Wed to a SEAL (Hot SEALs) (Volume 8) (5 page)

Shaking his head at Thom’s retelling of the snake story for what had to be the tenth time, Rocky kneeled down and took over arranging the beer and ice in the cooler.

When it was packed, he popped the top on one for himself and settled into a chair as Thom finished the tale and they all had a good laugh at Rocky’s expense over how he’d been afraid of a snake.

Only then could Rocky finally get on with enjoying the day.

“So what did we miss around here while we’ve been gone?” Thom asked Rick.

It was a good question. They’d been away more than they’d been home this year.

“The big guy here made a lot of changes actually.” Rick hooked a thumb in Jon’s direction. “Did you hear he asked Ali to move in with him?”

Thom’s eyes widened. “No. He didn’t mention it. Wow, dude, are there wedding bells in your future?”

Jon glanced at the door of the house and then back to Thom. “Don’t rush things, okay? Her lease was up and the landlord was going to hike the rent up ridiculously high. It seemed practical for her to move in with me.”

“So romantic.” Rick laughed. “You’ll notice, Rocky, that Jon’s not one to do anything fast. Took him over a year to finally rent an office for GAPS and he still won’t hire a secretary.”

Jon rolled his eyes. “I know you and Zane have visions of us hiring some James Bond-worthy Miss Moneypenny to answer the phone, but it’s not gonna happen. We also don’t have Q and all his toys and none of you are getting a rocket-fueled BMW either. GAPS is a private contractor. Not MI6.”

Rick scowled. “I know that but I really do think we need a plane. Chris has his pilot’s license. Think of all the money you’d save on flying commercial.”

“Sure. Why don’t we get a CH-53 too? That way we won’t have to bother the Marines when we need a helo.” Jon snorted. “And what do you care anyway? Sierra has you all sewn up as her head of security. When are you going to be available to work a job with GAPS again?”

“Personally, I think a Blackhawk is more versatile than a Super Stallion.” Thom always was one to stir the pot.

Ignoring Thom’s unsolicited comment, Rick frowned at Jon. “I’m gonna work more jobs with you. I’ll have time between her movies. And I saw you ordered company logo shirts. I want one. An extra-large, please.”

Jon blew out a derogatory sounding snort. “I didn’t order those shirts. Zane did. I’m lucky I talked him out of the logo golf balls.”

Rocky watched the exchange between the two men, happy all he had to do was take orders from his command, because judging by this conversation leaving the military and starting a private company hadn’t been without its challenges for Jon.

Thom glanced sideways at Rocky. “Makes the Navy not seem all that bad, huh?”

Rocky laughed that Thom had been thinking the same thing he had. “You ain’t kidding.”

The glass door sliding open had Rocky’s attention shifting to the house just as Darci popped her head out. “The chili is hot so anytime you want some, just go grab it from the stove.”

“Thanks, Darci.” Rick turned back to the guys. “I figure I’ll throw the burgers and dogs on the grill in a couple of hours. Brody and Chris should be here before dark.”

The distant sound of the doorbell ringing filtered out to the deck. Rick leaned forward in his chair and peered through the sliding glass door. “Who the hell could that be? Chris and Brody couldn’t be back in town yet and everybody else is already here.”

Jon shrugged. “Maybe Darci or Ali asked somebody from work.”

“Or maybe it’s Grant. You said you called him too, right?” Thom reminded Rick.

“Yeah, I did. But he was having trouble getting the wife onboard with the plan and said he probably wouldn’t make it.” Rick hoisted his large frame from the chair and stood. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

“Rick!” Darci’s shout came from inside the house. “Get in here. Now!”

“What the hell is wrong with her?” Rick drew his brows low as he moved to open the door.

Rocky watched Rick go into the house, curious but not enough to get out of his chair. It seemed the other guys felt the same. Jon and Thom stayed put as well.

“What the hell?” That exclamation from Rick propelled the men into action. They all stood at once.

Jon was the first to get to the door. He stopped dead, blocking Thom and Rocky’s entry and their view.

“Holy shit. Whose is that?” At Jon’s question, Rocky couldn’t take it any longer.

He edged past the blockage and finally got a look around Jon at what all the cursing was about.

A car seat containing a baby sat in the center of the dining room table. And surrounding the table were three very unhappy looking women.

Darci crossed her arms. “That’s exactly what I’d like to know.”

“Zane’s maybe?” Rick lifted one shoulder. “He was a real dog before he got together with Missy.”

The usually lovely and perfectly composed Sierra Cox, at least when he’d seen her on television, didn’t look as if she was buying it.

“There’s one problem with that theory. Your friend Zane doesn’t live here,” Sierra pointed out.

Darci nodded. “But you do, Rick.”

Uh oh.
It looked like Rick was in big trouble as both his girlfriend and his sister presented a united front against him.

Rick stood his ground and leveled a gaze on his girlfriend. “The problem with that circumstantial evidence is that before you I lived like a monk. So no, it’s not mine if that’s what you’re both insinuating.”

Darci glanced at Sierra. “That is true. He like never dated. Ever.”

Rick scowled. “Thanks, sis. And might I remind you that you live here too? Maybe this is about you.”

Darci lifted a brow. “I think I’d know if I had a baby, Rick.”

“I didn’t mean you. I’m talking about Chris.”

Rocky watched wide-eyed as Rick threw Chris Cassidy, Darci’s boyfriend, under the bus. He’d worked with Chris on that op in Nigeria. He was a good man and all evidence indicated he’d been a good SEAL before he’d retired and joined Jon’s team on GAPS.

Darci visibly paled at her brother’s accusation.
 

Rocky didn’t feel right standing by silently. If Chris’s friends and former teammates didn’t defend him, he would. “Hey, now. Let’s not make any assumptions. Chris isn’t here to defend himself.”

Meanwhile the baby, already squirming in the seat, began to wail. The noise only seemed to ramp up the tension in the room.

No one made a move toward the baby and the screaming continued. It probably went on for less than a minute but it felt like an eternity.

A crying baby was one of those sounds that grated on the nerves pretty fast.

Finally Jon’s girlfriend Ali stepped forward. “For goodness sake. If no one is going to pick up the poor child, I will.”

Instinct and training kicked in for Rocky. A terrorist wouldn’t think twice about wiring a baby seat to explode. He took one step forward. “No!”

Almost simultaneously, Jon shouted, “Ali, don’t!”

Rick ran for Sierra and shoved both her and Darci into the kitchen as Thom dropped to the floor and shielded his head with his forearms.

All of them had to be thinking the same thing. As SEALs they’d all been in too many hellholes in the world where US forces would go to investigate a body or help what appeared to be a person in need, only to be blown to bits when they got close.

Heart pounding, Rocky watched Ali release the buckle and slide her hands beneath the crying baby’s arms.

The whole scene seemed to move in slow motion. She lifted the baby from the car seat before Jon got to her.

Seconds ticked by in the surreal way they do when adrenaline is pounding through the bloodstream during a crisis. But the explosion never came.

Ali frowned at Jon. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Get into the other room.” Jon shoved Ali and the baby toward the kitchen doorway, where Rick had already pushed Sierra and Darci.

Once she was clear of the immediate area, Jon bent low to peer beneath the car seat on the table. Thom hoisted himself off the floor as Rocky stepped forward to join Jon in examining the seat.

Sad but true, the innocent-looking baby seat could be wired with explosives. The fact they were standing in Rick’s dining room in Virginia in the good old United States didn’t matter. ISIS was here in America. That was a proven fact.

“What do you think?” Rocky asked Jon.

“Hell if I know.” Jon glanced up at Thom. “Get over here. You have kids. You’re the only one who knows what this thing is supposed to look like.”

Thom stepped forward and bent low too, the three of them squinting at a contraption that looked innocuous enough—to a person who hadn’t spent the last decade of their life searching for threats around every turn and beneath every rock.

Darci peeked past Rick’s bulk as he blocked the women in the kitchen. “You guys are ridiculous.”

Rick scowled. “Darci, be quiet and let us figure out what’s going on.”
 

“How about you read that note that fell out of the blanket when Ali picked up the baby? Maybe it will give you men folk a clue while us helpless women hide in the kitchen.”

Darci’s statement about a note had Rocky tearing his gaze away from the seat. He searched the area beneath the table. Sure enough a paper was resting on the carpet by Jon’s feet.

Jon bent to pick it up. He lifted a brow and then glanced up. “Rocky?”

“Yeah?”

“It seems this delivery is for you.”

Rocky’s eyes flew wide. “What?”

Thom leaned closer to Jon to inspect the paper. “Yup. Says Rocky right there on it, plain as day. Dude, what have you been doing?”

“Nothing. I’ve been out of the country with you for most of the last seven months.” His mind spun with all the places he’d been in that time.

“And it takes nine months to make a baby, so . . .” Rick tipped his head to the side and let that idea dangle in the air as Rocky’s world tilted and spun.

Thom glanced at Ali, who’d finally quieted the baby and had come back to hover on the edge of the room. “And by the looks of that baby, she’s a few months old. So the question remains, what were you doing about a year ago?”

Rocky could barely remember this morning, never mind what he was doing last year. Still, a feeling of doom settled in his stomach.

A baby? What the fuck? Given how little free time he had there hadn’t been a whole lot of women in his life, but even so he’d always been careful.

“Why don’t you stop thinking so hard and just read the note?” Jon extended the hand holding the fateful piece of paper that could change Rocky’s whole future.

With his chest so tight he could barely draw breath he took it. He’d faced bullets with less fear than he felt opening that folded paper.

His gaze shot past the page filled with neat writing, to the bottom and the signature.
Isabel
.

Why did that name sound familiar?

Shit. Was this kid his?

He forced his eyes to go back to the top, cleared his throat and began to read aloud. “Rocky. We met last night at the strip club when you helped me with my car.”

Met last night? That hint jogged his hazy memory. He remembered Isabel and the car, but what did that have to do with this baby? As far as he could recall he’d never met her before last night.

Not yet relieved of the fear that this baby might be his somehow, he forced himself to continue reading.

“You seem like a man I can trust. I beg you for your help in keeping my daughter Lola safe. I will come for her when I can. Until then please do not report anything to the police or they will take her from me. Please. Keeping her a secret is more important than I can say, for reasons I can’t tell you. The things she will need are in the bags I am leaving with her. I owe you my life and hers. Isabel.”

Rocky glanced up to find the room full of stunned people watching him.

“Shit.” Rick shook his head. “I have so many questions I don’t know where to start.”

“Then I’ll start. Was there a bag outside?” Jon asked Darci.

“I don’t know. I was so shocked by the baby, I didn’t notice. I just grabbed the handle and carried her in.”

“I’ll go check.” Jon moved toward the front door as Rocky began to feel a little unsteady on his feet.

He glanced at the baby, wrapped in a pink blanket and still in Ali’s arms.

What the hell was he going to do with a baby? And how long was Isabel going to take to retrieve her?

Hours? Days? Any longer and this was going to be a big problem.

For one thing, he could get recalled on an hour’s notice. But more than that, he wasn’t allowed to have any overnight visitors in the barracks. Not guys. Not girls. And certainly not a three-month old baby who would make her presence known with every unhappy yowl.

“I can’t bring her back to the barracks. And I don’t know shit about babies.” Rocky looked at Thom. “You’re going to have to take her.”

“Me? What the fuck am I supposed to do with her? I’m in the barracks just like you are.”