Page 3 of Leo

In spite of the multiple offers for scholarships, Leo decided to choose the Navy so that he could make money and help support his parents. He could still get his degree but would be providing much-needed help at home with a paycheck.

It wasn’t easy. Not even a little. The swimming was easy. That always came easy for Leo, but the classes, the training, the running, marching, saluting, all of the rest, weren’t easy.

Yet, on the day he graduated, his old coaches and his mother were in attendance. His father just couldn’t face the outside world. When he deployed, he kept up as much as possible with them, his mother having gone back to work part-time. But neither of them was ever the same.

With both of them continuing to have health issues and needing more care, Leo had to make some changes.

Over the years, the coaches passed away or lost touch, leaving Leo with a new family. His teammates and fellow sailors. But after sixteen years in the Navy, he wanted a new challenge and wanted to be there for his parents’ last days. Itwas one of the many reasons why he moved from the Navy to the Coast Guard. He could be in one place.

Choosing the Coast Guard meant choosing a branch that was the closest to what he’d grown up in. It allowed him to be there for his parents more consistently. When his mother died, tired of fighting her constant health issues, his father was only days behind her. He knew it would happen that way. She was the only thing that ever kept him going.

After his parents’ funerals, his mother’s lawyer opened access to her accounts, including the money she’d earmarked for his college education, and eventually his future. He was completely shocked.

All the pinching of pennies, living in a tiny little rent house, all so she could save for her son to have a bright future. Leo had been sending money to her for more than ten years, and it appeared she’d saved every dime.

“How is it possible she saved this much money?” he whispered to the lawyer after her death.

“Leo, every dime you gave her, she placed in a savings account for you to have later. Every lawn you mowed, every house you painted, every hour you worked at the sporting goods store, every paycheck you sent from the Navy, she saved for you. Plus, she put a portion of her check into the account every month. All she thought of was you. Your father just couldn’t handle the world, Leo. He loved you, but his mental health was suffering, and she knew she couldn’t give him access to that money.”

“All these years of her living without,” he frowned. “The times I told her to buy a new pair of shoes because hers were falling apart. Or something as simple as a new pair of scrubs for the ER. She wouldn’t spend a dime on herself.”

Leo knew that he owed his mother everything. He loved his father, but he hadn’t been able to give him what he truly needed. Someone to help his mother live a normal, happy life.

When he was finished with the Coast Guard and with his parents gone, there seemed to be a void in Leo’s life. He needed something to make him feel productive, valued, and part of something that he’d been missing for years.

He was searching for something more. Something that felt a bit like family.

He never guessed he’d find the ultimate challenge of a lifetime.

CHAPTER TWO

Matilda ‘Tillie’ Sung was the only daughter of Tanner and Micaela Sung. Tanner had been a prolific Navy SEAL, like many of the men at Belle Fleur. As a young boy, his parents placed him on a boat from North Korea to the United States, hoping and praying for a better life for him. Raised by a family that chose to give him their name, he had a good life in the San Francisco area.

An extremely large man at six-feet-five and more than two hundred and twenty pounds, Tanner was a physically intimidating specimen. Selected to be part of the same team as Chase Green, he knew that Chase was different than his peers. They were all SEALs, but there was something that made Chase stand apart. Not just his size and keen awareness of everything around him but the way he held himself. It was the way he walked and talked, and the way he respected the men on his team.

Tanner soon learned of the world of the Steel Patriots, later the Voodoo Guardians.

With a PhD in mathematics, Tanner not only worked missions with the rest of the team but he could also be found more often at G.R.I.P. working on advanced technologies or with the comms teams. His mind had an uncanny ability to see problems and being able to dissect them, immediately compute the need, and if they didn’t have it on hand, he could find a way to make what was needed.

Tanner and Micaela met when he found her roaming the streets of Baton Rouge, hungry, tired, and trying to protect children not her own. That alone was an endorsement of the kind of woman she was, and he couldn’t ignore it.

Plus, she was absolutely beautiful.

Vowing to help her, he also vowed to love her and love her he did. When Tillie came along, they were more than ready to have an addition to their family.

Tillie was a precocious, curious child from almost the moment she was born. Always searching for answers to her questions, she would run around the property, finding her experts.

“Aunt Gabi, how does the heart pump blood?”

“Aunt Lissa, what’s a plié?”

“Uncle Jean, can you explain profit and loss to me?”

“Uncle Trak, will you show me how to use a knife?” He stared at the little girl and smiled, kneeling in front of her.

“Why do you want to use a knife?” She shrugged, looking down at her feet. Trak gently touched her chin, forcing her to look up. “Is someone bothering you?”

“N-no. But if they do, I want to know what to do. I want to be strong like you and smart like Gabi and beautiful like my mother. I want to be able to do math like Angel, and I want to be able to eat like Tailor.”

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