SEALed At The Altar_Bone Frog Brotherhood Novel

by Sharon Hamilton

“I like that. I miss that. Someone to play around with. The long showers and sleep-ins. Walking the beach under the stars. Being romantic. Joel and I had that.”

  She gave him an honest glimpse of her pain and loneliness. Her eyes searched him for answers. “Do you ever think I’ll find that again? It would have to be another SEAL. I’ve been through the dark days when he was first injured. I know how that works.”

  He was dangerously charmed and felt bad about it, but he told himself he did feel sorry for her loss. Even though it was undeniable that there was some chemistry between them, she was free and he was not.

  “Kelly, I’d better go.”

  “Yes. You should.”

  Zak thought about their encounter all the way home and decided he’d never go see Kelly again. And he’d never tell Amy.

  She was waiting in the darkened living room when he returned.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Why didn’t you call me? You said you were on your way home. I made dinner, and then I waited over an hour. No Zak. No phone call. I left you messages.”

  He pulled his cell out and checked and sure enough there were those messages from Amy, but the phone was on silent.

  “I’m sorry. I had it turned off at the—” He realized his lie. Kelly called him. He’d turned it off when he was at her house and didn’t notice Amy’s call and texts. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”

  “At the what?”

  “I made a stop on the way home, that’s all.”

  “Where?”

  He didn’t want to lie to her, but he knew she would never understand. “I just drove around. I kicked some tires. I bought an ice cream and went down to the beach. I just needed to think, Amy. That’s all.”

  He knew he’d be in serious trouble if she found out about the lie, but he’d made a huge mistake in judgment, and he didn’t want her to know. He was ashamed of himself.

  “Maybe you don’t notice it, but ever since you’ve been on this kick with the marksman stuff, you’re gone most of the day. We don’t talk. You spend more time with your team buddies than you do me.”

  “I’m sorry, Amy. I really am.”

  “It isn’t fair, Zak.”

  “You’re right, of course.” He slipped next to her on the couch, leaning shoulder against shoulder with her, as she hunched over her knees and studied the carpet. “I’m trying to keep my spot on the Team, if I can. I’m doing everything I can to do that, sweetheart.”

  “But I’m secondary.”

  Here it was again. He had to make a decision. But first, he had to clarify something with Amy.

  “Sweetheart, nothing has changed. I need to know, are you with me going back on the Teams? I need to know that. It’s like when I asked you this before we got married. It’s the same question now, honey.”

  He was encouraged when she nodded her head. He rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m trying to be honest with you.”

  “Are you happy, Zak?”

  He was getting annoyed with her questions and her tone. “You know I’m happy, and I’m working hard. They might ask me to go through BUD/S and requalify again.”

  She frowned. “They do that?”

  “Apparently, sometimes.”

  “Would you pass?”

  “What, you think I’m some weakling and couldn’t get through it?”

  “But you’re not training hard. You have to still be careful with your eye.”

  “Which is why I’ll wait until I get released, and then I’ll know. I want to be ready. I’m getting there. I’m getting better every day.”

  “I need to ask you something, Zak.”

  “Shoot.”

  “I want to go look for work. I’m kind of going stir crazy here, waiting on you hand and foot, being on-call between your appointments. With the uncertainty of you going back, I think I need to get a job. Maybe start selling real estate with Christy.”

  He hadn’t thought about Amy’s needs. He’d been so focused on his own plan, he’d not considered hers.

  Their showing affection for each other had waned. She was right about that. He didn’t feel less for her; she just seemed not to be interested. And yes, he was gone most of the time. She’d drill him full of questions about all his appointments, and he’d started resenting it. She was always there for him. But he showed up when he could. That wasn’t fair.

  “Go for it, sweetheart.”

  “Really?” She threw her arms around him.

  “Of course. I’m strong now. You helped get me there.”

  Chapter 25

  Amy’s background in sales at the Omni in San Francisco made her uniquely qualified for the Millenium Waterfront complex near the boat harbor and convention center in downtown San Diego. Even during her first week on the job, she managed to sell one of the most expensive townhomes to a family from Dubai.

  The all-cash offer was transacted in as short a timeframe as possible. The family was buying it for their son who was already attending college there. Her six figure check was thrilling to hold in her hand. Since it was her day off, she decided to go surprise Zak at the gym where he was working out.

  Gunny’s Gym was the team favorite for most the San Diego teams. Although Gunny had passed on, his son and one of his legally married wives, a beautiful Thai woman named Amornpan, ran the place. Though the equipment was old and occasionally rusty, everything was clean. She’d brought in an acupuncturist and a massage therapist. A picture of the old Gunnery Sergeant was hung in a red frame with gold trim prominently above the mirror behind the desk. Amy imagined the SEALs swore to him when their workouts hurt and said a prayer before deployments. He’d been a fixture of the community, and he still lived in their hearts.

  Amornpan greeted Amy. “Zak is not here today.”

  Amy frowned. “What?” She checked her phone. No message.

  “Kyle came running in saying something about this guy on Team 5 coming to the clinic today. He’s just back from Germany, like your Zak.”

  “Oh, so they’re coming back, then?”

  The attractive woman shrugged. “I hope so. But they all took their bags. So I think not.”

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “I think so. They play some joke on him, I think. You know those guys. Always playing jokes.”

  Amy knew this to be typical team behavior. They’d make up their workout later, but they never passed up a chance to get into a little mischief. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure, missie. Have good day.”

  Amy raced to the clinic about twenty minutes away. Across the inlet, large grey ships were lined up like cows in a barn. She’d spent a lot of time looking out the clinic windows at their goings and comings. Two cruise ships dotted the other side of the bay, their white hulls glistening in the San Diego sun.

  She found Zak’s Hummer and parked next to it in case she missed him.

  Inside the reception area, the desk wasn’t manned. Someone had spilled a coffee cup to the right, and it was resting against the vinyl tiled floor with its contents still traveling.

  This just happened.

  She heard some shouting coming from behind a closed door down the hallway. Several women screamed. And then she heard the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire.

  Where’s Zak? Was he in that room?

  The door swung open. White smoke billowed out into the hallway. Two armed men, dressed in black, including black knit facemasks, ran from the room. Upon spying her, despite her efforts to duck around a corner, they quickly overtook her. One man held her wrists behind her waist and pulled a ziplock tie from his pocket, securing her arms together behind her, rendering her completely defenseless.

  Her next worry was that they would use the weapon on her. The two men spoke in broken English with two different accents. One sounded German and the other Arabic.

  The gunman who had secured her wrists together yanked her by the zip ties. She had been turned around and was walking backwards quickly to avoid falling and thereby incur their wra
th. She searched for some evidence others were nearby, and then she smelled the food and realized they were close to the cafeteria. It was nearly noon. The place would be packed.

  The masked gunmen pulled her into the doorway of the cafeteria, which drew screams from several women there. The gunmen fired rounds into the ceiling. “You will stand over here if you are military.” He pointed to an area near a huge silver frozen yogurt machine. “If you are civilian, you stand here,” the gunman said as he pointed with the end of his medium-sized automatic weapon.

  A furtive glance amongst the crowd didn’t yield any faces she recognized except for the physical therapist, Pam, who began moving in the direction of the civilian crowd. Amy knew she was still military.

  Several men and women wore scrubs over camo pants and shirts and shuffled slowly, not going to either camp. The other gunman shot one of the men who had hesitated with a short burst of automatic fire, the man’s head exploding before their eyes as his torso dropped to the ground.

  Why are they holding me?

  “You will separate now or I will kill you all.”

  That’s when Amy noticed the bulge waist height underneath the oversized black nylon jacket. He turned to face her. “Military or civilian?”

  “Civilian,” she answered.

  The other gunman shouted to the man who had Amy by the wrist ties, and she was pushed ahead of them toward the cafeteria entrance. She was in the hallway as she saw the other gunman adopt a stance she’d seen Zak take when he was firing his M-4. The room was going to be sprayed with rounds, and everyone would be killed.

  She didn’t know what to do except scream. Taking a deep breath, thinking it might be her very last one, she decided to make it count.

  “Z-a-a-a-k!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, surprising herself how loud and forceful she sounded. The gunmen had not expected her outburst. She was too close to them to have them fire upon her without hitting each other.

  A single shot came from the cafeteria, taking one gunman out with a loud thud, followed by the blood spray from the man’s forehead as he dropped.

  The remaining gunman let loose of her just as she saw he was angling to cover the room in fire. A split second later, she heard Zak’s voice. “Drop, Amy, now.”

  And that’s what she did. She dove for the vinyl tile floor, the forward momentum sending her sliding five feet toward the direction of Zak’s voice. With another double tap, the last gunman’s chest and neck exploded, covering her with his blood.

  And then it was silent. Inside the cafeteria, someone was asking if there were only two shooters. Amy heard boots running down the hallway. With her arms outstretched like she was attempting to land on her belly, she arched up to see who was running straight for her.

  Zak’s white bandage was hanging at an angle, exposing much of his scared face for all to see. As he pulled her to her feet and embraced her, Zak didn’t pay attention to the condition of his face, his bandage, or the light spray of blood covering her. He held her tightly in powerful arms like he would never let her go.

  Chapter 26

  Without the weapons training Zak had been doing almost daily, the unexpected sight of Amy might have caused hesitation, which could have proven fatal to not only himself but the hostages.

  Acutely aware what danger they were in, he’d aimed for the gunman’s head and missed. But he downed the man anyway, hitting him square in the chest and neck.

  “What in the world are you doing here?”

  “I—I—c-came to show you my check?” It sounded more like a question because it was so absurd.

  “What check?”

  “My commission check. It’s huge, Zak. I came to brag. To thank you for letting—”

  Zak covered her mouth with his, cutting off any ridiculous thing she was about to say. She was shaking. Zak pulled her harder still against him. She smelled his favorite lemon spiced cologne, mixed with the unmistakable scent of his sweat. As he clutched the hair at the back of her head, forcing her lips against his mouth, she felt the warm beads of perspiration on his upper lip. And she felt herself melt into him.

  She was soon surrounded by Kyle and Armando and several others from Team 3, including Alex, who winked at her.

  “How’re we doing kids, huh? Wasn’t that fun?” he said mimicking a television commercial.

  Amy was aware her heart was pounding against her chest. Her ears were starting to tune into one high-pitched hissing sound. Kyle walked over to the gunman who’d had her by the wrists.

  Amy broke out of Zak’s embrace. “Kyle! Wait! We should evacuate the building. I think he has a belt. Something around his waist.”

  The SEALs quickly ordered everyone out to the parking lot in front. Armando and Fredo did a quick sweep of the area, making sure there weren’t any carloads of explosives or other shooters waiting. They found none.

  Kyle advanced on Amy and Zak, locked in an embrace. “Good shot, Jell-O. If you’d missed, and hit the belt instead, we all wouldn’t be here now.”

  “I did miss. I was aiming for his head. I got his chest and neck.”

  “That’s the best fuckin’ kind of miss I’ve ever seen, frogman.” To the rest of his squad and some of the nurses, he yelled, “Someone call the police. Who’s a doctor here?”

  “So what were you guys doing here?” she asked.

  “Daryl from SEAL Team 5 was getting fit for his prosthetic. Coop made him a peg leg with lasers and lights, like his arm toy. We came by to see the therapist present it to him.” Zak followed it up with a shrug.

  “Course, before we could fully judge his reaction, we heard the shooting. Man, Amy, you seem to attract the bad buys,” Kyle said.

  “Yeah, bad in all the right ways.” Zak grabbed Amy and gave her a kiss.

  They gave reports to the police as rescue workers began to arrive. Afterward, Zak followed Amy home.

  “I’ve given it a lot of thought, Amy. It’s not fair for you if I go back. If you don’t want me to, I’ll stop trying to make the Team again. You were right to point this out. I don’t want you to be number two. You’re my number one.”

  Amy grinned, but couldn’t look him in the eye.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I made a decision too. Being a SEAL is who you are. So we fight. Like your Ethos says, we fight to win, not to play. You are that man, Zak. You are a SEAL. Now we just have to get the Navy to understand that.”

  He wasn’t sure what to do. Zak hadn’t expected her words.

  “I said I wasn’t a quitter. Now’s not the time to start. I say we go for it. If we don’t make it, then we decide what else we want to do. It’s a we thing, sweetheart. We do this together.”

  There weren’t enough kisses in the world to thank her for what she’d just given him. And although it would be tough, he was going to try to achieve that mission too.

  Chapter 27

  Two months after their mission to protect the Secretary of State, the Coopers were having another barbeque. It was a Halloween costume party, especially for the little kids, who would not be allowed out in the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

  Amy was in her pirate wench costume, waiting for Zak to come out so they could leave for the party. New reports were still buzzing over the fact that only a handful of clinic personnel had been murdered by the terrorists who apparently had planned to blow up the whole facility. Not understanding it was a drop-in clinic, it was speculated they were expecting to see hospital beds filled with active military and retired vets. The cafeteria was their best chance to get a large number of kills in one place.

  Amy had come in at just the right time. A few minutes before, she’d have been part of the pile of bodies in the room off the hallway. A couple of minutes later, she would have heard the spray of gunfire as the occupants of the cafeteria were mowed down. Or perhaps she’d walk in just in time to leave this earth in a cloud of explosives.

  So her timing was perfect. The newscaster said the hospital security staff, not mentioning the SEA
Ls, had defied orders and brought weapons to the site and that’s how so many lives were saved. Unlike other recent shootings and attacks on military personnel and their families all over the world, this attack was foiled because the people responsible for protection of the innocent were trained and armed and not afraid to use their weapons. They were heralded as heroes.

  This drew a smile to her lips. Some real-life security guard was about to get a medal for something the SEALs did, but that was the way of it. Armando had been the shooter in the cafeteria while Zak took down the one in the hallway.

  The bedroom door was closed, and Zak was being very quiet. He’d been secretive all day, unwilling to tell her about his costume. She halfway expected he’d dress up in something outrageous. She’d asked, and none of the other wives or guys knew what he’d bought.

  “Zak?” She said loud enough to penetrate the door and listened for an answer from him. “I thought you never liked to be late.”

  She sat down in the overstuffed chair she had learned to love more every day. She flipped off the television.

  The door opened. His voice preceded him into the room. His costume swished as he appeared before her.

  He was dressed in a starched white shirt and tux, a red bow tie at his neck. His hair was gelled back and smooth. Over the tux, he wore a black satin cape tied under his chin. His shoes were polished to a perfect shine. He wore white gloves.

  He would have looked like an elegant vampire, except for one thing. Over his right eye, extending down his cheek, back to the front of his ear and over the bare patch of scalp was a white half-mask of form-fitting plastic.

  He was the sexiest Phantom she’d ever seen.

  “Oh my God, Zak! It’s perfect!”

  “Why, Christine, you have Carlotta’s costume on.”

  “Oh dear. Should I take it off now or…?”

  He bent down, brushing her lips with his, whispering, “Later, but I won’t be able to think about anything else until then. You will have me in agony all evening.”