Some Kind of Hero

by Suzanne Brockmann

  Peter glanced at her.

  “I had to do what I did,” she told him. “When you went to Plan B, I had to improvise.” She looked at Maddie. “I love your dad. And since he loves you…” She shrugged. “Dingo loves you, too. And he’s strong.”

  Peter cleared his throat. “Shay’s right. I’ve seen men survive far worse injuries. Yeah, he’s lost a lot of blood, but…Dingo’s going to be okay.”

  “You don’t really know that,” Maddie whispered.

  “No, you’re right, I don’t,” he admitted. “But I hope that he’ll be okay. And I know for a fact that he’s gonna fight hard to stay alive. He’s got a lot to live for.”

  “Sometimes that’s not enough,” Maddie whispered, and Shayla knew she was thinking about her mother.

  “You’re right about that, too,” Peter agreed quietly. “Sometimes, it’s not enough. But loving someone—” he met Shayla’s eyes “—and being loved in return is always a good place to start.”

  As the ambulance pulled away, they were right behind it, just as Peter had promised, all the way to the ER.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Pete didn’t get a chance to put his arms around Shayla for any length of time until Maddie went into the ladies’ room.

  “I still can’t believe you did that,” he said as they stood there in the hospital hallway. “I guess I should’ve clarified that waiting in the truck applied to Plans A through Double-Z.”

  “I had to bring you the gun—that you should’ve taken in there with you in the first place,” she told him. “And slinging bullshit? Making stuff up? That is my skill set.”

  “Admiral Lisa Nakamura?” he asked, laughing despite himself. “In charge of Black Ops?”

  “I had to say that—in case they decided to Google her and came up blank. I had a whole long backstory,” she explained. “You weren’t really Maddie’s father, you were her secret service protection, code name Dad.” She kissed him, her eyes soft, adding, “You okay?”

  Pete knew that she was thinking about the man he’d shot and killed. “I am,” he said. “That probably seems strange to you. But he was a threat, and…I won’t lose sleep over him. I’m happy to talk about it, later, if you want.”

  “I might want to,” she said.

  He nodded. “Okay.” He glanced at the bathroom door. “We have maybe two minutes before Maddie comes back out, and I just wanted to say…Well, you scared the living fuck out of me, but I know why you did it, and…I love you, but Jesus, please, let’s never do that again.”

  She nodded, too. “I definitely prefer limiting our hands-on action-adventure to our attempts to mythbust my love scenes.”

  Pete smiled and pulled her close.

  The bathroom door opened, and they sprang apart as Maddie came out, grim-faced and eager for news about Dingo. “Anything?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” Shayla answered.

  Maddie’s face tightened, but she didn’t cry. “How long does emergency surgery take? Is this normal? Why am I asking? You don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m…” She stomped away, but then turned back to glare at Pete. “You know, you can kiss her in front of me. She’s pretty freaking badass, and you might want to make sure she feels appreciated.”

  As Maddie stomped back to the waiting area, Pete kissed Shay, as ordered.

  “Come on.” She tugged him back toward the waiting room. “Maddie needs her dad.”

  “Dark blue sedan—doing a pretty panicked U-turn at the sight of all those emergency vehicles and police cruisers.” Hans Schlossman’s voice came in over the speaker on Izzy’s phone. The tadpole was up on the roof of a building not far from the dilapidated garage where Maddie’d been held captive. “They’re heading to you.”

  The police were still busy collecting evidence and locking down the crime scene, so Izzy had gotten permission—well, in truth it had been permission-ish—from one of the detectives to put Boat Squad John to work, watching and waiting for Bob Nelson, the scumbag druglord responsible for most of the pain of the past few days.

  Grunge had reported that the man plus an unknown number of minions were on their way.

  In the spirit of making sure that trouble wasn’t about to follow Maddie and Dingo back home to San Diego, Izzy and the boyz decided to put their talents to use to tie up that particular loose end.

  “You copy that, Gull?” Izzy asked Seagull. In lieu of headsets, they’d tied their cellphones together via conference call. Whatever worked. “Seatbelt on.”

  “I’m ready,” the kid said from behind the wheel of Izzy’s car.

  “D’ja get a head count in the sedan, Schloss?” Timebomb asked Hans from his position across the street.

  “Two,” Hans reported. “Both in the front of the vehicle. Plus, the plates match the info Lindsey gave us. It’s definitely Bob Nelson. Or at least his car. I’m coming down.”

  “Excellent, and here we go,” Izzy said as the blue sedan in question appeared, coming around the corner and moving much too fast considering the size of the street and the industrial neighborhood. Fortunately, there was no other traffic.

  Except for Seagull, who pulled Izzy’s car directly in front of the sedan in an impromptu roadblock.

  Brakes squealed and the sedan skidded to a near-violent stop, but before the driver could throw the car into reverse, Izzy was at the driver’s side window, tap-tap-tapping on it with the barrel of his handgun.

  Timebomb was on the other side, weapon up and aimed, as Seagull similarly advanced from the front. They were both young, but their war faces were impressively fierce.

  “Bob Nelson?” Izzy asked, first of the driver—another skinhead like the guys back at the garage—and then of the passenger, older and puffy and wild-eyed, and ordering the driver to move, move! He was definitely Nelson.

  But the driver, wisely, had his hands up in clear view as Hans Schlossman came running toward them, followed by a group of detectives and uniformed police officers.

  “Go to jail,” Izzy told Nelson. “Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.”

  The detective who’d granted him that permission-ish-ness was incredulous as she approached. “I said you could watch for him,” she said. “What the hell is this?”

  “This is watching,” Izzy said, stepping back to give the uni-ed officers access. One of them immediately began to Miranda the pair. You have the right to remain silent….“We found him, and now we’re watching him. You’re welcome.”

  “They’re Navy SEALs,” one of the other detectives said, as if that explained everything.

  “Let’s go, guys,” Izzy told Boat Squad John. “I promised you pancakes, and I will now deliver.”

  Dingo was going to make it.

  Maddie hadn’t let herself cry—not in the garage when she’d been certain she was going to die. Not when Dingo had gotten himself shot to save her. Not when Stank had broken her nose. Not even when the doctor had examined her here in the hospital, even though that had hurt worse than getting punched.

  But after hours of sitting and waiting for Dingo to come out of surgery, after talking, endlessly, to the police and telling them the same story over and over and over—both the story of Fiona framing Maddie for the money she’d stolen from Nelson, and what had gone down today in Nelson’s garage—when the good news finally came, Maddie dissolved into tears of relief.

  Dingo was still in intensive care, and would be for a while, but the bullet had missed his spine, and the doctors expected him to make a full recovery.

  And then, when Shayla showed her that text that Dingo had sent to her and Dad, in case he died…

  Maddie didn’t think she’d ever stop crying again.

  It was then, while she was sobbing uncontrollably, that she had a number of awkward conversations.

  One started with her telling her father, “I’m so sorry that I didn’t come to you for help….” She was sincere while she groveled about that, but she might’ve been a touch calculating when she then seg
ued into “I know he’s too old for me, but after he’s out of the hospital, can Dingo come over for dinner, so you could maybe get to know him, and so that both of us can get to know you—and Shayla, too?”

  Not much he could say to that, besides Yes.

  Although, he also wasn’t fooled. He knew exactly what she was up to. But that was okay. She knew what he was up to with Shayla. Maddie could tell, just from the way they smiled when they were together, and the intensity with which they hugged each other, that they were in love. And that was good. She’d wished Lisa had found someone worthy, but her mom had been terminally attracted to assholes—which was probably proof that Dad wasn’t one.

  It was during that weepy period that he apologized again for not being around for her when she was growing up. He got a little teary-eyed about that himself, which got her weeping again. But then he suggested moving back to Palm Springs so she could finish up high school there, and Maddie was so aghast that she stopped crying and just stared at him.

  “I hated Palm Springs,” she said. “Why would I want to go back? I mean, yeah, I want to visit Grandma every few weeks, and you know, maybe we can give Aunt Hiroko a ride, too? It’s hard for her to get there, because she doesn’t like to drive at night.”

  That conversation moved on to a different topic pretty quickly, and it wasn’t until later that Maddie realized exactly what her father had offered her. If they moved to Palm Springs, he would have to leave the Navy and stop being a SEAL. Not only that, he’d have to move away from Shayla, whose sons went to high school in San Diego.

  That was crazy.

  But he was ready to do that.

  For her.

  Shortly after that, Dingo’s mom and dad arrived at the hospital. And because they were his parents, they were allowed to go into the ICU to see him. It was clear that Dingo’s mom loved him—she called him Ricky—and she insisted that Maddie be allowed in to see him, too.

  And as they walked down the hall to Dingo’s room, his asshole dad cleared his throat and said, “Pretty girl like you could do better than Richard.”

  Maddie looked at him. He didn’t scare her. “When’s the last time you took a bullet for someone? Or fast-roped or even just walked into a room of angry gunmen?” she added, thinking not just of Dingo, but also of Dad and Shayla.

  He didn’t answer. Because, yeah, his silent never was exactly what she’d thought.

  And then nothing else mattered, because she got to sit and hold Dingo’s hand while machines beeped and whirred around them.

  Maddie had no idea what the future would bring—only that Dingo was alive, and she was, too, and they were going to be okay.

  What was it her father had said, back in the truck?

  Loving someone, and being loved in return, was a very good place to start.

  EPILOGUE

  One year later

  Shayla was writing again.

  In fact, she was on fire.

  Peter had tried to take credit, and yeah, having him in her life was a very, very, very good thing. In so many ways.

  She’d also been inspired by talking to Hiroko and visiting Manzanar. There were important stories yet to tell.

  But really, if Shay had to point to just one thing that had, as Peter suggested, “made her heart grow back,” that thing was probably Dingo, and the way he’d been willing to sacrifice everything—including his life—for Maddie. And yes, he was still too old for the girl, but that wouldn’t last forever. In a few years—which would pass even more quickly now that he’d enlisted in the Marines—the age difference would be no big deal. Until then, promises had been made, and threats had been issued, and chaperones were permanently on standby for his rare visits home.

  Bottom line, it was one thing for a Navy SEAL to be a hero. It was, as Peter would say, part of his skill set. But it was another thing completely when someone who had been somewhat morally challenged stepped up and went above and beyond.

  Shayla had taken a screenshot of Dingo’s epic text, printed it out, and pinned it to her office bulletin board, typos and all.

  She couldn’t read his words without getting misty-eyed and feeling her heart—still—growing bigger and stronger.

  She was close to the end of writing her second book since “the garage.”

  That’s what they called it.

  “The garage.”

  And while Maddie and Tevin and Frank, along with the many, many SEALs and friends who knew what had happened, believed that “the garage” referred to a local former—now incarcerated—druglord’s property in the little town of Clarence, California, Shayla and Peter both knew otherwise.

  And yeah, okay, Izzy probably knew what they really meant when they talked about “the garage,” especially when they smiled at each other. But Izzy would never tell. He was a good friend, and doubly delirious these days because his wife Eden was happily pregnant and about to—his word—pop.

  Life was good—even with Tevin off at college. His father’s son, he’d gotten into Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was far away, but it was where he belonged.

  Tiffany had finally left Carter and was now dating a SEAL—smart young woman that she was. And, no, Shay’s old friend Kate still hadn’t left her douchebag husband, but maybe someday she would.

  Anything was possible.

  Shay’s phone whooshed as a text came in. She normally silenced it completely when she was writing, but Peter had been away with SEAL Team Sixteen for the past few weeks, and…

  She looked, and yes, the text was from him.

  Hello.

  Shayla laughed and saved her document, then went to meet her Navy SEAL and properly welcome him home.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for spending your precious reading time with Shayla, Pete, and me. In our amazing, busy, connected lives, there are endless options for entertainment, and I appreciate that you chose Some Kind of Hero.

  If you enjoyed this story, please do me a huge-large (as Izzy would say!) and take a few moments to post some stars or a brief review at your favorite online bookseller’s website. In this noisy, crazy, static-filled world, authors need public feedback from readers more than ever. I appreciate it, too, when you share, post, tweet, and talk about this book and the entire Troubleshooters series! (Thank you!)

  In case you missed it, the legend of Boat Squad John is told—partly via Izzy Zanella’s irreverent point of view—in my Troubleshooters novella Ready to Roll. Pete (or Lieutenant Greene, as he’s known by his SEAL candidates) is also introduced in that story, which is set in San Diego just a few months before Some Kind of Hero.

  Ready to Roll is the third in a trilogy of connected Troubleshooters stories that starts with Free Fall and continues in Home Fire Inferno. Find out more at SuzanneBrockmann.com or sign up for my e-newsletter at tinyletter.com/​SuzanneBrockmann to get the latest news about releases and appearances!

  Thank you again!

  Yours in love, laughter, peace, and hope,

  Suz Brockmann

  For the die-hard fans—readers and writers alike—of my beloved romance genre. Your relentless belief in the power of love makes this crazy world a kinder, more hopeful place.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always, I must thank my brilliant editor at Random House, Shauna Summers. Shauna has been by my side for almost every single Troubleshooters book, starting way back at the beginning of the series with The Unsung Hero. She was particularly patient with Some Kind of Hero, since although it didn’t take me very long to write this book, it took me several years to discover that Pete’s and Shayla’s was the story that I needed to tell.

  Thanks, too, to the entire team at Random House and to the team at Blackstone Audio.

  My deepest appreciation goes out to my family, particularly to my husband, Ed; my parents, Fred and Lee Brockmann; my daughter, Melanie, and my grandson, Aidan; and my son, Jason, and his new husband, Matt. (Jason got married to the most wonderful guy! Pictures are on my Facebook page!) Thanks, a
lso, to Bill, Jodie, and Elizabeth. I love you guys!

  Special thanks to Katherine Clements, Naomi Litrownik, and Dr. Isabel Legarda. Without your support, wisdom, and kindness, this book would not have been written.

  By Suzanne Brockmann

  TROUBLESHOOTERS SERIES

  The Unsung Hero

  The Defiant Hero

  Over the Edge

  Out of Control

  Into the Night

  Gone Too Far

  Flashpoint

  Hot Target

  Breaking Point

  Into the Storm

  Force of Nature

  All Through the Night

  Into the Fire

  Dark of Night

  Hot Pursuit

  Breaking the Rules

  Headed for Trouble

  Do or Die

  Some Kind of Hero

  FIGHTING DESTINY SERIES

  Born to Darkness

  SUNRISE KEY SERIES

  Kiss and Tell

  The Kissing Game

  Otherwise Engaged

  OTHER BOOKS

  Heartthrob

  Forbidden

  Freedom’s Price

  Body Language

  Stand-in Groom

  Time Enough for Love

  Infamous

  Ladies’ Man

  Bodyguard

  Future Perfect

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  After childhood plans to become the captain of a starship didn’t pan out, SUZANNE BROCKMANN took her fascination with military history, her respect for the men and women who serve, her reverence for diversity, and her love of storytelling, and explored brave new worlds as a New York Times bestselling romance author. Over the past twenty-three years, she has written more than fifty novels, including her award-winning Troubleshooters series, about Navy SEAL heroes and the women—and sometimes men—who win their hearts. In addition to writing books, Suzanne Brockmann has co-produced several feature-length movies: the award-winning romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding, which she co-wrote with her husband, Ed Gaffney, and their son, Jason; and the upcoming thriller Russian Doll. She has also co-written two YA novels with her daughter, Melanie. Find Suz at Facebook.com/​SuzanneBrockmannBooks, follow her on Twitter @SuzBrockmann, and visit her website at SuzanneBrockmann.com to find out more about upcoming releases and appearances.