by Paige Tyler
Nash looked dumbfounded. “How are we going to function without you here to keep us straight?”
Kurt jerked his head at Chasen. “That’s what he’s for now. Retiring means Mack won’t be forced to move Chasen to another platoon.”
His words seemed to mollify all the guys, including Logan.
“So what are you going to do with yourself?” Chasen asked.
Kurt glanced at his wife. “I’m taking a contractor instructor position at BUD/s.”
Logan must have realized from the look on Felicia’s face she didn’t know what the acronym stood for because he leaned close.
“Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training,” he explained. “It’s basically six months of hell.”
That didn’t sound fun at all, and yet Logan grinned as he sat back.
“Speaking of BUD/s,” Nash said. “How’s Sam doing?”
Logan put his mouth to Felicia’s ear again. “Sam is Kurt and Melissa’s son.”
On the other side of the table, Melissa’s dark eyes clouded with worry, but Kurt looked every inch the proud father.
“Kicking butt and taking names like I knew he would,” Kurt said.
“Do you think HQ is going to put Sam on SEAL Team 5?” Dalton asked.
Kurt shook his head. “I doubt it.”
“Well, I hope they do. In fact, I’ve been pestering Mack about it ever since Sam started training,” Melissa said. “I’m not thrilled he wanted to be a SEAL since it’s one more guy I’m going have to worry about now along with the rest of you, but I’d feel a lot better if he’s at Coronado so I can keep an eye on him.”
“Don’t you mean mother him?” Madison teased with a grin.
Melissa shook her head. “Keeping an eye on him isn’t mothering him.”
“Yeah, it kind of is,” Madison pointed out. “They call it being a hover mom.”
Kurt chuckled.
Melissa ignored him. “I do not hover. I simply want to be able to warn him off women who are only interested in him because he’s a SEAL.”
Madison laughed. “Mom, I’m pretty sure Sam doesn’t need you protecting his virtue from a bunch of frog hogs.”
Felicia looked at Logan. “Frog hog?” she whispered.
“SEAL groupies,” he whispered back.
There were so many women who chased after SEALs, there was a name for them? Although from looking at the guys here today, she could believe it. She didn’t know why, but for some strange reason, she suddenly felt very possessive of Logan.
Across from Felicia, Melissa’s eyes widened. “Where did you hear that expression, daughter?”
Madison grinned and looked pointedly at Kurt, who suddenly decided he needed to go check on Wes and the burgers—again.
Felicia laughed along with everyone else. She couldn’t remember having so much fun at a party. While the guys might like to rag on each other, not to mention play damn hard to win a game of touch football for bragging rights, it was obvious SEAL Team 5 was one big family, and she couldn’t help but feel a little honored to be included in it.
* * * * *
“It’s called center mass, baby!” Petty Officer Trent Wagner crowed in his Texas drawl as he pointed downrange at the target he’d fired at with his HK MP5N submachine gun. “Every round in the ten circle of the chest.”
Logan snorted. He and his guys were at the shooting range to get in a little target practice with another platoon from SEAL Team 5. As it always did whenever they got together, it had turned into a competition. And right now, the other seven guys from Trent’s platoon hooted and hollered at shooting that looked damn hard to outdo.
Well, he’d never been the type to shy away from a challenge.
“Don’t get cocky, kid,” Logan said as he walked up to the line with his M4A1 assault rifle. “Let me show you how it’s really done.”
Trent regarded the shortened version of the tried and true M16 rifle used by the US military in one form or another since the Vietnam War, his hazel eyes full of amusement. “With that old thing? You sure you don’t want to give up now and avoid the embarrassment?”
Trent’s platoon broke into another round of chuckles. Logan ignored them. Trent was trying to get in his head. But it would take somebody a lot better at psychological operations than SEAL Team 5’s resident cowboy to do that.
Logan leveled his gaze at Trent. “Watch and learn, Cowboy.”
Taking a deep breath, he let it out then jacked the rifle up to his shoulder in one smooth, well-practiced move. A moment later, he squeezed the trigger, putting each of the thirty rounds in the M4’s magazine through the man-shaped target’s head. Not the fifteen-meter target Trent had been shooting at, but the twenty-five-meter target.
He flashed Trent a grin. “Now, that’s center of mass, baby.”
Trent shook his head with a laugh. “Nice shooting, dude.”
Several hundred rounds later, Trent’s platoon took off along with a good portion of Logan’s to bring the weapons back, leaving him, Trent, Chasen, Nash, Dalton, and Holden to clean up the range.
“Chasen, did I read this morning’s paper right about the Nesbitt case going to trial?” Dalton asked from the other side of the range as they brought in the targets. “I thought you said that asshole was going to take a plea deal?”
Chasen’s girlfriend Hayley was at the center of the prosecutor’s case against the dirty former city councilman William Nesbitt. If anyone knew the latest on the case, it was Chasen.
“The DA expected some type of plea by now, but Nesbitt seems content to take this to trial,” Chasen said. “The DA is worried Nesbitt’s got something up his sleeve, but he isn’t sure what Nesbitt’s angle is.”
Logan frowned. “But they caught him with the damn murder weapon. We might know he didn’t actually pull the trigger himself, but having a murder weapon in your possession should count for something, right?”
Chasen shrugged. “You’d think so.”
“Okay, someone want to fill me in here?” Trent asked. “I mean, I heard rumors some of you guys were involved in Nesbitt getting arrested, but this sounds like you know more than the cops do.”
Logan saw Chasen hesitate. Not because he didn’t trust Trent, but because this crap with Nesbitt was way outside the usual mission parameters. Telling Trent essentially made him an accessory after the fact.
“Whatever you tell me, I won’t say anything,” Trent added as he brought in the last of the targets.
Chasen leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “You already know the basic stuff in the news, right? Nesbitt is a crooked politician who got caught in a complex kickback scheme revolving around the new SEAL construction project at Imperial Beach. He got paid money under the table from the prime contractor, Jack Yates, in exchange for arranging the assassination of a city inspector who was about to name Yates as the responsible party behind a highway collapse that killed some people.”
“Yeah, I heard all that.” Trent said. “Didn’t the prime contractor turn states evidence or something on Nesbitt?”
“Uh-huh. But the DA is worried it won’t be enough. No one’s thrilled with taking one criminal’s word over another. The real damning evidence against Nesbitt is the murder weapon the police recovered. Ballistics has ID’d it as the weapon that killed the city inspector.”
Trent frowned. “I still don’t see where you guys fit into this whole thing.”
Chasen exchanged looks with Logan. This part could get them into hot water if anyone ever found out.
“The cops recovered the weapon used to kill the city inspector because the four of us,” Chasen gestured to Logan, Nash, and Dalton, “broke into Nesbitt’s house in the middle of the night because I thought the man had kidnapped Hayley—which he hadn’t. Anyway, he came after us with a bunch of his private security guys. It turned into a flat-out gun battle in the most expensive neighborhood in San Diego.”
Trent’s eye’s widened. “No shit! Does the old man know?”
<
br /> “Hell, no.” Chasen grimaced. “If he did, we’d all probably be in Leavenworth breaking big rocks into little rocks. The problem is, Nesbitt knows we broke in. I’m worried he’s going to try to use it to get himself out of this somehow.”
Logan ground his jaw. The dirtbag should already be serving a life sentence for the part he played in the city inspector’s death. “How could he use it?”
Chasen’s mouth tightened. “Let’s say Hayley had a theoretical conversation with the DA. According to her, if Nesbitt’s lawyer can make the break-in seem like some kind of extreme federal government overreach, he might be able to get the weapon tossed out as evidence. If that happens, the case will probably be tossed out as well.”
Trent considered that. “Then what happens to you guys?”
“Hello Fort Leavenworth. Good-bye freedom.”
“Damn,” Trent muttered. “If you guys ever need help with that asshole, call me.” He checked his watch. “I’m going to get out of here. See you around.”
Logan and the other guys climbed into his SUV a few minutes later.
“Felicia seems nice,” Chasen said conversationally from the passenger seat as Logan turned onto the road.
Logan had wondered when someone would bring Felicia up in conversation. He gave his friend a sidelong glance.
“She’s very nice.”
Not to mention beautiful, sexy, and captivating. She was also smart, fun to talk to, and a fantastic cook. Oh, and when she kissed him, it damn near brought him to his knees. He could only imagine how good it would be when he and Felicia finally slept together.
He sure as hell wasn’t going to tell these guys any of that, though.
“And she handled the heaping serving of reality Kurt said Melissa and Hayley gave her without running for the hills,” Dalton remarked. “That definitely bodes well for the future of your relationship.”
Logan looked at his Teammate in the rearview mirror. “Bodes well? Who the hell talks like that? And for the tenth time, there is no relationship. I’m focused on the here and now. That’s as far forward as I want to think about right now.”
“Uh-huh,” Dalton said. “You guys heard that, right?”
Chasen and Nash nodded.
“Yup,” Nash agreed. “He said right now. I heard it clear as day.”
“You’re already starting to caveat your denials,” Chasen said. “It won’t be long before you’re telling us you and Felicia aren’t getting married…right now.”
Logan looked over at Chasen to see him grinning from ear to ear.
“What the hell is so funny?” he asked sharply.
“Nothing,” Chasen said then added, “Right now, at least.”
Logan wanted to tell them Felicia wasn’t any different than any other woman he’d gone out with, but he couldn’t make himself say the words. Because no matter how much he tried to deny it—even to himself—Felicia was different. If not, he would have slept with her a couple of times already and moved on. Resisting the urge to take her to bed after kissing her on the beach the first night hard been difficult enough. He should probably be given a medal for refusing to give in to his more primal instincts after making out on her couch when they’d come back from the cookout yesterday. The mere thought of how she’d straddled his lap and wiggled while they’d kissed was enough to make him hard in his uniform pants.
But just because he wanted to take things slowly with Felicia didn’t mean he planned on getting himself fitted for a tux. It simply meant she was more special to him than the other women he’d gone out with. There really wasn’t anything more monumental about it.
At least for right now.
Chapter Seven
FELICIA AND HER sister hadn’t had a girls’ night out since before the kidnapping, so as far as she was concerned, they were long overdue. Other than a few quick phone calls and some texts, they hadn’t even talked much since Stef had come over to help her get ready for her date with Logan, and neither of them had said anything about what had happened in the warehouse. Felicia wanted to make sure she was okay.
Since it was a Tuesday night and Stef had an early class the next morning, Felicia suggested takeout from one of their favorite Lebanese restaurants. Stef offered to pick something up on the way over and showed up promptly at six-thirty with two servings of chicken tawook. Chewy gave the marinated chicken a longing look before going back to his bowl of dog food.
Felicia speared a piece of chicken, savoring the tangy combination of yogurt, lemon, and garlic coating it. “So how have you been doing?”
Stef glanced up from her plate. “Good.”
Felicia gave her a look. “I mean how are you really doing?”
“I’m fine,” Stef said.
“Stef, you got kidnapped. I’m pretty sure you’re the opposite of fine.”
On the other side of the table, Stef frowned. “You got kidnapped, too.” She sighed. “Look, I know you worry about me, but I’m okay. Really.”
Felicia searched her face, looking for something to indicate her sister was dealing with stuff and not telling her. But she didn’t see anything to make her doubt Stef. Then why did she get the feeling her sister was hiding something?
“Enough about me,” Stef said. “I want to hear about you and Logan.”
It was an obvious attempt to change the subject, but Felicia let it slide.
“What do you want to know?” she asked.
Stef sipped her iced tea. “How your date went the other night, for starters.”
Felicia’s lips curved. “It went great. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun hanging out with a guy before. We even went for a moonlight stroll on the beach.”
Her sister’s eyes lit up. “Oooh, sounds romantic.”
“It was.”
Stef scooped up some chicken with her fork. “Did you kiss?”
Felicia laughed. “Yes, Nosy Nellie.”
“And did he spend the night?”
“No!” But she’d wanted him to. “Stef, it was our first date.”
“So? Do you have a three-date rule before sleeping with a guy or something?”
More like a five-date rule, but she didn’t tell her sister that. “Logan and I both want to take things slowly, that’s all.”
Stef grinned. “Sound like you guys are getting serious already.”
Felicia reached for her iced tea. “It was just one date, Stef. Well, two counting the cookout we went to on Sunday. Even so, it’s way too early to be talking about getting serious with a guy.”
Her sister scowled. “That’s crap. When you find the right guy, you know it.”
It was Felicia’s turn to frown. “That sounds like something out of a romance book. Stef, love is more than lust and attraction. It’s about getting to know each other over time and making sure you’re compatible with each other. It’s about having the same goals and plans, and having a true long-term commitment to each other.”
Stef snorted. Picking up her empty plate, she carried it over to the dishwasher. “That’s not a relationship. That’s a business deal.”
“That’s being smart.” Felicia followed her sister over to the dishwasher, plate in hand. “Heck, Mom and Dad dated for five years before they got married.”
Her sister shook her head. “That’s insane.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to get going.”
“Already?”
Stef nodded. “Craig has class tonight, and I want to see him before he leaves.”
Craig Bowers was Stef’s boyfriend.
“Okay. Drive carefully. And text me when you get home,” Felicia said.
“I will.” Stef gave Chewy’s ear a playful tug. “You’re a guy. Talk some sense into my sister about Logan, would you?”
Felicia rolled her eyes. Her sister was way too idealistic for her own good. Stef was also very good about changing the subject. They hadn’t even talked about how she was dealing with getting kidnapped. Then again, maybe not talking about it was how Stef dealt with it.
She hadn’t wanted to admit it to Stef, but she was cautiously eager to see where this thing with him went next. To bed was the obvious place, and while she was all for that, she meant beyond that. Despite what she’d said to Stef about it being too early to get serious with him, there was definitely potential for a long-term relationship.
Two hours and nearly a hundred Repins on Pinterest later, Felicia got ready for bed then snuggled under the blankets with the most recent fabric swatches she and Heather were mulling over for the upcoming weddings they’ be doing in the fall.
Once again, thoughts of Logan intruded, only this time, she got distracted by his amazing kisses. She was just thinking about which parts of her anatomy she’d like him to put that talented mouth of his on when her cell phone rang.
She grabbed it off the nightstand, expecting to see Stef’s name on the screen, but instead it was Logan. Had his ears been burning?
Pulse skipping a beat, she thumbed the green button and put the phone to her ear. “Hey!”
“Hey yourself.” His deep, sexy voice washed over her. “I didn't wake you, did I?”
“No. I’m just lying in bed looking at color swatches.”
And fantasizing about you.
“Lying in bed, huh?” he said. “What are you wearing?”
“A tank top and a pair of panties.”
“That’s quite the image. Wish I were there,” he said then added, “Although if I were, you probably wouldn’t be wearing the bra and panties for long.”
Mmm, she liked the sound of that. If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel his hands on her bare skin. “Oh? And what would you do after you took them off?”
“For starters, I’d explore every inch of your naked body with my mouth, starting at the sensitive little spot behind your ear and working my way down.”
Heat coalesced between her legs, making her catch her breath. “Sounds like it could take a while. Not that I’m complaining. Although,” she added, “I’m having a little trouble picturing exactly what you’d be doing. Maybe you should describe it to me in detail.”