Her Daring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 5) (17 page)

“Thirteen.  We’d been in different homes, but that was our forever home.”

“Do you stay in touch with him?”

“Yeah, Old Henry is still meddling in our lives.  He’s great.  He took in three of us, I don’t know how or why he did but thank God he did.  So I get the fact Sawyer was trying to act like the man of the family because you were acting like the mom.  So how did you end up with Georgie?”

“Georgie is Char’s biological brother.  Somehow, and to this day, we don’t know how but their mom ended up tracking down Charlotte.  She knocked on our door, and there she was with three-year-old Georgie.  She hardly had any teeth from all the meth she had been doing.  Char barely recognized her, and when she did, she burst into tears.  I wasn’t home at the time.  Sawyer physically forced her into our house.  By the time I got there, the woman was incoherent.  She kept talking about having left Georgie at a friend’s house, but how the friend had found her, and she was stuck with the little bastard again.”

Rylie started to shiver at the memory, and Darius pulled up the covers and wrapped her up in a cocoon.  “We were stunned.  Georgie was literally catatonic.  He was in a diaper, and he stank to high heaven.  He wasn’t wearing anything else, and it was winter.  Of course, Char had him swaddled in a blanket when I got there.”

“What happened then?”

“When the bitch saw me, the babbling stopped.  She demanded money.  Big surprise.  I promised her money, if she left Georgie with Charlotte got into my car.  I drove her into downtown Oklahoma City.  I have no fucking idea how she got to our place, and I didn’t care.  I just drove her ass to OKC, and dropped her off, and gave her every last dime in my purse and told her to never come back.”

“How often has she been back?” Darius asked knowingly.

“Probably ten times.”

“Do the kids know?”

“Sawyer does, Charlotte doesn’t.”

“How do you handle Georgie’s learning disability?”

“He’s on the autism spectrum.  Some days he’s low functioning, sometimes he’s high functioning.  It depends on how comfortable he feels with the person doing the testing.  We’re so lucky, we have a woman named Mrs. Whitehawk who comes in on the weekdays and helps care for Georgie.  She adores him, and he thinks of her as a second mother.”

“You’re his first mother, right?”  Rylie nodded slowly. 

“He’s actually come further than they originally thought he would.”

“I don’t know a lot about autism.  But I’ll learn.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Rylie, we’re going to be together for a very long time.  You need to start wrapping your head around it now.”

The Earth shifted on its axis.  The man was crazy—either that or she needed her hearing checked.

“You don’t know me.  In total we’ve been together maybe,” she counted in her head, “twenty hours.”

“Five dates.  Five
really
intense dates, two of which we ended up in bed together.”

“With no sex.”

“With intimacy,” he reminded her.

“We should have sex.”

“We need sleep.”

“Sex,” she insisted.  “I’ve been ogling your chest.”  She grabbed at the hem of the shirt she was wearing.  He stayed her hand.

“Sleep, Rylie.  You have to be Sylvia tomorrow.”  She yawned.  Then yawned again.

“Dammit.  I think you might be right.”  He chuckled. 

“I’m a medic.  You’re the patient.  Of course, I’m right.  Now snuggle down so I can hold you.”
God, didn’t that sound wonderful?

In moments, with that strength of his, he had her positioned under the covers and safe in his embrace.

“Aren’t you going to undress?” she asked sleepily.

“Not tonight.  Go to sleep, baby.”  And she did, her head resting on his chest listening to his heart beat.

***

I
t was one a.m.  Darius hated to wake her, she looked like an angel lying in the bed, but he didn’t want her waking and finding him gone.  He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.  He watched as she stretched like a kitten.

“Dare?”  Her eyes fluttered open.

“We need to talk, then I have to go.”

“Go where?”

“That’s what we need to talk about.”

Rylie sat up on her elbows and Darius arranged the pillows behind her so she could sit up properly.

“Honey, I’m going to take a little jaunt tonight.  I want to do a little more investigating on the other side of the island.”

“You’ve already been over there?  What did you find before?”  He paused.  She’d already been through and seen so much.

“Dare, don’t try to protect me.  I can handle whatever it is.”

“Actually, it might be good news.”

“Then tell me.”

“There are girls over there.  Pregnant girls–”

“Those motherfuckers!” She pushed up from the bed and was on her feet in the wink of an eye.  “Are they selling babies?  Are they Dare?  Are they?”

“I think so.  Actually, I know so.  I overheard them.”

“It just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse.  Just when I think I’ve seen the depths of this hell, I find a new layer.”

He watched fascinated, as she dragged out his suitcase and started pawing through his things. 

“Whatchya doing?” he asked in a soothing tone of voice.

“Finding something of yours to wear.  If you think you’re going alone, you’ve got another think coming.”  She held up a pair of sweatpants to her waist and threw them on the floor in disgust.  She finally found one of his sweatshirts, and she drew that on over his T-shirt. 

“Good thing this sucker is so long. It’ll keep me warm with my leggings.”  She found a pair of his thick socks and pulled those on, and then went to the boots she’d left lying by the door.

“Rylie, I need you to hold up.  I don’t think you going with me is the right use of your time.”

“You are not going to stop me.  I need to see these girls.  I need to see if Ursula is there.”

Rylie sat on the floor and started to squeeze the boot on around the thick sock.  She looked like a little girl, which made his protective instincts kick in even higher gear.  He hunkered down beside her.

“I talked to Clint and Lydia while you were asleep.”

“How are they?”

“They’re fine, but that’s not what we need to talk about.  We have a tentative plan, but it depends on you.  Can you get off the floor so we can discuss it?”

“Let me get my boots on.”

“You’re not going with me.”

“Who’s going to stop me?”

“The big bad Navy SEAL.”  She paused and looked him up and down.  Funny, she didn’t feel the least bit threatened by his size.  She felt nothing but concern and protection emanating from him, and this was after a man tried to kill her. 
God, she had it bad.

“Okay, SEAL boy, help me up.”  She held out her hand, and he took her other as well and set her on her feet.

“Shit, this is your fault,” he all but groaned.  He framed her face, and his thumbs tenderly traced her cheekbones, his mouth came down hard on hers, and she lit up.  He bit softly at her lower lip, until she opened, and then he thrust his tongue in, he was demanding every response she had.

Rylie kissed him back, needing everything he had to give, and more.  He was ruthless, and she needed him to be.  She grabbed his shoulders so she could press against his hard body, she ground her tummy against his erect flesh and this time he did groan.  Darius eased them apart, and they were both breathing heavy.

“This isn’t the right time, is it?” Rylie’s tone was filled with regret.

“We’re burning moonlight.”

“Okay, tell me the plan.”  He maneuvered them to the bed so they were sitting down. 

“When you were on Vancouver Island, I was reconnoitering on the other side of the island.  I found two cabins and a small medical facility that was geared for women’s health.  I overheard two people talking about a woman who was due to give birth within the week, days even.  There is a buyer for her child.”

“We can’t let her baby be sold.”  Rylie took deep breaths, trying hard not to cry.  Darius seemed to know and pulled her into the warmth of his embrace.

“It’s going to be okay, Rylie.”

“How?  The auction isn’t for five more days.  The baby could be long gone by then.”

“We thought that we could arrange for a big fish buyer for one of your women.  Someone who has a ton of money and would only be in town two days from now.  Wouldn’t you
have
to have the auction?”

“No, we’d probably have a private showing.”

“Can’t you think of something that would force other buyers to come early?  Come on Rylie, you’re brilliant at this kind of con.”

The man’s confidence in her made her feel like some kind of superhero, she didn’t want to let him down. 

“I suppose if this buyer said he wanted to buy three or four girls, we would know that the prices would be significantly less because he wouldn’t be bidding against anybody else.  We would really want him at the auction, and we would want a bidding war.”  Rylie started to think about who the other attendees were.  Especially the most sadistic.  All of them would insist on showing up early if they knew they might miss out.

“This could work, Dare.”

“I never doubted that you would figure out something.”

“I don’t know how fast Liu can put something in place.  I’m pretty sure he wants to do some sort of Garden Party in Victoria.  Trying to set that up really fast will be problematic.”  Rylie stood up and started pacing.  If they did something fast, it would get the girls to safety faster.  It would save the pregnant girls.  She had to figure out a way to get it done.  There was only one fly in the ointment.  When this was over, she wouldn’t see Darius Stanton ever again.  He could say all the pretty words he wanted to, but she knew better.  Plain old Rylie Jones, with her complicated life, was never going to attract the big bad Navy SEAL.  She stopped pacing and turned to him, and gave him the best smile she could.

“I can get it done.”

“I knew you could.  Now take off those boots.”

“What are you talking about?  We agreed now wasn’t the time to make love.”

“You’re staying here.”

“I am not.  I’m going with you.”

“Honey, don’t you have a lot of work to do in order to convince everyone you have a new buyer?”

Fuck, he was right.
  “Who in the hell is this new buyer?”

“Whoever you need him to be.  But we’re using Aiden O’Malley.”  Rylie choked out a laugh.

“He’s not even a member of your team.  Isn’t he too old and crusty to be a SEAL?  I mean a real SEAL?  I mean, isn’t he too old?” 
Shit, she had both feet in her mouth at this point.

“Rylie, how old do you think I am?”

“I know how old you are.  But you don’t act thirty.  You act young.  Not like Aiden.  He acts like he’s thirty-five.”

“Do you think I’m too old for you?”  Her mouth dropped open.

“Are you kidding me, Dare?  I’m practically the mother of a seventeen-year-old.  How can a man who is thirty be too old for me?  I was sleeping with a man who was forty-two when I was nineteen.  Catch a clue.  I like ‘em old.” 
Fuck, had she just said that?  How dumb was she?
  Darius stood there staring at her.

She rushed over to him and threw her arms around his neck.  “You’re not old, and I don’t like you because you’re old.”

“I think you should maybe stop talking,” he choked out.

Oh God, was he going to start crying?

He hugged her so close she could hardly breathe and then he started to shake.  He
was
crying.  Oh God, what had she done?

“When I tell the guys this conversation, they are never going to let me live this down.”  He pushed her back just a little, and she saw his laughing eyes and breathed a big sigh of relief.

“I thought you were crying.”

“Oh sweet baby Jesus, this just keeps getting better and better.  You thought you hurt my feelings so bad, I was crying?  I am sooo keeping you.”  Darius grabbed her close, picked her up and swung her around as he laughed and laughed.

“Rylie Jones you’re one in a million.” 
She was something all right.
  She was just glad she hadn’t hurt this wonderful man’s feelings.  “So let’s figure out how we’re going to get the decrepit old man in as a buyer.”  Rylie giggle snorted into Darius’ shirt.

“Actually, he’s probably going to be the youngest buyer there,” she realized.  “I’ll have to have proof of funds, and we’re talking millions.”

“That won’t be a problem for you, will it?”

“Hell no.” She grinned at him.  “Now set me down, so I can get to the real work while you’re gallivanting through the forest like some damn goat thingy.”

“Satyr.  The goat thingies are called satyrs, honey.  And they are quite horny, pun intended.  So expect to be ravished when I get back.”  She pulled her laptop out of its case.

“Promises, promises.”  She booted her computer and looked up in time to see Darius come and brush back her hair and tilt her chin for a kiss.

“Be careful, Rylie.”

“You too.  Don’t let anyone see you.  When will you be back?”

“Before dawn.”

––––––––

D
arius was still chuckling over Rylie’s horrified expression when she thought she hurt his feelings.  Even with his thoughts focused on her, he easily circumvented the patrols and the motion detectors. 

This was the third time he was making this trek, and he knew the exact path he to take.  He made it to the clearing in record time.  Tonight there was a change.  Dammit, he didn’t like changes.  There was a golf cart in front of the medical building.  He
had
to get into the building and find out what in the hell was going on.

Darius got into the facility the same way as last time and was just as careful not to be seen.  Plus, luck was on his side since there seemed to be a boatload of activity going on in one of the surgical units.  He did a quick peek through one of the little windows and saw three people, a man and a woman in scrubs, and a very pregnant woman lying down in stirrups.

Fuck!

He slipped into the same supply closet as before and kept the door open so he could listen.  This is had to be the same woman he’d heard them talking about last time.  Only this time she was in the room, and they didn’t seem to care she could hear them.