Cam pulled his Camry into the parking lot of the industrial park where the Norse Security offices were located. Instead of pulling into his assigned spot near the door, however, he continued on around the building to a more industrial section of the complex and one metal warehouse-style building in particular.
A large sign had been hung over the two cargo bay doors at the front. Everly’s Garage and Body Shop, it proclaimed in bold, red block letters, with the phone number and website listed underneath. The website had been his idea. He’d designed it, of course, with all the latest features and the best SEO money could buy to draw in customers to his girlfriend’s business.
In the end, Loki hadn’t been nearly as pissed as Cam had expected about the shredded Aeon, perhaps in part due to Everly’s reassurances that she could repair all the damage done. Sure enough, she had—or would—once he finished with reinstalling the software that had been stripped along with all the damaged processors during the rebuild process. That’s why he was here today, in fact.
Well, that, and to bring his sweetheart lunch.
He parked and got out, reaching back inside to grab the bag of fast food he’d picked up on his way in and also a very special present he hoped he was brave enough to give her today.
Inside, he found a scene not so different from that first one all those months ago, the night he’d met Everly again, the night he’d rediscovered his heart and his true calling. Cam waved to the other mechanics working for Everly then headed over to the far corner of the long space where the Aeon was sitting. A familiar pair of shapely legs, clad in soft, tight, faded denim stuck out from beneath the front bumper of the car.
“Time for a break, sweetheart,” he said, stopping near her feet.
“Just one more second, baby,” Everly said from under the vehicle. “Need to tighten this bolt a tad more.”
He glanced around while she finished her work. Unlike her father’s place, Everly kept her garage spic and span, everything in its place and scrubbed clean. All the work bays were full of vehicles and mechanics busy working on them. In the short time she’d been open, Everly’s Garage and Body Shop had already become a customer favorite, being voted most affordable and most reliable in a local township newspaper poll. Cam was so damned proud of her, he could nearly burst.
“Done!” Everly said, wheeling out from under the Aeon on a flat wooden dolly. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m starving.”
“Me too.” Cam took his time walking around the car, admiring her work. From the paint job to the replaced taillight and hood area, it looked as good as it had that night they’d stolen it from her dad’s garage. Funny, but in a weird twist of fate, the government hadn’t wanted it back after Cam had wrecked it into a brick wall. They’d requisitioned it off and purchased a new vehicle, decommissioning this one. Even though it was perfectly good again. Would’ve been a waste too, if Cam hadn’t talked Loki into letting him buy it—on an installment plan, of course. Everly had chipped in too, saying it would be their first real purchase together as a couple.
Cam traced his fingers over the sleek lines of the vehicle, loving everything about it. Everything about the woman who’d fixed it up and given it new life again too. Honestly, for a geeky kid who’d grown up watching old 80s TV shows on cable, the Aeon was about as close to having his own real-life Knight Rider car as he was ever going to get. Now, if he could just get her to talk to him like the TV car had, he’d be all set. Considering the level of technology Cam planned to install on her, she just might take AI voice technology to a whole new level.
“If you’re done drooling over your new baby, c’mon in the office so we can eat before it gets cold,” Everly said, wiping her hands on a rag as he trailed behind her. “I need to talk to you about something too.”
“Oh, okay.” His stomach dropped to somewhere near his toes. In Cam’s experience, those words weren’t necessarily good. And yeah, maybe they had been living together blissfully for the past four months, and yes, maybe she was his best friend and confidant—other than the guys. But was it possible Everly wasn’t as happy about being with him as he was about being with her? Lord knew she could do so much better than an ex-solider like him. He unpacked the Italian grinders he’d picked up for them, then took a seat beside her in front of her desk. “What’s up?”
She fidgeted under his gaze, which was weird. Everly never fidgeted. His tension grew as she toyed with the paper and foil wrapping her sub, the scent of caramelized onions and peppers filling the air from their food. “Well, the thing is, I’m late.”
“Late?” He frowned, wanting to pull her into his lap and kiss away the tiny lines forming between her dark brows. “For what? A meeting? A payment on this place?”
“No.” Everly kept her gaze steadfastly on the toes of her black boots. “My period. I’m late this month. I swear to God I never lied to you. I’ve been on birth control the whole time. The pill plus you usually use a condom and well…” She shrugged and shook her head. “I finally went to the doctor yesterday to be sure and—” Everly threw her hands up in exasperation. “He said I’m about six weeks along.”
Cam blinked at her a moment, her words slowly sinking into his befuddled brain. “Wait. Are you telling me you’re pregnant? We’re going to have a kid?”
She gave a little nod, still staring at her toes.
“Jesus,” he whispered, stunned. A dad. He was going to be a dad. Cam opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, words failing him. “Wow.”
“Listen, I know you love your schedules and plans and this wasn’t on the radar at all and I understand if—”
Before he could rethink his actions, Cam was on his knees before her, the small black velvet box he’d been carrying in his pocket for days now in his hand. The diamond solitaire engagement ring inside glittered beneath the overhead florescent lights. “Marry me.”
Now it was Everly’s turn to look stunned. Her gaze darted from Cam to the ring then back again. “Why? I don’t want you to rush into anything or feel pushed into it because of what I just told you.”
“You think I walk around with five-thousand dollars in jewelry on me for no reason?” He gave her a sincere grin. “Everly Knight, I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. You were my fantasy girl in high school and then I got to meet you and get to know you during the whole Aeon mess and these past six months living with you have been the happiest of my whole goddamned life. Please say you’ll marry me and make me the happiest man in the universe. And not because of the baby or because of anything else, other than that you love me too and want to be with me. Forever.”
Tears gathered in her beautiful brown eyes and she reached out a shaky hand to trace her fingers over the lovely ring. “Oh, Cam. I love you too. So much it hurts. I’d be honored to be your wife.”
Elated beyond anything, Cam wrapped his arms around her and eased her down to the floor in front of him, pressing her tight to his chest as he kissed her tenderly. “I can’t wait to have a kid with you.”
“Me too.” She laughed through her tears while he slid the ring onto her finger then kissed her again. “To our future.”
Cam placed his hand gently over her stomach and smiled. “To our future. All three of us.”
End of Ride with the SEAL
Norse Security Book One
Blurb
Ex-SEAL Hunter Odenson has always been a big guy. Musclebound, strong, and silent, it’s easy for people to judge him on his body and forget that he has brains too. Hunter’s looking to change that reputation at Norse Security by earning the team leader position. At least, that was the plan before he got stuck as bodyguard to a Hollywood actress. While there’s no better eye candy than Alexandra Valentine, Hunter figures it’s a job that entails more handbag watching than strategizing covert ops.
Alexandra Valentine has made a living playing the ditz. Hollywood likes their blondes bouncy and brainless and Alexandra has been smart enough to give them what they’re looking for. However, after years
spent being the butt of the joke she’s ready to snatch screen time back as a leading lady. Going deep undercover into a sex slave ring was supposed to prep her for her first dramatic role, but when things go wrong and she loses her best friend to trafficking, Alexandra’s method acting becomes a real-life crisis.
Alexandra hires Hunter under the guise of protection, but all she wants from the big boy is the training and muscle to save her best friend. When Hunter discovers the position with Alexandra isn’t what it seems, he’s psyched for the chance to prove he’s ready for leadership. But sliding into the world of desire lights a fire under their own attraction. As tensions mount and they delve deeper and deeper into the world of sex, Hunter will need to decide if their growing love or his need to save the day is more important.
1
If someone would’ve told Hunter Odenson a year ago he’d be playing babysitter to some spoiled ditzy Hollywood bombshell instead of dodging sniper bullets and landmines in Mosul, he would’ve laughed in their face.
Yet here he was, striding onto a Tinseltown backlot searching for the bombshell in question. He ignored the stares of people he passed and searched the numbers on the huge warehouse-sized buildings, squinting in the ever-present southern California sunshine.
Sound stage eleven loomed ahead and he walked down a shaded alley to a side door with a red light beside it. A sign below warned not to enter if the light was flashing. Hunter gave the thing some serious side eye then snorted. Not a flicker in sight.
He’d wanted to set up this initial meeting at a nice restaurant, maybe get to know his client over a casual lunch, set the ground rules for their new, temporary partnership right away—when they were in public, he was in charge. Behind closed doors, Alexandra Valentine could do what she wanted with whoever she wanted, as long as it wasn’t illegal and it wasn’t with him. End of story. Besides, this was all a front anyway. His real reason for being here was a missing persons’ case the firm had been hired to investigate on behalf of Ms. Valentine. The whole bodyguard thing was just a front to keep nosy people away from the truth.
Inside the cavernous building, it was pitch black. Hunter stood in the gloom, blinking hard to clear his vision and figure out where to go next. Obviously, this was the wrong place, even if the numbers matched the information Loki had given him earlier. He added misdirection to the growing list of things he intended to discuss with his boss when he talked to him again.
Once his eyes had adjusted, Hunter walked farther inside the empty sound stage, hoping maybe the crew had left some clue behind as to where they’d gone. He didn’t have to wait long. As a man who’d done three tours of duty as a Navy SEAL and led countless special ops, he recognized the sounds of gunfire.
The minute the click-click-boom of bullets rattled through the building, Hunter went into stealth mode, cursing the fact he didn’t have his usual weapons with him. All he’d brought was a standard issue Glock, thinking even that would be overkill for guarding America’s reigning comedy queen. But as he peered through the open door on the other side of the sound stage and into the alleyway beyond, it became clear he’d just gotten a whole lot more than he’d bargained for.
“Fuck.” He pulled his gun and clicked off the safety, peering through a crack in the door to see two thugs standing over a woman tied to a chair. How the hell this could happen in the middle of a huge movie production company, Hunter had no idea. Then again, terrorists always used the element of surprise to wreak their havoc on the world.
He rolled his neck, hating the way the starched white collar of his button-down shirt cut into his skin and the way the tie he’d worn felt more like a noose. Fighting in this damned monkey-suit was going to be hell. One more beef to chew over with Loki.
Go to Hollywood, his boss had said. If you do well with this assignment, maybe I’ll promote you to Group Leader.
And yeah, maybe Hunter’s ultimate goal was to prove he was more than an imposing tower of brawn, that his brains were as impressive as his muscles, that he was smart enough to do more, be more. He wished this particular scenario had played more to his mental skills than his physical ones, but he did what he needed to do to get the job done.
“Where should we start?” one of the thugs asked the other, drawing Hunter’s attention back to the task at hand. The woman tied to the chair was facing away from him and there was a burlap bag over her head, preventing him from seeing her identity. Her hands were zip-tied behind her back and her ankles were tied to the front legs of the chair. She looked small, much tinier than the assholes leering at her. If it was one thing Hunter hated it was a bully, so now these pricks would not only feel his wrath in general, he’d have to whoop their asses into next year too.
“I don’t know,” thug number two said. He had a knife in his hand and traced the shiny blade down the woman’s arm, not hard enough to cut her pale skin, just enough to let her know what was coming. The thug leaned in to speak close to her ear. “Maybe we just slowly peel her skin off, inch by inch until she tells us what we want to know.”
Hunter clenched his jaw, his nostrils flaring. These scumbags were talking about torture—or Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, as the CIA liked to call them. They were technically illegal around the world but still in use anyway. Hunter was far too familiar with such tactics and they made his already knotted stomach churn. Whoever the fuck these pieces of shit were, they were going down.
He kicked the door open, gun drawn, and used the distraction of the loud banging of metal against metal to grab the first thug from behind, slamming his head into the building and knocking him out cold. Thug number two faced Hunter, his wide eyes dropping to the Glock before meeting Hunter’s gaze again. All the color drained from his face and he dropped the knife immediately. He raised shaking hands into the air.
“That’s right. Not so brave now are you, asshole?” Hunter sneered, kicking thug number one’s legs out of the way as he crouched beside the woman’s chair. The bag was still over her head so he couldn’t tell for sure, but they must’ve gagged her too, if her muffled grunts and groans were any indication. Keeping his gun and his attention focused on the trembling thug before him, Hunter reached down and grabbed the knife from the ground to use it to cut the zip ties around the woman’s ankles. Except when he brought the blade to the plastic, it was dull as dishwater. Couldn’t slice through butter, let alone a human being. His confusion increased as he discovered the zip ties were loose too. Loose enough for the woman to escape herself, if she gave it half an effort. He checked the tie around her wrists and found the same.
What the—
A low murmur grew from behind him as Hunter reached up to tug the hood from the woman’s head and a fall of pale blond hair spilled out around her shoulders.
Shit. Just shit.
“Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air where we can see them,” a voice boomed over a bullhorn from behind him as Hunter peered up into the face of the very woman he’d been sent here to guard. A woman whose eyes sparkled with fury. She freed her hand from the ill-fitting zip tie behind her back and yanked the gag from her mouth.
“Nice work, idiot,” Alexandra Valentine said, her tone frosty despite the warm California day. “That’s a whole day’s shooting down the drain.”
Hunter carefully placed his Glock on the ground then turned slowly to face the camera crew and security guards filling the opposite end of the alleyway. He’d missed them upon his initial explosion out of the building, being occupied with rescuing what he’d thought was a damsel in distress. Turned out it was just more Hollywood bullshit.
Why in the hell had he ever agreed to do this job?
The armed security guards rushed over, kicked his gun out of the way, then proceeded to pat Hunter down while another man Hunter assumed was the director checked the guy he’d slammed into the wall and knocked out.
“Look, I’m really sorry,” Hunter said, remaining as non-threatening as possible while the guards questioned him. Well, as non-threatening as a
man who stood six-five and was two-hundred and eighty pounds of solid muscle could look. They had him facing the wall of the building as they frisked him then put him in handcuffs to await the police. “This was all a big misunderstanding. I’m here on assignment.”
“Yeah?” Security guy number one asked, the radio at his waist crackling with unintelligible voices. “What kind of assignment is that? Resident Idiot?”
Security guard two snorted. “Maybe. Lunks like that are usually dumb as dirt. Look at him, he’s big as a house.”
Hunter gave the men a deadpan stare over his shoulder. Wasn’t like he hadn’t heard it all before. From the day he’d turned six, he’d always been the biggest kid in his class. Hell, even the teachers had been afraid of him. Didn’t do much for a guy’s self-esteem or his social skills, but the SEALs had made his size into an asset. They’d shown him that he could turn his biggest weakness into a force for good. “I’m here as the personal bodyguard for Miss Alexandra Valentine.”
“Like hell you are,” Alexandra said, deftly shedding the rest of her restraints then stalking over to lean against the wall beside him, her arms crossed and her expression pissed. “You realize you ruined the end of my movie.”
“I said I was sorry.” He didn’t look at her and instead stared at the ground, doing his best not to notice how plump her pink lower lip looked or how she smelled faintly of strawberries. “It won’t happen again.”
“Damn right it won’t.” She scuffed the toe of her shoe against the pavement. “You were supposed to be here an hour ago.”
“I got stuck in traffic.” He took a deep breath for patience. Hunter was used to being the man in charge of the operation, not some lackey to be ordered about. “Then I got lost on the lot.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a crappy sense of direction.”
Norse Security: The Complete Series Page 10