Wet N Wild Navy SEALs

by Tawny Weber

  Lu raised her hands, bracketing the man's face as though framing him for a photo shoot. "I can see it now. News media snapping your picture wherever you go, labeling you as The Man Trying to Ruin J.B. Cooper's Career. Your face plastered across social media right next to Bliss' in perpetuity. You'll both be world famous. We can't buy that kind of publicity."

  Vi cleared her throat. "I have an idea I think will be amenable to both sides."

  Bliss had known the agent since the beginning of her writing career, and she had to believe Vi had found a new tactic to try. Bliss held her breath and waited.

  "I can tell you're a reasonable man," Vi said.

  He'd sat back in his seat, yet, with his arms folded high over his chest and steely eyes pinning Vi, looked anything but a soldier in retreat. "I am."

  "Then there is a way to resolve this."

  Bliss looked from Vi to Savage—er—The Spoiler and back.

  "Work with Bliss to edit out of her second book anything damaging or harmful to the security of your company before it goes to the publisher."

  "What?" Bliss blurted out, all but coming out of her seat.

  "I have a business to run," the spoiler said, his eyes a lethal glare sliding from Vi to Bliss.

  Vi caught Bliss' eye, the message in hers warning Bliss to go along with what certainly seemed a valid and viable solution for both sides.

  Bliss sat back in her seat and focused on the Savage lookalike. "If my current work-in-progress goes to print as is…" Bliss shook her head. "I don't want to harm you or your men."

  One corner of his mouth quirked upward, but there wasn't any humor in its curl. "Is that a threat?"

  Bliss blanched. "No—"

  "Given the information your brother has supplied you, you must know the kind of security work I do—that there is no way you could carry out any threat against me."

  "Of course, but—" Bliss all but sputtered to a halt. Here she was trying to offer the man a workable resolution to both their problems and he resorts to threats. How dare he?

  She leaned forward and jabbed a finger into his breastbone. "Some security guy you are. My publicist got you into this car and while wearing four-inch heels."

  "Yeah," Lu interjected with the bravado of a woman not accustomed to being ignored. "I got you into this car."

  He nodded in Lu's direction. "Do you really think she'd have gotten me into this car without my cooperation?"

  Lu shrank back to her side of the seat, mouth slack.

  "If you allowed Lu to maneuver you into our car, why?" Bliss asked. "You didn't know I was Cooper at that point."

  The irises of his amazing blue eyes pulsed. "Because I knew you three knew I wasn't J.B. Cooper."

  "How could you know that?" Bliss demanded, fighting the allure of those mesmerizing eyes.

  He glanced at each one of them. "It was written all over your faces the moment I stepped out onto that stage. Every one of you looked at me like you knew I was an imposter."

  Bliss stiffened. "So you figured we were your best link to locating Cooper?"

  "Yeah. And it worked, didn't it?"

  Bliss expelled a breath she hadn't been aware she'd been holding, and demanded, "Just who the hell are you?"

  "Yeah," Lu said, back on high alert. "Who are you?"

  He unsnapped a pocket on his fatigues and pulled out a business card which he handed to Bliss. She read the card and looked up at the man who fit her image of Nick Savage to a T.

  "So, Jake St. John, owner of Saint Security, care to tell me where you operate out of? The only other information on this card is a phone number."

  Vi took the card from Bliss' fingers as Jake St. John answered, "The phone number is all anyone needs to reach me for a job."

  And that number was for a cell. No indication of an office address—of Robbie's location. Bliss forced a smile. "And if I want to visit your office?"

  St. John gave her yet another a humorless smile. "That information is on a need-to-know basis. Keeps my security business secure."

  Sobering, he added, "But you already have an idea where I operate out of."

  "How's that?" Bliss asked.

  "Your Savage character works out of Central America."

  She shrugged. "Central America was a logical choice, given the types of jobs Robbie described."

  "Good deductive reasoning," he said.

  Had he just paid her a compliment? Or was this his way of diverting her from drawing out more information about him? Oh, she wasn't that easy to deter.

  Bliss cocked her head and smiled. "If you like my deductive reasoning, here's more. You didn't come to the States just to confront Cooper or you, a topnotch security man, would have been better prepared."

  His eyes narrowed. "You're right. I pretty much stumbled across Cooper's supposed whereabouts. I diverted my plans to confront him."

  "Ooh, did the Cooper mystery interfere with some nefarious security business?" Bliss asked.

  One corner of his mouth quirked upward, this time with a hint of humor. "Wrong. I'm here to visit family."

  This time it was Bliss who snorted and said, "Didn't see that coming."

  Chapter 3

  Jake lay on his stomach in a pile of raked leaves beneath a clear blue sky, letting his seven-year-old nephew think he'd pinned him in a wrestling match while his toddler niece crumbled the dried leavings of autumn in his hair and giggled. Pure bliss.

  Immediately, his contentment evaporated at the reminder of the woman named Bliss and he scowled. Bliss O'Hara definitely hadn't left him in an agreeable state of mind.

  "Let's give Uncle Jake a break," his sister Dixie said, picking up little Emma.

  Jake rolled onto his side, sending Ben tumbling. "They are my break."

  Ben threw himself onto Jake's shoulder, the game still on for him. Jake caught the kid, flipping him onto his back and burying him in the leaf pile. Ben laughed as he swam his way out, ready to take another flying leap at his uncle.

  "Enough," Dixie said, a raised finger stopping her son.

  "Aah gee, mom," Ben and Jake chorused the kid's favorite oath.

  Dixie shook her head. "Boys." Then to Ben she said, "Sam's done cooking for the day. Cleanup time."

  Ben sighed, but bounded to his feet and sprinted into the house.

  Jake braced himself up on his elbows. "He and Sam have a solid bond."

  "He loves working with Sam, and Sam couldn't love him more if he were his own."

  "You don't have to keep reminding me an adoptive father can be as good as a biological one. Our father never made me feel less a St. John than the rest of you just because he adopted me."

  Dixie rocked a drowsy Emma in her arms. "Just trying to get through to you on some level. You've been out of the military several years, yet you haven't moved on."

  He sat up, pulled his knees to his chest, and folded his arms across them. "I built a business. That's moving on."

  "A security business that does the same stuff you did when you were a SEAL, Jake. It's past time you rejoin the civilized world, as you call it."

  Jake expelled a heavy breath, weary of this old debate.

  "You always say what you had to do as a SEAL stripped you of your humanity, that you can never fit in again." Dixie glanced pointedly from him to Emma who'd nestled her head in the crook of Dixie's neck, eyes shut, her little mouth forming a slack O. "I watch you with my kids and Dane's and Roman's daughters. The way you are with them—" she shook her head "—you can't tell me you wouldn't make a great dad. Time you got a couple of these munchkins of your own."

  The kids did have a calming effect on him. But… Full-time parenthood was different than being an uncle. Then there was his job of choice. Before he could argue the point, his cell buzzed in his pocket.

  Jake pulled out the phone, looked at the readout, and groused, "It's that damn woman."

  Dixie chuckled, her voice trailing as she turned toward the house, "I don't have to ask which damn woman you're referring to. You've been gri
ping about only one since you got here."

  Jake scowled. He was tempted not to answer. But Bliss O'Hara hadn't called him since linking him to a file of her manuscript five days ago, and she'd texted him only once and then only to make sure he'd received the file. It wasn't her fault the woman invaded his thoughts way too often. That was on him. Lack of focus. How else could he explain some romance writer getting him to slip and tell her he was visiting family? By now, she'd likely even figured out his sister lived in Wisconsin.

  He strode to the edge of the yard before flicking on the phone, demanding, "What?"

  "What did you do to him?" The volume of Bliss O'Hara's voice had him pulling the phone away from his ear.

  "Who?" he snapped back.

  "My brother. You promised not to hurt him," she barked.

  "I haven't even talked to him yet. I'm on vacation. Remember?"

  "Then why haven't I heard from him?" she demanded, though there was a hint of a quaver to her voice this time. "He calls or texts me weekly. That's our deal. It's been over a week."

  "I wouldn't know. Contrary to what you seem to believe, I'm not his babysitter."

  Several seconds of breathing followed, then a concerned, "Robbie might not be the most reliable person in the world…"

  He could tell her Rob had been reliable while working for him, but he wanted to hear where she was going with this conversation.

  "…But he's never let a week pass without some contact with me. That was the deal we made when he chose to work out of the country, rather than come home."

  "Got a tight grip on those apron strings, huh?"

  He thought he heard the hiss of an inhaled breath. He was sure he had when she came back at him with a heated, "He was eighteen when he left home. He'd never been away more than a night or two when he went to Mexico. And then he stayed…in a foreign country."

  Her voice rising in volume and emotion with every word, he stopped her with an, "I get it."

  And he did. His family made it clear they worried about him.

  Bliss O'Hara returned with unsettling quiet, "Has he ever gone missing on you?"

  "No. Has he gone missing on you before now?" Jake asked, the fact that her brother had never told her where he was working—living—catching the notice of his internal radar the moment she'd revealed that fact five days ago in the back of the limo. That she took so long to answer told him Rob Burns O'Hara had disappeared on her before.

  "About two weeks into his stay in Mexico," she finally said, "he kind of fell off the grid for several days. When he contacted me, he said the job he'd gone to Mexico to do had fallen through. That he'd moved on, was okay and had another job."

  "And he didn't tell you where or what he'd moved onto?"

  "He said the job would have him moving around and he'd keep in touch with me. I had my concerns, but we settled on a compromise. He promised to contact me weekly."

  "Did he give you a number where you could reach him?"

  "No."

  Jake scanned the tree-line along the far side of the field, his SEAL instincts never completely switched off. "That didn't sound alarms for you?"

  There was a breath of a hesitation before she answered. "He's always lived with me—relied on me. That was the first time he'd ventured out on his own. I wanted to give him space—give him the freedom to create a life of his own. Loosen the apron strings as you might say."

  He almost smiled at her turning his own words on him. He respected she'd recognized her brother needed to grow up—that she needed to let him go.

  But what she said raised a whole lot of questions about her and her brother's relationship and Rob's past. "Did you try calling back the number he was calling from?"

  "Yes. But each time he called, the number was different and, when I'd call back, the phone was no longer in service."

  He didn't like the sound of that. It reeked of drug involvement or something equally as nasty. But the kid had never shown signs of being on drugs or involved in anything off while working for him.

  Come to think of it, the kid seemed to hang around the compound way more than someone with a life outside work should have done. He didn't like what that implied—didn't even want to go there…not yet, and shook off the thought.

  "Maybe he saw the Sherwood interview," he said, hoping it was enough to alleviate the sister's concerns…and his. "Maybe he saw us together and figured he was in trouble and doesn't want to talk to you."

  "Do you even get network television in your part of the world?"

  He smiled at her cheekiness. "Is that another attempt to manipulate information about where my company is based?"

  "I thought we'd already settled I had figured that out."

  He sighed. "We have satellite hookup."

  "Okay. Maybe that's all it is. He's afraid to face me."

  "Afraid of you?" Jake snorted. "I can't imagine anyone being afraid of you."

  "I-ah. What I meant is he would be afraid of disappointing me. I kind of raised him."

  Another piece of information raising more questions. Hell, what was he doing still talking to this woman? The less he knew about Bliss O'Hara's life, the easier it would be to forget her…once he got done editing her blasted manuscript. He let the silence stretch between them, hoping she wouldn't elaborate further on her brother's past—or hers.

  "Well, I-ah suppose I just have to wait for him to contact me."

  Say nothing. Don't get suckered in by the lost tone of her voice. Let her hang up.

  "Unless," she said, the plaintive note of that single word more than the fact that she hadn't hung up making his shoulders droop. "Could you check with your firm and make sure he's still there—that he's okay?"

  He grimaced, knowing he was about to offer her help against his better judgement. "I'll call command and have them order him to contact you."

  "And if he's not there?"

  Asked the woman whose brother has disappeared on her before.

  "His home information will be at the command center. If he's not there, I'll gather whatever information we have on him and get back to you by end of the day. Okay?"

  "Yeah," she said, the word drawn out as though she were searching for more ways she could involve him. "That'll help."

  It would help…only if the kid hadn't run.

  The dejected tone of her "Thank you" just before she closed the call told him she knew it, too.

  As he tapped the number for the command center, it hit him the kid knew a lot about Saint Security's inner workings.

  "Hey, Dozer," he said, recognizing the voice that answered. "You seen Rob around lately?"

  "Come to think of it, no." Dozer called out, the company phone being in the combination living-dining-command center of the hacienda. "Fitch, Ash, either of you seen Rob lately?"

  He heard their answers before Dozer relayed them. "No one's seen him for a few days. We assumed you gave him time off, but since you're asking about him… What's up?"

  "His sister is looking for him."

  "I didn't even know he had a sister," Dozer said.

  "I didn't, either, until five days ago. I need his home address and any other personal information from his personnel file."

  Typing sounds were followed by, "There's not much on him. Not even a phone number. Home address isn't in the best neighborhood."

  Jake grimaced. That was never good. "Did he ever mention any friends? Anyone know where he hung out?"

  Dozer grunted. "He hung with us. Never said much. Never mentioned any friends or family. Was just always here in the background listening, watching."

  The information churned in Jake's gut. If the kid was some sort of plant, how had he missed it?

  Because he hadn't done the kid's background check himself. He'd been in South America leading a security team protecting a high-paying U.S. pharmaceutical rep looking to make a deal with some coca growers. Whoever ran Rob's background check would be carrying his head in a hand basket when he was through with him. The man hadn't even turn
ed up the fact that Burns wasn't Rob's legal last name.

  But that issue was for later. Right now, his gut was telling him something was hinky about Rob's absence.

  "Send a couple guys over to Rob's address. Have them check it out, see if he's there or if anyone in the neighborhood knows anything about him."

  "You want we should do that right now?"

  "Yes, now, and report to me as soon as you have something."

  The something came thirty minutes later from Dozer. "We're at the kid's place. It's been trashed."

  Jake strode away from the yard as he gave Dozer further orders. By the time he was behind the garage and out of earshot of Sam and Ben, who were wheeling pint-size bulldozers and dump trucks around the sandbox, Dozer had disconnected, leaving Jake free to call Bliss O'Hara.

  Good news or bad, he'd never been one to delay giving a report. What actions to be taken next often depended on efficiently delivered intel.

  He hunkered down in the shadow of the garage, making himself a smaller target even though it was highly doubtful any snipers were taking aim at him from the trees. But old habits…

  Hell, there was nothing old about this habit—this mindset. He still lived life and death on every mission he took. That's why his team was mostly made up of former Navy SEALs like himself. They—he—had the mindset for the job.

  And Bliss O'Hara surely didn't.

  The woman was going to freak out when he told her that her brother had left his dwelling and quite possibly not on his own power.

  He stared at the late season planting of hay swaying in the breeze, putting together his plan of how to break the news. Which boiled down to delegating her to a need-to-know status. No sordid details and plenty of reassurance he and his team were on the job searching for her brother.

  He found her incoming call in his history and tapped redial.

  She answered on the first ring. "Was he there? Is he okay?"

  No surprise to him she had caller ID. But, he hadn't expected her to dive into the subject without any niceties.

  "He isn't at the command center. I sent a couple guys to check out his residence."

  "He wasn't there, was he?"