Page 1 of Dangerous Curves Ahead
Prologue
Steele
Growing up in the foster system wasn’t easy. He didn’t know what happened to his birth parents, even though he once asked, but no one could tell him much. Only that he was found outside a fire station.
He didn’t like knowing that and wished he hadn’t asked. As he grew up, he bounced from house to house, it hurt that no one had chosen to keep him.
He didn’t always fit in with the family, for some reason, and the older he got, the harder it was to find someone to take him in.
He was big, needed special clothes and shoes to fit his large feet and long legs. He ate a lot too. His growing body called for a lot of food, and yet it seemed as if he was still always hungry.
He didn’t talk much to most of the foster parents and that seemed to make people dislike him. They always assumed he was slow, or what have you, but he wasn’t. Far from it in fact. He just was quiet.
Because of all of these things, the state could never find just the right fit for him, and he never had a safe haven, a home. He just resigned himself to feeling like a guest and never part of someone’s family.
Years went by as he wished that he had someplace or somewhere to call home.
He finally found it in the last town, before he turned eighteen. An older couple, named Judith and Roger Reynolds had decided to open their house to him.
Judith had met him at the lastest high school he had been moved to when he was placed in a state home, and one he had only started attending.
They met after he had gotten into a fight that some of the boys had started trying to be the badasses of the school.
It happened to him at most of the new high schools he went to, to be honest and he hated it. He didn’t like the attention he got as the new kid and the fighting was getting out of hand.
He never asked for it, never initiated it, and yet, he would be the one punished for it the most severely.
He was so much bigger than pretty much all of the boys at each school. He was taller, had more muscles and yet that didn’t stop the ‘tough’ boys from trying to fight him anyway.
It had gotten ugly this time around because of how many people had gotten involved, and he had done his best to pull his punches and not hurt anyone unnecessarily, and to protect himself, but it hadn’t been easy and he had ended up breaking at least one of the boy’s noses.
He'd gotten hit hard in the jaw with someone’s high school ring, and the thing hurt like a bitch and cut it open enough that he needed it glued.
Judith was the school nurse there and had helped with his busted knuckles and his bloody jaw after seeing to the other boys and sending them on their way.
She was kind, and sympathetic to him, even after seeing the carnage that had been left behind with the fighting.
She had very quietly asked him what had happened. He told her everything, in the privacy of her office, and she found out his entire story while she used some glue on the cut on his jaw.
She told him how much she hated that he was so alone and that he was so tired of never having a place to call home. And, within a few weeks, Judith and her husband Roger, had gone through the process to foster him.
The state had allowed it, and it was the first time that he had ever felt at home.
Judith and Roger treated him as if he was their own son, loving him, accepting him and encouraging him with his studies.
By the time he graduated from high school, they had adopted him.
Judith and Roger sat him down and asked if it was something he wanted, and he knew in his heart these kind people were his parents. Blood or not. And he accepted without any reservations.
It was the best decision of his life and he went from Steele Jones to Steele Reynolds.
That was just the beginning of all the good things his parents had done for him.
Roger had encouraged him to follow his dreams, that they were behind him every step of the way, and he did. He joined the Navy after high school, and after a long, hard journey, became a SEAL.
It was difficult to achieve, but with his determination, he refused to give up. He knew that his parents were proud of him for staying strong throughout the rigorous training.
Over the next two years, he rose up the ranks as a SEAL and before long, became the Platoon Leader over his own group of SEALs.
