His to Win (Carmel Springs Book 5)

Chapter 1

Maxwell~

Crap like this wasn't supposed to happen to guys like me; it really wasn't. I was twenty-four and in my goddamn prime. Sure, I was no longer in the Marines, but that didn't mean shit. I still kept in shape and exercised safety in everything that I did. Coming from a family full of nothing but ex-Marines, cops, and security experts, safety was a middle name shared by all of us.

I was the youngest child of Stanley and Nadine Colter, and that would make me the youngest of six boys. While Dad had really wanted a little girl, Mom had called it quits after me. No matter the gender, six kids had been her limit, much to Dad's dismay. However, I was grateful as fuck that six had been the magic number or else I wouldn't exist today.

The pecking order went as follows: Clayton was thirty-two, Keats and Trayce were thirty, Brett was twenty-eight, Jax was twenty-six, and I was twenty-four. Now, while we all took after Dad in looks and build, our personalities all differed. Still, with Dad's dark brown hair and hazel eyes all passed down to us...well, except for me because I'd gotten Mom's eyes, there was no mistaking a Colter. We were practically famous in the town of Carmel Springs, something that could be both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we all liked small town living, bad because it was small town living.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade living here for anything in the world. Our parents had taught us to value family, and I was happy wherever my family was. Dad was a retired Marine and Carmel Springs police officer, and I'd learn how to cherish the quiet moments from him. Mom had been the director of the town's rec center before passing away, and I had learned how to recognize what was important from her.

The family tradition had been to join the military and dedicate two tours before moving on to the next chapter of our lives. However, I had broken that tradition when Mom had gotten sick during the end of my first tour. She'd had COPD-something that we hadn't known about-and when she had gotten a respiratory infection, her illness had taken her from us way too soon. It'd been a dark time for us all, and if I were speaking freely, the grief from her loss still did a number on me all these years later. Even though I knew that life was just life, being away from my family while Mom had been sick had really fucked with me, and it still did.

So, learning the hard way how important family was, it'd been a no-brainer to stay in Carmel Springs after Mom passed. My father and all my brothers were here, so where else would I be? However, unlike Clayton, Brett, and Jax, being a police officer hadn't appealed to me. While I had nothing but the utmost respect for the profession, policing the mild streets of Carmel Springs hadn't interested me.

Luckily for me, Colter Security had already been up and running when we'd had to bury Mom, so I had taken advantage of the obvious nepotism and had let Keats and Trayce hire me, something that I knew they were both grateful for. Not for nothing, I had a genius IQ and technology was my drug. I was head of IT for Colter Security, and while Keats and Trayce were the actual owners, I worked with them, not for them. Dad worked part-time as a security consultant for Colter Security, but it was the same for him, too. Besides, Trayce and Keats knew better than to try to tell Dad what to do.

At any rate, you'd think that after being raised by a cop and a mother of six boys that had all been in sports, a tour in the military, and working for a security company that I'd be the living epitome of safety, right?

Well, I was.

We all were.

So, how in the fuck I injured my left shoulder is beyond me. The equipment hadn't even been that heavy. It'd been a bag full of the normal shit that I always carted around. Plus, even if it had been heavy, I thought it was your back that usually took the beating when lifting shit if you didn't lift correctly, not your shoulder. Plus, if anyone was going to sprain a muscle, it should be Clayton. As the oldest and with a weakness for Rolos and RC Cola, he should definitely be the one feeling the signs of old age, not me.