Hot SEAL, Alaskan Nights (SEALs in Paradise)

by Cynthia D'Alba

  “No. Just jerking your chain.”

  Compass narrowed his eyes. “You know what they say about revenge?”

  “Oh yeah. Best served cold. You’ll never see it coming.”

  Compass laughed, but Levi knew his friend’s laugh, and this wasn’t it. The guys had all bid a fond farewell to Rio during their last get-together at McP’s bar…all except Levi. Saying adieu to someone like Compass was going to suck balls. Not only was Compass a hell of a SEAL, he was Levi’s closest confidant. They’d been like brothers through thick and thin. Compass had finished his commitment to the SEALs and was headed home, something he refused to say much about.

  Maybe Levi could get Compass to talk about what was coming next. God knew he hadn’t talked to anyone other than Levi about his family’s business. Compass had trusted him with that information, and Levi had kept the information confidential. After all, it wasn’t his story to tell.

  The plane landed in Seattle with only a small bump. Levi’s butt appreciated the pilot’s talent, but he’d been able to land a plane softer since he’d been sixteen.

  As he waited to stand, he extended his arms over his head and rolled his head from side-to-side. He was more than ready to get off this plane. For once in his life, his under six-feet height had been advantageous as he’d had plenty of leg room. However, his stitches pulled his flesh with his first step and he muffled a groan. Apparently, not muffled enough as Compass turned to look at him.

  “Need a pain pill?” Compass asked as they shuffled toward the exit.

  “Next flight,” he said with a grimace. He clunked the cane on the floor a little harder than necessary. He hated the damn thing. If he didn’t need it….

  As they walked onto the jet bridge, Levi blew out a puff of air and a stream of cuss words. A male attendant stood beside an electric cart with a sign reading “Dutch.”

  “This is Dutch,” Compass said.

  “Goddamnit, Compass. I don’t need a ride.”

  Compass widened his eyes in what he thought made him look innocent. It didn’t.

  “I didn’t do this,” he swore. “It must have been that sweet Beverly, or Brittany or whatever that cute agent’s name was back in San Diego. She obviously looked across the ticket area, took one look at you, and totally fell in love. She didn’t want you to suffer.”

  “Fuck you,” Levi said with no malice and sat in the cart with his cane across his lap for his ride two gates down.

  As with the first flight, they were in the initial group to board. Plus, the gate agent asked them to pre-board because of Levi’s injuries.

  “Good morning,” a chipper flight attendant said as they passed through the plane’s door.

  “Morning,” Levi replied and continued to his seat.

  “Bourbon. Crown, if you’ve got it. Ice. No water. Thanks,” Compass said as he passed the galley toward his seat.

  “Of course, sir.”

  Levi fumbled for the seat belt as Compass took the aisle seat. He opened his mouth to comment on his friend’s drink order but closed it. Rio was a grown man. If he wanted a drink at eleven-thirty in the morning, it certainly wasn’t Levi’s business.

  The flight from Seattle to Anchorage took another three hours. A midday meal was served, but Levi noticed that Compass barely ate. Instead, he consumed all his calories in liquid form. Levi noted his friend becoming quieter and more withdrawn as they approached Anchorage.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  Compass turned toward Levi. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

  “I’m not sure I believe you. You haven’t told a butt joke in over two hours.”

  Compass snorted quietly. “I’d call you a butthead, but since your face looks just like your butt, it seems redundant.”

  Levi chuckled. “And he’s back.”

  “Sorry. Just have a few things on my mind.”

  “Listen, man, I really appreciate your coming all this way with me.”

  “No problem. Glad to do it.”

  “No, really. Flying to Alaska to help me then heading back to the lower forty-eight is a little above and beyond, so thanks.”

  Compass’s lips tightened. “Let me ask you this. If I needed help, which required you to fly to Georgia and then to Alaska, would you do it?”

  “Of course.”

  “Exactly.” Compass shut his eyes. “Now that that’s settled, I’m napping until we land.”

  Since they were about fifteen minutes to landing, Levi knew his friend had said all he was going to say and didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He could respect that.

  They exited the plane into the Anchorage International Airport and headed for baggage claim on the lower level.

  “Stairs or escalator?” Compass asked.

  “Stairs. I need to try to work the soreness out.”

  “Man, you were shot less than a week ago. Don’t you think you should give yourself a little break?”

  “I have. I’ve been sitting for hours.” He rubbed his thigh. “Don’t want to let those muscles get tight.”

  Compass shook his head. “I swear, Dutch, sometimes I think you enjoy the pain.”

  Levi laughed. “Hell, Compass. After we survived hell week, I just assumed we all did.”

  The reply was a chuckle, the first he’d heard from his friend in the last three hours.

  “How far is home for you?” Compass asked.

  “Not horrible. I’ll check with local plane service for a flight down. Man, will my mother be surprised.”

  “Um. Maybe not.”

  As the words left Compass’s mouth, Levi heard his name being shouted. He looked in that direction and saw his mother hurrying toward them.

  “You called her?”

  “Had to. You can’t lift anything over twenty pounds, remember? Someone had to put the fifty-plus pound duffle in the car.”

  Levi found himself engulfed in his mother’s embrace, her Chanel perfume swirling around him.

  “Oh honey,” his mother said. “It’s so good to see you.” She stepped back, looked at him, and then hugged him again. Levi heard her sniff. “I can’t believe you got shot and didn’t tell me.”

  Levi rolled his gaze to Compass, who grinned and shrugged. “Had to,” he mouthed.

  Levi hugged his mother, and at the same time, gave Compass a one-finger salute behind his mother’s back.

  “Of course, Mr. North had to tell me, just like you should have,” his mother scolded as she swatted his shoulder.

  “I’m fine, Mom. Really. A couple of stitches. It’s nothing. Honest. It sounds more dramatic than it was.”

  He hated lying to his mother, but she didn’t need to know all the details, all the horrors he’d seen on their last mission battling the Houthi rebels. Mean bastards, that’s for sure. The unit had been lucky to rescue the hostage and get out of there with only his injury.

  “Okay, Compass,” he said. “Let’s go claim some bags.”

  Compass shook his head. “This is where I say goodbye. My duffle was checked through to Georgia.”

  Levi drew a swift breath. “You’re not hanging around a couple of days?”

  “You’re very welcome, Mr. North,” his mother said. “We’d love to have you stay with us.”

  Compass smiled. “Thank you, ma’am, but I’ve got a flight heading out shortly. My family is expecting me.”

  Levi held out his hand. “Thanks, man. It’s been great.”

  Compass took his hand, then pulled Levi in for one of those back-slapping man hugs. “You, too. Take care of yourself.”

  “I will. You too. Won’t be the same without you.”

  “Aw, you’ll replace me with someone better.”

  “Impossible. There isn’t a better man.”

  They stepped apart and Rio North, aka Compass, turned toward the TSA line. “Later.”

  Levi nodded. He watched his best friend walk away and wondered, not for the first time, if he’d ever see him again.

  Chapter 2

  After a qui
ck taxi ride to Lake Hood Seaplane Base, they climbed onto his parents’ floatplane. His dad hugged him, then took the duffle from his mother and secured the heavy bag for the flight, while Levi took the co-pilot seat and strapped in. He realized piloting the plane would require using his left leg for the left pedal, but he was mentally prepared for the pain. It’d been too long since he’d gotten behind the wheel of a plane, and he was more than ready. His dad strapped in and put on his headphones.

  “You want to take her?” his dad asked.

  Levi nodded. “Yep. It’s been a while. I’m looking forward to it.”

  His mom had strapped into one of the rear seats and put on a headset. In a plane of this size, the noise prevented anyone from holding a conversation without a headset.

  “Does the rest of the family know I’m coming?” Levi asked.

  His dad snorted into his mic. “Know? Your mother stopped just short of putting an announcement in the Homer News. She missed the deadline for this week’s edition, so she had to rely on phone calls and emails.”

  His mother slugged his father’s shoulder, much as she had done his earlier. “I wasn’t that bad.” She rested her hand on Levi’s shoulder. “Besides, it’s been over a year since we’ve seen you, and then you come home with a gunshot wound and a cane.”

  Levi moved his right hand from the wheel and laid it on his mother’s hand. “Trust me. No big deal on the wound and the cane is only for another day or so.”

  She sniffed and settled back in her seat. “So you say. Take us up.”

  After clearance from the tower, the dock crew unfastened the moorings, and he guided the plane into the main channel of the lake. From there, he raced down the lake runway, water spewing from under the pontoons. Pulling back on the yoke, he lifted the plane off the lake and into the air. He exhaled a long breath and a sigh. Damn, it felt good to be in control of his life again.

  The fifty-minute flight was over in a blink of an eye. As much as Levi didn’t want to admit it, his left leg had begun protesting about twenty minutes in.

  As they neared Homer-Beluga Lake, Levi’s dad glanced sideways and caught Levi rubbing his left leg.

  “Want me to take it in?” he asked.

  Levi nodded. “Sure.”

  “Your leg bothering you?” his dad asked. “I saw you rubbing it.”

  “A little. No big deal.”

  As the youngest of five siblings, he’d grown up with two older brothers with the ability to laser in on any weakness shown by Levi, his sisters, or even each other. Think sharks drawn to blood. He’d learned a long time ago not to show weakness of any kind. It’d made his high school years at least bearable.

  His dad set the plane on the water with a finesse that testified to his years of experience. Softest landing Levi had had in days, including the ones with professional pilots. The plane slowed and then his dad turned it toward home base. As they neared the family dock, Levi could see his two brothers waiting with ropes to secure the plane.

  His dad’s ability to place the floatplane exactly next to the dock without any adjustment necessary still impressed Levi.

  “Nice job, Dad.”

  “Thanks. Did I tell you I’m teaching Patrick, Jr. to fly?”

  Levi shot him a glance. “God, Dad. That kid’s not old enough to fly a plane.”

  “He’s thirteen. Older than you when you first flew.”

  “No kidding. Thirteen? Damn. Where did those years go?”

  “They fly by,” his mother said from behind him. “Trust me when I say that the years will go even faster the older you get.”

  His brothers had finished tying off the plane when Levi exited the plane behind his mother.

  “Hooyah, little brother,” Patrick said and picked him up in a tight bear hug.

  His brothers, Patrick and Sam, had hogged all the height genes before Levi had been conceived. Standing six-four and six-three respectively, the two men towered over Levi, at five-eleven and a half.

  “Hooyah,” Sam repeated, giving Levi a high-five.

  He was relieved Sam hadn’t hugged him. He was still smarting from Patrick’s squeeze.

  “Don’t give me hooyah, you two worthless pieces of Army trash.” Both his brothers had served in the Army after high school.

  Patrick grabbed Levi’s head for a nuggy, but their mother moved in to separate them.

  “Boys. Stop that. You know Levi’s recovering from a gunshot wound. You be nice.”

  “Boys” didn’t exactly describe his brothers or himself. Patrick was the oldest at forty-one with Samuel right behind at thirty-eight. At thirty, Levi had been the football the two boys had thrown around when he’d been a baby.

  “Are Nancy and Macy here, too?” he asked.

  Nancy, age thirty-four, and Macy, age thirty-two, were his two older sisters. He couldn’t imagine how his parents had remained sane with five children, especially when two of them had been his brothers, terrors from the day they’d been born. All his siblings, except Macy, were married with their own families.

  “Everyone’s here. Hell…sorry, Mom. Heck,” Samuel corrected, “there are some nieces and nephews you’ve never met.”

  “Don’t say anything to Macy about her stomach. It’ll drive her crazy,” Patrick said.

  “What’s wrong with her stomach?” Levi asked. “Is she sick?”

  “Preggers,” Patrick said. “You’d think she invented having babies the way she struts around.” Patrick had four children; Samuel and Nancy had three each. His mother had told him that Macy was pregnant for the first time a few months back, but the last mission had wiped everything from his mind except survival.

  “Right,” Levi said. “Forgot that. She and Doug get back together?”

  “No,” his mother answered from behind them. “And don’t mention his name.”

  “Fucking bastard,” Samuel muttered. “Ought to be neutered like the cur dog he is.”

  “Fucking straight,” Patrick said.

  Levi made a note that maybe he’d make time to have a chat with his old buddy Doug, ex-boyfriend of his sister Macy, soon to be dead and buried if his brothers had their way.

  To say the volume inside his parents’ house was loud was like saying there was a wee bit of snow in the Arctic Circle. Seven children screamed as they ran around the house, playing some game that seemed to involve jumping, stabbing, running, yelling, and ambushing his parents’ poor dogs. Thank heavens three of his siblings’ offspring were too young to participate.

  His sisters and sisters-in-law were setting bowls and platters of food on a table already straining under the weight of what had been set out. The minute Levi entered the house, the four women rushed him, and he found himself wrapped in eight arms. All the noise and voices overwhelmed him. He was trying to decide how to get control of the situation when his dad blew a loud whistle. Everyone froze.

  “That’s much better,” his dad said. “You all are going to run Levi out of here with all that ruckus.”

  Levi laughed and hugged each woman, depositing a cheek kiss on each of them.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” Nancy said. “Mom’s had us cooking since she heard you were coming home.”

  “I have not,” his mother protested as she swatted at Nancy’s backside.

  Levi believed Nancy over his mother’s protests. Their family celebrated, and commiserated, every event with food. Lots and lots of food.

  The children were hustled out of the dining room into the kitchen to be fed. Patrick, Jr., as the oldest at thirteen, was put in charge of that gang of hooligans.

  The adults pulled up chairs to his parents’ table, which hadn’t been designed to seat ten. Still, they somehow managed to get everyone a spot no matter how tight and small the designated space was.

  Levi’s stomach growled. The aromas and dishes in front of him smelled and looked better than the crap he’d been eating for the last few months on missions. Within minutes, his plate was heaped full. All he needed now was some time to chow down.


  There was so much of his life he couldn’t share with his family, but what he could, he did. They asked about his wound, and he explained how he’d gotten hit after their successful recovery of an Army Ranger. He downplayed the danger, making that mission from hell into a quick run into a park to escort a fellow military brother home. His brothers each gave him a “Hooyah” for saving a fellow Army man.

  After about ten minutes, Macy stood and announced she was headed to the kitchen and did anyone need anything? As she did, she posed sideways behind her chair, her obviously pregnant abdomen protruding well beyond the chair.

  Levi looked at her, swallowed his anger at her having to raise a child without its father, and shook his head. “I’m good, Macy.” He tilted his head. “You put on some weight?”

  Beside him, Patrick snorted into his napkin.

  Sam widened his eyes and said, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but have you tried that new weight loss center in town? I hear people are losing tons of weight on their plans.”

  This time, it was Levi who laughed.

  Macy stroked her bulging belly. “You’re just jealous that you don’t have the ability to produce life like women can.”

  “I know I would definitely be looking forward to pushing a watermelon through my—”

  “That’s enough.” Levi’s mother interrupted Patrick before he could finish his comment. “We don’t need a graphic description of childbirth at the dinner table,” she said, pointing at her oldest.

  “Congrats, Macy,” Levi said. “I hope he or she is going to give you gray hair like you did Mom.”

  “I don’t have gray hair,” his mother said, patting her blonde hair.

  “Only your hairdresser knows for sure, right, Mom?” Nancy said, chuckling.

  His mom pointed her fork toward Nancy. “We aren’t discussing my blonde hair. Next subject.”

  Macy, apparently wanting the spotlight back, continued to rub her belly. “I’m having a daughter. She’s perfect.”

  “When’s she due?” Levi asked.

  “I’ve got a little over a month left, but I swear, I feel like she’ll drop out of me at any minute.”

  The guys groaned.