One Night SEAL: A Bad Boy Romance

by B. B. Hamel

  Guff and another man stood up. Travis, however, reached for his holster, his gun in his hand but not drawn.

  “Hold on now,” Travis said. “That’s a mistake.”

  “You’re pushing my patience, Travis. We want this job done. We don’t want to invest more money. I simply decided to get rid of you two and to use my own local talent to pull this off.”

  The man named Heber stepped up to Travis, his hand on his gun. Travis stared the man down. “You draw, you die,” Travis said. “Not a man in here can outdraw me, least of all you.”

  Heber glanced at Culver, and Culver laughed. “Okay. Calm down. Sit back down, Heber.”

  The man slowly backed off. Travis looked back at Culver. “If you could get this shipment back on your own, you wouldn’t have taken me up on my offer. You people need a man like me to pull this off.”

  “Maybe that’s true,” Culver said.

  “Five grand. Then it’ll be done.”

  There was a tense moment, a pause, before finally Culver laughed again.

  “Very well. Guff, go get the money.” Culver shook his head. “You drive a hard bargain. I’m impressed.”

  “You wanted the best,” Travis said. “You fucking got it.”

  Guff came back a few minutes later with a small black duffel bag. He tossed it over to Travis, who caught it and handed it off to me. The bag felt heavy, and I saw cash shoved in there.

  “That’s all?” Culver asked.

  “That’s all.”

  “Okay then. Get out before I decide to kill you myself.”

  Travis turned and strode out. I left on his heels and saw Culver smiling out of the corner of my eye.

  We moved through the bar, not stopping, and went right outside. We didn’t stop until we were back in the car and were pulling back out onto the road.

  “Well,” Travis said finally, “that went pretty good.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you kidding me? They almost killed us.”

  “That was just a bluff, just trying to test me.” He grinned at me as he pulled back out onto the main road. “Now we can pay Janey off.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “Maybe, but we’re getting there.”

  I shook my head and marveled at him. I’d never met a man who could walk into the heart of a gangster’s hideout and bluff money from him, but Travis could pull it off. Any other person and this plan would seem insane.

  But I trusted Travis. I trusted that he could play both sides, make this happen.

  I felt elated and terrified, the same wave of euphoria I’d been riding since this all started.

  I felt wild, free, and crazy. Travis was to blame for it all.

  16

  Travis

  We went to bed early that night. After talking five grand out of the mafia and making a deal to go behind their backs with Janey, I was pretty fucking exhausted. Besides, I needed to do more thinking, more planning, before this all went down.

  I was up earlier than Hartley, like usual. I made coffee and pancakes again. After breakfast, we got dressed and hit the road.

  We drove out to the Caldwell’s place again, though this time we weren’t going out for a fun little ATV tour. The bag with the money in it was stashed in the back, and I was hoping that the deal from the night before still stood. I believed I understood Janey, but it had been so long. Anything could happen, and I had to be ready for it.

  We parked in the lot and I looked at Hartley. “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I grunted. “Just thinking about last night.”

  “Which part?”

  “The part where I licked that pussy until you couldn’t think anymore.”

  She blushed and looked away. “I thought we weren’t talking about it.”

  “Just hadn’t brought it up yet is all.”

  “Well, I’m glad you had fun.”

  I laughed. “You’re the one who had fun. I’ve been fucking hard ever since.”

  “Not much I can do about that.”

  “With a fucking body like that, there’s a lot you can do for this hard cock.”

  She stared at me for a second and then shook her head. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “All right then. Right down to business.”

  She opened her door and stepped out. I followed, grabbing the bag from the back. I let her lead the way, enjoying the view of her firm little ass swaying in her short jean shorts. It was taking all of my strength and willpower not to fucking press her up against a wall and take her like I wanted to.

  But I knew better. Mixing business and pleasure wasn’t the smartest move in the world. Still, with Hartley I could barely resist wanting that pleasure. She was built for it, begging for it, and I wanted to take her and make her moan my name. Nothing got me harder than seeing that girl come while looking in my eyes.

  We went up to the front door and entered into the main room again. Brock, Janey’s dumbest brother, was standing behind the front counter, reading a magazine. He looked up as I approached.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, not even pretending like he didn’t know.

  “I’m here to see Janey.”

  He frowned. “Why? And you know, I didn’t appreciate you lying to me the other day.”

  “I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you who I was.”

  His frown deepened. “Janey is busy.”

  “Get her. Tell her I’m here to finish our deal from last night.”

  “What deal?”

  I sighed. “Go get your sister, Brock. I don’t have all fucking day.”

  Brock straightened up at that. “Hey now. That’s no way to talk to me.”

  “Listen, Brock. This has been a rough few days. I really don’t need to deal with your shit, too.”

  I could feel Hartley next to me getting uncomfortable, but fuck if I was going to eat shit from this dumbass.

  Brock slowly came out from behind the counter and stood directly in front of me, squaring off. “I said, Janey’s fucking busy. Come back another time.”

  “Your sister is going to be very pissed when she realizes that her dumbass brother ruined a business arrangement for her.”

  I stared him down, practically begging for him to come at me. I was feeling particularly annoyed today, and a little fight with Brock was probably enough to blow off some of that steam.

  Unfortunately for me, though, King stepped in through the back door.

  “She’s waiting for you in the barn,” King called out. “Brock, back down, man.”

  I smirked at Brock. “Listen to your brother.”

  I could tell he wanted to swing, and badly. Instead, he slowly backed down. He turned and walked behind the counter, grumbling to himself the whole time.

  “Come on,” I said to Hartley. We went back out the front door and headed across the property toward the barn. I knew exactly where I was going, considering I’d just scouted the place recently.

  The back doors were sitting slightly open. I pushed them open and stepped in, Hartley on my heels.

  What I saw stopped me in my tracks.

  The whole damn place was empty.

  Janey was leaning up against a hay bale not far away, smoking a cigarette. She smiled at me as I looked around. I finally stared at her and cocked my head to the side.

  “Those things will kill you,” I said to her.

  She laughed. “That’s it? Nothing else to say?”

  I shrugged. “You moved the stuff. I’m not exactly surprised.”

  She laughed again, shaking her head. “I guess I should have expected that. Mister Navy SEAL can’t be surprised.” Janey looked at Hartley. “Is he always like this?”

  “Yeah, he is,” Hartley grumbled.

  I grinned at her. “If I were still going to try to steal that stuff from you, this would be a huge deal, but that’s not my plan.”

  “Before we discuss plans, I believe you have something for me.”

  I tossed her the bag. She caug
ht it effortlessly and looked inside.

  “It’s all there,” I said, “courtesy of the Dixie Mafia.”

  She looked surprised. “This is Dixie money?”

  “I told them it was to hire a crew to rip you off.”

  A bemused smile broke out across her face. “That seems suicidal to me.”

  “Well, it’s good you didn’t have to make that call then, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so.”

  I felt someone approach from behind, and I resisted the desire to turn around. Instead, I looked blandly at Janey.

  “Can you ask your brother to get out of my blind spot?”

  Janey nodded and King moved farther to the left, getting into my peripheral vision.

  “Thank you.”

  “So tell me, Travis, why should I let you live?”

  I sighed. “Why the fuck is everyone asking me that question?”

  “It’s a good question. You seem like you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

  King began to drift back into my blind spot. I turned my head toward him. “Stop moving,” I said.

  He glanced at Janey.

  “Travis, I’m being serious.”

  “So am I,” I said to her. “Your brother moves again, I’ll fucking break his knee.”

  “I’d love to see you try,” King said, stepping up to me and drifting into my blind spot again.

  I moved fast. I stepped sideways toward him, driving my elbow low and hard into his stomach. He stumbled backward and tried to get his hands up, but I wasn’t going high. Instead, I shifted my weight and swung a rough kick into the side of his knee.

  He crumpled to the ground, grabbing his leg.

  “Enough,” Janey said loudly. “Enough.”

  I stood up straight. “I warned him. Twice.”

  “What do you want, Travis?”

  King was rolling side to side. “Relax,” I said to him. “I didn’t break it, you big baby.” I looked back at Janey. “You know what I want.”

  “You want to make a deal. You paid me, which is good, but now you’ve hurt my brother. I’ll ask one more time: What do you want?”

  I took a deep breath, calming down. “I want to give you the Dixie Mafia. I want to get the leaders, or at least the ones who are local, in a single room. Then I want to kill them all.”

  I felt Hartley shift her weight nervously behind me. She knew the gist of the plan, but hearing it like that was probably pretty harsh.

  “Interesting,” Janey said. I could see the curiosity in her eyes.

  “If they die, you can grab hold of the local drug trade in Knoxville and its neighboring counties, no problem.”

  “What do you want in exchange?”

  “Three things. First, nobody knows we were involved in this. Second, me and Hartley walk away from this. Third, you pay off Hartley’s family debt.”

  She looked amused. “That’s all?”

  King slowly struggled up to his feet. “I say we kill them,” he said, giving me a pissed-off look.

  I ignored him. “That’s all. Hartley’s debt is fifty grand. The drug trade is going to make you way more than that, and we both know it.”

  “I’m doing a lot of work in this deal,” Janey said. “There’s a lot that could go wrong.”

  “Yeah, maybe, but this is your chance to finally hit back. No more pissing them off. You can win.”

  I didn’t know if she’d go for this, but I had a feeling she would.

  Janey was a business woman. She was in this for the profit, and she did nothing that didn’t directly profit her. If this went down the way I planned it would, she stood to make a huge profit.

  But more than that, she hated the Dixie Mafia. Janey was the type of person that wanted full control and couldn’t settle for a sidelined position. I was guessing that being so out of control in that car with Ray that night had taught her never to let someone else do the driving. She’d walked away from it once, but she might not again.

  “It’s an interesting idea,” Janey said.

  “You can’t be serious,” King snapped. “This guy is an animal.”

  I sneered at him. “Go ahead. Say that again. I’ll break your fucking skull.”

  “Jesus, enough you two,” Janey said. “King, get the fuck out.”

  King glared at me, spit on the ground, and then hobbled out the back door.

  Janey walked over toward us, looking at me curiously. “You don’t seem like the same guy you once were,” she said.

  “I’m not,” I admitted. “And you’re not the same girl.”

  “No,” she said. “We’ve both changed a lot.” She looked at Hartley. “Why is he doing this for you?”

  Hartley looked surprised. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I honestly don’t.”

  “You’re pretty; I’ll give you that. But this man is offering to dismantle a very dangerous and powerful gang. All for what, some peach farmer’s daughter?” Janey shook her head. “I’d never do it, no offence. Nobody is worth this much effort.”

  “You don’t understand a thing about me,” I said to Janey, “but I think I understand you. Getting control of Knoxville is your dream, isn’t it?”

  “Something like that,” she said, nodding.

  “I got you your money. I’m for real, Janey. Come into business with me. I’ll give you Knoxville, and you’ll give us freedom.”

  She stared at me for a second, considering, and finally laughed. Her face shifted from an intense and dangerous stare to her old cheerleader smile. “Okay then,” she said. “Let’s do it.”

  As she reached out and shook my hand, I couldn’t help but feel like I was shaking hands with a snake.

  But it didn’t matter. All I knew was that I couldn’t steal that shipment from her, not really. My next best move was to topple the mafia, at least locally, and hope that they’d be too disorganized to realize that it was me who set them up. Then once Hartley’s debt was paid, we’d be out of this, and Janey would have her power.

  All in theory, of course. I needed to get the heads of the Dixie Mafia together in a single room, and I needed Janey to uphold her end of the bargain.

  A lot of loose ends, a lot of possibilities for failure. But this was the best course of action.

  It had to be the best, because I was committed to it.

  17

  Hartley

  Something felt off about Janey Caldwell.

  I couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but the way she reacted to her brother getting beaten down by Travis was incredible strange.

  He didn’t notice it. He was too busy being a macho idiot. But when Travis took King down so easily, Janey actually stood there and smiled.

  She watched her brother get hurt, and she smiled.

  That was so strange. It only lasted for a brief second, and then she acted like she cared afterward, but I knew she had no real feelings about it. Maybe she even delighted in seeing King get hurt for whatever reason. I couldn’t begin to guess her reasons for any of this, but there was something very strange about her.

  After we got back to the apartment, Travis poured himself a whisky and sat right down on the couch. He said he needed to do some planning, and that was fine with me. I retreated back to my room to do some planning of my own and got changed.

  This had gotten so far out of hand. I didn’t know where I stood in all of this, or if I even thought we had a chance of succeeding. When Travis first told me his idea of turning on the mafia, I could hardly believe him.

  The man was a Navy SEAL. He was supposed to be fighting for justice, not helping one gang take over another’s territory. But in his mind, he was helping the lesser of two evils rise to power while saving my life. Somebody else could deal with Janey and her family, he figured. A SEAL wasn’t a lawman, not by a long shot.

  It just felt so strange to me, so unreal. I didn’t know how things had gotten this far, how I’d gotten so deeply into this. I knew I needed Travis’s help, but I was afraid that his plan wouldn’t work
and we’d both be killed because of it.

  I didn’t want him to get hurt because of me. Of course I didn’t. I wasn’t a monster, but all of this had gotten so complex, so far out of control. I didn’t think I could back out anymore even if I wanted to.

  I hated just sitting in my room. I was trying to read a trashy romance novel just to escape and feel good for a little while, but I just couldn’t get into it. Reading about rich billionaires on Tinder just wasn’t doing much for me.

  Frustrated, I got up and went out into the other room. Travis was still sitting there, staring at the wall, glass in hand.

  “I don’t trust her,” I blurted out.

  He didn’t look back at me. “I know.”

  “Why do you?”

  “I’m not sure I do either.”

  “So why are we doing this?”

  “Because it’s the best move.” He sighed and sipped his whisky. “Trust me, Hartley. I’ve reasoned this one out every which way, and this is our best move. I think Janey is more self-centered and businesslike than you realize.”

  “She smiled,” I said.

  He turned and looked at me. “What?”

  “When you hit her brother. She smiled.”

  He frowned. “That’s weird.”

  “It was really weird. She didn’t look like she cared at all.”

  He paused. “Did you care?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered, surprised by the question. “I didn’t think you needed to do that.”

  “Those people are going to try to fuck us, Hartley,” Travis said. “I needed to do something to show them that I’m a dangerous person. I needed them to be afraid enough to stick to the plan.”

  I nodded slowly. That made sense. He got up from his spot and walked into the kitchen, getting a second glass. He poured me a small shot of whisky and carried it over, handing it to me.

  He held up his glass. “To fucking over the mafia.”

  I held up mine. “To saving the family farm.”

  He laughed, clinked my glass, and drank. I drank mine down, feeling the burn in my stomach, grateful for the slight numbing spreading through my body.