Wet N Wild Navy SEALs

by Tawny Weber

  Jessie frowned. “Made themselves the law?”

  “Vigilantes?” Cooper asked.

  “More or less. Only backed with a lot of money and power. I don’t know who all is involved, but I know it extends across the state. There are several high-level judges, county and city politicians, policemen, and a man who calls himself the Colonel.” She shook her head sadly. “Basically, they decide when justice has not been served, and then mete it out themselves.”

  Cooper had heard talk of such an organization—vague whisperings—but he’d never paid much attention. In his line of work, there were always rumors. “How did you find out about this?” he asked.

  “I found papers in Robert’s office that shouldn’t have been at the house—criminal files, notes, and actual records of meetings with other members of The Regimen.” She shook her head and reached for her cup, her hand trembling slightly. “At first it didn’t make sense to me. Probably because I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing.” She took a sip of coffee and returned her cup to the table.

  “Then I confronted Robert, and he admitted his involvement.” She looked away, her eyes bright with tears. “He actually believed he was doing the right thing, cleaning up the streets and making them safer.” She brought her gaze back to Cooper, and the tears slipped down her cheek. She was incredibly beautiful, even after all she’d been through in the last few hours. “He’s a good man, Mr. Cooper.”

  Jessie tightened her hold on her sister, but Cooper couldn’t lie. “Good men don’t try to kill their wives, Nicole.”

  “It’s not Robert who’s trying to kill me. It’s the Colonel.”

  Cooper turned back to look at her, the name poking at his memory. “The Colonel?”

  “I can identify him. That’s why I ran. I’d seen references to him in Robert’s paper, but I didn’t know his identity.”

  “Who is he?” Jessie asked.

  Nicole looked at her sister, and Cooper could see the fear in her eyes. “I was supposed to be out for the evening,” Nicole said. “But I got tired and decided to come home early. I wanted to surprise Robert.” She laughed shortly, nervously. “I should have stayed out.”

  Cooper leaned forward in his chair. “Who is he?”

  Nicole turned and met his gaze. “Virgil Raloose. The ex-deputy director of operations for the CIA. I met him once. At a cocktail party in Washington right after he retired.”

  Dumbfounded, Cooper sank back in his chair. No one would believe him. Hell, he didn’t know if he believed it himself. The DDO of the CIA held more power than anyone cared to admit. He had at his beck and call some of the most highly trained operatives in the world. If he were behind this organization, if this was the man they were up against . . .

  Cooper shook his head. He needed time to think.

  “Okay, get some rest,” he said absently. “We’ll talk more in the morning.” If they were still alive.

  Chapter 13

  An hour later, Jessie found Cooper on the front patio sitting in the shadows, staring into the distance. There was nothing to see. The house was one of a line of similar houses that faced an empty field, with a wooded area behind it. There were no stars, no moon, nothing but a dark, wet night.

  “Can I join you?” she asked.

  He looked up at her, but she couldn’t make out his expression. “Sure.”

  She walked over and sat in the chair next to him. “Not quite as nice as our balcony.”

  “Welcome to the other part of Florida.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “A few short miles from the Gold Coast, and you hit swamp.”

  It held its own magic, she thought, as she breathed in the heavy, fetid air. “I always thought of Florida as high-rises and manicured lawns,” she said aloud. “But there’s more here than that.”

  She felt him looking at her but kept her own eyes focused straight ahead. She hadn’t come out here to talk to him about South Florida. There were other, more pressing matters on her mind. “Did I do the right thing, Cooper?”

  This time she did turn and saw the question on his face. “Should I have left it alone? Let Nicole take care of herself?” Jessie tucked her legs underneath her and wrapped her arms around herself. “I keep thinking if we hadn’t barged in there today . . .”

  “Jessie, don’t.” He reached over and claimed one of her hands. “You did what you had to do. The only thing you could have done.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not so sure. And Nicole obviously doesn’t think so.” She hesitated, searching for the words that would make him understand. “It’s just that I’ve been mothering Nicole for so long . . . I don’t know how not to take care of her.” Again she paused, thinking of the changes she’d seen in her sister. “Maybe it’s time I learned.”

  “Maybe.” He slipped his fingers through hers and tightened his hold. “But in this case, you did the right thing. I meant what I said back at the shelter. Those men may have followed us to Nicole, but they’d have found her sooner or later on their own. Then they would have taken her out of that house and killed her.”

  Jessie closed her eyes briefly and nodded. “I guess you’re right.” Though she wasn’t sure she believed it. Everything she’d done since coming down here to search for Nicole had felt off, somehow. Everything except her involvement with Cooper. It had felt right to make love to him, which only showed how wrong she could be.

  “You did good tonight, Jess,” he said, interrupting her thoughts. “Getting on that boat took guts.”

  It surprised her that he didn’t realize why she’d been able to do it. “I knew you’d keep us safe.”

  He let out a short laugh that held little humor. “But for how long?” He released her hand and, after a few minutes of silence, said, “This is way over my head, Jess. I deal with petty crooks, runaways, bail jumpers, even the mob on occasion. But this . . .” He lifted his hands, palms up, and then dropped them again.

  She unfolded her legs and shifted sideways in her chair. “You must know people you can go to. People in the FBI?”

  “Without any evidence?” He shook his head. “Who’s going to believe me? And even if they did, no one’s fool enough to go up against a man like Raloose without hard proof.”

  “What about Nicole? She’ll testify against him.”

  Cooper gave her a grim smile. “If she lives that long.” Jessie winced, but Cooper wasn’t finished. “And if she does, it will still be her word against a lot of very powerful people.”

  “What about us? We can back her up.”

  “Everything we know, or think we know, comes from Nicole.”

  “And the cop with the gun?”

  “Oh, Framen will go down all right. If he lives that long. But so what? Whatever his true role is, he’s expendable.”

  Jessie felt his frustration, and it frightened her. Yet in her heart she still believed in him. Reaching over, she laid a hand on his arm. With a start he looked at her, meeting her gaze across the few feet that separated them. She saw in his eyes the moment he realized what she was offering him. Trust. Faith.

  Standing, he stepped over to the railing, moving away from her. Away from what she offered. After a few moments, he said, “I didn’t mean what I said this morning, Jess. About last night.”

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  He turned back to her, his gaze drifting over her, hot and hungry. “Another time, another place, perhaps.”

  Jessie held her breath, unable to speak, waiting for him to close the space between them, willing him to reach out to her. Instead, he swung back around, leaning once more against the porch railing.

  “Cooper, why did you leave the Bureau?”

  Long minutes passed, and she didn’t think he would answer. Then he said, “I was brought up on charges of negligence. I let my personal feelings interfere with an investigation.” He faced her again, his body rigid with tension. “Because of it, a little girl died.”

  She didn’t believe it. Couldn’t. “No.”

  “I fell in love
with the girl’s mother.” His voice was hard, bitter, disgusted. “If I hadn’t been distracted, preoccupied, that little girl would be alive today.”

  For a moment Jessie couldn’t speak. Then she said, “That’s why you turned me away this morning. Why you didn’t want to make love last night.”

  “Go to bed, Jessie.” He swung back around, away from her. “It’s been a long day.”

  Jessie sat motionless, her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She ached to step up behind him and slip her arms around his waist. She wanted to lay her head against his broad back and cry. For a lost little girl. For her mother. And for him.

  She couldn’t do it.

  Last night she’d thrown herself at him, all but begged him to make love to her. If there was ever going to be anything between them, this time he’d have to come to her.

  Finally, she stood. “This isn’t over.”

  “It never started.”

  She lifted her hand to him and then pulled it back. “You know where I am if you change your mind.”

  “Good night, Jessie.”

  “Good night . . . Sam.”

  Cooper wished he had a cigarette. It didn’t matter that he’d quit ten years ago. At times like these, the craving was as fresh and raw as if it had been yesterday. He sat in the dark, his Walther .380 semiautomatic fully loaded on his lap, and thought of Jessie.

  He could have lost her today.

  He’d been stupid and careless, and they’d all come damn close to being history. Yet she’d hung in there, staying with him every step, even getting on that boat because he’d told her it was the only way. Despite everything, she’d believed in him.

  It was more than he deserved.

  He’d never known a stronger, more courageous woman. She’d do anything, face any odds to protect someone she loved. He doubted whether Nicole knew how lucky she was. Cooper would give his life to have someone—to have Jessie—care for him like that.

  He loved her.

  The realization came out of nowhere, but it didn’t surprise him. It had been creeping up on him, circling, waiting to claim him since the first day he’d met her. He’d tried to evade it, to keep her at a distance, but fate had a twisted sense of humor, and some things were inevitable. Like Sam Cooper falling in love with Jessie Burkett.

  Now that they both might end up dead.

  He would do his best to protect her, to protect them all. They might last a day or two, or even a week. But eventually, Raloose would find them. Then it would be all over. Cooper realized suddenly that he couldn’t go to his grave without touching her one more time.

  Putting the gun back in its holster, he slipped into the house. Inside, silence greeted him, but he stood for a moment anyway, listening. Then he crossed to Jessie’s room and hesitated with his hand on the doorknob. He could still walk away, he told himself. But he knew it was a lie.

  He opened the door.

  Jessie sat up in bed with a start. Another step. He set his shoulder holster on the dresser and closed the door behind him.

  For a space of a heartbeat, neither of them moved.

  Then a small cry escaped her lips, and she flew off the bed. He caught her in midflight, his arms wrapping around her waist, lifting her, pulling her close, his mouth claiming hers in a desperate kiss.

  Never again. He might never have her again. The thought tore at him, ripping at his heart, shredding his soul.

  Turning, he pressed her against the wall, his hands, his mouth seeking, feeling, memorizing every detail of her sweetness.

  Once more. One more time he would have her.

  Moaning, she met his need with her own, tearing at his shirt and shoving it off his shoulders, her hands connecting with his skin like hot streaks of fire, her lips following her hands, burning their way into his soul. He gripped her head, holding it against his chest, as if he could make her a part of him.

  He couldn’t lose her. Not now. He’d just found her.

  Reaching underneath her T-shirt, he grabbed her panties and yanked them down. On his knees, he worked his way back up her legs with his mouth, wanting to taste every part of her. Then he gripped her buttocks, holding her close as he found her core and buried his tongue in the sweet crevice between her legs.

  With a cry of pleasure, she arched against him.

  She was everywhere, everything. Heavy breathing and frantic moans of need. Frenzied hands in his hair, kneading, pulling. Soft skin and trembling thighs. Swollen, salty need. And the smell of sex, hot and hungry.

  He needed her now.

  Standing, he fumbled with his belt while she groped at his zipper. Then his sex sprang from his jeans. He lifted her against the wall, her legs wrapped around his waist, and drove into her. For a moment he stilled, tearing his mouth from hers to look into her dark eyes.

  And lost himself.

  He thrust into her, harder and faster, while she wound her fingers into his hair, her mouth working its way across his face, kissing him, loving him as her body arched against him. Then she cried out, and he followed her over the edge, spilling his heart and soul into hers.

  She loved him.

  It was more than the sex, more than the danger of him. It was Cooper himself. His strength. His need. His compassion.

  After their frantic lovemaking, he carried her to the bed. Laying her down, he sat for a moment next to her, brushing strands of hair from her cheek.

  “I’m not going to let them hurt you, Jess,” he said.

  She smiled tightly, her heart swelling. “I know.”

  “I have to go now and keep an eye on things.”

  She nodded, not trusting herself with words. She understood why he couldn’t stay with her, but that didn’t make her want it any less. He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers. Then he stood, walked to the dresser and picked up his gun before leaving the room.

  She fell asleep then, knowing he would protect them.

  When she finally made it into the kitchen the next morning, Nicole had coffee brewed and was making breakfast.

  “Where’s Cooper?” Jessie asked, forcing herself to sit at the table instead of offering to take over the food preparations.

  Nicole poured a cup of coffee, brought it over, and set it in front of her. “He went to get cleaned up. Seems he didn’t sleep last night.”

  Jessie took a sip of the coffee without commenting. She’d known he would stay up watching, keeping her and Nicole safe.

  Bringing her own coffee over, Nicole pulled out a chair and sat down. “Where did you find him?”

  “Jacob gave me his name.”

  “He’s very resourceful.”

  Jessie nodded, wary of where Nicole was heading with this.

  “So, what’s going on between the two of you?” she asked.

  Heat burned Jessie’s cheeks. “Is it that obvious?”

  “He got you on a boat.”

  Jessie sighed and turned to look out the window. The view wasn’t much better in the daytime. The sky was overcast and the field across the street was overgrown with tall, scraggly brush. “I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged and wrapped her hands around her coffee cup. “I run a day care center in Chicago,” she said, repeating the excuse Cooper had used with her. “And he lives on a boat.”

  Nicole looked doubtful, but then Jessie didn’t buy the explanation herself. There was more standing between her and Cooper than where they lived and what they did for a living. He breathed adventure and danger. She was steady and sensible. Besides, Cooper himself kept putting up roadblocks. He’d been burned once and didn’t seem inclined to let it happen again. Oh, he wanted her all right, but lust was a long way from love.

  “I sure could use some of that coffee.”

  The deep male voice surprised her, and Jessie looked up to see Cooper lounging in the doorway. Memories of the night before swept over her in a rush. It was impossible to look at him and not recall the most intimate details. />
  “There’s plenty,” Nicole said, rising from her chair. “Sit down and I’ll get it for you.”

  “Thanks.” Cooper walked over to the table, flipped a chair around backward and straddled it. “Morning, Jess.”

  Jessie smiled, not quite believing how sexy he looked, despite his lack of sleep. “Good morning.”

  Nicole brought a cup to the table. “Hungry? I made a huge omelet.”

  Cooper kept his eyes on Jessie a moment longer, then turned and nodded to Nicole. “Sure. Sounds good.”

  Nicole served the omelet. While eating, they kept the conversation light. In unspoken agreement, they put off dealing with the problems facing them for the space of this one last meal. Eventually they finished, and their short reprieve ended.

  “I made some calls this morning,” Cooper said without preamble. “I have friends in the Bureau who have offered to protect you both.”

  Jessie tightened her hands on her cup. “You’re going to send us away.”

  “It’s for your own good. You’re in danger here.”

  Jessie pushed herself back from the table. “And you’re not?”

  “I can take care of myself. Besides”—he glanced at Nicole—“someone needs to expose this organization.”

  “You can’t do this.” Jessie crossed her arms and glared at him. “You can’t expect me to walk away after everything that’s happened.”

  Cooper turned back to meet her gaze. “I expect you to be sensible for once. Take your sister and—”

  “I’m not leaving,” Nicole said calmly. “It’s my husband you’re going after, and I’m not leaving him.”

  Cooper frowned, obviously frustrated, and pushed out of his chair. “You’re both suicidal.”

  “Believe me, Cooper, I want to live,” Nicole said, looking up at him. “But you need me. If you’re going to expose The Regimen, I’m the only one who can get you the proof you need.”

  “She’s right,” Jessie said, returning to the chair next to her sister. “The papers you saw, right? The ones with details about The Regimen?”