Hot Alpha SEALs: Military Romance Megaset

by Sharon Hamilton

  I press my lips together. “No, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling like I could’ve done something to prevent it.”

  Her shoulders slump slightly. “I know exactly how you feel.”

  “Drugs contributed to Amelia’s death,” I say, watching Mina’s expression. When she starts to glance away, I continue, “So you and I have that in common as well.”

  She jerks her attention back to me, indignant. “Drugs didn’t kill Samantha!”

  “Then tell me what did, Mina. My gut tells me there’s more to the story than what has officially been reported. Your roommate wasn’t really dealing drugs, was she?”

  Extreme guilt washes over Mina’s expression before she presses her hands to her face, mumbling, “We didn’t want to do it. God, it’s all my fault she’s gone, but I can’t say a thing.”

  I pull her hands from her face, bending down to look in her eyes. “Why not?”

  She looks down at our hands. “Because others might get hurt if I do.”

  Squeezing her hand, I say, “How many more people do you think might get hurt if you don’t speak up to stop it?”

  She shakes her head, her voice a whisper. “Too many others’ lives could be ruined. The blackmail runs deep.”

  “Blackmail? Were you and your roommate somehow coerced into distributing drugs?”

  A slow nod.

  “And others were too?” I continue.

  When she nods again, I bite the inside of my cheek, fury flashing. This is no longer a story, but a mission. “How about if the article is totally anonymous?”

  Hope lights her face, then her gaze dims. “Your name will be on it. They’ll trace you back to me as the source.”

  “The author of the article will be anonymous too.”

  She looks at me in confusion, her expression uncertain. “Why would you do that? I know how much a big scoop like this would mean to you. You’re studying journalism, right?”

  My professors saw my potential and gave me special permission to start taking graduate level journalism courses as an undergraduate senior. I nod. “And yes, this story would give me a lot of career options after I graduate, but I don’t want to earn them that way,” I say, while I unclasp my necklace. Once I slide one of the hearts off my chain, I re-clasp it around my neck, then hold the heart out to her. “Here.”

  She takes the tiny gold heart. “I don’t understand. Why are you giving me this?”

  I nod toward the charm. “I was supposed to give that to Amelia when she was old enough. I’m giving it to you so you’ll know that I’ll keep my promise.”

  Tears of relief trickle down her cheeks before she abruptly wraps her arms around my neck in a tight squeeze, whispering, “Thank you.”

  Wheezing to regain my breath, I pull back and smile. “Are you okay with me taking notes?”

  Mina nods and brushes the tears away, then takes off her own gold chain to slide the charm onto it.

  Pen and notepad in hand, my gaze snags on the heart hanging on her necklace. I try to take a breath but my lungs seize and my throat closes up.

  Her fingers drift to the charm. “Are you sure, Talia? It’s a wonderful gesture, but I trust you’ll keep your word.”

  I swallow the lump and nod. “It looks perfect on you. Amelia had your coloring. It’s nice to see what it would’ve looked like on her.”

  Mina smiles then nods toward the door. “Sebastian must really respect you.”

  I pause in the middle of uncapping my pen. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because he wouldn’t have just brought anyone back here to see me. Everyone has tried so hard to shelter and protect me, but Sebastian—” She pauses and giggles. “He’s such a rebel. I love that about him.”

  But he just met me. He really has no reason to trust me other than my word. I try not to let her obvious adoration of Sebastian get under my skin. Jealousy is a useless emotion. “Well, I promised him I’d be fair.”

  Her brown eyes sparkle. “I know you will be.”

  “I have one request, Mina. I won’t disclose my source for this story, but I also don’t want you to tell anyone my name. Ever.”

  Her brow furrows. “Wait…are you saying even Sebastian doesn’t know who you are?”

  I shake my head. “And I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “Wow.” She blinks a couple of times, completely thrown. “I’m really glad you turned out to be a good person and not some psycho.”

  I chuckle. “You should trust Sebastian’s instincts in the future. Promise?”

  She crosses her fingers over her chest. “I won’t tell. No matter what. Okay, what do you need to know?”

  Brushing my hair over my shoulder, I hover my pen over the paper. “Tell me how it all happened.”

  With a small nod, she dips her head and takes a deep breath. “We thought we were just delivering some mail for our professor. He said we’d get extra credit for our efforts, so no big deal.”

  When her voice drops off, I glance up from my notepad. “Let me guess…not so much?”

  She nods, her forehead pinching. “We had no idea what was in that mail. After we’d both helped him out a couple of times, that’s when the blackmail started. He said more packages had to be delivered or he’d accuse us of cheating and we’d be expelled. And if we tried to rat him out, Professor Jacobson assured us that the way he’d set the delivery scenarios up—he never gave us the other packages directly after those initial deliveries we did for him—guaranteed that nothing would tie back to him. Everything would point to us as the drug dealers of Bliss. Us! Two girls from the Hamptons. If we got arrested, our families would flip out and probably disown us. Samantha…” She pauses, choking up even mentioning her roommate. “She just couldn’t take it anymore.”

  They’d been so trusting, and their professor had used his position of power over them to create the perfect drug runners. So much innocence manipulated and abused. I grind my back teeth. Walt gave me specific instructions, so it had to be the same for her. “How did you know where to go and who to deliver the packages to?”

  Mina nods. “The drop locations rotated. The packages just showed up in our school mailboxes with a note taped to it telling us where to go. We knew who to deliver the package to by the nightclub stamp on their hand. It’s a replica of the stamp for the local Clangers and Bangers nightclub, except the ampersand symbol is backward between the C and B.”

  “Very clever,” I mutter, even as I feel the blood drain from my face. Shit! The stupid hand stamp was a signal? What are the chances someone else is using that same concept?

  Mina doesn’t notice my disquiet as she continues to talk about how they brush elbows with the guy so he’ll know the drop is coming. I stare at the heart on Mina’s chain, knowing it has found its rightful place. That explosion may have gotten rid of Walt’s packaging operation—had a rival drug dealer tried to take out the competition, i.e. Walt, Jimmy and Hayes?—but one of Walt’s buddies hadn’t been there that night. Hayes Crawford had been out the day the explosion happened.

  During the investigation into the cause of the fire, several illegal guns and some keys to storage units had survived the blaze, leading police to Hayes’ drug manufacturing operations and his subsequent arrest. I’d celebrated Hayes’ fifteen-years’ sentencing by taking the pins out of my ever-present braided bun. I never wore my hair in that tight, severe style again.

  As far as I know, the explosion only exposed Hayes’ storage units, not how he’d operated his drug exchanges. But Hayes is in prison. If he is somehow behind this distribution of Bliss, he’s deviously clever to have partnered with a college professor, not to mention moving his drug distribution uptown to a much higher paying clientele. If it’s not Hayes, it’s someone who knew the ins and outs of his organization in the past. Either way, renewed anger bolsters my determination. “I’ll do my best to make him pay, Mina.”

  Ten minutes later, I open Mina’s door, my red cape swirling around me as I step out of the way. Mina buz
zes out of the room dressed in a full-out woodland fairy costume, complete with iridescent see-through wings.

  Sebastian is leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed over his chest. He quickly catches Mina when she throws herself into his arms. “Scarlett was exactly what I needed to crawl out of my dark hole. Thank you for being such a jerk, Seb.”

  Barking a laugh, he sets her down, then adjusts her mask. “I’m happy to be a bastard for you any time. And you’re welcome.”

  She frowns. “I really hate it when you talk like that.”

  He shrugs, unaffected by her chiding. “You off to the party?”

  She nods, her curled hair bobbing. “Just for a little while. I want to thank my friends who came to support me.”

  Turning to me, she reaches for my hand. “Come downstairs with me, Scarlett. I’d like you to meet some of my friends.”

  I’d watched the exchange between Mina and Sebastian with confusion. They seem close, yet not somehow. I can’t say why I get that impression, but it’s there, just under the surface.

  When she laces our fingers together, I exhale a quiet breath of relief and clasp hers. “I’d love to meet your friends.” Once I’m downstairs and she’s distracted socializing with her buddies, I’ll find Cass and we’ll sneak out of the party before Sebastian can catch up to me.

  Mina and I don’t take more than a few steps before he snags my other hand. “You go on downstairs, Mina. Scarlett and I have something to discuss first.”

  Chapter Five

  ‡

  “But, Seb—” Mina pouts.

  “Go, Mina.”

  She shoots him an annoyed look, then squeezes my hand and smiles. “See you downstairs, okay?”

  “Sure,” I say quietly, then gulp back my nerves as she walks off down the hall.

  Once she rounds the corner and then closes the door behind her, Sebastian tugs my hand and starts walking. “Where are we going?” I ask, putting on the brakes.

  He frowns when we grind to a halt, my heels digging into the plush carpet. “Somewhere we can talk.”

  I shake my head, my stomach knotting. “I really need to be going. Ca—um, Yvette is going to be wondering where I am.”

  He glances down at our hands, where I’m desperately trying to twist free of his hold, but he’s just too strong. His mesmerizing eyes snap back to me. “We had a deal. You got to see Mina in exchange for answering how you know me.”

  I shrug. “There’s really nothing to tell. I don’t know you, Mr. Black.”

  “Sebastian. Now that you know my name, use it,” he says, his voice low, clipped.

  I lift my chin slightly, feeling as if I’ve been reprimanded. “Fine. I don’t know you, Sebastian. Now that I’ve answered your question, will you please release my hand so I can leave.”

  His eyes narrow. “I don’t believe you.”

  “I don’t care if you believe me or not. It’s the truth.” I poke him in the chest for emphasis. “I. Don’t. Know. You.”

  “Liar,” he says silkily, hooking his finger around mine just as I lift it from his chest. “Which means we’re not done yet,” he finishes, yanking me toward him.

  I’m so surprised, I stumble forward, but before I can recover, he quickly scoops me up, carrying me off through a door to his left and then down another hall.

  “Put me down,” I hiss through gritted teeth while trying to buck out of his hold, but his arms are like bands of steel. When he carries me through a partially open door into what appears to be a study/library with low lit sconces, a huge dark desk, and brimming bookshelves, then kicks the door closed behind us, I yell, “This is fucking kidnapping!”

  Setting me down, he folds his arms over his chest, blocking my only exit. “And you’re the one fucking trespassing.”

  His voice is strangely even as I whirl to face him, but it’s the calmness in it that scares me. It tells me he has the patience to wait all night to get the answers he wants.

  “You can start by telling me your name.”

  I fold my arms, matching his stance. “It’s Scarlett.”

  “Your real name,” he counters, an edge to his voice.

  Good. So he’s not as calm as he lets on. “Why does that matter?”

  He scowls. “So I can hunt you down if you try to screw Mina in any way.”

  Pushing my hair over my shoulder, I snort. “If she can trust me, then you should too.”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because you love her and trust her judgment,” I say quietly, calming down.

  “I do love her.” His mouth twists ironically. “Though I’m not so sure about her judgment. We wouldn’t be here discussing this if it were sound.”

  The fact I was right about him loving her twists in my gut, hitting me hard. It’s like the image of that hero I’d held onto for so long—the dream man who wouldn’t abandon me, take advantage of me, or disappoint me—had finally dissipated. Like all dreams eventually do when you finally wake up.

  “We all make mistakes.” I lift my chin slightly, shrugging off thoughts about my own past. “I only want to help her.”

  “I thought this was just a story to you,” he says, full of cynicism.

  “It was, but I’d rather help Mina if I can.”

  “Why?”

  “She reminds me of someone I knew, well…who she could’ve been. And I understand the sadness she’s feeling.”

  He lowers his arms and steps forward to touch my jaw, his tone softening. “Why won’t you tell me your name?”

  The sensation of his fingers tracing my jawline, caressing me so tenderly, sends chills down my spine, which just isn’t fair. I smack his hand away and side-step him. “What are you doing? You shouldn’t touch me like that.” I frown at him warily as he turns with me. I take a backward step toward the door.

  “Touch you like what?” He steps forward, forcing me to step back. He continues stalking me until my back is against the door. Resting one hand on the door beside my head, he stares down at me, his gaze slowly sliding to my mouth and then back to my eyes. “Like this?”

  When he trails his fingers along my jaw and then down my neck, my whole body starts to shake. “Like you want me. You shouldn’t do that.”

  “You want this. I hear it in your voice, feel it in the way you react to my touch.”

  I shake my head and glance away. “You’re with someone else. It’s not right, Sebastian.”

  He clasps my jaw, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Who am I with?”

  “Um, Mina. She slips your mind awfully fast.”

  When Sebastian lets out an amused laugh, I tense and try to slide away from him.

  He lowers his hand to my shoulder, keeping me locked in place with a firm grip. “Not so fast. You really don’t know anything about me, do you?”

  When I grit my teeth and shake my head, he slowly rubs his thumb along the side of my neck. “Mina is my sister.”

  All I can do is gape. None of my research of the Blake family mentioned a third son. My thoughts must’ve scrolled across my face, because the look in his eyes is both amused and mocking.

  “I really am a bastard. The dark skeleton in Adam Blake’s family closet, with no official claim to the Blake fortune. To society I don’t exist, a black sheep who only inherits if he keeps his mouth shut. I might not be blood out there,” he jerks his head toward the window, “But I don’t mind yanking on familial strings when the mood suits me.”

  Hooking his finger on my chin, he slides his thumb sensually across my lips, then continues in an ironic tone, “I’m a fucking walking cliché, Scarlett.”

  “Why—why are you telling me this? You don’t know me. How can you trust me with something like that?” He has to know this information would shove Mina’s to the back page, not just for our school paper but news across the country. Everyone knows who the Blakes are. Their massive wealth is well known, but apparently Sebastian has been a very well kept dirty secret. Had his father had an affair? And where does he fall in the bi
rth order, between Damien and Gavin? My guess is older.

  “But somehow you know me.” Raking his hand through his hair, he lets out a hoarse laugh. “You gained Mina’s trust, which is no small feat. I told you my secret because I want you to trust me with yours.”

  I quickly shake my head. “I—I don’t have any secrets.”

  Bending close, he whispers in my ear, “Liar. You get one more chance to tell me something about you.”

  “Or what? You’ll punish me?” I laugh. When he presses a warm kiss along my neck, murmuring his assent, my insides quiver. I set my hands against his hard chest, savoring the rock hard muscle flexing under my hands. “I’m too old to spank.”

  Sebastian grasps my waist and tugs me flush against his hard body. “I’m fully aware you’re all woman.” His voice is a rasping symphony of deep, seductive tones playing against every nerve ending in my body as he slides his hands down the curve of my hips to palm my ass. Clasping me closer, he presses his erection against my center, his voice dropping to an even deeper baritone. “But you’re never too old to spank.”

  Loving his aggressiveness, I flex my fingers against the soft leather fabric covering his chest. “Well then, it’s a good thing I haven’t done anything worth punishing.”

  “That’s a matter of perspective.” Lifting his mesmerizing dual gaze to mine, he holds our aroused bodies together like critical game pieces waiting to be played. My body clenches in anticipation as he slowly slides his thumb along the curve of my ass. “Since I’m in a sharing mood, there’s one more thing you should know about me. I’m a man of my word.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” I’m not exactly sure where he’s going with this, but with each leisurely stroke of his thumb along my skin, my body temperature rises. I’m getting wetter by the second.

  “Give me a word that means safety to you. Just one word,” he says.

  That’s an odd request. Without thinking, I blurt out the first word that comes to mind. “Rainbow.”

  His thumb stops moving and his eyebrows shoot up behind the mask. “Interesting choice.”