Laszlo by Dale Mayer
SEALs of Steel Series Book 5
Release Date: October 23, 2018
Minx Montgomery’s only light in a terrible childhood was her neighbor and best friend, Mouse. When he left Texas at the age of seventeen, she never heard from him again, though she’s never forgotten him either. She moved in with her uncle, went to college and became a counselor. Her supervisor at the clinic sexually harassed her. Reporting him backfired. Demoted, she’s transferred to another branch in the city–to the same district she’d finally managed to escape.
Laszlo Jensen, a former SEAL, has spent the last two years recovering from the damage done when his squad’s truck drove over an antitank landmine. Six other team-mates were also badly hurt, the seventh–Mouse–dead, in what their team leader Badger Horley realized later had to be a trap set to take them out. He and his team-mate Geir are trying to learn more about Mouse’s history. Was the whole squad targeted with that landmine, or just their youngest, newest member? The truth is more disturbing and senseless than they’d anticipated. Who was Mouse really?
Minx may be the only person who knew the boy that later became a dangerous, hunted man…
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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
Laszlo Jensen watched as Talon, his good arm bandaged, and Clary, her face a colorful mix of bruises, walked into Badger’s house. Clary was shy, standing almost as if a part of Talon. Like everybody already knew and judged her for their tortured past. Badger stepped forward on his crutches, Dotty the coonhound on his heels with her tail wagging, and said, “There you are.”
Clary smiled and reached up and gave Badger a hug. He hugged her back gently. Talon hadn’t shared much about Clary’s past with Badger, but he didn’t need those details to understand how hard it was to heal what she’d been through. But since she’d moved into Talon’s, the two of them had had lots of time to work through their differences and to get comfortable being in the same space again. And now it was as if they’d never been apart.
With everyone seated in the living room of Badger’s house, Laszlo settled back, loving the feeling of having his friends grow and become a bigger, stronger family than even what they were before. Badger was moving, though slowly. It would be a long time before he would get a prosthetic back. Kat, at his side always, doted on him.
Laszlo knew they would have some badass prosthetics coming their way when the time was right. And he couldn’t wait. Laszlo glanced around at the group and said, “It’s good to see everybody here again.”
“Except not everybody’s here,” Erick said. “Jager’s missing. He’s still dark.”
“Do we know for sure he’s even alive?”
Erick nodded. “I got another message. But it was simple. He’s still hunting.”
“He always was a bit of a loner,” Laszlo said. “If he’d at least check in with us, we’d have a chance to tell him what information we have.”
Geir sat on the far side of the room. “He’s a good man. And when he’s hunting, there’s no one else like him. But I wish to hell I was out there hunting with him.”
Erick nodded. “And what we have to figure out is, what’s happening next. The meeting’s here for Badger’s sake. As he’s not supposed to be moving as much as he is right now.”
Badger waved his arm. “I’m fine.”
Kat reached over and laced her fingers with his.
Laszlo smiled. “With Kat at your side, it’s no wonder you’re fine.”
There was some good-humored ribbing, which Badger accepted with a smile. “She’s the best thing that’s happened to me.” His gaze locked on Laszlo. “Did you ever notice the similarity between our group and Mason’s and Levi’s?”
Laszlo winced. “Hell no.”
Erick and Talon chuckled. “Well, you should. Because you’re next.”
Cade had stayed quiet in the corner, Faith at his side, a couple beers opened between the two of them. “It’s all right, Laszlo. When you’re ready, it’ll happen.”
Laszlo shook his head. “What I’m ready for is to find this asshole.”
“We’re doing a full workup on Mouse,” Erick said, returning to the business at hand. “We’re tracking down anyone he was in contact with. And, I have to admit, it’s not much. So I suggest what we do right now is everybody tell me everything they might have heard or knew about Mouse. I thought I knew him pretty well. But honestly, when I tried to dredge up some memories, it was a lot of ribbing and teasing and bugging. I thought his family was from Texas. As far as I knew, he only had a mother.”
Cade leaned forward, a frown on his face. “That can’t be right. I swear to God he was from California and that he lived with his parents before hitting the military.”
Badger looked at the two of them. “Really?”
Erick glanced over at him. “What do you remember?”
Badger frowned. “I was closer to him than all of you. I thought he had only an uncle in Texas. But I don’t remember Mouse being very willing to talk about him.”
“Do you remember why?” Laszlo asked.
“No, but he was pretty adamant. I just can’t remember if he gave me a specific reason or not. The thing about Mouse was, he always made up stories. It was pretty hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t,” Badger admitted. “But he was young. He was trying hard to be one of us, though weaker than we were. He would turn into a hell of a man and be a great member of the unit, but we all knew he wasn’t quite there yet.”
The men nodded.
Dale Mayer is a prolific multi-published writer. She’s best known for her Psychic Vision Series. Besides her romantic suspense/thrillers, Dale also writes paranormal romance and crossover young adult books in different genres.
To go with her fiction, she writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system.
She has recently published her Career Essentials Series.
All her books are available in print and digital format.
And then there’s her poetry…
My Path
As I walk forward on my path to the future,
I choose laughter, love, and light as my sutures,
stitching together my lifetime of choices,
as the essential fabric of my being rejoices
in the love, friendships, and faith that follow
the steps I take as I flow into my tomorrow.
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