Sweet Affliction [Sweet Awakenings 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Nicole Morgan

  Finally it opened. He scanned the message. His curiosity made him want to take in as much as he could at once. Then he slowed down and read it all again. More carefully this time he went over every sentence. He bunched his brows together in confusion. Why would anyone fuck with him like this, especially now when he was laying a friend to rest?

  “Adam, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”

  He looked to his wife, shaking his head before looking back to his phone. This didn’t make any sense. Alie was dead. She and their baby had died. He didn’t even know Chelsea when Alie was alive.

  “Dude, you all right? You need me to drive or something?” Jack asked from the back of the SUV.

  He knew he should be answering them. At least maybe acknowledging them in some way, but he felt frozen. Getting over the guilt of losing her and their child because of his actions was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He still wasn’t totally over it. It was a daily struggle for him to look in the mirror and not hate himself. What kind of sick fuck would taunt him in this way?

  “Hey, you okay?” Rex asked.

  He could hear a few mumbled voices surrounding him. He tried his best to sound them out while he tried to concentrate on the words. Something wasn’t right. Obviously whoever sent the e-mail didn’t bother to do their homework. There was the most obvious flaw in their e-mail, that Alie was dead long before he met Chelsea. Then there was the part about naming him after his father, Reginald. That wasn’t his father’s name. He sat there shaking his head and shushed everyone around him. They were becoming more agitated from him not responding to them.

  An idea struck him. He went back to the Yahoo! home page, and he hovered his smartphone’s mouse over the user name of the person who sent it. When the message “Would you like to see this user’s profile” popped up he clicked on it.

  The damn hourglass popped up again. For being a smartphone it sure took its sweet ass time getting things done. A tap on his shoulder from behind him broke whatever amount of patience he was holding onto. He swung around and stared down Rex.

  “Hold on!” he shouted.

  Rex gave him a bemused look and held his hands up in a “don’t shoot” manner.

  Finally the hourglass stopped spinning and the page loaded. A quick cursory glance at the information provided told him the account was just set up today. No. Correction. The account was just set up, like in the last hour. He read all the other information. Allison Williams. Female. Birthdate, April 4. What in the fuck was going on?

  Someone used his birthday. They used his deceased fiancée’s name. They provoked him with knowledge of a child who never was born. Then the Reginald comment? None of it made any sense. Hell, he only knew one Reginald in his entire life, and he was his swim buddy in BUD/S class. Hardly the father-figure type. He was a mouthy arrogant little shit who was lucky he didn’t get his ass thrown out of BUD/S. The only thing that saved him was his ability to swim for miles without even getting tired. Their instructors used to call him the product of a mermaid and seal having sex.

  He went back to the e-mail and read it again.

  Allison Williams.

  April 4th.

  Their child.

  Reginald.

  What the hell reason would anyone have to make up an e-mail account just to send him something so cruel? He didn’t even give out this e-mail address, only a few close friends and…oh God.

  He looked up at Rex and Jack in the rearview mirror. His expression wasn’t lost on his two friends. They both looked at one another and then back at him.

  “What is it?” Jack asked.

  A silence filled the vehicle. All three of their wives stared at him, waiting for him to explain.

  “Nick is alive.”

  He no sooner said it before he heard a loud pop and felt something slice through the air beside his head. Glass flew inside the vehicle, showering him and Chelsea with tiny pebbles of glass.

  “Sniper nine o’clock,” Rex shouted from the back.

  “Ladies on the floor. Now! Adam, get us the fuck out of here!” Jack added.

  Hunched down in the seat, he turned the key in the ignition. “Chelsea, are you okay?”

  A wave of relief flooded through him when she answered, “Yes, just drive!”

  He’d lost Allison to a gunshot. No way in hell he would lose Chelsea, too. He hit the gas, and the tires spun against the gravel. It had been years since he’d brushed up on any of his defensive-driving skills. A real life sniper was the last scenario he wanted to test his skills. He prayed to God whoever was shooting at them didn’t plan to follow them. He wanted Chelsea as far away from whoever the sniper was as possible. He knew he was only echoing the thoughts of Rex and Jack.

  “Are they following?” he asked.

  “Negative,” Rex answered. “Now, you mind explaining to me just what the fuck you mean when you say Nick is alive?”

  If he wasn’t trying to navigate an area he hadn’t been to in years while slouched down in the vehicle he might explain it all, but getting them out of there came first.

  “Adam?” Jack said, waiting for him to respond to Rex’s question.

  “Let’s find someplace out of the way to hole up in first. Then I’ll explain everything.”

  “Shelby, stay down, damn it,” Rex snapped from the backseat. Then he added, “That’d be great, man. Because I kinda thought we just had a funeral for Nick.”

  Rex was right to be confused. He and Jack probably both would’ve thought him crazy, but the gunshot shattering the side window of the SUV probably made them think anything was possible at this point.

  He hoped that old rundown motel in Mission Bay that only cheap tourists frequented was still up and running. No one would think to look for them there. If he could get the women safe somewhere out of the sights of a scope then he could explain everything to Jack and Rex.

  Would they believe him? Well, that was another story entirely. It was a stretch for sure. There were just too many red flags in the e-mail, the fact that someone had just opened that account with information that would only mean something to him. Combine that with the use of the name Reginald. No. It was too many coincidences. It wasn’t someone trying to screw with him. It was someone trying to get his attention in the only way they could. Obviously they were concerned about saying too much and drawing attention to themselves. Could Nick think that his e-mail account was being tracked?

  Two United States Navy SEALs were ambushed for an unknown reason while vacationing off the coast of Mexico. Still days later, no terrorist group had come forward to claim responsibility, or rather take credit for the attack.

  That was it! Terrorists weren’t behind the attack. Nick was alive, and he was using the only way he felt safe to contact him. No one knew they were coming out to Coronado today. A few of the higher-ups in the navy knew, but that was it. It wasn’t discussed with anyone, and he was even careful to make sure it was kept out of the local papers For all anyone at the service knew, they were taking Nick’s ashes home with them to sit on the mantle.

  Fuck!

  “Turn off your cell phones. Everyone! Do it now!”

  Not only did Nick worry that he was being tracked, the bullet in his side window all but confirmed it.

  Chapter 14

  Nick paced the small kitchen area for as long as he could. His side was aching, forcing him to sit. He must have checked the small clock above the stove at least a dozen times in the past five minutes. After he’d sent the e-mail to Adam he knew he might not hear anything back from him right away.

  His current anxiety had nothing to do with that though. AJ had been gone for nearly forty-five minutes. She assured him she wouldn’t be long. It wasn’t as if she specified how long she would be, but he had a bad feeling. He wanted her back here. He didn’t like the idea of her being out there without him to protect her.

  The irony in his statement made him chuckle. She had cared for him for the past few days. He had done nothing for her, other than make
her nervous and upset. His physical state was not up to par, and he was far from being able to protect her. Regardless, he just wished she would hurry up and get back here.

  Too nervous to sit still, he went back to check on Liam. He was still resting peacefully and didn’t appear to be in any pain or discomfort. On the contrary, for a man dying, he looked serene and happy.

  After he left there he went back to her bedroom to see if a new e-mail had popped up on the screen. He saw none but knew there was a chance Adam hadn’t even seen it yet since this was the day of his memorial service. The thought still sickened him. Still, he was thankful for Liam’s quick thinking, which made him for all intents and purposes dead. Being dead saved his life. That he was sure of.

  Walking down the hall toward the kitchen, he peeked in on Liam once more. Anything to kill the time. Despite the pain that was starting to shoot needles in his side straight through to his arm, he couldn’t sit still. When he caught the time, he was frustrated to see only five minutes had passed.

  Where the hell was she? The market couldn’t be that far. Could it? Why wouldn’t she have told him she’d be gone so long? She should have a bike or some form of transportation if the walk into town was so far. He was infuriated. Ten minutes. He would give her ten more minutes until he was forced to leave and go look for her. No, five minutes. That’s it, that’s all she had left to return her cute little ass back to this bungalow or so help him he was going to…

  His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of someone coming up the back stairs. A quick peek out the kitchen window and he saw her struggling with three bags in her arms as she climbed up the wooden deck.

  He crossed the room faster than he’d moved in days and quickly flung the door open. “Where in the hell have you been?”

  He winced when she screamed and dropped the bags at her feet. Fuck. Why was she so damn afraid of him? It was really starting to piss him off.

  “My God, Nick. You scared me!” she scolded him.

  He rolled his eyes at her obvious statement and bent down to retrieve two of the bags as she picked up loose fruit, which had fallen from the other one.

  “Just hurry up and get inside.”

  Holding two bags in one hand, he held the door open and waited for her to pass by before taking a quick survey of the surrounding area. He saw no one and nothing that appeared unusual or out of place. Satisfied she wasn’t followed, he closed the door and locked it behind him.

  He turned toward her, prepared to give her one hell of a tongue-lashing about not dillydallying around town all day while he was here worried sick about her. Just the fact that he was worried about her annoyed him, but he would deal with that issue later. When he spun around to begin the lecture he was surprised to see her bag sitting on the table and her nowhere in sight.

  “For crying out loud. Where did you go?” He set his bags down and walked down the hallway to find her.

  He stood in the doorway to Liam’s room and watched as she placed a kiss to his forehead and said, “I love you, Dad.”

  His heart felt tight when he heard the pain in her voice. He was ready to chew her ass, and the first thing on her mind was checking on her father. The idea that she had dillydallied about town instead of hauling ass back here was ridiculous. Quietly he walked back toward the kitchen to put the food away. She deserved that private moment with her father without him looming over her.

  Pulling out the contents that didn’t need to be refrigerated, he placed them in the cupboard by the stove. He had to commend her on her choices. She’d picked items high in protein and nutrients. Clearly she stayed away from the sweets because not one item in the bags had sugar in them, unless he counted the natural sugars of the oranges and bananas she bought.

  He placed the milk, eggs, bacon, lunch meat, and cheese in the refrigerator and closed the door. She was standing on the other side of it, her expression bleak.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked her.

  She crossed her arms and stared at him for a moment. He was no great psychologist, nor did he claim to understand the women species, but if he was a betting man, and he was, he would place a wager that she was a little peeved with him.

  “Uh-oh. What’d I do?”

  “What did you do?”

  Oh, it was going to be one of those types of conversations. He was in no mood to play her games. Women in general were notorious for not saying what was really on their minds, but she was an extra hard nut to crack.

  “You seem upset.”

  She tilted her head to one side and scrunched her brows together. “I do? Well, I can assure you I’m not upset. At least not so much that I would shout at someone who has done nothing but care for me for days.”

  He didn’t miss her sarcasm, and he wanted so bad to smile at her. In that moment she looked incredibly adorable, but somehow he didn’t think a smile was the best plan of action right now.

  “Yeah, about that. I’m sorry.”

  Rather than respond or accept his apology she just tilted her head to the other side in a show of impatience. He thought women loved to hear men say they’re sorry. Maybe she was one of those that really needed to believe he meant it?

  “I’m really sorry, AJ.”

  He relaxed a little when she uncrossed her arms. “I got back here as quickly as I could. It’s a good twenty-minute walk.”

  Information which would have been helpful before you left! He thought the words but knew better than to say them aloud.

  “I didn’t know that. Look, I was worried about you. I paced this damn kitchen, checked on your father twice. I was almost ready to go out looking for you.”

  He watched as her face suddenly softened, and she smiled. “You checked on him twice?”

  He shrugged and nodded. “Well, yeah. I mean I’m not a complete asshole, you know.”

  She laughed. Lord have mercy, she laughed. Damn, it was a beautiful sound. Her face lit up as her beautiful smile spread across her face. He wished he could bring that out in her more than the other emotions he seemed to cause her. He watched and waited for her laughter to slow. Taking it all in, he stood there in amazement at how her whole face lit up with such joy. It made him sad to think she probably hadn’t laughed much lately. She had the kind of smile and laughter that should be shared with the world.

  “I’m glad you find that amusing.”

  “I did. I mean, no, you’re not an asshole, but just the way you said it. It’s like you know that sometimes you’re not so nice.”

  “I’m so hurt. Me not nice?” In a mocking gesture he held his hand to his heart and staggered backward.

  Between being shot, lying in bed for three days, and barely having enough food to sustain him on a normal day, his strength wasn’t what it normally was. He lost his balance and fell backward. AJ reached for him, trying to right his balance, and they both went down with a thud.

  Pain. Excruciating pain enveloped his side and radiated throughout his body. He had tucked his head in so it didn’t hit hard against the floor, but when he saw AJ falling with him his first instinct was to wrap his arms around her, protecting her from the fall.

  “Oh God, Nick. Are you okay?”

  He gritted his teeth to keep every curse word from flying out of his mouth. His eyes were glued shut as the pain rocketed through him. Damn that hurt.

  AJ squirmed in his arms, and he felt her soft hand touch his face. “Nick? Please say something.”

  He opened his eyes. She was no more than an inch away from him. The small features of her face seem magnified but not in a bad way. It was as if he was seeing her for the very first time. Her eyes were brown, but close up reminded him of creamy milk chocolate. They held caramel-flavored hues in them, and he wondered if they looked even more vibrant when she wasn’t under so much stress.

  “Are you hurt?”

  He laughed at her question. He couldn’t help it. She was too damn cute with her obvious questions. Was he hurt? He still had a hole in his side, and he could
tell from the warm feeling on his side that the jar from the fall had probably torn a couple of his stitches.

  “What is so funny?”

  “You are. Am I hurt? Sweetheart, I have a bullet hole. I’ve had better weeks.”

  She grinned at him. He was really starting to like that smile of hers. She had a dimple on her right cheek that made her look extra cute.

  “I think you know what I meant, smart-ass.”

  “Uh uh uh…careful,” he warned her. “The last time you hurt my feelings we ended up on the floor.”

  He was trying to make her laugh again and thankfully it had worked, but the truth of the matter was he kind of liked being here on the floor with her lying in his arms. Sure he could have done without the jarring pain, but the end definitely justified the means in this case.

  “You’re something else, Commander Slater. Come on, let’s get you up off of this floor.”

  When she placed her arms on either side of him, bracing herself to get up, he tightened his hold on her.

  “Nick, what are you doing?”

  He didn’t stop to think. If he had he might not have gone and done it. Something inside him wouldn’t allow him not to take what he wanted in that moment.

  Lifting his head up just one more inch he touched his lips to hers. It struck him how soft they were. Despite her tiny features, her lips were so full and so inviting. He prayed the toothpaste he’d used a couple hours earlier had a lasting effect.

  He removed one of his hands from her body and brought it to the back of her neck, holding her firmly to the kiss. Slowly he slid his tongue against her lower lip, sliding it back and forth before using it to part them. When she opened her lips and sighed he could feel it deep to his bones. His body woke up despite its recent trauma.