Training Levi [Hard Hits 4] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Read online

  Hard Hits 4

  Training Levi

  Detective Levi Maden is good at breaking SWAT rules. After a bad call in the field that jeopardizes a child’s life and leaves Levi injured, he’s forced into the SWAT retraining program. Levi is not interested in retraining. He knows he made the right call.

  Lt. Brayden Temple quickly discovers that his next trainee is in need of more than rules and regulations. Levi needs someone to help him walk through the fear that has suddenly developed from his near-death experience. The last thing Bray expects is the connection he has for Levi. Bray is a Dom and wants Levi as his sub.

  Levi wants Bray as his Dom, but is afraid of moving on with a new man. After years of looking, he’s vowed not to have another man until he finds The One. Now, the strong, stoic Brayden Temple has come into his life, refusing to go away.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), BDSM

  Length: 31,306 words

  TRAINING LEVI

  Hard Hits 4

  Tatum Throne

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

  TRAINING LEVI

  Copyright © 2013 by Tatum Throne

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-033-6

  First E-book Publication: June 2013

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Training Levi by Tatum Throne from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Tatum Throne’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Throne’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to the Throne boys. They are a wild group who often distract me and keep me grounded. I love you all so very much.

  TRAINING LEVI

  Hard Hits 4

  TATUM THRONE

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter One

  Detective Levi Maden knew his time was up.

  It was like a clock was frozen in time. Everything slowed down and became crystal clear in his mind. These were his final moments on earth. There wasn’t denial or even emotion. He accepted his fate.

  The ice beneath Levi’s feet started to crack. There wasn’t the necessary four inches of thickness beneath his feet to carry his weight. Splinter cracks fanned out, popping and cracking the thin ice. Motherfucker, he was going to fall through, but there was no time to worry about his polar plunge into the Ohio River or the fact that it would most likely kill him. Ten feet away a young boy stood on the cracking ice. His gloved hands were wet. Tears and fear kept his eyes trained in wild circles on Levi.

  Behind the kid a gray wash of dead trees crowded the embankment. Two of the kid’s friends were there. Ice had fallen that morning resulting in schools closing throughout the city of Cincinnati. That gave kids the perfect opportunity to get into trouble.

  Two cardinals chased each other through the dense brush, finding a nearby perch to watch the action. Big, white, fluffy puffs of snow started to fall. Ice popped again, snapping as though a timer was going off.

  “I need you to trust me,” Levi said.

  “Okay.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Kody.”

  On the other side of the embankment, Kody’s friends were watching. Their faces as gray as the sky above them. Levi edged forward. The rope tied around his waist had been grabbed from the trunk of his car on the fly. The people on the embankment behind him were strangers untrained for a water rescue. They held the other end of the rope as they waited for rescue to arrive. Levi probably should’ve waited, too, but he knew there was little time to wait.

  “I want you to come to me,” Levi said.

  Kody shook his head “no.” Levi edged closer. Up on the Big Mac Bridge arching between Kentucky and Ohio, cars had stopped, lining up on the side of the road. Off in the distance, the wail of sirens cut through the quiet. White puffs of air steamed from the kid’s open mouth. It was fucking cold inside and out.

  “It’s going to be okay.” Levi moved forward despite the stinging protest of the ice. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”

  “The ice!”

  “I know. It’s not thick enough.”

  “They dared me!”

  “It’s okay. You’re not in trouble. I did the same thing when I was your age.”

  “You did?”

  He was always taking risks as a young one. “It was why my mom never left me home alone.”

  Behind the kid, a frantic parent arrived, screaming Kody’s name. The boy turned. A man grabbed the woman, holding her back from rushing onto the ice.

  “Mom! Mom! I’m okay!”

  “Don’t move!” Levi warned.

  The kid swung his head back around. Behind Levi, rescue was getting organized on the hillside and embankment. Cracks splintered beneath the kid’s feet. Water rushed to the surface, grabbing at the kids gym shoes. Levi’s time was up. It didn’t mean that Kody’s time would be, too.

  “Kody, I want you to listen to me. I want you to trust me, okay? Can you do that?”

  “Yes.”

  There was cold, hard determination in the boy’s eyes. He wanted to live. Everything around Levi f
aded away. There was nothing left but him and the kid. Every time the ice snapped, the kid jumped.

  “I want you to run to me. Come to me!”

  There was no more time to fuck around. The kid was going to fall through. The rope wasn’t long enough to reach. Everything slowed down as the boy dug his feet into the slippery ice.

  “Run to me!”

  The boy’s shoes slipped on the ice as he sprinted to Levi. Ice cracked fast, water rushed to the surface. Levi reached out, grabbing the kid by the arms. “Trust me.”

  The ice beneath Levi’s feet started to break away. Levi swung the boy around, swinging his feet up off the ice. The kid’s big blue eyes were locked onto his as Levi swung the boy around and off the ice. His feet went airborne. His body horizontal.

  “Trust me. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  The ice beneath Levi’s feet shattered. Levi flung the kid across the ice with all his might. The kid slid belly down, forty feet across the ice toward the embankment. The rescue team grabbed the kid as Levi fell through the ice, plunging into the frigid water. The rope tightened around his waist, swinging him under the lip of the cracking ice. The rope snapped. Levi’s hands grabbed for the ice he fell through but it was like sliding them down a wet pane of glass. There was nothing to hold on to.

  Water rushed up, pulling him down. Levi kicked to the surface as the icy water numbed his body, but the current had moved him down several feet. There was nothing but a wall of ice above him, holding him prisoner. Levi surfaced to the ice, pushing on it with his hands. He reached for his gun, bracing his feet against the ice. The trigger snapped, but misfired due to the icy chill. The gun slipped from his numb fingers, floating downward to an icy grave. Levi skated his body along the underside of the ice as darkness teased at his peripheral. He’d taken a solid breath before he’d gone under, but it wasn’t enough. The icy water contracted his body, pushing his last breath from his lips.

  On the other side of the ice, orange suits worked frantically above him to break through the ice. The ice shattered into white fragments that struck him in the face. Levi kicked hard toward the surface. This time water rescue pulled him out, dragging him into the rescue dingy sitting on the ice. Levi was flipped onto his back. A loan hawk circled above the river as though he knew death was silently waiting. Levi coughed up water, struggling for a solid breath. His lungs hurt from the raw air he pulled deep inside.

  Above him Detective TJ Raines hovered above his head, blocking out the view of the hawk. He was part of their homeland security trained water rescue team. “Goddamn, Maden. Anderson is not going to be happy with you. That was just in time for the four o’clock news.”

  The corners of Levi’s lips twitched. “Did they get my good side?”

  “There’s no good side to your ugly mug.”

  “The kid?”

  “He’s getting a hot chocolate now.”

  Relief poured through Levi’s body, but it was short-lived. Raines was right. The chief was not going to be happy with him for his little stunt. They were pulled to shore. The ice beneath them cracked away as they were dragged along. God help him, Levi knew he’d be better off dead than dealing with the chief.

  Chapter Two

  Levi hated emergency rooms. It was the antiseptic odor that got to him the most. He didn’t want to go. He was warming up in the ambulance sitting off on the side of the road and refusing to get going to the hospital. Levi went to stand.

  “Sit your ass down,” Parker ordered.

  Dr. Parker Woods doubled as a SWAT doc and emergency room doctor. He happened to be on with the water rescue team for Levi’s little stunt.

  “I’m good. I don’t need a trip to the hospital.”

  Parker glared, crossing his arms. “You still have to sign the form stating that you’re refusing treatment to get out of here. It may take me a while to find it. I think they’re here somewhere.”

  “Fucker.”

  “Yep.”

  Levi stood. Things went topsy-turvy. He leaned against the wall of the ambulance as his hand touched the bandage on his forehead. He sat back down. Outside the ambulance, Chief Anderson argued with someone to open the ambulance doors so he could see him. Through the windows, Levi saw the bridge looming above the ambulance. Past that he saw the icy river below. A shiver vibrated through his body, causing his mouth to go dry. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, but the memory of that cold coffin consumed his body. He opened his eyes, suppressing the gasp of air he wanted to take as he surfaced from the memory.

  Fuck him. He did not like this post traumatic crap that was giving him a hard time.

  Parker opened the doors, but stopped Anderson in the doorway. “I don’t want to deal with your heart issues today. Calm the fuck down.”

  Anderson’s nostrils flared. “I’m cool.”

  Levi did not want to go a few rounds with Anderson, but home was through the chief, who was now blocking his path. A headache was starting at his temples. Levi wondered if the head drama was from the graze he got when falling through the ice?

  “You didn’t fucking wait for water rescue,” Anderson growled. “You’re SWAT. You know the rules.”

  “There wasn’t any time.”

  “Do you fucking see the camera crew behind me?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Does my face look like it was made to be in front of a fucking camera?”

  “No, Sir.”

  Across the roadway, there was a television crew giving a live interview. The camera was trained on the ambulance before it panned down to the river. The five o’clock news was probably replaying the rescue. The kid had been taken to the local children’s hospital for treatment.

  “This is a fucking headache for me.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Your actions could’ve gotten you and the kid killed.”

  The cuff on Levi’s arm tightened and started to take his vitals again. Parker was there waiting for the readout to come through.

  A man appeared over the chief’s shoulder. A shiver raced through Levi’s body. He recognized the guy. It was Brayden Temple. He was the one in charge of the retraining program within the department. He was known for breaking men down and building them back up.

  The truth was that Levi had heard things about Lt. Temple that put him on edge. Like the fact that he was ex-military who at one time worked for the Department of Defense. He specialized in audio and video enhancement. He never talked about what he did for the DOD.

  Temple was also known for his heroics in the field. When he was out of the country on vacation in Ireland, he saved a group of school kids from an armed gunman. He was an international celebrity who was often called to give talks on violent crime. Levi knew all about him. He was a hero. Their interaction within the department was limited, but that didn’t stop Levi from getting a good sense of who he was. The guys liked to talk, and they talked a lot about Temple. There was a lot of hero worship and disdain for the guy.

  Most said that Temple was known for giving orders and expecting them obeyed without question. Levi thought he was fucking hot.

  What the fuck was he doing here?

  “Your heart rate is spiking,” Parker said. “I think you need a trip to the emergency room.”

  Levi let his gaze linger on Temple. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  “I don’t like this spike all of a sudden,” Parker said.

  Temple’s dark black hair was shaggy, as though he’d put off a cut for the last several weeks. A goatee wrapped around his chin. He was a hundred percent stone cold with heat blazing in his blue eyes. There was also concern in the man’s eyes that Levi didn’t understand.

  “Are you listening to me?” Anderson asked.

  Anderson’s voice hammered on with a bang-bang that gave his headache a workout. Levi tuned in late, noticing his brain had a bit of a lag going on. It was kind of like a really bad internet connection that came with public internet. This page was not loading quickly and there w
ere a lot of pictures not pulling up.

  “What?” Levi asked.

  “I said, you’re going through the retraining program with Lt. Temple.”

  “What the fuck? I don’t need to be in the RIP.”

  “It’s the RP,” Anderson corrected. “If Temple says you’re fit for duty, then you can have your job.”

  “Just throw a little more intervention in there and you could call it the RIP.”

  “I kind of like that idea,” Anderson growled.

  Holy fuck. His job was on the line. Leave it to Anderson to want to fire him for breaking protocol to save a life.

  This was so not fucking happening, but it was. Levi’s eyes were trained on the guy over the chief’s shoulder. Deep down, he knew he did the right thing that saved that kid’s life. He’d do it over again in a heartbeat. Had he not been on his way home from the grocery after his shift, he wouldn’t have seen the kid struggling on the ice. They’d be searching for a body.

  “Chief?”

  Anderson looked at Levi as though the house had just fallen on the wicked witch’s cousin and he needed to write up the report.

  “I lost my gun in the Ohio. I need a new one.”

  Chief Anderson sighed, looking up at the snow falling from the night sky as though he wanted to retire, buy that boat to sail around the world with his wife, to live out his golden years in bliss. When he lowered his gaze, Levi saw the hard look of a career cop who wouldn’t ever retire willingly. He’d die at his desk first. Parker ducked out of the ambulance.

  “That’s the third gun in five years you’ve lost on duty,” Anderson lamented.