Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge)

by Natasza Waters

  Mace slammed the door, and Wade backed out quickly, leaving them face to face. “A little warning would have helped,” she chided, her heartbeat coming down.

  “Why, so I wouldn’t have caught you necking with him in the car?”

  “Aw, crap. As if I need this.” She stomped up the driveway with Mace on her heels.

  Mace grabbed her arm and spun her around. “He came on to you all day, didn’t he?”

  Nina pinned her hands to her hips and kicked at the broken cement under her feet. “A little.”

  “Let me guess. He wants you to be a family. Just the three of you.”

  She didn’t agree or deny, which gave Mace his answer.

  “Listen, Nina.” Mace put his finger under her chin and raised her head so she’d look into his eyes. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

  Her brow wrinkled. “Such as?”

  “Gabbs needs a father who’s around, someone who can play hockey with her when she comes home from school, and help her with math.” Mace shook his head. “I’m not her father by blood, and I won’t—” He paused, his expression looking pained. “I won’t be around. I passed my physicals today.”

  “What?” she nearly screeched. “You didn’t tell me it was today.”

  “I didn’t want to say anything in case I failed. I’m back on combat duty as of tomorrow.”

  She didn’t know what to think, except she was scared all over again. She wasn’t as tough as people thought she was. Especially now. “The rest of the squad is on call out right now. That means you are too.” She was going to cry, and she couldn’t hold it back. “I’m proud of you, Mace. You worked so hard to come back from your injuries.”

  He swept his fingers against her cheek, then stepped away. “You kept pushing me, and when I foundered, you didn’t hesitate to remind me that I could do it. You helped me do the right thing. Kept me on track. I can’t do any less for you.”

  Mace ran his hand through his hair and gazed into her eyes. Suddenly she was afraid of what was coming next. “Don’t you dare.” She choked on a sob. “Mace Callahan don’t you dare tell me that you’re going to walk because it’s the right thing.” A gush of tears poured down her cheeks.

  “Nina, you and Wade didn’t have irreconcilable differences. You parted ways because of circumstance.”

  Nina shook her head vigorously, and bit down on a huge sob. “Mace, I am not going to jump into Wade’s bed just because you think that Gabbs should have her father living under the same roof. Time has moved on. We adjust. If Wade wants to be part of her life, then he can be, but I’ve moved on.” She whimpered the last part, sounding pathetic.

  “I will be away a lot. It isn’t fair to Gabbs or to you to keep you waiting all the time when there’s someone who can be here, and who has a right to be here.”

  Nina wrapped her arms around herself, because Mace wasn’t going to do it. “You’re—giving up again,” she stuttered. “Fine, do what you need to do, SEAL. I’m not going to beg. I just wish I hadn’t fallen for all your crap about—”

  Warm, strong hands grasped her upper arms. “None,” he emphasized the word, “None of it was crap. I love you, and I love Gabbs, but I can obviously see things more clearly than you can. And sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do. You need time to see this clearly and decide who you want. What’s best for both you and Gabbs. I’m not walking away because I want to. I’m walking away because it’s the only way you can be sure.”

  Anger and the hole Mace just ripped in her heart put her mouth into full throttle. “You bastard. I’ll save you the wait time. You can go into the field with a clear conscience, but I’m not going in a lineup next to Sheila when you feel like you need a hot fuck.”

  Mace’s entire body stiffened, his eyes filled with anger. “And I’m not going to spend the rest of my life wondering if you’ll be in his arms while I’m gone. You had something for each other once. We both deserve to know if it’s still there.”

  “You’re full of it. You saw how much work Gabbs is and what it means to be hooked up with me and now you’re abandoning ship. I’m not throwing you a life preserver or giving you an excuse.” The rest of her tirade choked in her throat. She shook her head, fighting to keep her tears at bay. “Don’t come back.” She couldn’t face this a second time; he wouldn’t walk away from her twice. She turned sharply, even though her legs shook with weakness. A hand with a steel grip wrenched her to a stop, spun her around and one very daunting SEAL glared into her eyes.

  “I love you,” he growled, and pinned her arms to her side, kissing her with more passion, more hunger than she’d ever known. She fought to wrap her arms around his neck and stop him from leaving. The strength in her legs morphed to rubber and she almost collapsed when he let her go. “We’re addicted to each other, Nina, but that doesn’t make it right.”

  Mace left her and she stumbled without his support. Reaching the house, she leaned against it to hold herself up and banged the back of her head against the wall to center herself, to stop her tears. This was just fear clutching and clawing at her heart.

  “Mommy, what’s wrong?” Gabbs looked worriedly at her with big eyes.

  Nina fell to her haunches, hiding her face in her hands, and sobbed her heart out while her daughter clung to her neck. Life sucked. After a couple minutes she rubbed her tears away, lifted Gabbs into her arms and went inside. She plopped her down on the couch, resting her hands on her little girl’s gangly legs. “Mace and I had a disagreement.” A one-sided fight as far as she was concerned.

  “Are you mad at Mace?” she asked.

  “No, this isn’t his fault. He loves you and me. He just…” She took a second to stop herself from crying again. “He just thinks that we need some time to get to know your dad, so he won’t be coming over for a while.” Nina’s heart grew cold. She stared at the ceiling to get a fix on things.

  “Is he jealous of my dad?”

  Her little girl was too smart for eight-years-old. “No, not jealous. He just thinks he’d be in the way of you and your dad getting to know each other.”

  Gabbs wrapped her little fingers around Nina’s hand. “Do you love my dad?”

  Kids! How did they always manage to ask the toughest questions? “I like your dad.”

  “But you love Mace, right?”

  Nina bit her lip and nodded. “You don’t have anything to worry about, Gabbs.”

  “Is Dad going to live with us?”

  Nina raised her eyes to her daughter and swallowed thickly. “Would you like that?”

  Gabbs shrugged. “He seems nice, but I thought Mace was going to live with us.”

  “I thought so too, but sometimes things don’t work out the way we think they will. So it’s you and me. Maybe we should start fixing this place up, starting with your room.”

  “Can my room be blue? Mace’s favorite color is blue, and I want stars on the ceiling that glow when you turn the lights off.”

  Gabbs crawled into her lap, and she held her daughter close. “We’ll find some stars, sweetie. In fact, why don’t we go look for some now?”

  Gabbs nodded. “Mom, are you going to be sad without Mace? Cuz I will be.”

  Nina let go of a corral full of bad words in her mind. Stupid-ass SEAL. “I’ll miss him, but he’s still our friend, and he’ll come if we need him. I’m sure of that.” She planted Gabbs on her feet. “Now go wipe that sticky stuff off your face.”

  Nina swiveled toward the kitchen, and her first thought was to call Kayla. She wanted to. Badly. No! It was time to prove that she didn’t always have to lean on her friend. What she really wanted was to go find Mace and smack some sense into him, but as much as he was handsome and brave, he had a little stubborn streak in him. He’d made his mind up to abandon them for what he thought was morally right.

  She outclassed Mace in the stubborn department by a long shot. If Mace didn’t want to be in their lives that was his choice, but she wasn’t going to let Wade in because
of it. Their love affair ended the day he sailed away. Although he was still a handsome man, she knew the difference between love and lust. They were separated by a big black hole, but only love could draw you in for an eternity and leave you totally empty when it was taken away.

  The phone rang and Gabbs yelled out, “I’ll get it, Mom.”

  A few minutes later Gabbs ran in. “That was Dad.”

  “What did he want?”

  “He asked if Mace was here, and I told him he wasn’t going to come see us anymore.”

  A groan rolled up Nina’s throat, but she couldn’t be mad at her daughter. “And?”

  “He said he was going to come get us and help us look for stars.”

  Just—fucking—great. Nina flopped down on the leather ottoman. “Great, honey.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tony yanked off his cammi jacket and flung it over his shoulder as he headed toward the parking lot. For November, it was a blistering hot day. A Santa Ana had rolled in and made the tourists happy, but working out on the Grinder with a bunch of recruits, sweat pouring down his back and hollering at the hopeful phase two class, not so much. It’d been a long day. He and Mace were double-timing it, helping out the training department.

  Mace worked longer hours taking on the night exercises too, and the recruits were getting the brunt of one very ornery SEAL. Mace said he and Nina were on a break. Tony called bullshit. Mace had backed out of the picture and left Nina to decide whether she wanted Cayson or Mace. Tony knew the answer already. Nina wasn’t the kind of woman who could shut her heart off like a valve. He could see that, why couldn’t Mace?

  “Hey, Tony,” a good-looking Marine in a knee-length skirt with great legs waved at him from across the road.

  He waved back, but didn’t recognize her. Pretty girl. He sighed. He needed a cold beer.

  Since the night he’d helped Mace and Nina overcome their hurdle, he hadn’t been the same. Little Coady had chased him down a couple times since he’d left her on her front doorstep, all rosy-cheeked and sweetness. He had taken her out, but he left her how he picked her up—untouched. He felt like ripping Mace’s head off for being an idiot. Mace was suffering through a self-inflicted mental flagellation and here he was all messed up because he’d fallen in love with Nina. No woman seemed to turn him on, except for the one he couldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.

  Guilt hung around his neck like a dead carcass. He couldn’t be responsible for his dreams, and they were filled with Nina. He thought about going to visit her, maybe helping her out with the new house, but he’d stayed away because he didn’t trust himself. Besides, Nina would backhand him if his longings crept to the surface, and he would never betray Mace.

  Tony rounded a Toyota that needed a scrap yard versus a parking spot and stopped. The infamous Wade Cayson stood with two other guys. Wade was in uniform, the other guys in shades and suits. Mace had pointed out Cayson at the galley and they had been introduced.

  Tony shifted behind the Toyota and observed the scene. Two things a SEAL could do were smell fear and sense trouble. Both hit him at the same time. He pulled his phone out and took a picture. The two guys looked like henchmen, and they were right up in Cayson’s face. Cayson looked like he was trying to play it cool, but his body language told another story. What the hell was going on?

  He aimed for them and with twenty feet to go yelled out, “Hey, Lieutenant, how goes it?”

  The two suits turned, said something to Cayson and then quickly jumped in their car, did a U-turn and sped off. He took note of the license plate and the black Mustang they drove.

  “Petty Officer Bale.”

  Tony followed the car with his eyes and then turned them on Cayson. “Everything all right, sir?”

  “Yes,” he said, straightening his cap. “Of course.”

  Tony surveyed him, but Cayson wouldn’t look him in the eye.

  “Warm day.”

  “Yes sir, it is.” He paused. “Those guys didn’t look like they belonged around here.”

  “Tourists, asking for directions,” Cayson said quickly.

  “Huh.” Tony nodded. “What were they looking for?”

  The lights on Cayson’s car flashed as he unlocked the door. “Hotel, on Orange Avenue. They took a wrong turn.”

  The other thing a SEAL could smell was a lie, and Cayson reeked like a beached whale left out in the sun for ten days. Cayson turned to make a quick getaway. “How’s Nina?”

  Cayson didn’t appear interested in a chat. He slipped into the car and reached for his seatbelt. “Good,” he said, giving him a fleeting look.

  “I haven’t had a chance to visit and meet Gabbs yet.”

  “My daughter is adjusting to life in San Diego.” He was about to shut the door, and then said, “Mace did the right thing by stepping back. Nina and I want to make a new life with our daughter. It would have been confusing for Gabriella if Mace intervened.”

  You white-collared son-of-a-bitch! “Yeah, that’s Mace. He’s a gentleman at heart.” Cayson gave him a shallow smile. “Not so sure it was the right thing though,” he said, lowering his voice. Cayson’s smile disintegrated. Tony scanned the parking lot. “Nina has an entire team of Navy SEALs watching her back. If they smell something not right, they won’t let it go.”

  Cayson grabbed the door. Tony moved in with his knee, stopping him and leaned over. “You’re career Navy, so you know that SEALs are finely tuned to a lot of things, and that includes trouble. We protect our own, sir. Nina and Gabbs are in that family.” Tony locked gazes with him and Cayson’s filled with worry. “Say hi to Nina for me.” He stepped out of the way. Cayson slammed the door and backed out quickly. A distress alert began to flash in Tony’s gut. Time for recon.

  * * * *

  Leaving NBSD Naval Base San Diego, Tony got on his phone.

  “Mace Callahan.”

  “Buddy, what’s your position?”

  “On my way back to the apartment.”

  “Meet ya there.”

  “Tinman.” Mace let out a sigh. “Buddy, I’m fucking done. Just gonna hit the sack.”

  “Five minutes. I’ll bring beer.”

  “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

  “No, see ya in a few minutes.”

  Tony hopped in his car and drove over the Coronado Bridge. Traffic was light at twenty-one hundred hours. He’d been at NBSD for the last three. He made a quick stop at a market and picked up a few brews. He needed one more than Mace did. His throat was parched from talking.

  Throwing his car into park he closed his eyes for a second to regroup. If what he’d found out about Cayson wasn’t enough to have Mace running to Nina’s front door, he’d do it himself and drag Mace all the way there by his leg.

  Clutching the six-pack in the crook of his arm, he banged on Mace’s door. The door swung wide and they fisted each other. Tony slid out a bottle of beer and handed it to him. “Sit down. I have something to tell you.”

  Mace twisted the cap off and tossed it toward the kitchen sink. Tony followed him in. The place looked like Mace: a mess.

  “What’s up?” Mace said, after swallowing a long gulp.

  “Man, you need to listen to me carefully.” Maces brows pinched together. “I know you don’t want me prying in your private stuff, but I had to settle a few things in my own head.”

  “Like what?” Mace leaned forward resting his forearms on his thighs.

  “Did a little investigating on our above board LT.”

  “You did what?” Mace shook his head. “Tinman, this is about Nina figuring out what’s best for her and Gabbs.” Mace got up and paced around the room, his hand flexing into a tight fist. “The question is whether Nina is going to form a family unit.”

  “That wouldn’t be a good idea.”

  Mace stopped and looked at him.

  “He’s in deep, Mace. He’s got a weakness for cards, and from what I’ve found out, he might even owe money to some unsavory types.”

  “Why
do you think that?”

  “Because two big fucking goons were getting in his face this afternoon in the parking lot. Cayson lied to me and said they were asking for directions.” Tony pulled out his phone and shoved it under Mace’s nose. “They don’t look like tourists to me. I think until we confirm or deny the rumors, you need to get back in the ring with Nina.”

  “You’re saying he’s addicted to gambling?”

  “That’s what I’m saying, buddy. I didn’t want too many eyes drawing curiosity to why I was asking, but he’s not exactly a favorite around his men. I checked with some guys who worked with him on his last posting. He puts on an act in front of the brass, then he’s a surly asshole to his crew. In fact, I didn’t find one guy in the lower ranks who wouldn’t hand him an anchor if he was drowning.”

  “Shit.” Mace rubbed his face and took a couple rigid steps.

  He surveyed his friend. “You don’t look happy about this, but not in the way I expected.”

  Mace flopped down in the leather chair across from him. “Should I be? Gabbs likes the guy. This would be a big disappointment to her.”

  “Never mind the asshole in the whites. You need to figure out your relationship. That’s why I’m here.”

  Mace’s brow crumpled. “Thought you came to tell me the bad news.”

  “That, and to tell ya I’ll hang around while you take Nina out for a night on the town.”

  “I haven’t seen Nina in three weeks.” Mace ran his hand across the back of his neck. “She wouldn’t go out with me anyway.”

  “Then square it off, SEAL. Don’t think the Mace charm has vacated the premises yet.”

  “You can’t babysit. You don’t know anything about kids.”

  He shrugged. “How hard can it be? Little versions of big people.”

  “Really.” Mace chuckled.

  “Nina needs to know. If you’re not going to tell her, I will.”

  Mace reached for his cell.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’ll tell her.”

  Tony lunged for his phone and ripped it out of his hand. “No, you’re going over there and taking her out.”