Never Let Go

  Never

  Let Go

  By

  Graysen Morgen

  Mommies © 2016 Graysen Morgen

  Triplicity Publishing, LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without permission.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events of any kind, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Edition – 2016

  Cover Design: Triplicity Publishing, LLC

  Interior Design: Triplicity Publishing, LLC

  Editor: Megan Brady - Triplicity Publishing, LLC

  Also by Graysen Morgen

  Meant to Be

  Coming Home

  Bridesmaid of Honor (Bridal Series book 1)

  Brides (Bridal Series book 2)

  Mommies (Bridal Series book 3)

  Crashing Waves

  Cypress Lake

  Falling Snow

  Fast Pitch

  Fate vs. Destiny

  In Love, at War

  Just Me

  Love, Loss, Revenge

  Natural Instinct

  Secluded Heart

  Submerged

  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to my editor, Megan Brady. I’m glad we were finally able to work together.

  Gratias!

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the United States Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers. Thank you for doing what you do every day. Semper Paratus

  And to my wife: Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

  Je t'aime.

  Chapter 1

  It was a hot and humid, sticky summer night in Merritt Island, Florida, and it was barely June. Finley Morris ran a hand through her tousled, curly, dark hair. She kept it fairly short, because as a Helicopter Rescue Swimmer in the United States Coast Guard, having long hair would be a complete nuisance. Her breasts were smaller than average and only visible under her dress uniform, but she was lean and physically fit. Finley didn’t miss a day without running three to four miles, plus hitting the weights in the gym—a rigorous workout routine that kept her in shape to be able to handle the daily tasks of working with Search and Rescue.

  This night was much like all the others. After her shift ended, Finley usually went to Oasis, a small watering hole down the road from the Merritt Island Airport, where the Coast Guard Air Station was located. She’d been stationed at Merritt Island for close to three years now, and three years was the magic number for your name to come up on transfer. She’d rented a little bungalow, close to the Banana River and only a mile from the base, when she’d first moved there. The cost was higher, but she was sick of renting dingy, little apartments. This would mean she’d have to give notice to the home owner in a few months just to be sure she could break her lease before her transfer came up—something she was expecting to happen in mid December.

  She’d started out in Savannah, Georgia for the first three years after completing boot camp, the Aviation Survival Technician training program (A-School), to become a Rescue Swimmer, as well as the EMT training that went along with it. Since the Coast Guard was broken up into districts covering a group of states, whatever district you were given out of boot camp was pretty much the area of the country you would remain in throughout your career. Every district was broken up into air stations and marine units that were scattered around.

  After Savannah, Finley’s next assignment was Clearwater, Florida for three years. After that she was transferred to Air Station San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was also part of her district.

  Now, she was back in Florida at Coast Guard Air Station Merritt Island, which wasn’t far from Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. She was happy with her life in the Coast Guard. A routine day was never a possibility, but that’s what kept the job interesting. She found herself making some of the most daring rescues at sea over the years, with several of those coming on a daily basis during the summer months. She was thirty-one, and after thirteen years of service, she’d worked her way up to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. She planned on staying in until she could retire after twenty years. The money wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t like she had a life to come home to. She was single in every shape of the word and definitely not looking to change her status. Most of the personnel knew she was a lesbian. A couple of other flight crew members were as well, but none of that mattered when you depended on each other day in and day out to work as a team while risking your own life to save others.

  *

  The Oasis wasn’t overly crowded for a Wednesday night. Finley sipped a light beer and watched a few sailors from Cape Canaveral Naval Base who were dancing on the hardwood floor. During her time at Merritt Island, she’d seen a number of fights in the bar. The Coast Guard and Navy tended to get into heated discussions when too much alcohol was involved, but most of the time everyone simply mixed together and had a good time.

  Greg Ballard and Tracy Pollack, two of her good friends, whom she also served on aircrews with, were sitting at the small, round table with her. Greg was a lieutenant and a pilot for the Sikorsky MH65-Dolphin, the helicopters they used at Merritt Island. Tracey was an Aviation Maintenance Technician Second Class and a Flight Mechanic.

  “Why do we come here?” Greg asked with a sigh as he finished the last of his watered down soda.

  “Because there is nowhere else to go,” Tracy answered him truthfully.

  There really wasn’t anywhere else to go unless you wanted to hang out with the tourists or go on the mainland. Finley didn’t mind. She’d spent many nights in some sort of military bar at various stages in her career.

  “How is your hand, Finley?” Greg asked, glancing down at her left hand.

  “Fine. It stopped hurting by the time we were back on base.” She shrugged. One of the Aviation Maintenance Technicians who was training to be a Flight Mechanic, misunderstood the direction she gave him earlier that day when they were trying to wrangle a passenger from a distressed boat. What should have been a routine rescue on a clear day, turned ugly when the young AMT accidentally reversed the cable on the hoist, causing the rescue basket to go out of control. Finley’s fingers got smashed between the helicopter and the basket. If she hadn’t been there to catch the basket, it would’ve plummeted back down into the water with the man stuck inside of it. Once they got the man out and attended to him, Finley shoved the AMT against the wall inside the helicopter, threatening to hang him on the cable by his balls if he ever made that mistake again. Luckily, her hand was only bruised instead of broken.

  “I couldn’t believe he pushed the release on the hoist. Shit. If you had fallen out, it would’ve killed you, not to mention the dude in the basket.”

  “Trust me, I don’t think he’ll be flying with any of us again,” Tracy said. “I heard him asking for a transfer to fixed wing.”

  All three of them laughed.

  “I may have scared him a little,” Finley admitted.

  “You? I guess when you’re commanding an operation you can be a little intimidating, but you save lives and you do it safely. Everyone respects you out there.” Greg smiled. “But we all know your secrets back on the ground,” he kidded.

  “Oh please,” she chuckled. “I have secrets that would make you grow hair!”

  “Hey, don’t knock the bald guy.” He tried faking a frown.

  “I’m so glad I have the next two days off!” Tracey cheered, raising her glass.

  “Me too, but I’m on standby and will probably get called in,” Greg added.

  Finley
smiled and shook her head. The aircrews rotated in twelve-hour shifts, with two days, or forty-eight hours off after every twenty-four hours of duty. They either worked from seven a.m. to seven p.m., which was the day shift, or seven p.m. to seven a.m., which was the night shift, alternating every three weeks. During the forty-eight hours off, part of the aircrew members were on standby in case of emergency. The standby schedule varied week to week.

  *

  It was close to ten o’clock by the time Finley made it back to her small house. She parked her Explorer in the single car driveway and meandered inside. She needed to be up at five in order to be on the base and inside the hangar in time for the seven a.m. shift change. Her rotation schedule was a day off of Greg and Tracey’s because she’d been called in twice during her last standby time off.

  She walked into the carpeted living room that was decorated with light-colored wood furniture, and a matching sand-colored, leather couch and love seat. There was a stone fireplace in the corner of the room and an abundance of pictures across the mantel. Finley noticed a light blinking on the phone when she turned the corner to go towards her bedroom. She hesitated, wondering who would’ve called her landline. She’d had her cell phone with her and it never rang all day. The only people with her home phone number were her family and the base in case she was called in for an emergency and they couldn’t reach her on the cell. She pressed the button and sat on the edge of the couch, listening to the message.

  “Finley, it’s Nicole ”

  That voice was all she needed to hear to send her mind back tumbling back in time.

  *

  It was a few months into their senior year of high school at Annandale High in Charleston, South Carolina. Finley and Nicole “Nic” Wetherby were looking forward to graduating at the end of the year. They were best friends, completely inseparable since their freshman year, after they nearly knocked each other over in the hallway, running late for the same class. Nicole had honey blond hair that hung just past the top of her shoulders and hazel eyes. She was three inches shorter than Finley and had a slender build with curves in all the right places. If the guys weren’t asking her out, they were chasing after Finley, who was tall and very athletic with curly, dark hair and big blue eyes. Finley knew she had feelings for Nicole, feelings that she was supposed to be having for the boys, but she kept them a secret, and buried it deep inside.

  “I think we should go to Daniel’s party this weekend.” Nicole was sitting behind Finley, playing in her hair. She loved the soft, natural curls and spent countless hours running her fingers through them while they contemplated ideas of their future.

  “Oh, I don’t know, Nic.” Finley wasn’t much for parties and guys hanging all over her. Plus, she absolutely hated watching her older brother, Michael, swoon all over Nicole. He was a year ahead of them and already attending the local community college. He had no goals, not even possibilities. But, Jackie Morris, Finley and Michael’s mother, had made it very clear that he’d either go to college or move out. She wasn’t supporting him if he wasn’t working on a college degree in something. She was a school teacher who ruled the house with an iron fist, but she was never abusive towards her children. She simply wanted to see them make something of themselves, instead of working various jobs, sometimes more than one at a time, to make ends meet. Their father had left right after Finley was born, and he never returned. Jackie Morris said good riddance to the man and had never looked back. Of course, she struggled from time to time like any single mother who was trying to feed her kids and pay a mortgage on a meager teacher’s salary, but her two kids never went hungry and always had decent clothing. Both of her children were extremely smart. However, Michael had spent his time playing around and barely graduated. Whereas Finley was an honor student and a major athlete. She’d won multiple awards on the swim team and had been the captain for the last three years. The track coach had tried to recruit her because he’d seen her running as part of her extra cardio fitness on multiple occasions. Her times were fairly good, but the only thing that had appealed to her was swimming.

  “Come on, Fin. Mike wants me to go with him, but I’d rather go with you, and then see him there.” Nicole didn’t date many guys. She’d rather spend her time hanging out with Finley, which was fine with Finley since she didn’t date guys at all. She always put it off to school and swimming, saying she didn’t have time to date and wasn’t interested in teenage boys when she’d be in college soon, where she’d have the pick of the litter.

  Finley found it impossible to argue with Nicole, especially when she was playing in her hair. Hell, she could barely form a sentence. “Fine. But, I’m not drinking and then driving us home. You know Mike will be hammered, he always is at parties.”

  “I know. We don’t have to drink. I just want to go see what all of the fuss is about. I hear Daniel throws a kickass party,” Nicole said with pouty eyes. “Come on. I won’t go without you.”

  The night of the party Finley saw Mike stumbling around looking for Nicole. What she didn’t realize was he had already found her an hour earlier, convincing her to lose her virginity since he was a college guy and wouldn’t play games with her like the high school boys. Of course, his crappy lines worked after she’d had a few drinks.

  “Where’s Nicole?” he asked, his speech slightly slurred.

  “I saw her talking to you a while ago. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her since,” she answered.

  Mike looked upset and this made Finley nervous, so she wandered around until she found Nicole sitting on the hood of Finley’s old, blue Honda Civic at the end of the road.

  “What’s wrong, Nic?” Finley asked. When she saw the tears in Nicole’s golden green eyes, she hopped up on the hood next to her, wrapping her arms around her best friend. “Tell me.”

  “I…oh, Finley,…I made a huge mistake. How could…” She sniffled and wiped the falling tears from her face. “I am so stupid.”

  “No you’re not. What happened?” Finley held Nicole and let her cry until she could finally talk again.

  “Can you take me home now?”

  “Sure.”

  On the way to Nicole’s house, she broke down and told Finley about sleeping with Mike. She’d said she only did it to look cool, but felt horrible about it afterwards. She wished over and over that she could take it all back. Finley did the only thing a best friend could do, she consoled her and told her it would be okay. She also said she never had to do it again if she didn’t want to.

  Three hours later, Finley was asleep in her own bed when her mom came barging into the room, screaming. Finley flew out of the bed thinking the house was on fire. Either that, or something had happened to Nicole. Since she hadn’t heard from her after she’d dropped her off earlier and came home. Maybe her parents had found out what she’d done.

  “You’re brother…” That was all Jackie Morris could get out. She was hysterical.

  “What? What did Mike do now? Where is he?” Finley moved passed her mom and into her brother’s room. It was empty. She proceeded down the hallway and into the living room. That’s where she found the male police officer standing just inside the front door.

  “What are you doing here?” Finley had completely forgotten she was wearing a tiny little tank top and shorts with nothing underneath. The man quickly turned his eyes to the floor.

  “I’m Officer Harvey. Is Mrs. Morris okay?” he asked with a deep voice.

  “She’s flipping out. What the hell is going on?” Finley was almost eye-level with the officer since she wasn’t much shorter than him.

  “There’s been an accident. Michael Morris’s car ran the stop light on Gilcrest and Seventh, and an oncoming car hit his, causing it to flip a couple of times and land upside down.”

  “Where is he? What hospital?” she asked, cutting him off as she mentally listed what she needed to do. She had to get her mother calmed down and head to the hospital immediately.

  “I’m sorry, he didn’t make it. Michae
l Morris died at the scene of the accident before they could get him out of the car.”

  “What? No! Oh God!” Finley screamed Michael’s name and swore.

  “I’m very sorry,” the Officer said. “He had his license with him, but I need someone to make an ID at the hospital.”

  Finley was shaking so badly, she could hardly stand up. She knew her mother was in her brother’s room and in no shape to go see his dead body. She wasn’t either for that matter. “I’ll go,” she murmured before walking back up the stairs to change her clothes. On the way out, she ran over to Mrs. Cooley’s house next door and explained to her what happened so she could come sit with her mom.

  *

  Finley continued to hold the pause button on the phone. Standing there in her house some fourteen years later, she could still smell the hospital stench of bleach mixed with the metallic tinge of blood as she walked through the trauma department behind the officer. She didn’t have to close her eyes to remember the sight behind the curtain to the left. A thin white sheet had covered her brother’s lifeless body. When the doctor pulled it back, she looked down at his face. It was cut up from the broken glass and caked with dried blood. He hadn’t had his seat belt on, but surprisingly, he hadn’t gone through the windshield. The doctor had told Finley that his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit and he’d died of a massive head trauma.

  Finley rubbed her throbbing temple with her free hand and let go of the button on the phone after restarting the message. She held her breath as she listened to a voice she hadn’t heard in seven years.

  “Finley, it’s Nicole. You need to be at the airport tomorrow at eight p.m. Your daughter is coming to stay the last few weeks of her summer break with you,” she said in a soft voice. Then there was a sigh and a click as the phone was hung up.