Raging Hard: A Stepbrother SEAL Romance (With bonus novel Based!) (13 page)

Before he could make it, I put a targeted shot right into his calf. He screamed in pain as he toppled forward. Before I could get to him, though, his momentum carried him forward and he tipped over the railing, disappearing into the water.

Cursing my bad luck, I looked over the edge but couldn’t see him. He wasn’t in the boat and he wasn’t coming back up for air. I watched and waited for another minute, but there was nothing. The sea had swallowed him whole.

I moved back downstairs and checked the first man. He was dead; there was no question about it. Frustrated, I wiped my bloody hands on his clothes.

Claire looked out from the back room. “Nate?”

“Get back inside,” I snapped at her.

Her eyes were wide as she stared at the dead man at my feet.

“Is he . . .?” she asked, trailing off.

“These men were pirates.”

“I heard gunshots.”

I nodded gravely. “They’re gone now, though.”

“You killed him,” she said softly.

“I did what I had to do. Now get back in that room and stay there while I take care of this.”

She obeyed, hesitating, her eyes full of fear. I was sure it was the first dead man she’d ever seen.

I pulled my knife from his body and wiped the blood on his shirt. I yanked off the mask, but I didn’t recognize him. He was young, possibly Latino, but I wasn’t positive.

With a sigh, I began to drag his body up the steps. Dead bodies weighed a lot, and so it was a bit of a struggle, but I managed. Once there, I lifted him up and perched him on the railing.

Before I could let him go, I caught sight of a tattoo on his wrist: a red heart with a dagger in it. I didn’t think much of it as I tossed him over the side.

The sea reclaimed him, too.

I sat down on the deck, breathing deeply. The rain had finally given up. My battle calmness was slowly beginning to fade away.

What a fucked up day. I knew we should never have gone out. There was only one last problem: their boat. I forced myself to my feet, because a SEAL never left a job unfinished, and walked over to the lines. I cut the ropes and decided to let the boat drift free. There might have been something useful on board, but I didn’t want to risk the climb.

Besides, I couldn’t leave Claire down below much longer. She was likely freaking out. Civilians weren’t trained for the sort of thing that had just happened. They couldn’t handle the violent and sudden realities of life. That’s why SEALs existed. We were the men that protected people from the bad shit in the world.

I didn’t know what I’d say to her. I didn’t know what the right thing was. Talking down scared girls wasn’t exactly my kind of shit.

But I was going to have to figure it out.

The last few minutes had been a blur of violence and danger. It all had come out of nowhere, but I was always ready, always prepared to do what I had to do.

Claire, however, was probably going to be a little fucked up from it, at least for a little while.

Still, I’d take care of her, because that’s what I did.

I
was shivering by the time Nathan pulled the boat back into the harbor.

The face of the dead man kept coming back to me, over and over. Everything had happened so suddenly and so brutally. I didn’t have a second to really understand until the guns started going off.

Then there was Nate. The way he had reacted, so swiftly and seriously, was both terrifying and incredible. I couldn’t believe that he was able to take out those two guys when he had only a knife. Without him, I had no clue where I would be, probably tied to the bottom of a boat on my way to sex traffickers or something equally horrifying.

What had those men wanted? Did they just want to rob us? We didn’t have anything worth taking, as far as I knew. I couldn’t fathom what had happened because it felt too fake, too surreal.

The rain began to slowly stop and Nate gave me a look.

“Come on,” he said, “we need to get you home.”

I followed him in a daze as he tied the boat off to the dock. Normally I would have helped, but it was like my body didn’t want to respond to the commands of my mind. I stood there on the dock watching him, wrapped in a blanket he had found below deck for me, staring vacantly out into space.

“We’re okay,” he whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arm around me and steered me away from the boat and toward the house. “We’re going to be okay.”

“The police,” I said suddenly. “We have to call the police.”

“No cops,” he growled. “I killed those men. I can’t risk getting the cops involved.”

“But you defended us.”

“Yeah, you’re right, but trust me on this.”

I stayed silent. Nate was right. We couldn’t involve the police. He had taken care of me so far, and he would continue to do so.

I found myself trusting him more than I thought possible. Where he was a crude and rude asshole before, suddenly he was the man that risked his life to keep us both safe.

As we moved back toward the house, walking down the path, he kept whispering comforting things in my ear. He kept telling me that we were safe, that nobody was going to come for us, but it was like his words just slipped from my mind as soon as he said them.

I could barely concentrate. I could only see the man’s face, the knife in his neck.

Finally, we made it back to the house. Nate pushed open the back doors and ushered me inside.

“Hello?” he yelled out. Silence greeted us. “Good,” he mumbled, “the assholes aren’t home.”

“Where’s my dad?” I asked him.

“Business deal or some shit, probably. Don’t worry.” He led me upstairs toward our bathroom. I didn’t bother trying to resist. I didn’t think I could even if I wanted to.

He pushed open the bathroom door and started the shower. The room quickly filled with steam.

“You’re shaking,” he said softly. “Get in and take a nice hot shower.”

“Okay,” I said automatically. I stripped my shirt off, not caring that he was standing right there. He stared at me for a second until I reached back to untie my bikini top. He quickly turned around. I barely registered that uncharacteristic action.

I undressed and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water cover me. It felt good. I hadn’t even realized how freezing I really was, but he must have noticed. Immediately I began to feel better as warmth came back into my cold and stiff limbs.

“You need to eat something,” Nate said.

“Okay,” I replied.

“Come downstairs when you’re done.”

“Wait,” I said quickly without thinking about it. “Stay in here with me."

He was silent for a second. “Okay, babe. Whatever you want.”

I stood there and let the water run down my body, not caring that Nate was barely a foot away from my soaking wet, naked body. I could barely form a coherent sentence, let alone articulate why it was bad to have him in the bathroom with me while I showered.

I just kept seeing him, that guy. And Nate’s face, serious and emotionless, like he was taking out the garbage. I knew he was a SEAL and was trained to fight men like them, but seeing it was a totally different thing.

“You okay in there?” Nate grunted at me.

“Oh, fine,” I said.

“You’ve been in there a while.”

“Really?” I blinked, coming back to myself.

“Ten minutes, at least.”

“Sorry. I lost track of time.” I reached forward and turned off the water, and then I opened the shower curtain.

Nate’s eyes widened as I stood in front of him, naked and dripping. It took me a second to realize what I was doing. Until that moment, everything had been on autopilot, like someone else was running my body and mind. But seeing Nate staring at my body like that made me come back to myself. I yanked the shower curtain back over me.

“Towel,” I said.

“You sure?” he said, grinning. “I’d rather keep looking.”

“Don’t be an asshole.”

He handed me a towel. “You’ve got an incredible fucking body, you know that?”

“Thanks,” was all I could think to say.

“Fuck girl, if this were any other time I’d be making you scream my name right now.”

I hid behind the curtain as I wrapped the towel around me. “Yeah, well, good thing it isn’t.”

“Good thing. You okay now? I’m going to make you something to eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You have to eat. Trust me, after shit like that, you need to eat something. Helps you process.”

“Really, I’m fine.”

“You’re not. Get dressed and come downstairs.” He disappeared out the bathroom door.

I watched him go for a second, amazed that he had only made one or two dirty comments. I had just stood there completely naked in front of him, and he had walked away. He clearly understood the mental state I was in, although for some stupid reason I was a little disappointed.

I went into my bedroom and got changed slowly, taking my time. When I was done, I checked my phone. Lydie had called and texted, but I ignored them. I wasn’t ready for that crap.

From downstairs I could smell something delicious. My stomach growled and I realized I was way hungrier than I had thought.

I went down the steps and found Nate wearing fresh and dry clothing and standing in the kitchen.

“What are you making?”

“Fried chicken.”

“Seriously?”

“Sure. I make some damn good fried chicken.”

I sat down at the island and watched him cook, frying the chicken like he actually knew what he was doing.

“I thought SEALs were all dumb muscle heads.”

“Frying chicken doesn’t take much brains.”

“Maybe, but I’m surprised you know how to cook at all.”

“Every man needs to know how to cook one or two dishes.”

“I’m hungrier than I thought.”

He nodded. “Good. That’s a good sign. Means you’re coming back to yourself.”

“What happened to me? It was like I couldn’t control myself.”

“Shock,” he said simply. “You weren’t ready for what happened, so your mind shut down to avoid things getting worse.”

“It was so strange.”

“Happens to some guys in battle every once in a while.”

“Has it ever happened to you?”

He shook his head. “No, it hasn’t. Guess I’m built for that sort of shit.”

He walked over and placed a plate of fried chicken down in front of me. “Go ahead, eat.”

I picked up a piece and took a tentative bite. It was hot, but it was absolutely delicious, the best thing I had ever tasted in my life. Or at least I was hungry enough to think so as I finished off that piece and started on another.

He watched me, smiling to himself.

“What?” I asked.

“You eat like a pig.”

“Whatever. I get a pass right now.”

“You do.”

We ate in silence for a minute, and it felt good to be there with him. Then the memories came back and I felt a shiver run down my spine.

“How did you know?” I asked him after some silence had passed.

“Not sure.”

“You’re not sure?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try to explain. I could really use an explanation right about now.”

“You develop this feeling, this extra sense. It’s an awareness of your surroundings from training and battle and all the danger you’ve been in. Something about that boat and the weather and the situation just screamed ambush.” He paused, biting into his chicken. “I don’t take chances.”

“What did they want?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to ask.”

“We didn’t have anything worth stealing.”

“I know that. Maybe they wanted the boat. Maybe they were just looking for anyone stupid enough to be out on the water at that time.”

“How are there pirates? How is that possible?”

He was silent for another minute as he chewed. “There are a lot of bad people in this world, Claire. You don’t have to see it most of the time because you’re rich and sheltered.”

“My dad’s money has nothing to do with this,” I snapped.

“It does. You don’t have to be down in the shit with everyone else.”

“And that’s somehow my fault? I’m not a bad person because I was lucky enough to be born where I was.”

“I didn’t say that. You’re not a bad person. But you haven’t seen the things that I have. Believe me, there are pirates out there, and much worse.”

I was silent, absorbing that. I was pissed off that he was basically calling me spoiled and naïve, but he did have a point. I really didn’t have to deal with the darkness some other people did.

“But you did good back there,” he added.

“I just hid.”

“Yeah, you just hid. And you didn’t panic. You listened to me. Most people collapse or run into a worse situation because they can’t handle themselves. You did good.”

“Thanks,” I said, surprised he was complimenting me. I didn’t feel like I had done anything right.

“One more thing,” he said. “We can’t tell anyone about this.”

“Why?”

“Because I killed two men. There’s no proof now that they were pirates except for our word.”

“The boat? The guns?”

“Both long gone now.”

“My dad needs to know. Somebody needs to know that men like that are out there.”