Securing Sidney

by Susan Stoker

  “Give me your hand,” Gumby ordered gently. She immediately put her hand in his, her trust making him feel so much better. Moving slowly, he placed it on Hannah’s head. As if the pit bull could tell Sidney was frightened, she didn’t move.

  Sidney still shook in his lap, but she let him pet Hannah, her hand under his. “See? It’s just Hannah. She isn’t going to bite you.”

  When Sidney took a deep breath, Gumby knew she was going to be all right.

  He’d never met anyone braver than she was. He’d thought so the first time he’d seen her, taking on a man twice her size, but he knew it even more now. She began to pet Hannah on her own, so he put his arm back around her waist.

  “She looks good,” Sidney said after a few minutes. She was no longer shaking, but was still being cautious.

  “Yeah. The doctor says she’s healing remarkably well.”

  As they talked, Hannah’s tail wagged, and she crawled even closer to them.

  Gumby chuckled when the dog rested her head on his knee and looked up at Sidney as if she were the sun to her moon.

  “I can’t go back to doing what I was before this happened,” Sidney said quietly, her eyes on Hannah.

  “What do you mean?” Gumby asked.

  “You were right. Chasing after the hard-core abusers by myself was stupid. Obviously. I thought if I was careful, I’d be okay. But I was just being naïve. I could’ve gotten Caite hurt, and you and the others. But it’s more than that.” Sidney looked up at him. “I was scared, Decker. Scared to death. The dogs in that ring weren’t salvageable. They were too far gone. I couldn’t have saved them no matter what I did.”

  “I know,” Gumby said softly, feeling sad, but relieved that she now realized it.

  “I thought you were just being bossy. I was so upset with you that day, and I think that fueled my stupidity. You even said you would go with me, and I just plowed ahead like I always did. I’m so sorry.”

  Gumby kissed her temple. “You made a mistake. You don’t have to apologize.”

  “I do. I should’ve realized you just wanted what was best for me.”

  “Apology accepted,” Gumby said, wanting to move on.

  She looked back at Hannah. “I want to keep working with abused animals, but not on the front line anymore. I’ll talk to Faith, see if she still wants me to help her out. I can help with adoptions or something.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Gumby told her.

  Still focused on Hannah, she asked, “What if I can’t even do that? What if I’m scared to death of every dog now?”

  “You aren’t.”

  “How do you know?” Sidney asked, staring up at him, her eyes wide and full of tears. “Look how I reacted to Hannah. And I know her.”

  “Cut yourself some slack, sweetheart. She’s the first dog you’ve come into contact with since you were attacked. And she’s the same breed. It’ll take some time, but I know you’ll beat this. You won’t ever be the same person you were before, but that’s not all bad. Having a bit of caution when it comes to abused dogs, and animals in general, is probably a good thing. But I know you. You’ll bounce back. Promise.”

  “What’d I do to deserve you?” Sidney asked quietly after several moments had gone by.

  Deciding not to answer, Gumby said instead, “Come on, let’s get you to the couch. I’ll make you some lunch and you can take a nap.”

  “I’m not tired,” she complained, but a huge yawn belied her words.

  Smiling, but knowing better than to contradict her, Gumby slid out from under her and stood. Then he helped her to her feet. “Easy, Hannah,” he scolded when the pit bull jumped to her feet in anticipation of playtime.

  He saw Sidney wince, but she bravely held out her hand to the dog and smiled when Hannah licked her.

  He kept one arm around Sidney as he walked her to the couch and got her settled, propping her feet up on a pillow on the coffee table. Hannah jumped up on the cushion next to her, and he was about to pull her off when Sidney said, “She’s okay.”

  “If she starts bothering you, let me know.”

  “I will. Decker?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you.”

  Gumby sighed. He’d never get tired of hearing those words. “Love you too, Sid. Close your eyes and relax while I get us something to eat.”

  “God, I can’t wait. Hospital food sucks.”

  Gumby grinned. She was right, it did, but he knew for a fact that his friends, and hers, had all been bringing her meals on a regular basis. It wasn’t like she had starved during her stay.

  By the time he’d finished cooking a protein-laden omelet and brought it into the other room, Sidney was asleep. Her head was resting against the back of the couch, and Hannah’s head lay on her thigh. Sidney’s hand was on the dog’s back, and she was clearly out cold.

  Turning, he went right back to the kitchen and put the eggs into the fridge. He’d heat them up later. Then he couldn’t help himself; he went back into the living room and sat on the other side of Sidney. She stirred only briefly when he put his arm around her, moving so her head rested on his shoulder rather than the couch, then she settled again.

  It was the middle of the afternoon, and Gumby knew he should be heading back to the base as the commander had warned him a mission was on the horizon, but he couldn’t make himself move.

  All was right in his world, and he’d never been happier.

  All six Navy SEALs studied the maps in front of them as if they were a matter of life or death, which they were. Theirs, and the woman they were being sent into East Timor—otherwise known as Timor-Leste—to rescue.

  Ace had only vaguely heard of the Southeast Asian country before this mission. It was an island just north of Australia, and was last colonized by Indonesia. Up until nineteen ninety-nine, there had been widespread turmoil between the guerilla forces of the small country and Indonesian forces.

  It was now a part of the United Nations, and despite a few assassination attempts on the prime ministers over the years, things had been relatively peaceful. Until now.

  Factional fighting had broken out again recently, causing unrest in the region. Australian reinforcements had once more been sent into the country to try to restore order, but there were still skirmishes forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes, especially outside the larger cities.

  None of this would normally concern the United States government or be a reason for the Navy SEALs to get involved, but there had been over fifty Peace Corp volunteers in the country when the most recent fighting broke out, and the government had only been able to safely evacuate about half of them.

  That still wouldn’t have been enough to send the SEALs, but apparently one of the missing volunteers was the daughter of a very influential local businessman, with ties to Washington, DC. And when he hadn’t been able to contact his daughter for seven days, he’d called in as many favors as he could…hence the team getting ready to fly across the world to Timor-Leste to see if they could find the missing Peace Corp volunteer.

  They’d pinpointed the location of the house she’d lived in, the school where she’d taught English, and had concluded that it should be a fairly straightforward mission. The location was in a mountainous region, which was one of the rebels’ strongholds. The SEALS weren’t going to the country to engage in any combat—although they were prepared to defend themselves. They were under strict orders to grab Kalee Solberg and get the hell out.

  “There’s been a complication,” Commander Storm North told the team, frowning.

  Ace sighed. There always seemed to be complications. It was annoying, but not entirely unexpected.

  “Kalee had a visitor arrive in the country right before the shit hit the fan. One of her best friends from college decided to go out and visit her.”

  “Shit,” Rocco mumbled under his breath.

  Ace privately echoed the sentiment but kept his mouth shut. Rescuing one person was tricky enough; add in a seco
nd and everything just got way more complicated.

  “Piper Johnson is thirty-two years old, average height and weight, blonde hair, blue eyes. She’s a cartoonist who’s had her comics featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and has had several go viral on social media as well.” The commander passed out info sheets to the team and continued.

  Ace flipped the paper over, immediately recognizing the cartoon at the top of the page. It was political in nature, and funny without being cruel. His eyes wandered to the picture near the bottom of the page—and he blinked.

  In the image, Piper Johnson was laughing at something, and her eyes were closed with her head thrown back.

  The pure joy and happiness on her face was absolutely beautiful.

  Ace had the sudden urge to know what had been so funny, so he could share in the joy with her.

  It was a crazy reaction to a photo, and he immediately felt uneasy about it. He was a professional. A soldier. And Piper was a job. He’d never had such a visceral reaction to a job before.

  He focused on what their commander was saying.

  “…also not been heard from in over a week. Your main mission is to find Kalee and get her out of the country, but be on the lookout for Piper Johnson as well. Any questions?”

  As the rest of the team asked their commander questions, Ace stared at the picture of the blonde. He hoped like hell she’d somehow made her way out of the country to safety. Being in the middle of a possible civil war wasn’t a place for anyone, but especially not someone who had as much happiness and joy inside her as Piper Johnson.

  Piper Johnson held her breath as the rebels stomped on the boards feet above her hiding place. She was hungry, dirty, and scared out of her mind. But she didn’t dare make a sound. If the rebels knew she was here, she had no doubt they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her—just like they’d probably killed Kalee.

  Thinking about her friend made her want to cry, but she bit her cracked lip and forced back the tears. She was lucky to be alive, and she knew it. And it was because of Kalee. She had to keep her shit together.

  Not just for her, but for the children.

  Taking a silent breath, Piper looked over and saw three pairs of dark brown eyes staring at her. Four-year-old Rani appeared scared to death, seven-year-old Sinta looked at Piper as if she would somehow magically make everything all right, and thirteen-year-old Kemala seemed heartbreakingly resigned.

  Piper brought her finger up to her lips and reminded the girls to be as quiet as they could. All three nodded solemnly.

  When the rebels above their heads began laughing and shouting, she closed her eyes and tried to figure out how in the world she’d gotten here. She was a single woman in her thirties who drew funny pictures for a living. Now she was somehow smack-dab in the middle of some sort of civil war…and responsible for three orphaned children.

  She wasn’t a soldier, didn’t even know how to shoot a gun.

  She didn’t know Portuguese and couldn’t understand what was being said by the soldiers above them.

  And she was definitely not mother material.

  They were all screwed.

  * * *

  *

  * * *

  Find out what happens with Piper and the children in Securing Piper, book 3 in the SEAL of Protection: Legacy series!

  * * *

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  Author Note

  Not everything I write is based on fact. I’m sure you guys can figure that out. But I do incorporate things I’ve seen or read into my stories here and there. Hannah is one of these instances.

  Hannah is real. She exists. And the things that I described happening to her in this book, happened to the real Hannah. She was found dumped on the side of a busy road like a piece of trash. She was taken to the vet, and they determined her injuries were exactly as I described them in this book.

  And, like the fictional Hannah, the real Hannah healed up beautifully and is now living a wonderful, safe, happy life with my friend Amy and her new “brother,” a pit bull named George.

  Dogfighting is a horrendous, awful thing that exists in almost every country today. Dogs like Hannah, dogs who just want to be loved, are out there being abused by the thousands. Am I saying every pit bull is sweet and docile? No. I think I proved that in this story. But they are also not all the killers they’ve been portrayed as in the media.

  I just wanted to reassure you that the real Hannah is alive and well and thriving in her new home, just like the fictional Hannah in this story.

  Also by Susan Stoker

  * * *

  SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series

  Securing Caite

  Securing Brenae (novella)

  Securing Sidney

  Securing Piper (Sept 2019)

  Securing Zoey (Jan 2020)

  Securing Avery (May 2020)

  Securing Kalee (Sept 2020)

  * * *

  Delta Team Two Series

  Shielding Gillian (Apr 2020)

  Shielding Kinley (Aug 2020)

  Shielding Aspen (Oct 2020)

  Shielding Riley (TBA)

  Shielding Devyn (TBA)

  Shielding Ember (TBA)

  Shielding Sierra (TBA)

  * * *

  Delta Force Heroes Series

  Rescuing Rayne

  Rescuing Aimee (novella)

  Rescuing Emily

  Rescuing Harley

  Marrying Emily

  Rescuing Kassie

  Rescuing Bryn

  Rescuing Casey

  Rescuing Sadie (novella)

  Rescuing Wendy

  Rescuing Mary

  Rescuing Macie (novella)

  * * *

  Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series

  Justice for Mackenzie

  Justice for Mickie

  Justice for Corrie

  Justice for Laine (novella)

  Shelter for Elizabeth

  Justice for Boone

  Shelter for Adeline

  Shelter for Sophie

  Justice for Erin

  Justice for Milena

  Shelter for Blythe

  Justice for Hope

  Shelter for Quinn

  Shelter for Koren (June 2019)

  Shelter for Penelope (Oct 2019)

  * * *

  Ace Security Series

  Claiming Grace

  Claiming Alexis

  Claiming Bailey

  Claiming Felicity

  Claiming Sarah (Sept 2019)

  * * *

  Mountain Mercenaries Series

  Defending Allye

  Defending Chloe

  Defending Morgan

  Defending Harlow (July 2019)

  Defending Everly (Dec 2019)

  Defending Zara (Mar 2020)

  Defending Raven (July 2020)

  * * *

  SEAL of Protection Series

  Protecting Caroline

  Protecting Alabama

  Protecting Fiona

  Marrying Caroline (novella)

  Protecting Summer

  Protecting Cheyenne

  Protecting Jessyka

  Protecting Julie (novella)

  Protecting Melody

  Protecting the Future

  Protecting Kiera (novella)

  Protecting Alabama’s Kids (novella)

  Protecting Dakota

  * * *

  Stand Alone

  The Guardian Mist

  Nature’s Rift

  A Princess for Cale

  A Moment in Time- A Collection of Short Stories

  Lambert’s Lady

  * * *

  Special Operations Fan Fiction

  http://www.AcesPre
ss.com

  Beyond Reality Series

  Outback Hearts

  Flaming Hearts

  Frozen Hearts

  Writing as Annie George:

  Stepbrother Virgin (erotic novella)

  About the Author

  New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Tennessee where she lives, but this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, Indiana, and Texas. She’s married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.

  She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in.

  If you enjoyed this book, or any book, please consider leaving a review. It’s appreciated by authors more than you’ll know.

  www.stokeraces.com

  www.AcesPress.com

  susan@stokeraces.com