our fights really started to escalate to full out shouting matches, mainly about her jealousy of my teammates and the close bond I shared with them. She hated the secrecy about my job and that I lived in Queenscliff off base with them. She complained that being stuck in our small house in Bendigo all on her own was unfair, and if I was allowed to live off base, she couldn’t understand why I couldn’t live off base in Bendigo with her.

Angie wasn’t one for understanding logic, all she understood was what Angie wanted. Our arguments consisted of my living arrangements, my team and the fact that I spent a lot of time in Ballarat at what she called a gang hide-out. The Wounded Souls compound was not even close to being classified as a gang hide-out, but getting her to understand that was near impossible. It was getting so bad going home to her, I even lied to her about my leave and stayed in Ballarat, not letting her know I was even back in the country. I guess I was scared to be the one to end our relationship. Now, it was done.

Pulling the tab off the back of the manilla envelope, I yanked out the contents and started to scan the legal jargon. There wasn’t anything I would fight her for, we didn’t own the house we lived in. The only real financial request she was making was for me to pay out the lease so she could move out immediately. Fair call, Angie hated that house and I couldn’t begrudge her to leave it all behind her.

Other than wanting the lease paid out, she wanted me to pay her legal fees, which was basically it. Our years together didn’t garner assets or property, my Jeep was nine years old and I stored it at the base in Queenscliff or at Ballarat, depending on where we shipped out. We had no kids or bank accounts to divvy up, nothing to fight over.

Leaning over my bed, I reached inside my duffel bag for a biro and signed my name beside the coloured tab, dated it, then tucked it into the included addressed envelope.

Getting up off my bunk, I walked woodenly to the area where we put out letters to home for the mail staff to find. Looking at the non-descript parcel in my hand, I heaved a tired sigh.

Divorced at twenty-six.

I didn’t see that coming.

CHAPTER ONE

RAFE

The Wounded Souls compound was chock-a-block full of family and friends. Drinks were flowing, food littered tables everywhere, and people were laughing and chatting, making it impossible to hear the inner voice in my head berating me for being here instead of where I should be.

“Rafe, you want to stay at the compound tonight?” Gabriel Booth, my commanding officer, asked, walking up to me with a beer in each hand.

My normal refusal rose immediately, but a flash of light pink a hundred metres away caught my attention.

Pink, I like it.

Looking at my captain, I nodded my head. “Why not Tank? I can’t be stuffed driving tonight, and staying the night here won’t change anything.”

“You know Rafe, you don’t —”

Holding up my hand,