Second Chance SEAL: A Bad Boy Military Romance (7 page)

I
felt
like the world had opened up beneath me as I sat in Gates’s apartment. He was in the kitchen making me tea, and normally I would find that really amusing, but I couldn’t stop seeing those men lying bleeding on the floor.

My phone buzzing grabbed my attention. I looked down and saw another text from Tony.

“Come on, babe. I’m sorry if I scared you. We need to talk.”

He called me ten times since Gates picked me up and sent as many texts, but I was ignoring them. Gates knew about the messages but hadn’t said anything about them yet.

I sat there staring at Gates as he moved around the kitchen. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but it didn’t matter. I was in this, deep in this, and Gates was willing to help me.

That thought sent a wave of relief washing over me.

Gates was trained for this sort of thing. Well, maybe not this specific situation, but something like it. He was trained to fight and survive difficult tasks, and there was no better person for me to have in my corner right now.

Still, for all of that, I barely knew the man. I didn’t know why he wanted to get involved in something that was clearly incredibly dangerous. He owed me nothing and had every right to walk away.

The only thing I could think of was that he felt the same pull that I felt. Maybe that was true, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe I just wanted that to be true. Either way, I kept staring at his body and felt the tug toward him, that deep yearning that wanted me to get up and throw myself at him.

“Here you go.”

I looked down at the cup in front of me.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Chamomile.”

“Excuse me?”

“Chamomile tea.” He leaned up against the counter across from me and crossed his arms. “Drink.”

“Okay.” I picked it up and blew on it then took a sip. It was vaguely sweet and tasted like watery apples. “I like it.”

“You’ve never had chamomile before?”

I shrugged. “Not much of a tea drinker, I guess.”

“It’s good for you. Calms the nerves, eases digestion. That sort of thing.”

“They teach you about tea in the military?”

“Nope,” he said. “That was all my mother.”

“Oh,” I said. “Your mother. Where does she live?”

“Passed away when I was twenty.”

I blinked. He was an orphan. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. She lived long enough to see me get chosen as a SEAL. That was a good day.”

“Do you have a lot of good memories of your mom?”

He nodded. “I do. She took care of me when my dad died.” He glanced at the clock then back at me. “What about you? What are your parents like?”

“They’re nice,” I said. “Typical parents. Dad works for a bank and my mom works for a real estate lawyer.”

“Were they supportive when their daughter wanted to become a weather girl?”

I laughed. “No, actually. Dad thought it was stupid. Mom was better, but even she was worried about me.”

“You showed them.”

I shrugged and sipped the tea again. “I guess. Mostly I just wanted them to be proud of me.”

“And are they?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Good.” He stared at me intently for a moment, like he was studying me. “We need to talk.”

My phone vibrated again but I sent it to voicemail. “Okay.”

“What does he keep saying?”

“Apologizing. Wants to meet.” I laughed ruefully. “I guess he thinks I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot,” he said seriously. “It’s good you called me.”

“Yeah. I think so, too.”

“Tell me about Tony.”

“There’s not much to say. I met him through work when his club was promoting a product on our show. He seemed nice, took me out a few times. We dated for a while before moving in. I had no clue he was involved with drugs.”

Gates nodded and I felt so stupid. How could I not see it? Tony always had nice things and was always buying me small but expensive presents. They came out of nowhere, diamond earrings, cell phones, iPods, stuff like that. I never really questioned it, since his night club was doing so well.

But how did a guy his age own a freaking night club to begin with? Tony’s parents were normal Italian people living out in Staten Island. They couldn’t offer him a loan. I never really asked him how he got involved with the club. Hell, I never really asked him anything. I never asked how he had so much money or where all that cash came from.

I was so, so stupid. I trusted him and I never should have. I could feel the tears coming on again and I had to fight them back.

Gates came around the island and put his hands on my shoulders. “Hey,” he said. “You can’t do that now. I know you’re dealing with some heavy shit, Pipes, but you need to hold it together for me. You need to tell me everything you know about this guy.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Associates, friends, family. Anybody he deals with. Where he keeps his money, where he gets his money. Anything you can think of.”

I took a deep breath, looking into Gates’s eyes. He was so competent, so in control, and I felt that relief wash over me again.

“Okay,” I said, and started talking.

The story of Tony spilled out of me. I told Gates every single detail that I could remember, every story Tony mentioned, every friend and business associate. I talked about the presents, about his expensive car, about his cash. I dredged up memories I didn’t even know I had and then some. I talked for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, until finally I was out of things to say.

Gates listened carefully the whole time, nodding once in a while. He didn’t interrupt to ask questions and he didn’t get bored. He simply watched me, nodded along, and listened.

When I was done, I felt drained. Gates put his hand on my thigh and I felt a spike of desire run up through me.

“That was good,” he said. “I’m going to have some questions for you, but we can do that later. For now, that was really good.”

“What will any of that do, though?” I asked him.

“You want to live a normal life, right?”

“Of course.”

“We need to find a way to get you out of this mess. We need to find something we can use against Tony.”

“I don’t know what that could be.”

“I’ll find it.” His eyes went dark for a second. “Or else I’ll create it.”

I didn’t know what he meant and was about to ask, but my phone started ringing again.

“Tony,” I said, and went to shut it off.

“Wait,” Gates cut in. “Answer it.”

“What?”

“Answer it. On speaker.”

I blinked, frowning. “That’s a bad idea.”

“Trust me, Piper. Do it.”

“Fine.” I answered it and turned on speakerphone. “Hello?”

“Piper,” Tony said, sounding relieved. “I was worried about you.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because of what you saw.” He paused. “We need to talk, Pipes.”

“I don’t want to see you.”

“I know. I can’t blame you.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry you saw that, Pipes. I never wanted that to happen.”

The look on his face came back to me. Cold, expressionless, dead. It was the face of a killer.

“I understand,” I said and Gates nodded at me.

“The other guys, they pushed me into it. They’re dangerous men, Piper. I need to talk to you so I can explain. I’m so, so sorry.”

He wasn’t sorry, I reminded myself. He was a murderer.

Gates quickly hit the mute button. “Make a meeting,” he said.

“What?”

“Do it,” he said, and turned mute off.

“Piper?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Okay. We can meet.”

“Good. You don’t know how badly I need to see you. I need to make sure you’re okay, that they didn’t get you.”

“Who?” I asked him.

“The men I was with. I didn’t hurt anyone, Piper. They did it all.”

“Okay.” He was lying. I could hear it, plain as day.

“Meet me at Moreno’s. You know that Italian place?”

“I know it.”

“Meet me there tonight at ten. Can you do that?”

“I can.”

“Okay, Pipes. We’ll get through this together, I promise.”

Gates took the phone from my hand and hung it up.

I shook my head at him. “I can’t go to that.”

“Of course not. I’m going to go.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t know me,” Gates said. “I’ll watch him, see who he’s with, get a sense of him.”

“That’s crazy.”

“It’s our best first move. Soon he’ll figure out who I am and then we won’t have the advantage anymore. Trust me, Pipes.”

I stared at him, surprised all over again at the kind of man he was.

“You don’t have to help me,” I said softly. “I shouldn’t have brought you into this.”

He reached forward suddenly and took my hair, pulling me toward him. I gasped as he kissed me hard, surprised at first.

But quickly I gave into him. His lips felt right, the exact way I needed them to feel. It was like he simply knew what I needed, and in that moment I needed him to kiss me. I needed to know what he wanted, that he wanted me.

We kissed like that for minutes, maybe hours. I lost track of time and it didn’t matter at all. I only needed Gates in that moment, his mouth against mine.

Finally, he pulled back, hand lingering on my cheek.

“You should get some rest,” he said gently.

“Okay,” I answered, biting my lip.

“I need to prepare for later.”

“I understand.”

He sat there for a second, lingering over me, before standing up. I watched him turn and leave the room, shutting his bedroom door behind him.

I stared at the empty space he left, confused. I didn’t know why he had to stand up and walk away like that. But then again, I didn’t have the right to ask anything from him. He was helping me, but that didn’t mean he really owed me anything.

Truthfully, I owed him. I should have been thankful that I was sitting in his apartment, relatively safe.

Instead, I just wanted him to carry me into his bedroom and take me. I wanted him to destroy me, make me his, get me off.

I sipped my tea and took a deep breath. I had to stop being selfish. Gates was helping me, and that was enough.

But truthfully, I was terrified that it wouldn’t be even close to enough.

I
couldn’t let
myself get distracted, and kissing Piper was the ultimate distraction. After the kiss, I went into my room to prep my weapon, but mostly to get my head right. I was going into a dangerous situation and I couldn’t have Piper on my mind. I needed to be sharp, or else risk my life and hers.

I sat in my car at a quarter to ten across the street from that Italian restaurant Tony told Pipes to go to. I’d been there for about an hour, and as far as I could tell it seemed like a normal place. Busy even, fairly popular. I didn’t catch sight of anything suspicious or shady going down.

But then again, that would be the whole point. If the place was a mob front then they’d keep any of the illegal stuff in the back of the restaurant. Still, I didn’t know what Tony’s plan was for Piper. It didn’t look like the kind of place he could just grab her and run away, but maybe I was misreading the situation.

Fucking hell. If this were Syria, or Iraq, or fucking Afghanistan, I’d know exactly what was going on. But this situation was different.

I took a deep breath and concentrated. It couldn’t be so different from what I’d been through that I couldn’t figure out what was happening around me. I just needed to concentrate and clear my head.

I watched for ten more minutes as people came and went. The street seemed pretty quiet, and I didn’t see many cars coming past. That was strange, since there seemed to be a lot of foot traffic coming and going from the building.

That was when it hit me. There was a parking lot two doors down which probably was where most people parked. I was willing to bet that Tony planned on grabbing Piper there, either before or after they met up.

I quickly got out of my car and moved silently across the street. I went down an alley and slowly snuck up to the lot from the back side.

It looked like any other lot, but I kept stationary and kept watching. Soon enough, I caught sight of two guys sitting in a car in the back corner of the lot. They didn’t look like they were doing much of anything, and the one guy kept searching around his car.

I slipped back into the shadows. Fucking hell. They really did want Piper. Everything she said was true.

Not that I ever really doubted her, but it was a pretty intense story. It was hard to imagine that a person could just witness a mob killing like that. But if she were dating a mobster in secret this whole time, it was totally possible.

I moved back toward the sidewalk and headed into the restaurant. I felt a stab of nervousness as I stepped inside the dimly lit building, since I knew that walking indoors when you were outnumbered was just about the worst thing possible. Still, I had to remind myself that they didn’t know me, and that I was highly trained.

“Can I help you?” the hostess asked.

I quickly scanned the place and spotted a bar. “I’ll sit at the bar,” I said to her.

“Sure. Help yourself.”

I nodded to her and headed over. The place was like a thousand other Italian places I’d seen: wine bottles, rustic décor, candlelight, and soft Frank Sinatra music playing in the background. The wait staff was finely dressed, and it seemed like a somewhat upscale place.

I sat down at the bar and ordered a whisky before scanning the room again. I didn’t see Tony anywhere, though I was only going off his Facebook picture. Still, I was reasonably sure I could identify him.

My drink came and I sipped it. I watched the flow of people coming and going, wondering briefly at the shape of their lives. A young couple was sitting in the back corner, smiling at each other. Two tables over, an older couple looked at each other the same way, smiling and excited. I wondered what their secret was.

I sipped my drink and concentrated again. I noticed a guy in a nice suit standing by the back kitchen door. I thought he worked there at first, but he wasn’t doing anything but standing there and watching the crowd. Nobody acknowledged him and he never spoke. As I stared, I noticed a slight bulge in his jacket, and I guessed that was a weapon.

So there were mobsters in this room. I shifted my weight, scanning for more guns. I found another guy eating at a table with an older woman wearing a similar suit with a similar bulge on the jacket.

So, at least two armed men. I didn’t know who the old woman was, but that didn’t matter.

Suddenly, I felt a motion to my left.

“I figured she wouldn’t show.”

I looked over and there he was. Tony smiled at me, this wicked and cold smile. I kept my cool and nodded at him. “You can understand why.”

“I wasn’t sure who she’d send, though. Thought it might be Greg.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What’s he have to do with any of this?”

“She called him. He sent her your number. Didn’t take a genius to figure shit out from there.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re tracking her phone.”

“Tapped it a while ago. I probably shouldn’t have told you, but, fuck, I do love to brag.”

I made a note to destroy her phone as soon as I could. “Why did you show up if you didn’t think she’d come?”

“I wanted to meet the guy she ran to.”

“You don’t want to meet me.”

“No? I guess not. You’re some hotshot Navy SEAL, right?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, Mister SEAL. Listen to me.” He leaned forward and grinned. “My guys are on their way to grab her right now.”

“What?”

“That’s right. We figured out where you lived. If she’s there, she’s ours.”

I stared at him, heart hammering. I knew he wasn’t lying. I didn’t sense any deceit in his words, and besides, I could tell that he was the type of man that needed validation. He needed me to know all about how plans and how smart he was. He couldn’t handle being a normal guy and winning a normal way.

I could see what had scared her so much. She saw past his mask and got a glimpse of the real terror that was Tony.

I’d met many guys like Tony in my time. Some of them even were on my side. They were cold, calculating, and fucking dangerous. I knew the kind of man he was, and that meant I knew the kind of man I had to be if I wanted to win.

I stood up. “Nice meeting you, Tony.”

He laughed. “Stay and drink. You’re too late to save her.”

“The next time I see you, I will kill you. Understand?”

Tony grinned huge at me. “You don’t disappoint, Gates.”

I turned and walked quickly out of the restaurant.

There was no time. I jogged across the street, jumped into my car, and started the engine. I peeled out, heading back to my apartment.

Tony definitely sent those guys in the parking lot. I didn’t see their car as I drove past. That meant they didn’t have that big of a head start. If I drove fast and they were overconfident, I could make it.

I clenched my jaw and broke every law imaginable as I sped back to my apartment. I couldn’t lose Piper, not now, not so soon. I couldn’t fucking let her down already.

Tony was a sick bastard, but I had underestimated him. That was my mistake. Next time, I wasn’t going to make that same mistake. I wasn’t lying when I said that I’d kill him if I ever saw him again. Part of me hoped it would come to that, because killing was something I did very, very well.

I turned onto my block, the Mustang’s wheels churning up gray smoke. I spotted that same car from the parking lot out front of my apartment building, the engine on, the doors open.

That meant they just got there and were in the process of grabbing her.

I stopped my car right in front of theirs, pulling back until my rear bumped hit their front. I jumped out of the car, drawing my weapon, and stormed inside.

I charged up the steps. My place was the third door on the left, and it was hanging slightly open. I heard muffled grunts and the sound of someone struggling. I slowly pushed the door open and slipped inside, silent and deadly.

The two guys were standing over Piper. She was being held down by the one man as the other wrapped rope around her, tying her up and immobilizing her.

“Hurry up,” the one guy said. “I left the car running.”

“I didn’t tell you to do that.”

“Fuck you, man. We gotta get out of here quick with this bitch.”

“People will notice either way. It doesn’t matter.”

“That’s what you always say, but it does fucking matter. I don’t need no more time on my record, you get it?”

“Don’t be such a pussy. Hold her tighter.”

“Bitch can really struggle.”

The men were distracted as I came in behind them. The man holding Piper down was younger, maybe in his thirties, with thin greasy hair. He was skinny, and his suit looked too big. The other guy was older, in his forties, with graying hair. He was wearing a tracksuit.

I stopped behind the skinny one. The older guy looked up at me just as I brought the butt of my weapon down onto the skinny guy’s skull. He collapsed forward with a grunt, the sound of my weapon against his head a wet thud.

“Fuck,” the older guy said, going for his gun.

I kicked him in the face. I felt his jaw crack and saw a tooth break free as he was knocked down to the floor. I followed that up with three more swift kicks to his skull, cleanly knocking him unconscious, or maybe killing him. I wasn’t sure, and didn’t care to find out.

I bent down and quickly untied Piper.

“Gates,” she groaned, throwing her arms around me.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m here.”

She hugged me tight and I pulled her against me, holding her. The men were bleeding and unmoving, which was exactly how I wanted the fucking bastards.

“Come on,” I said, standing and helping Piper to her feet.

“Where are we going?”

“We have to leave here. Grab your things.”

She stared at me. “How did they find me, Gates?”

“Tony tracked your phone. We’ll need to leave that here.”

She shook her head. “This is insane.”

I took her by the shoulders. “You’ve done great so far. Please, Pipes. Trust me. We have to go.”

She paused and then nodded. She turned and began to gather her few possessions.

I went into my room, grabbed my go-bag and another duffel. I had food, water, camping gear, an extra weapon with ammo, and other essentials pre-packed. I threw some toiletries, clothes, and a few other things into the other bag. I was ready in three minutes.

Piper was standing in the kitchen, staring at the two men. “What were they going to do to me?” she asked me softly.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “You’re with me now.”

She nodded and followed me out the door.

I wasn’t sure where we were going. But I knew that we couldn’t stay at my apartment anymore. Greg and Lauren were in danger, which was my next concern.

But for now, I needed to get the two of us far, far away as fast as I could.