ZAK SEAL Team Seven Book 3

by Silver, Jordan

  In the end I’d had to do what he’d wanted me too anyway, only it was for different reasons, and it was too late for us. Now my mind was full of what-ifs and all the ways I could’ve handled the situation. Only now when it was too late did it make sense to do things different, at the time it had seemed like I was making the right choice. Isn’t it funny that now in the face of things it seems like the worse choice I could’ve made? I hate hindsight.

  I bit my tongue to hold back the begging and the pleading. They were right, I needed to give him time, just not too much; my heart can’t take it. I’d lost him once, and it looked like I might lose him again, but I couldn’t bear to be separated from my baby, and I know Zak, if he gets mad enough, he’d go that route, and he had the connections and the resources to do it.

  “Please don’t let him take her away from me.” The wall of silence was answer enough. If it came down to it, they were on his side. I closed my eyes and begged for strength as silent tears ran down my face.

  The thing about it was, there was so much more. I could tell him the whole truth, but wouldn’t that destroy him? I know him this he might get over, but there were some things a man like Zak could never live with. And if I tell him the truth about why I never got in touch with him back then, he’d lose it for sure. No better not ever let that secret out…

  ***

  CORD

  “You’ve got to do something.” I knew she was going to follow me outside; that’s why I did it. I was proud of her for holding her tongue in front of the others, not showing her displeasure or her fear, but I wanted her to come to me always. “This is not for you little Susie. There are things going on here that you know nothing about.” I stayed away from her, okay like a few feet. But that was a lot considering I wanted to reach out and take her in my arms and…no Cord not yet, remember who you’re dealing with.

  Even before the suspicion that she might be the old man’s daughter, I knew I had to take it slow. She was like a dainty little bird, one wrong move and I’d bruise her wing; I could never have that. “It doesn’t matter, that’s her baby, it’s not right.” She’s so fucking young, and even with all that mouth of hers, so naïve in some ways. I’d seen the fear in her back there when my brothers were telling Vanessa how things really were.

  For someone who wasn’t accustomed to men like us, it could be a bit daunting. But I never wanted her to be afraid of me. “There is more than right and wrong in some situations baby, leave it alone, everything will be fine I promise.”

  She looked like she wanted to argue; in fact I was mildly surprised that she wasn’t railing away at me in her usual way. Maybe she was catching on to the fact that when she did that, she was only putting herself in danger, that I was fighting everything in me not to take her too soon.

  “This hurts you, I’m sorry.” I didn’t look at her, had been cautioning myself not to for the past few hours. I’d already started conditioning her to me, not sure if she knew it or not, then again how could she? I’m sure she was innocent of such things. The thought that she might not be had me reining it in. There was a way to tell these things without asking, and by my powers of deduction the feisty little nymph was as innocent as a newborn lamb. My cock started to thump the way it had been since the first day we met. I knew it wouldn’t be long now before I had her under me, before I tamed her to my will.

  I reached out for her arm and pulled her around in front of me. I felt her pulse race under my fingers. “There’s only one thing you need to be thinking about now. In a few days I’m going to claim you. I’m going to take you to my bed and fuck you until I leave my scent in you. And this, all this, will be a distant memory.”

  She looked a little shell-shocked but I was sure I could knock that out no problem. “I’ve been dying to do this.” I took her beautifully amazing face in my hands and lifted her mouth to mine for the barest of touches. I

  t started out that way. I was just going to taste her because the wait was killing me. But the feel of her lips under mine was like a shock to the system.

  “Fuck me you’re sweet.” I ran my tongue over her lips and she opened up like a baby bird to take my tip inside. I felt my body straining to hold back, not to go too fast too soon. “You make me tremble, no one else has ever made me feel this much this fast.” I held her in place with a hand around her neck.

  Not too hard, but not too light either. I was testing the waters to see how well she could handle what was to come soon. She relaxed under my touch and looked up at me in the moonlight.

  “Give me your mouth again.” She didn’t hesitate, just got up on her toes and swept her lips over mine until I took over. I let her feel the length and hardness of my cock through her clothes, rubbing myself against her over and over until I felt the give in her.

  “Go on back inside now before I take you before it’s time.” She wasn’t too steady on her feet when she lifted her arms from around my neck and stared up at me. “Go.” She turned and walked away and I bent at the knees. “Fuck; please let me go easy.”

  ***

  CONNOR

  I could feel the heat waves coming off Dani and her new posse, but I was sure she knew better by now than to come at me. I was pissed as fuck and trying my best to hold it in. Fuck yeah I agreed with my brother. I’m the first to tell them when they’re wrong, but this shit is fucked up.

  If Dani had done some shit like this to me, her ass would be on fire. I don’t care what happened, and I’m a hundred percent sure it wasn’t as bad as all that, because he’s my brother and I just know, nothing justifies keeping his kid from him all this time.

  She couldn’t pick up the phone during the pregnancy, after the birth, who was there when my niece was born? She had a fuck load of time to come to her senses and I’m sure it was probably tearing Zak up right now thinking about all that.

  Gaby had said her piece and Susie had just come back from following Cord outside no doubt giving him her thoughts on the subject, but if Dani opened her damn mouth about this shit I’ll blast her. She must’ve seen the look on my face because she calmed the fuck down. I beckoned her over to me and when she reached me I pulled her in and with one hand on my child that was even now asleep in her womb, whispered in her ear.

  “I don’t want you getting upset, you get upset I’m gonna get pissed and that’s gonna be it for you and your new playmates. We’ll deal with Zak and work this shit out, you do not let your sisters talk you into shit.”

  I felt it was better safe than sorry when dealing with this bunch. Fucking Gaby was already looking like she was loaded for bear and I wasn’t in the mood for anymore bullshit.

  “Are we clear here?” She nodded her head and I looked down at her to be sure we were on the same page. I know my girl, she takes on other people’s shit and though I didn’t want Vanessa to feel out numbered I didn’t want her thinking that what the fuck she had done was acceptable either. These women were a fucking handful as it is they didn’t need to be getting any more ideas about how to fuck with our heads. Better they learn now the consequences of fucking with a man and his kids.

  My mind switched to my brother and the shit he must be dealing with right now. We all knew what family and kids meant to each of us, what being there meant to us. Right now I’m pretty sure he was hurting and beating himself up for something that I was pretty sure wasn’t his doing. I wasn’t about to let that shit go on for too long, fuck that.

  “Alright you lot let’s go beard the lion in his den.” I waited until Cord came back in from outside, doing who knows what the fuck, since he looked like he’d just gone a round or two. I didn’t even wanna think about that fuckery.

  Ty bypassed the rest of us out the door, muttering something about babies and some fuck else. I gave Dani one last look of warning over my shoulder before following the men into the night. When it’s not one thing with these fuckers it’s another I’ve known more peace in fucking Baghdad.

  Chapter 9

  ZAK

  We sat watching each
other for a good five minutes. She was studying me, and I was studying her, and wondering what the fuck? She couldn’t talk yet but the baby sounds she made as she pointed at my face or patted my cheek were music to my ears. I’d already checked her over to make sure she was okay, that she had all her fingers and toes, and I wasn’t sure what the fuck she was looking for, but she was looking me over pretty hard herself, and babbling away.

  “I’m your daddy.” Those words sounded foreign and I had to clear my throat after saying them. She patted my cheek and grinned with about six teeth showing. How the fuck do babies do that shit? I didn’t even know her, but already she was everything. Just like her fuck of a mother; I’m not thinking about that female, not now, I just wanted to concentrate on my daughter. Shit, I needed shit, didn’t babies need food and shit, and clothes she needed clothes.

  I picked up the phone in a near panic just as there was a knock at the door. I approached it cautiously just as I heard the phone ringing outside. Cool, I’d been calling Quinn. I opened the door to find all six of them out there. They didn’t even wait for an invite just all filed past me. “Hey don’t hog the kid bro.” Ty reached for the baby and I found that I didn’t want to let her go. “Selfish fuck hand her over.” He held her like a sack of potatoes and I snatched her back.

  “That’s not the way you hold a kid, and watch your damn mouth around her.” Shit, how was I gonna pull this shit off? I didn’t want my little girl growing up cussing up a storm, but being raised around this bunch, and I’d be fucked if she was gonna be raised anywhere else, there was a good chance she was gonna have a potty mouth.

  “This is how you do it.” I showed them how to hold her as they all stood around looking at me like I’d suddenly grown an extra head or some fuck.

  “Okay Mr. Expert, hand her over.” I let him take her but kept an eagle eye on his ass. No one was saying anything so I had a pretty good idea what was on their minds. I folded my arms and leaned back against the counter. “If you’re here to plead her case you can all get the fuck out.” I glared first at Logan and then Connor.

  “Oh yeah that’s gonna work. What say you calm the fuck down and we come at this shit like men? First off, only you and Vanessa know what went down between you two, and knowing you-you didn’t make shit easy on her back then. Whatever happened, and whoever did shit to whom, the reality is there’s a baby involved.

  You two obviously still have feelings for each other since and pardon the intrusion, she’s been in your bed since she got here.” Logan as usual took point, but he wasn’t telling me shit I didn’t already know.

  “We’re here to make sure you’re thinking of this thing rationally, and that you’re not gonna make any hasty decisions. Whatever her reasoning, you need to at least hear her out, that’s all we’re asking.” I waited to see if he or any of the others had anything else to say but got distracted by Ty for a hot minute; the fuck was he doing? I shook my head and ignored him as I turned back to Logan and the others.

  “ I hear everything you’re saying but I don’t give two fucks what happens to her, now if that’s all the door’s that way. Ty bring my fucking daughter back here.” The idiot was heading out the door with my Zakira. Lo sighed long and hard but I was sure he knew it wasn’t gonna be that easy. They changed tact and concentrated on the baby. Six grown men making faces and talking like idiots just to get a smile out of their niece.

  They passed her around, each of them holding her like a bomb that was about to detonate. Quinn came over to me, “you were calling me before what’s up?”

  “I need to make a run, she needs stuff, like clothes and food and shit. I can’t leave her here because I don’t trust her fucking bitch of a mother…”

  “Bro, watch what you say, don’t let your anger make you say or do something that you’ll regret later. She gave you a kid, whatever else happened or will happen; remember that. She could’ve thrown your kid away and you would’ve never known.”

  “I’d fucking strangle her with my bare hands.” He had a point, but I wasn’t in the mood to hear shit.

  “Congratulations by the way, she’s a beauty, my first niece. You beat Lo and Con in the baby pool.”

  “Shit I did, didn’t I? Isn’t she perfect? Look at how good she’s being with her uncles.” I felt proud as fuck at the fact that my kid wasn’t a screamer, that she was studying them as much as they were studying her, that’s my kid. “Okay it’s my turn again.” Ty wrestled her away from Dev and the two of them grinned at each other. Just my luck my kid would choose him, after me of course.

  “Damn bro we are so fucked, a girl? What am I supposed to do with a niece?” He looked at me the way we usually did him when he burped at Dani’s dinner table, then he turned to Logan and Con.

  “You two fucks better have boys, there ain’t enough bullets in the county to deal with this shit.” He went back to cooing at the baby who was about the only one who found his ass funny, if the way she was beaming at him was any indication. I’m pretty sure he got caught in one too many mortar attacks, or some fuck from his childhood totally warped him.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Logan watched me like a hawk. That fucker sees too much so I had to play it cool. The plan was to murder her bitch of a lying ass mother and bury her ass in the sand. Barring that I didn’t know what the fuck, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  “The plan is I’m keeping my kid no matter what. Other than that I don’t know and I don’t care.” At least that much was true, and even though they may not agree with the way I did things, I knew my brothers were behind me one hundred percent. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t try to talk me out of shit, but they would back my play when the time came.

  “Okay, things are changing up around here at the speed of light. We have a young girl and boy to take care of, two pregnant women, and now a baby. This, my brothers, is the hardest fucking mission we’ve ever been on. We don’t half step where security is concerned. We still have the whole weekend ahead of us so let’s get ahead of the game. Zak we need you on this so you’re gonna have to come to grips real soon brother, you can’t lug the baby around with you.”

  “You wanna bet? She stays with me.”

  I knew we weren’t planning on going out this weekend, that most of what we were doing was on the comps and going through the old man’s files so she could stay with me. “I could work from here if needs be but she will not be out of my sight at any point from here on out until she’s about twenty-fucking-five years old.”

  Right now it might be hard to tell whom she belonged to since Ty and Dev were busy fighting over her, but I was all clear in my head. As of a little more than an hour ago my mission in life changed. My only fucking purpose now was to secure and protect that little girl. Fuck everything else, especially the mission that was looming in the background with the desert Fox; fuck.

  My kid started to fret so I took her from Dev, who had been in the middle of cooing at her. She stuffed her hand in her mouth and looked at her daddy all miserable and shit and I forgot everything else.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I looked at the others who were all stumped. I was tempted to call one of the females but I didn’t trust their asses right now. “I think that means she needs changing.” Quinn tried sniffing her. “Get the fuck away from her.” I moved her out of the way. “Fuck is wrong with you?”

  “Language.” Lo studied her like he knew what the fuck he was talking about. When she started eating my shirt I think we all knew what was going on. “She’s hungry, what the fuck am I supposed to feed her? I don’t have anything in the house.” I was about to go into total panic as my brothers threw around ideas.

  “How about asking her mother?” I gave Con the death glare and headed for the fridge. I showed her an apple but she just kicked her legs and fussed even harder. Everything I showed her she turned away from until I was ready to pull my hair out at the roots.

  “Hey, she came with a bag.” Ty pulled his phone and made a call, and from his end I kne
w he was talking to the deceitful bitch who’d had my kid for over a year and didn’t tell me. “Bad news bro, she’s still on the tit. Only mother’s milk. Apparently she eats that soft shit, but around this time it’s you know…” He circled his chest with his face going red. Fuck this. They were all watching me like ‘what the fuck are you gonna do now asshole?’ “Everybody out.” They looked at me like ‘what the fuck’ but I wasn’t in the mood to trust anyone right now. I knew Lo and Con might be on my side, but their women could talk their asses into anything.

  “What do you plan to do? You can’t just let her cry herself out from hunger, and you don’t have a tit full of milk.” I glared at Lo because he thought his shit was funny. “Very funny, I’ll take care of her thanks, now run along.”

  Ty stopped short like he wanted to argue but I pushed his ass out the door with the rest of them. What the fuck was I gonna do? I hadn’t figured in this factor. I walked up and down with her thinking, until her screams grew louder.

  “Okay baby, daddy will take care of it.” I found a way to secure her while I ran next door. “I’ll be back in two minutes I promise.” Merciful fuck who could stand to see a kid cry? Her eyes were large pools of water that tugged at my heartstrings and broke my fucking heart in two.

  My face and everything else changed as soon as I cleared the door and headed out into the night. The yard was already clear but knowing my family, they were already congregated together somewhere trying to decide my life for me. No one was getting any sleep tonight I was sure. I heard the din of voices coming from Lo’s place and figured that’s where she was. I opened the door and all eyes turned to me.