SEALed With Love (DiCarlo Brides book 2) (The DiCarlo Brides)

by Heather Tullis

  Dearest Sage,

  You know how much I love you, and that you’re the center of my world. Why are you spending time with other men? The head of security is not your friend. He wants more from you. I see it in his eyes when he thinks no one’s watching.

  You better tell him to get lost. I don’t share. If any other man tries to take what is mine, no one will be happy with the consequences.

  Your Future Husband

  Joel felt anger burn inside him. How dare this man threaten him or Sage? What was he going to do? And was he watching at the hotel? Had he planted cameras so he could see what was going on, or had Joel been far less circumspect than he had thought?

  He wanted to take her away, to stash her somewhere this man would never find her, but she would never agree. He cursed her for being so independent—she thought she wasn’t, that she was weak and useless in this situation, but she was wrong. The fact that she kept pushing on, did her job and refused to back down showed how strong she was. It drove him a little crazy, but he admired it at the same time.

  He’d killed plenty of men in the line of duty. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill again if necessary to protect Sage, but he reeled himself back. Hitting the man a few times and seeing him in jail would be better in the long run. At the moment, it was hard to remember though. He touched the pistol he kept in his shoulder holster, then tugged his jacket down to cover it again.

  He deleted the email from her inbox—no way was he going to freak her out with this one, even though he would mention it to her. He grabbed the bug detector and headed back to the spa to do another sweep. And this time he wasn’t going to rely solely on the electronics to find a camera sending a signal. He’d take the place apart if he had to, but this had to stop.

  “One of the maids quit yesterday,” Harrison announced at the staff meeting Monday morning. Sage watched him grimace and sneak a look in her direction.

  “Already? What’s it been, two weeks since we opened?” Delphi asked.

  “That’s unfortunate, but relevant how?” Cami asked. “Turnover is a reality in this business. You know that.”

  “Yes, but I’ve never had anyone quit before because they thought the place they worked was haunted,” Harrison clarified. “She claims she was in room 421 and she could hear noises—an angry male swearing in Spanish.”

  Sage knew now why he looked at her that way. Unlike most people—which included the rest of the group—she believed in ghosts. Every culture had the tales, so there must be some truth to them. Harrison believe in her precognition, unlike the rest of the people in the room, but he wasn’t as convinced about the other things she believed in.

  “That’s probably Luis,” Rosemary suggested. “He was pretty upset about the fish that came in yesterday. He said they were substandard and took a walk to cool off. He was a bear to work with all day.” She leaned back in her seat with a huff. “Temperamental chefs.”

  Sage had known there would be a problem with seafood. Rosemary didn’t pay attention, though, did she? She only heard the drivel about love that Sage had added from the newspaper.

  “It takes one.” Harrison threw Rosemary a dirty look that finished the phrase, to know one. “But no, this was on the other side of the hotel. And she said it was coming from in front of her, like an invisible ghost spoke to her.”

  “Exactly what we need; more reports of ghosts. If Ben Ullery hadn’t stirred things up when we were building, this wouldn’t be happening.” Lana pushed the hair back from her face as she talked about a local crackpot who had tried to stop the building from going up by telling everyone the property was cursed. “Fill the position. She was probably looking for an excuse to quit.”

  “Agreed. I just thought you deserved a heads up that the rumors weren’t going away.” Harrison clicked his pen closed and slid it into his pocket.

  “What if it’s true?” Sage asked. She knew the reception she would receive, but couldn’t let them pass on to the next order of business without pointing out the possibility. “Stories like these are steeped in tradition. It must have started somewhere.”

  “Yeah, in someone’s imagination as they sat around the campfire.” Delphi gave her a withering look. “I know you believe in all that woo-woo stuff, and you’re welcome to, but that doesn’t make it true. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.”

  “All that woo-woo stuff? I’m sure Rosemary didn’t think twice about the one I read her until the fish delivery came in,” Sage reminded her.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Rosemary laughed. “I totally forgot about that. My horoscope said something about beware of seafood, didn’t it?”

  “That’s such a stupid coincidence,” Delphi scoffed.

  Joel’s brow furrowed and he looked at Sage, as if he wasn’t so sure. Sage pretended not to notice, and she tried not to be hurt by everyone brushing her off.

  “Is there anything else?” Lana asked after a long moment.

  Joel cleared his throat. “Sage has been getting fan mail in her inbox. He’s sending them from inside the resort. Using our Internet connection.” He paused while everyone reacted to the news, continuing when the round of gasps and curses calmed. “I’ve been working with her on self-defense, but thought all of you ladies could use some training, considering recent events.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Blake seconded.

  “I agree.” Cami looked at the others. “It’s never a bad idea, even if things weren’t a little freaky right now.”

  “I don’t need it. I got plenty growing up in D.C.” Rosemary said with a toss of her long, blond hair. “But the rest of them definitely need some help.”

  “Then you can assist me,” Joel said. His words held more challenge than invitation.

  Rosemary’s mouth started to open in argument, but Harrison jumped in, “Unless your skills aren’t as good as you want people to think?”

  Her eyes narrowed at her nemesis. “I’m in.”

  Joel watched the women as he walked them through some basic defensive moves. The sisters moved with fluid grace—all except Delphi who kept losing her balance and reaching out to a wall or Jonquil for support. He was amazed she was able to walk without tripping over her own feet.

  They were six separate women, working alone—something he’d noticed before. Though they managed to function together, held their heads high in public and stood their ground as a group, in reality, they were still doing their own thing, not yet a unit.

  He recognized that in them, knew it, had lived it himself. Joel wanted to see them stand together as a group. His SEAL team had started out with fewer problems keeping them apart then these ladies had, but it still took time to really move as one, to anticipate each other. His team had done it, though, and they would too. He could tell they craved the unity their father had hoped they’d develop—though a couple of them would deny it with their dying breaths—and Joel would help them reach it. “Okay, let’s try something else. Come here, Sage.”

  She moved easily into his arms as he caught her in a strangle hold, though he was careful not to hurt her. He was stupid to always choose her—it was masochistic—but he couldn’t help himself. “Okay, what can she do to get away from me?”

  Rosemary’s grin flashed and her brows wiggled. “The question is, why would she want to?”

  “Focus.” Joel knew Rosemary liked to tease and embarrass him, and she hit her mark this time, but he didn’t let it show. “I could have a knife, or a gun. Or maybe I’m trying to drag her back to my van to abduct her. She needs to get away before any of that can happen. Suggestions?”

  “There’s always the classic elbow-in-the-gut option,” Cami suggested.

  “There’s toe stomping,” Lana said.

  Joel smiled, inhaling the light botanical scent of Sage’s shampoo, loving the feel of her tiny frame in his arms. He gave them pointers on the most vulnerable spots, and had Sage mimic the actions so there would be no confusion about what he meant. When he released her to move on to the next item, he felt
a strange loss in his chest. He told himself not to go there. Sage wasn’t for him—she was way too sweet and pure to face the violence inside him. Despite everything she’d been through, she still managed to be unbelievably innocent. He’d do anything to keep her that way.

  After they finished, Sage saw him to the door—an unnecessary maneuver, but he wasn’t going to complain. “I think that went well,” he said.

  “Yes. They seemed to enjoy it too.” She was distracted, staring out the window, worry on her face.

  “What’s bothering you?” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his workout clothes, itching to smooth the wrinkle from her forehead.

  “He’s been in the house.” She spoke low, as if worried someone else might overhear.

  The video footage of the stalker leaving behind the present for her birthday had been useless. The man had worn a bulky black coat, a big black hat and never looked up so the cameras could catch an inch of his face. The box and paper had yielded no fingerprints, either. “Yeah, he’s been here, but we have beefed up security since. I doubt he’d be able to get in now.” He didn’t like where this was going.

  “What’s to stop him from escalating and hurting one of my sisters? I couldn’t stand it if he hurt someone else trying to get to me. You have to think it could happen or you wouldn’t be training them too.” Pain radiated from her eyes. “They can’t be hurt because of me, Joel. It can’t happen.”

  He wanted to reassure her that it wouldn’t, but he wasn’t in the habit of lying. Instead he caught a runaway curl and slid it out of the way, allowing his fingers to caress the shell of her ear. This made his gut twist and the hunger to kiss her rose inside him, as it too often did. Instead of acting on it, though, he reiterated the things he’d said before. “I’m going to catch him, Sage. We’ll stop him. Stay alert and things will work out. He’s going to make a mistake, and I’ll be there when he does.” He pulled his hand back—pulled himself back—before the temptation became overwhelming.

  Sage stepped up to him, though, and into him as she slid her arms around his waist and gave him a hug. “Thank you, Joel. I know this is just a job to you, but I feel better knowing you’re here.”

  Joel allowed himself to return her embrace for a moment before he released her and gently pushed her arms down. “You get some sleep tonight. Things will look better tomorrow.”

  He walked out to take a quick look around the property, thinking that from the moment he’d first seen her she had become more than a job. But he wouldn’t tell her that.

  Sage sat at the counter with a cup of tea and listened to Jonquil and Rosemary bicker over whether butter and margarine were the same. Rosemary took the stand that margarine was garbage that she wouldn’t even ruin a slice of bread with, and Jonquil insisted that they were close enough to the same thing that they barely passed as different products.

  There was a light of glee in Jonquil’s eye as she argued—she was having fun getting to Rosemary. Rosemary wasn’t as easy to read, but Sage thought she was enjoying the argument as well. That made Sage wonder if she actually enjoyed her regular spats with Harrison.

  Though she couldn’t understand it herself, Sage thought she might be on the right track.

  “All right, sister dinner and pamper session,” Cami declared, coming down the stairs with a basket full of bottles and tubes. “I ordered Chinese. It’ll be here in twenty minutes. Sit down and join us.”

  “Sounds like fun, we haven’t done it for weeks—and I think you skipped out last time,” Sage pointed out.

  “Yeah, I was a bit of a pill back then.”

  “Just back then?” Lana asked as she followed Cami down the stairs. “Try always.”

  Cami stuck out her tongue. She never took offense when Lana teased her, though that might have been because they grew up together.

  “Do we have to have a happy family moment?” Delphi asked as she cleared up the pile of paperwork she had been working on. “I don’t think I have the energy for this tonight.”

  “So use this avocado mask and lay back and relax. No need to do anything strenuous,” Cami said. “Give it a try, you might like it.” She tossed a tube to Delphi.

  “Quit being such a stick in the mud,” Rosemary said.

  Delphi barely clipped the tube in her attempt to catch it and had to pick it up off of the floor. “You sound like an old fogey.”

  “I could have called you what I was really thinking,” Rosemary said, narrowing her eyes.

  “No thanks.” Delphi gave in, grudgingly joining them for lotions and potions and a mani-pedis while they ate chips and salsa and the chocolate chip cookies Jonquil had made—which had sparked the issue about butter.

  An hour later, Sage was stretched out on the sofa wiggling her green sparkly toenails and feeling pretty content.

  “I guess girl’s night is over already,” Cami said with a big yawn. Everyone else had cleared out, vanishing into their rooms.

  “I guess so. I wonder what Dad would say if he could see us,” Sage said. Their father hadn’t been far from her thoughts as she watched the others banter. “Do you ever hate him?”

  There was a moment of silence and Sage looked over at Cami, who nodded. “Yeah, I’ve had my moments. Just the thought of all the times he stepped out on my mother, leaving her alone so he could be with another woman. It boggles my mind.”

  “I trusted him, you know. So much. He was my hero, and finding out the truth, that we’re nothing but pawns for him to move around the chess board? Well, sometimes it drives me crazy. How could he do that to us? And didn’t he know how much it would hurt that he chose this way to finally admit that we exist?”

  Cami tipped her head. “You know he loved you, don’t you? He wouldn’t have visited so often, called every day if he didn’t care.”

  Sage wanted to curl in on herself. “You don’t understand.”

  “How can I if you don’t tell me how you feel?”

  She wondered if Cami’s view was really so simplistic, but Cami had grown up as his daughter, first born to his wife, so how would she understand if Sage didn’t tell her? “I spent my life as his dirty secret—okay, one of his many dirty secrets, apparently. Then he decides to tell everyone about us, but he waited until he was dead and wouldn’t have to deal with the fallout. It’s like we’re just puzzle pieces—his to move around the board as he likes—which makes me feel insignificant, even while so many of his other actions showed that he loved me, that he valued me. Why else would he have hired Joel to protect me? But I can’t seem to reconcile the two sides of Dad in my head.”

  “I know. Vince has been helping me with that, but I’ve got so long to go before I’ll stop being hurt by what he did.” She looked Sage straight in the eye. “But I think I’m starting to appreciate that he really did give me a gift when he put us all together. We may never be best buddies, but everyone here sure does make my life more interesting.”

  “Interesting isn’t the problem,” Sage said and sighed. “I could really deal with a life that’s a lot less interesting, to be honest.”

  “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have Joel in your life, and that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?”

  Sage smiled, thinking about her feelings for Joel and had to agree. “I suppose there is some consolation—however small. I just wish he’d look at me as more than a job.”

  Cami laughed. “Oh, Sage, you’re so sweet and innocent. If you can’t see how he feels, you’re blind.”

  Sage wished Cami were right, but she didn’t believe it. She would have to find consolation that at least he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

  Sage sat on the floor in front of her bed, her legs folded Indian style, a hand on each knee and imagined the air as it flowed in and out of her lungs with her breath. She had already showered and dressed, and was reveling in a few moments of meditation to start her day. Things had been crazy with the long hours of work and contact from her stalker that she hadn’t spent nearly enough time just letting the universe
talk to her—not that she didn’t still get her precognition sometimes, but it wasn’t nearly as strong when she was in the moment as when she took time to just be still.

  Birds twittered in the trees outside her room and she heard the sounds of her sisters’ voices in the great room below her. In. Out. In her mind she saw Lana doubled over a toilet, puking. In. Out. There was a flash and Joel appeared in front of her, grief and tears in his eyes.

  She blinked and stared at the colored crystals that hung in front of her window, fear slicing through her. Something bad was going to happen to someone Joel cared about. Would it be her?

  Joel swore as he entered the report into the computer. He hated this program—surely a multi-billion-dollar company like DiCarlo Hotels could afford a more user-friendly software package. He glanced back at the video monitor to see how Sage was doing. She was finishing up a foot rub—reflexology treatment he reminded himself—and chatting with the guest.

  He dragged his eyes back to the computer screen. She was fine; why was he obsessing? His danger meter was on overdrive.

  The phone rang and he smiled in relief—he could use the distraction. “This is Joel.”

  “Joel! This is Trudy Louder.” The woman’s voice was soft and she sniffled as she spoke.

  “Trudy, it’s great to hear from you. Do you have a cold?” Trudy was married to one of his SEAL buddies, Wade. They had seen more action together than any other two members of their team, though Wade had continued working as a SEAL after Joel tore his ACL—ending his military career.

  “It’s Wade. He was hurt on a mission. He’s bad, Joel.” She sobbed into the phone. “They’re not sure if he’s going to make it.”

  Joel’s response was automatic. He stood, checking his gun, checking for his wallet as his mind raced to figure out how long it would take him to get to them. “Is he there with you, or are they flying you to join him?”

  “He’s in California. I’m at the airport now. I’m just... Joel, I’ve never been so scared.”