On His Six : A Summit Seduction SEAL Novel (The Summit Seduction SEAL Duet Book 2)

by Rachel Robinson

  “What starts?” Maeve asks, setting a hand on his shoulder.

  “My dream.”

  Emotion clogs my throat swiftly. I clear it away. “Which one?” I ask.

  “The one where Maevey stays here with us forever. She starts to be my mommy.”

  Maeve exhales a noisy breath and hugs Turner. I can’t do anything except watch. Maybe I’m the one who started this, by dating Maeve and realizing how amazing she is, but what I’m watching now between my boy and my woman is something that belongs to them and them alone. She kneels down to hug him and whispers something in his ear. I’m not sure what she told him, but his face lights up in a way I’ve never seen before. She stands and hands him the ratty stuffed animal from the dresser.

  “I know it’s a little scruffy, but it’s just well-loved,” Maeve says, defending the stuffed toy.

  Turner looks at it through narrowed eyes and with his tiny pursed lips, says, “I love it so much. He’s like me now.”

  “How is that?” I ask.

  “Well-loved,” Turner replies, beaming first at me and then Maeve. “I’m going to make him a collar before dinner.”

  He zips out of the room without another word. “What did you tell him?” I ask.

  “It’s a secret,” Maeve says, still playing with the hem of the new sweater. When she glimpses my face, she goes on, “Oh, fine. I told him he was my favorite.”

  In mock outrage, I lay a palm on my chest and then tackle her onto the bed. Our bed.

  “My dream is coming true, too,” I say, as Maeve laughs softly underneath me. “You in my bed every night.” My whisper sends a wave of chill bumps across her chest and up her neck.

  Maeve pulls her face to hers so she can look me in the eye. “I’m sorry. Again. This isn’t going to go to shit.”

  I smile while obsessing over how perfect her fucking lips are. “I know it’s not, Maeve. The devil himself couldn’t take me away from you.”

  She bites her bottom lip. “But God, though.”

  “Wouldn’t dare take you from me.”

  Chapter 10

  Maeve

  “It was a rough week at work,” Aspen exclaims, extending her feet onto the railing. We’re sitting outside at Lincoln’s house because Turner is going to sleep. Ramona appears with another cocktail and sinks down into a chair bundling her jacket tighter. It’s a cool night, but not Colorado winter cold. It’s been so long since my conversation with Rufio and the text message, that I decided to stop worrying over it and just live my life.

  I sigh. “We’re just catching up after taking time off after… the, well, you know,” I say.

  Ramona’s new boy toy, Vin, went back to Italy, so she’s been hanging out with me more. Though I have a feeling she’s working up to telling me she’s going to be traveling again, but doesn’t know how to do it. She sold all of her new work at her show, and even she knows she’d be a fool to pass up the momentum she has in our area. Vin, though. I can tell the man might win the fight. He treats her well, and his best feature is that he would never cheat on her, nor has he ever cheated on a girlfriend in the past. Ramona and I did our homework to be sure.

  “Do you miss your mountain house?” Ramona asks, sipping her Hot Toddy, keeping the mug by her face for warmth.

  “Being here with Lincoln and Turner is better than any mountain house,” I reply honestly. “After what happened there, it wasn’t the same anyway.”

  The stars flicker in the black sky. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

  Aspen stands up to lean on the banister to admire the sky as well. Ramona gasps when she takes too big of a sip. “I can tell. But I also know you enough to know you are terrified right now.”

  Oh, little does she know. She’s also close to the mark. “I am only scared because I’ve never had this much to lose before. It’s like instead of doling out good things little by little, I’m getting everything, all at once and I’m not sure how to hang on to it. Like properly that is.”

  “I never held onto Stavros and he kept coming back. Then again, what you have with Lincoln is different than anything I’ve seen before. He was made for you. And Turner.”

  I choke on a breath. “Is my nephew. Of course we have a connection. Turner is my real family. He has my blood. He’s the only person I’ll claim happily at this point. You know how I feel about fate,” I announce, draining the rest of my own drink. Aspen and Ramona respond in the affirmative at the same time. “Well, do you think things happen for a reason. Like the crazy things that have happened with the dumb DNA test and Rena, and her being in love with Lincoln? Like, is it all connected?” I’m buzzed and rambling. I refuse to drink too much when I’m the adult responsible for Turner.

  Chonk starts barking aggressively and my heart pounds in response. There’s a quiet knock on the front door, and my friends follow me into the house to the front door, both have their phones in their hands ready to make the call. I pull up the security footage on the app on my phone and see a lady at the front door. She’s unassuming, but that means very little these days. I press the button on the system to talk to her from inside. “Hi, can I help you?” My voice shakes and it pisses me off. Rena took something away from me, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get back. I shouldn’t be scared right now. I silence Chonk with a look and send him back to Turner’s bedroom by pointing and saying his name. He obeys the command quickly.

  “Oh, sorry, I’m Riley. I live a few houses down. I wanted to come drop off some cookies.”

  Aspen hisses, “Let her in! Let her in! I want cookies!”

  Ramona looks at me quizzically, trying to get a read on my decision before I say it. I shrug then shake my head, and text Lincoln with the situation. I tell Riley to hold on for a second and apologize in case she is being honest. Lincoln told me he can’t take calls on this particular training trip, especially at night, but he will always reply to my texts. He got special permission from his boss to be able to keep his phone with him, given what recently happened. It takes about forty-five seconds for his reply to ping. It says, She’s a legit… neighbor. It’s a brief reply, so I know he’s probably busy.

  I open the door. “I’m so sorry. Just needed to double-check something,” I say, letting my gaze flick over the woman and the tin of cookies in her hand.

  Her smile is wide and also fake. “No problem.” She looks at my friends flanking me and tries to peer around them. “Is Lincoln not here?”

  Swallowing hard, I open the door all the way and invite her in. “He’s actually away right now and Turner is asleep, so we need to keep our voices down.”

  “Oh, of course. I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I saw the moving truck and wanted to come over and meet the woman who managed to tame the beast.”

  Awkward. Is this what all suburbs are like? Lincoln told me they were in his business and annoying, but this is next level.

  “Here I am,” I exclaim, holding my arms out. I’m wearing a tracksuit without makeup and my hair is in a topknot. I am exceptionally casual and ratty looking. “Maeve Ahern. Nice to meet you,” I say, extending my hand. She shakes it, and I close the door with my free hand. “These are my friends Ramona and Aspen. Aspen also works with me.” Riley gives Aspen the cookies because she’s looking at them like a bird of prey. “Come in and have a drink if you’d like. We’re just having a girl’s night.” The clock in the kitchen reads nine p.m. and I realize how odd it is to have a neighbor stop by so late. “Were you out and about tonight?”

  Riley notices my curious gaze. “Well, I drove by earlier and saw the cars in the drive, and then I baked and so I wanted to bring some cookies over. I’m divorced, so bored and lonely is my M.O. on the weekends when my ex has the kids, unfortunately.”

  Now I feel guilty and sorry for the poor thing.

  “Sometimes Lincoln and I would hang out on the weekends when he was around.”

  Oof. There goes my friend sympathy out the window.

  “I thought maybe he was having fr
iends over tonight.”

  Aspen makes a rude noise around a mouth full of cookie as Riley shrugs out of her jacket and hangs it on the back of a barstool. “Oh,” I exclaim. “So, you guys dated?” I need her to be clear as glass about this now that I know she’s a neighbor. “Or what?” I add on nonchalantly.

  Riley is trying to get a read on me, and I’m throwing my best poker face. “Something like that, but he never wanted anything serious and our lives were a little too complicated. Kids and exes and stuff.”

  “How long have you been divorced?” The roundabout way of asking this woman when she was with Lincoln. I offer her a glass of wine and she accepts. Ramona is listening like a hawk and gets a wine glass out for me, while acting like a casual bystander not in my business.

  “Oh, it’s been almost four years now. He lives in the neighborhood with his new wife. The kids shift back and forth during the week and we trade off weekends.”

  Ouch. A little sympathy floats back.

  “Lincoln is a great man. A devoted dad. Just hung up on his ex.”

  I can’t even escape Rena when I try.

  “Was always hung up on her. That whole celibate thing for her.” Riley’s eyes flare wide. “Not that it means anything now. It seems he’s moved right on with you.”

  An acrid taste fills my mouth as I hold my breath and watch her take a sip of her wine, and then another. She said it so casually she must not think anything of it. “What do you mean celibate for her?” I ask, keeping the shake from my tone. Aspen and Ramona make themselves scarce, wandering into the living room under the guise of changing the song playing low in the surround sound. I’m not sure why her response matters as we’ve had sex, a lot of sex, in fact. Because it’s Rena, my blood sister, and the man I love, the intrigue will never die.

  “He must have told you, right?” Riley asks, running a hand through her bleached blonde hair.

  “Humor me. He’s told me a lot of things about his ex. I’m wondering what he told you.” I’m aware he could have lied to her to make his weird celibate pact seem less odd, but what if he lied to me, too?

  “He promised her he wouldn’t move on. That he’d always wait for her and that he wouldn’t have sex with another woman. He told me he dated a few times but that he was completely celibate. He was holding out hope his ex would come back around.” She tosses her hair. “That woman must be completely insane. How could she leave her son and that man?” Riley seems to realize how she’s speaking is inappropriate because she apologizes, waving her hands. “Like I said, it doesn’t seem to matter because you have a big shiny diamond on your hand and you’re sleeping in bed with him.”

  She’s right, and a stronger woman would hold tight to her last sentence as inappropriate as it may be, but I can’t stop thinking about all the dumb promises he made Rena. It seems he never kept a single one. At least not that I know of. Either because of her addiction or because it was something he shouldn’t have promised to begin with. “Well, she’s not in her right mind,” I admit. “That’s really the only way someone would leave them.” As I listen to Riley gossip about another divorced man in their neighborhood, I’m comforted by the fact Lincoln probably told her that because he didn’t want to sleep with her, not because he was hung up on Rena.

  I entertain her stories for a little while. Chonk stumbles down the hallway into the kitchen which makes Riley jump. “Oh my gosh, he’s way bigger up close!”

  “He’s friendly,” I say on autopilot. Everyone remarks on his size, and that’s what I follow up with. “Just a big ol’ hungry puppy.” I have a treat jar on the counter and I pull out a small bone and give it to him. He eats the damn thing whole. “You tired, buddy? Need to go outside?” He wags his tail and meanders toward the slider. I open it up so he can head out.

  My phone chimes from the pocket of my sweatshirt. It’s a text from Lincoln. Is Riley still over there? I saw her go in on the cameras, but not leave. Is everything okay?

  Depends on what you mean by okay. Is she still here drinking wine, telling me how you wouldn’t have sex with her, then that’s an affirmative. If you mean am I okay, hearing her tell me you didn’t have sex with her because you made a promise to Rena, then that’s negative.

  Gray bubbles pop up as he types back, but then disappear. My phone rings a second later. I excuse myself and answer in our bedroom. “You’re going to tell me how she’s talking crazy, let me guess.” I’m laughing, but it’s forced.

  “Maeve, God, I miss you. No, I’m not going to tell you she’s talking crazy, I’m going to tell you she is crazy which is why I told her what I did. There’s a group of about four women in the neighborhood who were pursuing me at the same time just for fun. It got a little weird, so I told them the same story. You might hear that again, being that you live there now. I should have told you before. I’m sorry. She’s just lonely, mildly sketchy, and I’ll be frank, horny.”

  “Oh, that’s just wrong!” I reply, covering my mouth. I say lower, “Lincoln, you really did blow the promise boat on Rena, didn’t you? Even if you made up the story to appease hungry divorcees, it could have been true. Right?”

  He exhales long and hard. I can tell he’s tired. “Promises were the only thing I could give Rena to earn her trust. She was untrusting by nature. Even if in the end I ended up breaking them, it made her feel loved at the time. You’re right though, it’s why I don’t do them unless I can keep them now.”

  “Riley is still sitting in the kitchen and I should go entertain her before Aspen tries to read her palm. I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too. Ditto.” The line goes dead and I sigh out in relief and in happiness, then return to the counter and pull up a barstool next to Riley.

  She’s talking to Ramona about Italy. It’s where she and her ex took their honeymoon. Aspen is still eating cookies, except now she’s on the phone with the rancher. I can tell because of the goofy smile she’s wearing. I never see that smile from her. It’s reserved for him and his dirty ass jokes.

  “Was that Lincoln?” Riley asks.

  I nod. “Just checking in to make sure Turner went to sleep okay.”

  “That’s so sweet. I’m surprised he’s not home though. When I saw all the cars earlier, I assumed Rena was here.”

  How the fuck does she know her name and why would she be here.

  “Why would she be here?”

  Riley frowns. “She came by the house earlier in the week and was asking questions about you and Lincoln, and I thought it was weird, but then I remembered how much Lincoln seemed to love her when we spoke, so I thought maybe she was dropping by to see her son.”

  I shake my head as anger rises. “Turner is not her son. She left him.” Then fear. “She went to your house? I need to know what day and the last time you saw her.” How does the nosy-ass neighbor not know that Rena is a killer? Shouldn’t people like this know all the details about everything? “She’s dangerous, Riley,” I say, swallowing hard. “Rena is wanted for murder.”

  Ramona must hear the edge to my voice because she appears next to me. “Did you just say Rena was here? On this street? When?”

  My heart sinks as the words leave Ramona’s lips. Riley must have some sense because her posture changes—her breathing more rapid now.

  “She was. I saw her the day she came to my house, and then I saw her car a day or two later. I can’t be sure,” Riley replies, but I interrupt, holding up one finger.

  “What kind of car?”

  “A convertible. Red. Which I thought was weird for Colorado, but assumed it was a rental.”

  I nod. “How did she look when she went to your house?” The question flies from my mouth as I try to piece together the time frame and how fucked up she is.

  Riley pulls at her cardigan nervously. “Tired? She looked sleepy. Like she just woke up or had been crying. I assumed she was overwhelmed with emotions because she was going to visit her son. I never thought for a second she had ill-intentions. I had no idea she was wanted for murder.
” Her eyes widen at the prospect of juicy gossip. “Who did she kill?”

  Ramona is about to lay into her, but I ask, “Did she look like she was on drugs?”

  “She killed my… she killed my boyfriend. Stavros.” I think it might be the first time she’s said the sentence aloud and I wince. “She is a drug addict, Riley. Rena can’t be trusted.”

  “Like I said,” Riley says, now biting her thumbnail on and off. “Rena asked if Lincoln was home, then if Maeve was working, and I didn’t know. She wanted to surprise you, I guess. Listen, I’m really sorry.”

  “Thank God you came over here tonight,” I say, now pacing the living room. I double-check the security system is armed as my pulse pounds against my neck. This is not how I expected this to go down. Rena would send some low-life cartel dude to whisk me to a private airport and I’d fly to Mexico never to be seen or heard from again. Rena coming here herself now that she’s a wanted criminal is something altogether different. I might be able to get us out of this because of her risky behavior. She can be caught. I blow out a breath.

  The agent working the case is a man named Chip. I have his name stored in my cell phone. It’s late, but he was adamant that I call if there was any word about Rena’s whereabouts. Walking to the laundry room for a bit quieter, he picks up on the third ring. Just his last name. Like they do in the movies. My stomach flips as I relay the information.

  After I get it all out and tell him about Riley, he says something that makes my stomach sink even lower. “You’re in danger. We need to send someone to put the house under surveillance.” Fuck. I should have suspected that, which will make it harder for me to disappear when people are watching my every move. That’s a good thing, Maeve. You’ll get to keep your dream life. At what cost, though?

  My voice shakes as I say, “Okay. I need to tell Lincoln. I don’t want to worry him while he’s away though. Maybe I’ll wait until he gets home.”

  “That makes no difference to me. That’s your call. I’ll need to talk to the neighbor in the office tomorrow. Can you put her on the phone so I can get her information?”