by Amy Gamet
She pulled out a chair and sat next to him at the table. "He likes me, Logan."
"So what? Lots of guys like you."
She shrugged. "Sure, lots of loser assholes like Rick. Not too many stand-up guys like Cowboy."
Logan sighed heavily. She was pulling out the Rick card, and he didn't appreciate it. Her ex-husband had done a real number on her. "I'm sorry, Charlotte. Why don't you go on a trip or something? You got all that money in the divorce settlement. So hop on a plane and go see the world. Experience new things. Maybe even meet a guy better than Cowboy."
She met his eyes. "You think so?"
"You want to know what I really think?" He put his hand over hers. "You're pretty damn special, sis, and one of these days you're gonna find a great guy who knows it."
"Thanks, Logan."
"You only live once, right?" His cell phone rang, and he took it into the other room. Charlotte looked at the papers spread out in front of Logan's computer. Cruise ship reservations for Cowboy to the Caribbean next week on a couples-only cruise. Her eyes went to the screen. There was the confirmation for Leo Wilson and Abigail Browning. Charlotte frowned.
What would she give to be on that cruise with him?
You only live once.
She shot a glance at the doorway, Logan still deep in conversation at the far end of the house. Before she could talk yourself out of it, she sat in front of his computer and scribbled down the cruise information. Logan had suggested she go on a vacation, hadn’t he? Well, she was going to go on a vacation with an adventure built right in.
She left the room, a giggle on her lips and a newfound spring in her step. Charlotte O’Malley finally had something to look forward to.
43
Sylvia Cortez spoke in broken English, a little girl on either side of her on the worn sofa. “I don’t understand.”
Jessa rubbed her stomach, the size of which had easily doubled in the last three weeks alone. With just a month to go until her due date, she smiled at one of the girls and thought of her own daughter. “Is there someone who can translate for us?” she asked.
Sylvia spoke in Spanish to the taller of the two girls, who ran out the front door. Sylvia turned back to Jessa. “You like coffee? Decaf?”
“No, thank you. I’m fine.” She picked up the book, gently fingering its pages. Logan had found Maria Elena’s next of kin after an exhaustive search, and Jessa knew it was unlikely this family had ever met their distant cousin, but Maria Elena was about to give them a great gift nonetheless.
A tall, handsome boy came inside with the girl who’d gone in search of a translator. “Juan,” said the girl.
Jessa stood and shook his hand. “My name is Jessa McConnell, and I’ve been looking for Sylvia for a long time.” She handed the book to Sylvia with a smile. “She’s been given a great inheritance from a distant cousin.”
Jessa explained who Maria Elena was and what had happened to her. The boy’s eyes went wide as he repeated what she’d said in Spanish.
“This book proves Maria Elena was entitled to a one-eighth share of a large law firm in Boston.”
She nodded to the boy, who translated again.
“The lawyers would like to buy out your share for fourteen million dollars.”
The boy gave a loud yelp and Jessa laughed. Sylvia leaned forward on the edge of the couch. Jessa watched Sylvia’s face as the boy translated the good news.
The woman burst out screaming and the girls broke out in smiles. “Inheritance?” Sylvia asked, reaching for Jessa’s hands.
“Yes. An inheritance just for you and your family.”
Sylvia jumped up and down, laughing, pulling Jessa’s hands with her. “Rich?”
Jessa laughed. “Yes, you’re rich.” She thought of the terrible things the inheritance had brought to her own life, but then again, she wasn’t the rightful heir.
And it brought you Jax.
They’d been spending almost all of their time together. At first she’d insisted he not stay over more than twice a week, as if the boundary could keep her heart out of danger. But she was never able to push him out the door when all she wanted was to snuggle into his arms.
Now Jax was asking her to marry him, and as much as she didn’t like him working for HERO Force and him traveling so much, she knew she’d be hard pressed to say no much longer.
She just had to find a way to deal with the fear.
She drove to the cemetery and sat on a bench beside Maria Elena’s grave, telling the other woman about Sylvia and the family who would receive the money from the law firm settlement.
“Thank you for letting me use your name, Maria. You changed my life for the better.”
Jax had told her something similar once, that his life was better with her in it, and she smiled at the memory. Her eyes went back to the gravestone. Maria Elena was born just one year before Jessa.
Life is short. Don’t you want to live it to its fullest?
It was so hard to separate Jax from HERO Force in her mind, to peel apart the man and the danger he surrounded himself with every day.
“What if he gets hurt? What if he dies?”
I will be happy I loved him for as long as I could. Just like Ralph.
No one was guaranteed a long life. No one was guaranteed anything beyond this moment.
“And I want to share this moment with Jax,” she said. She wiped a tear from her cheek. She wasn’t going to waste another moment, not a single one. “Thanks, Maria.”
Moving her awkward body as fast as she could, she made it back to her car and drove to HERO Force headquarters.
44
Jax was reading over the draft of his new business plan for HERO Force. Cowboy would take over Jax’s role, with Jax moving to a purely supervisory position.
Unless he really needed to blow something up.
“Jax?”
He lifted his head from the papers on his desk to find Jessa standing in the doorway. “Hey. What are you doing here?” He knew how much she hated this office, how much it reminded her of the past. “Everything okay?”
She nodded, closing the door behind her and walking toward him. “Everything’s perfect. I gave Sylvia Cortez the good news.”
“Oh, yeah? That must have been fun.”
“It was. And then I stopped by to tell Maria it was all taken care of. I think she was happy.”
He grinned at her assignation of moods to the dearly departed. “I’m sure she was.”
“But I realized, there’s one more thing I have to do before I can move on with my life.” She walked around his desk, perching her hip on the edge, and he stroked her leg from her ankle to her knee.
“What’s that?”
“I have to tell you how much I love you.”
He sucked in a breath and held it. He knew it. Of course he knew it, but to hear the words after so much time was like getting a gift he hadn’t expected to receive.
She bit her lip, and her eyes shone brightly. “I’ve thought it a thousand times. I’m sorry it took me so long to say.”
He stood up, hope swelling in his chest, and put his arms on her waist. “Does this mean you’ll marry me?”
“Let me finish. I love you, and I accept that HERO Force is just as important to you as I am.”
“No, it’s not.”
She kept talking. “You do incredible things here. Yes, they’re dangerous, and yes, that drives me absolutely insane, but they’re incredible nonetheless. I don’t want you to stop.”
“I said, it’s not as important to me as you are, Jessa.”
“It’s not?”
“I’m cutting back my hours at HERO Force. Putting Cowboy in charge. He’s earned it, and I want to make sure I see my daughter grow up. I want to be there for you.” He’d already let his obsession with HERO Force destroy one marriage. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Her face lit up. “You’re sure?”
“I’m positive. I love you, Jessa.” He let his hand trac
e her face from her temple to her jaw, and kissed her. He was swamped with gratitude.
Her kisses were grew more passionate, and he smiled at his very pregnant, very horny, soon-to-be-wife.
She yanked her face away from his. “Uh oh.” Her eyes were wide. “My water just broke.”
Adrenaline shot into his bloodstream. “That’s not supposed to happen yet. Are you sure?”
“Oh, I’m sure all right.” She came to a stand, looking behind her. “Oh, God, I’m sorry about your desk.”
“That’s not my desk. That’s Cowboy’s desk. You ready to have a baby?”
“What if it’s too early?”
“It’s only twenty days, honey, I think she’ll be fine.”
“Right. You’re right. It’s only twenty days.” She took a deep breath.
He’d never been happier in his whole life than he was in this moment. “Then let’s go have a baby.”
45
Jax awoke in the darkness, instantly aware of Jessa in bed beside him, breathing deeply as she slept. For long moments he listened to that sound, thinking how his life had changed completely for the better, and every bit because of her.
A tiny squeak made him smile. The baby was waking up. He turned back the covers and walked around the bed, sitting in the rocking chair beside the bassinet. Inside slept their tiny daughter, Emily.
He watched as she moved her head from side to side, torn between sleep and her next meal. Any moment now her hunger would win out and he would cradle her in his arms before bringing her to her mother.
He seemed to have a sixth sense for the baby’s needs, often waking just before she did in the night, and he loved these quiet moments more than he ever thought he would.
The baby let out a short cry. He picked her up and cuddled her warmth against his chest. “Daddy’s here.” He moved back to the bed and slipped between the covers, gently waking Jessa and passing the baby to her.
He trailed his fingertips down Jessa’s arm. She moaned softly.
His family.
Only one thing could make this even more perfect. If Jessa was his wife.
He’d been looking at rings yesterday and had narrowed it down to three, no matter she was still resisting. But he could be a patient man when he needed to be and he would wait forever and a day if that’s how long it took for her to marry him.
His hand made it’s way down across her shoulder and down her back, then back up again. He wanted only to give her pleasure, to make her as happy as she made him.
She mumbled in a sleepy voice, “Love you.”
He smiled from the side of his mouth. “I love you, too.”
Harbored by the SEAL
1
Sweat poured from the man's face as his mind worked to remember the configuration of the bomb. He knelt down beside it in the dark room, his hands moving with stilted motions as he tried to reconcile his feelings with the beliefs he'd held dear most of his life.
It was he who had put this bomb here five days before, and he remembered the joy and pride that had surged through him when the timer began its countdown. It gave his life meaning. He was doing a great thing.
He closed his eyes tightly and a sob escaped his lips. The conflict he’d been wrestling with since he first saw the woman was eating away at him, consuming his most basic beliefs like a wild conflagration.
She'd been standing on the gangway, one hand in her husband’s. Her resemblance to his grown daughter had nearly knocked the wind out of him. While his higher sense of reasoning knew her death would support his cause, the father in him knew in that instant he couldn't blow up this ship.
That single moment had started a monsoon of doubt that had laughed and crushed his dreams of destruction. The days since he'd seen her had only magnified his initial reaction, causing him to see the humanity in every man and woman around him on the cruise ship.
He had to do something.
He had to stop his comrades from blowing up the Gem of the Seas, and he had to do it without them finding out.
Stress was like a vise on the sides of his head, twisting and turning against the pressure of bone. He forced his eyes open and before he could stop himself, cut the wire to defuse the explosive. He began to pant, his breath coming in quick gasps as he forced himself to a stand.
There were many more bombs just like this one. If he truly wanted to save the passengers on board, he had much work to do. He could not think about that right now, could barely stomach what he had to do in this moment alone. He opened the door to the hallway and his jaw dropped. Another man grabbed him by the throat and pushed him back into the dark room.
“Having second thoughts?” he asked.
He opened his mouth to speak, to answer, to explain to his friend this new understanding that what they were about to do was wrong. But his voice wouldn’t work, and he slowly realized he was losing control of his body. There was blood on his friend’s collar, big drops of blood, then a stream, more than just a moment before.
And he realized. The blood loss was his. He was a dead man.
2
Sometimes this shit blows me away.
Cowboy stood in his stateroom, a million-dollar view of the Atlantic stretching out in front of him. If you’d told him thirty years ago he’d be on a ship like this — ever — he would’ve said you were wrong.
It was just another in a long line of moments that had surprised him. Hell, the only things his childhood had prepared him for were jail and the opportunity to be a world-class loser like his father, and his father’s father before him.
But that wasn’t what happened. Not by a long fucking shot. He’d gone in the Navy. Become a SEAL. Because if you were going to surprise yourself and actually shoot for something, you may as well shoot for the goddamned stars.
He hadn’t expected to make it.
Sure, he tried like hell. He’d never tried so hard for anything in his whole life. And he was good at it. Better than most.
Who’d have fucking thunk.
The sun moved out from the thinnest veil of clouds, shining to its full splendor as Cowboy's mind wandered over ten years of accomplishment and achievement, culminating in his arrival at HERO Force.
The part of him that would forever be twelve years old wished his old man could see him now, but he hadn’t spoken to his father since he enlisted at eighteen.
The old bastard could be dead by now. And if he was, he would no doubt roll over in his grave if he found out his oldest son was about to take over the whole organization.
No. Not dead. Cowboy would know if Eddie Wilson were gone, like a weight being lifted from his back. His father was alive, but surely didn’t care what had become of his son Leo.
He moved closer to the window and hooked his thumbs on the pockets of his jeans, taking a deep breath in. This wasn’t about his father. This was about him. His lips twitched in an unconscious grin. He was going to be in charge of HERO Force. It was everything he had ever wanted, every wish coming true.
He remembered Jax telling him he was stepping down as their leader.
Do a good job in the Caribbean. We’ll talk when you get back.
Abby held up her hand to cover her eyes.
“Put some clothes on, Leo. I’m not really your wife.”
Cowboy smiled. He liked the agent Logan had pulled from the Academy for this assignment. She was tiny — five foot nothing — and she seemed like a goody-two-shoes until she opened her mouth.
She dropped her hand. “Come to think of it, when I get married, she better not have chest hair.”
“She?”
“That’s right. You didn’t think you’d convert me with your little display of male virility, did you?”
He looked down at his bare chest. “I just took a shower. I was hot.”
“Well, get dressed. They’re just about to do the safety lecture at the lifeboat. The princess went to her cabin, I’m assuming to get her husband. I’ve got to get back out there, and you should too, unless you’
re a really good swimmer.”
“I’m a Navy SEAL, remember?”
“Unless you can make it all the way to shore from the middle of the ocean, I suggest you come to the safety lecture.”
“I’m sure some pretty little cadet from the Academy would save me.”
She rolled her eyes and smiled. “I’m a lieutenant. And I still don’t like dick.”
He laughed as she left the cabin. If he was going to be stuck sharing adjoining rooms with a stranger for a week, the amusing little lesbian would do just fine. Before getting here, he’d had some concerns about who he would be paired with on this mission. The very last thing he needed was any kind of romantic entanglement on this assignment.
Keep the royals safe, and he’d be given his promotion when he returned. Simple enough as long as he didn’t complicate anything, and women had always been his favorite complication. No, this trip was all about playing bodyguard and soaking up some sun. Maybe a little introspection as he crossed the finish line in his mind.
A mechanical crackle preceded a man’s voice on the loudspeaker. “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is the captain speaking. Welcome aboard the maiden voyage of the Gem of the Seas, the biggest and fastest cruise ship in the world. This is a bittersweet trip for me, my last before retirement. It is my honor and pleasure to be with you on this voyage. Now, if you would be so kind as to report to your lifeboat, it’s time for our mandatory safety lecture. Your lifeboat location is printed on the back of your door. The sooner we finish, the sooner we depart. I’m looking forward very much to this trip.”
Cowboy slipped on his Captain Morgan flip-flops and headed to his designated lifeboat. The safety lecture was part of the cruise ship experience, and he wasn’t going to miss a single bit of it.