by KB Winters
A static riddled reply came over, and I turned away, raising the small transmitter to my lips. My mouth opened, ready to ask for the person on the other side to repeat what they’d said, when a shot rang out. My ears rang as I whipped to face the sound, and watched the scene unfold in slow motion as the man next to Kyle dropped, a spray of blood flying through the air where he had been standing moments before.
“Get back inside! Get cover!” I screamed, even though everyone had already ducked back into the entryway. The metal doors slammed shut, and we all backed against the walls, as another shot came through and shattered the glass windows on each side of the doors. My heartbeat roared in my ears, the scene replaying a dozen times in the span of a few seconds.
I’d just lost a man. It had been my call to leave the building. I turned away. I missed it. I hadn’t been looking to see a shooter.
What the fuck am I thinking? I led them out to be sitting ducks. I was supposed to lead, not think—and now one of my men was down.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I crept forward, sneaking towards the entrance where we’d been standing. Kyle’s voice cut through my self-loathing, panic stricken thoughts, “Winslow, get the fuck back!”
I ignored him. If there was a chance that our man was alive, I had to get to him. I poked around the wall, and a shot rang out, zinging so close to my face I could smell the metal. My eyes dropped from the hole in the stone where the bullet had embedded, to the ground, to the lifeless body of Cameron Quincy, a twenty-three-year-old kid who was set to go to officer school once the mission was over, having just finished college. His whole fucking life was supposed to be ahead of him. I sagged back, out of sight, as another bullet whizzed by.
Kyle was staring at me, expectantly, a glimmer of hope in his dark eyes. I shook my head and he dropped his gaze to the floor, taking a beat to process. “We have to get out. There’s gotta be another way,” I said, instructing the group of men who were under my command.
I ducked back out, surveying the scene. There was a tall concrete fence around the perimeter of the building, with two makeshift towers placed on either side of the gated entrance, what I assumed to have once been the loading dock for trucks when it had been a working factory, but was now obviously being used for other purposes. I quickly traced the pattern of the bullets back to the tower. I couldn’t see any movement, but I knew that’s where the enemy was, hulking behind the tower walls, waiting.
I stepped away from the doors and pressed my back against the wall, facing my team lined up along the opposite wall. “The sniper’s in the left tower,” I announced. “Which means there are more of them nearby. Probably whatever is left of the motherfuckers that killed our guys last night.” My voice was thick with rage, swirling with hate and violence. “We can’t wait here. We have to take the fucking fight to them.”
Minutes that felt more like seconds flew by as we formed a plan. My team would provide cover. I was going after the shooter.
It was my fault Cameron was dead—so it was my responsibility to get vengeance.
When my team started shooting, I mentally mapped my route, drew my weapon, and ran like a mother fucker.
In the end, just as I got the shooter in my sights, about to pull the trigger, another bullet took him down. I proceeded forward, slowing my pace, cautiously watching to see if he was really down—and, God forbid, there were others waiting to take up his post. After a minute of silence, I glance behind to see my team give me the sign that the threat had been eliminated. I took one more step, and then everything stopped. A click followed by a boom so loud my eardrums ruptured.
A flash of heat blazed through me, reverberating through my entire body, and before I could snap around to see what had hit me, I stumbled, my legs and feet shutting down, even as I looked down, and as my body hit the dust, Kat’s face filled my vision in the moment before the world went black.
Chapter Ten — Kat
“It’s been over six months, Hilda. No calls, emails, hell, not even a real letter!” My voice was borderline frantic, and I stopped, taking a deep breath, before adding, “He’s not coming back.”
It was the first time I’d dared to speak the hideous words aloud. Everything in me screamed at the sentence as it passed my lips, begging and pleading for it to not be true, for someone to tell me that I was wrong. I wanted someone to give me a loophole, an angle I hadn’t considered. Anything that would give me back the glimmer of hope I’d carried around for the last several months.
Hilda stared at me from her normal spot across her dining room table, her brown eyes soft with compassion. Without a word, her eyes trailed to where Jax was playing with a little girl, Lola, who Hilda also watched during the week. I followed her gaze, and a small smile tugged at my lips as I watched him teach the little blonde some kind of game with rules that only little ones could understand. It was hard to believe he would be four years old in a little over a month. Months ago, before I lost all contact with Jace, I’d imagined him standing beside me as little Jax blew out his birthday candles, the way he would cheer and holler. There were a thousand other little thoughts just like it. Jace cutting down a Christmas tree for us or putting lights up outside. Or even simple things, like going to the park, taking a long walk through the neighborhood. Trips to the zoo, the museum, taking a vacation together.
It was all a hopeless fantasy now.
He wasn’t coming back.
My eyes burned as my words echoed back in my head, over and over again.
“Has anyone been to his shop? Surely a lawyer or business partner or someone would stop by to…” Hilda paused for a moment, considering her words, “…take care of his affairs.”
I shook my head. “Not that I know of. I stop over there sometimes, after work, and check the windows. Everything looks just like it did the day he left.”
Hilda offered a slight smile at my answer and patted the back of my hand. “He’s out there, dear.”
I sucked in a breath. It was what I’d wanted to hear, but somehow, hearing it out loud only made me feel more desperate and antsy. “Where? Hilda, where? I’ve looked everywhere. I’ve called everyone. Just last week, I actually managed to get past all the gatekeepers at the studio that produces his show, and no one could tell me anything!”
“Well, dear, they probably can’t say anything. For all they know you’re some kind of stalker. Surely they’re prohibited from giving out any of his personal information.”
“But how would I know he’d gone on a mission with the Navy? How could a fan know something like that? Half the people in this town still don’t know the truth about where he went! They have to know that logically I’m not some kind of deranged fan on a hunt…right?” I shook my head.
Hilda, sensing there was nothing she could offer that would help, simply patted my hand once more and stood from the table. “Would you and Jax like to stay for dinner?” She asked, opening her fridge and beginning to rummage through ingredients.
“I can’t. I have to take Jax to visit Hannah and Mitch. They’re still at the hospital. The new baby, Emmaline, has some kind of infection. I didn’t get all the details, Mitch just asked if I could bring Jax,” I replied, my mind going back to the late night call with Mitch.
Hilda shut the fridge and gaped at me. “Is she going to be all right?”
“I think so. Mitch sounded worried, but not totally freaked. If that makes any sense at all.” I shook my head, thinking of how crazy it was to know someone who really had very little to do with your life again. Things had mellowed the past few months since the hearing, and now that Mitch had his new baby to look after, I figured it would cut back the drama between us even further.
“Well, Jax has been talking non-stop about his new little sister, and how he’s going to be the best big brother,” Hilda said, joining me to look out in the living room where he was still playing with Lola.
I smiled through a new batch of tears, wondering if I would ever get the chance to make him a big brother with
another baby of my own. At one point, it hadn’t sounded too crazy, but now…
Hilda squeezed my shoulder and I melted into the warmth of her touch for a minute, relaxing out of the dark thoughts. After a moment, I stood and called for Jax. Hilda swooped into action and helped me gather his toys. He said goodbye to Lola and Hilda, and we filed out of Hilda’s to go to our driveway, feet away, and start heading out to the hospital.
* * * *
A couple of days later, I got a call from Mitch that Hannah and their new daughter were being released from the hospital. The infection had cleared and everyone was right as rain. It had ached in places inside me that I hadn’t even been aware existed, when I’d seen their new little baby in her bassinet. When Hannah was pregnant, seeing her baby bump, the growing evidence of a baby had been more than I could bear at points, even as our relationship had improved. Seeing the new, pink, perfect angel nearly did me in, but I’d smiled, and pretended that it wasn’t ripping me into pieces to see them so happy. On the phone, as Mitch told me the news, I forced another smile, told him congratulations again, and we made arrangements for me to keep Jax over the weekend to give them some time to settle in. After we got off the phone, I marveled at how civil and easy the call had been. Pleasant even.
I didn’t know where Jace was—if he was still alive—but I did know one thing, and that was that I would be forever grateful to him, because without his help, there would be no way that things would have worked out so well for Jax and me. In some ways, he’d been like a guardian angel, sweeping into my life at the perfect moment to help.
I smiled sadly to myself, thinking that if that was the case—heaven had truly broken the mold with him. Half devil, half angel.
Before I could linger on thoughts of Jace, I forced myself to finish getting ready for work, and hurried next door to drop Jax off.
Work was the same as always, it didn’t seem to matter what was going on in the world outside the diner, life inside was evergreen. But, just like everything else in the small town, it was haunted with the memory of Jace. My eyes stuck every time they passed over his booth, or out the window to where his tattoo shop stood vacant, and I couldn’t breathe anytime I went into the storage room.
He was gone, but he was still very much with me. And in some ways, I’d decided I preferred it that way.
After my shift, I was walking around the diner to the small lot out back where my car was parked, but remembered back to my conversation with Hilda, and at the last minute, crossed the street instead. I peeked into the windows of the tattoo shop, studying every inch with a narrowed eye, wondering what I was missing. Surely there had to be some kind of clue. If only I could get inside, then I could get access to his personal contacts and track down someone who would have the answers. The whole thing was too weird—there were too many unsolved pieces.
If he had died overseas, why didn’t the media know about it? Surely a story like that would be splashed over the news, celebrity and otherwise. And, if something had happened, why hadn’t someone come to collect his things? Who was paying the lease to keep the building rented out? Wasn’t there anyone in charge of his finances in case of the worst?
The little bud of hope in my chest grew, warming me from the inside out.
I was still standing there, turning over each question, when a light flickered on in the back of the shop.
Someone was inside!
Before I could stop myself, I lunged for the front door, shocked out of my skin, when I twisted and the door popped open. I froze in place for a moment. What if it was a burglary? Whoever was inside, had gone to some effort to keep the front of the shop dark, so no one would know there was someone inside, unless pressed up against the glass as I’d been.
I shook my hair back, squared my shoulders, and pushed inside. If there was even a chance that I could find Jace, it was worth the risk that whoever was poking around was there under evil pretenses.
The shop was dim, the only light coming from the sky outside, which was rapidly darkening as dusk transitioned to night. I saw the flicker of light again, like someone was using a flashlight, and my heart raced in my chest, thumping inside me a little harder with each step I made.
A crash sounded seconds later and I jumped so high, I was surprised I didn’t hit the ceiling. I froze in place, my heart even more frantic, and was about to back away, when a loud voice called out, “Shit!”
My heart screeched to a halt, and I sucked in a breath so hard and fast that my lungs burned, feeling like a crunched up juice box.
Jace.
The light flashed again, and footsteps were coming my direction. I couldn’t move, still too shocked to think straight, and when the light beam hit my face, Jace’s voice said, “What the—Kat, what the hell are you doing here?”
I flinched, as though he’d smashed me across the face with the silver flashlight in his hand. His voice was icy, his question callous—and hard. There was no trace of a smile, or light in his face as he stared at me, the beam of light between us, bouncing off the polished floor.
“You’re here?” I gasped. “It’s really you!”
Jace straightened and looked at me, his face unchanged, showing no sign of emotion. “What’s left of me…” he replied.
Only then, did I take in the rest of him and noticed that he had pink scars all along his right hand and up his arm. He shifted his weight, and I noticed pain in his eyes, as though just that small movement made him ache.
“What—what happened?” I asked, unable to peel my eyes from what was left of his hand.
“I fucked up, Kat.”
Continued in SEAL’d Perfection Book 5!
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Roc Hard
I never thought I’d fall for the billionaire, but his cool-blue eyes and sexy swagger drew me to him like a moth to a flame. Okay, inferno.
He was my first and so far, had been my last—my only.
Once I found out I’d been played, I high tailed it out of there and moved as far away as I could. He didn’t need to know. I didn’t need him, or his money.
Jerk.
Not only did he take my virginity, break my heart and stomp all over it, he gave me a baby as well.
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And why the hell did he just walk into my office and tell me he now owns the posh resort I work at?
I fell for the billionaire once—this time will be different.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you! I love you all and thank you for making my books a success!! I appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks to all of my beta readers, street teamers, ARC readers and Facebook fans. Y’all are THE BEST!
And a huge very special thanks to my wonderful PA. Without you, I’d be a hot mess! I’m still a hot mess, but without your keen sense of organization and skills, I’d be a burny fiery inferno of hot mess!! Thank you!
And a very special thanks to my editor, (who sometimes has to work all through the night! See HOT MESS above!) Thank you for making my words make sense.
Copyright © 2015 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
About The Author
KB Winters is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author of steamy hot books about Bikers, Billionaires, Bad Boys and Badass Military Men. Just the way you like them. She has an addiction to caffeine, tattoos and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are...well...bossier!
Living in sunny Southern California, with her five kids and three fur babies, this embarrassingly hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!
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