Dear Soldier, With Love II: A Lost Soldier Named Grey

Dedicated to all the soldiers who have fought to protect others. Because even when you don’t know it, there is someone who is waiting for you to come back home.

And to the loved ones, left behind, that stuck with them.

To Talon, you are forever in my heart and my thoughts, and missed beyond measure. Going on without you is so very painful, but you made me promise and so I keep it. But for the record, you’re cheating by making me write books not on the list.

With Love, Your Twin Prin

Special Thanks goes to:

Alison Greene & Nick Hasse

for always keeping us Dyslexic-Disaster-Zone free.

And to my Beta Readers:

Author Dorien Grey, Nick Hasse, Ethan LJubankovic,

Karen Candido &  Terry Kaiser

Warning

This e-book contains sexually suggestive scenes and adult language which may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is intended for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

This book contains homoerotic M/M romantic content, graphic language and situations that some readers may find objectionable (explicit language, homoerotic suggestions, violence, graphic details of wounded conditions and of course soldiers being soldiers).

TABLE OF CONTENT

DEDICATION

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

BONUS

Grey Lawrence had just rolled the bay doors closed on the Army Medical Service dressed-out sand-camo UH-72 helicopter when he spotted Corporal Christian Brice at a full out run towards him. Anyone else and he might have considered keeping to schedule. Then again, he probably wouldn’t since lives were always on the line when it came to him and if Christian was throwing up dust and hollering to catch them, it had to be important. Hold up Corbin! We got a runner! Grey yelled over his shoulder to his pilot and MEDEVAC partner since his head set and mic were presently draped around his neck instead of on his ears.

Before Christian even made it to them, he was waving a bundle in his hand, up in the air. The obvious bundle of envelopes meant it could only be one thing. That damn letter everyone was talking about.

Grey shoved the door back open, his hand reaching out for the parcel from Christian. Running rather fashionably late. Even for you Christian! Grey called out over the noise of the blades already at full prime.

Grey looked at the letters in Christian’s hand and glanced at him. You know this is the AMS Chopper not postal drop?

Christian came to a grinding stop just outside of slamming into the chopper and was instantly half bent over, thrusting the bundle of letters out to him trying to talk and catch his breath at the same time. Come on man, I had to give it more time; it was Tom’s. Still holding the tied bundle of letters toward him.

Grey reached out taking the bundle and tucked it under an arm while holding the door rail with his free hand, Where’s this going?

You’re heading over to the HDU right?

Yeah, gotta pick up the newest shipment of vaccines for the AB bacteria that’s been going around— why?

That’s where Kyle is! See to it, it makes it into his hands will ya? He ships out for England in two days for rehab so don’t be late— he gasped for a deeper breath, like me! Christian called out, yet his eyes wearily kept track of where his head was in relation to the chopper blades cycling overhead, keeping his head down low.

Grey chuckled at him, sure the kid was 6-foot something-stupid but Christian still wasn’t tall enough to get his head lobbed off. Yet you couldn’t tell that to not one of them because they all did it, no matter what. Only time he or Corbin did it, was when the rails were seated in uneven terrain. Then you just kinda did it— just in case.

Grey gave Christian a two fingered salute. You got it, pal. He grabbed the door pulling it along its slider. See ya at the next camp! Grey shouted before the door closed shut just as the pilot brought the throttle up. The motor revved higher and louder whipping around Christian with a vortex of wind and the chopper lost its grip on the ground, hovered and tapped a few times, then up she went. Taking the Beloved Woman with it.

Grey sat back in his side bucket seat behind the pilot seat, turning the bundle over in his hands several times before pulling the ties loose and leafing through the letters. He’d heard the buzz about the love letter right after they came in yesterday. Now here she was in his hands. He chuckled to himself feeling rather silly that a letter would provoke some response from him at all. He rubbed the envelope in his hands slowly, methodically like he could get a feel for its author without ever having opened it.

He used to write letters to his lover back home, because he remembered finding his mother’s shoe box of letters after she passed away. They’d all been letters from his father when he was in active duty. The letters were rarely the kind about the weather or where his father was or what the boys in his platoon were up to. But he did romanticize the days and the nights for her, describing the color of the sunset where he was or how many shooting stars he saw that night. And most always, there were kisses and tender touches to remind his mother what it felt like to be a woman; a woman whose man was off fighting a war for the safety of others. They were sent to remind her that he would one day come home, and he didn’t want her to ever forget or seek the warmth of another man’s touch in his absence because she could not bear the loneliness without him.

Grey still had those letters, tucked away in the same box his mother kept them, now safely stored at a friend’s home until he came for them.

He rubbed at his lip a moment, recalling how he pulled them out and read every one of them over the last few nights before shipping out.

That was six years ago.

Chief Warrant Officer V Grey Lawrence was deployed long before the war officially started and when it did he signed up for another term, that’s when it became too much for his partner waiting back home. No matter how many times Grey reached across the ocean to tell Daniel how important it was he stay here, there lie the distance, he was here and his lover was some seven-thousand-plus miles over there.

Grey pulled on his head set and opened the comm link to Corbin. So shall we see what your Beloved Woman has written for you today?

You shittin’ me? You got the letter? Corbin’s deep baritone voice called over the communicator with surprise. They were never around for very long, always on the move, so while they heard about it, any chance of actually getting to see the letter was not even a consideration for them. They figured they’d just have to settle on hearing about it from the others like always.

Yep.

Let her rip.

Grey read the love letter over the comm. If his