A SEAL Never Quits

by Holly Castillo

  “I’ll drive us home,” Phantom offered, opening his hand for her to toss him the keys. She shrugged and did. He had just received a text from Stryker that the call had been scheduled later at night than he had expected. In a moment when he felt like things were out of his control, he needed the feel of the steering wheel in his hands.

  “What did you think of the show?” she asked as he guided them onto the highway.

  “It was eye-opening, that’s for sure. You certainly convinced me. Now, did I convince you?”

  She pivoted in her seat so that she faced him. He glanced over at her and saw her bright smile. “You followed through with your promise, or, at least, you seemed to. Were there any questions you never got around to asking me?”

  He returned the smile. “Yes. Would you like to go to dinner with me?”

  Elena looked like she had nearly swallowed her tongue. “Excuse me?”

  “I’d like to take you to dinner. To celebrate your wins today.”

  He looked back at the road, but from the corner of his eye he noticed she started twisting her hands into knots. She must have seen him watching and clenched her fists in her lap instead. “I-I don’t know.”

  “Are you hungry?” Her stomach answered for her as it growled loudly. He gave her a half smile. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “Yes, but the horse…”

  “Will be safe in the trailer. I’ll park close enough to the restaurant that we can keep an eye on it. Don’t worry. Can you hold out until Falfurrias? Or are you going to start chewing your arm off?”

  “You were the one that suggested dinner, remember? I can go for a long time without any food.”

  Phantom shook his head. “Not acceptable. With all the work you do, you need your strength.”

  She hesitated, then gave him a lopsided grin. “A chicken-fried steak does seem like a good idea.”

  He couldn’t resist grinning back. “I know just the place.”

  A little over thirty minutes later, they were pulling into a small restaurant in Falfurrias. There were only a few other diners in the restaurant, which allowed them to be seated at a table near a set of large windows that looked out directly at the trailer.

  “See? And you doubted me.”

  Elena gawked at him. “I did not doubt you! I merely questioned your sanity,” she finished with a smirk.

  A silky lock of hair had worked loose from her bun and fallen over her forehead, and he wanted nothing more than to touch it. But he didn’t want to ruin the moment and have her look at him with fear again. He needed to know why she had, then he could reassure her that she never had to be afraid of him.

  They ordered their food, munching on the chips and salsa that had been brought to the table when they sat down. They debated for a moment whether the salsa could really be called hot enough by south Texas standards, before Elena gave him another one of those smiles that made his heart pound. “Are you going to tell me what you really thought about the competition?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it. I had planned to go to a few shows to get my feet wet, but I would have been totally lost without your explanations. It wouldn’t have been a good reflection of the ranch.”

  Elena shrugged. “Everyone would have thought you were a greenhorn.”

  “And everyone would have asked where you were.”

  A blush tinged her cheeks. The waitress delivered their food, and Elena’s eyes rolled back in her head as she chewed on her first bite. “This is heaven. Thank you for stopping for me.”

  “I was hungry, too,” he said after swallowing. “But I had another reason for wanting to have dinner with you.”

  She looked up from her plate quickly and suspicion entered her eyes. “What?” She watched him with a combination of curiosity and wariness.

  “I want to get to know you better. If we’re going to work together, we should be comfortable with each other, don’t you think?”

  “Oh,” she chuckled, looking back at her plate. “Well, other than what we talked about this morning, there isn’t much more to me. I went to A&M to study and that’s where I had the chance to compete with my friend’s horse. Daniel saw me and recruited me on the spot. I’ve been in Hebbronville ever since. I tend to five other ranches…well, I’ve taken on a couple more now that you’ve decided you no longer need me.”

  “There’s one question that’s been gnawing at me for a while that you haven’t answered.”

  “Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “And what is that?”

  “Who hurt you Elena?”

  Chapter 5

  She swallowed hard and dropped her eyes down to her half-eaten dinner. “What do you mean?”

  “You think I haven’t noticed? You flinched from my touch the other night. Today when I touched you I saw the unease in your eyes. Something happened to you.”

  “Have you ever thought it might be because you’re as big as an ox and anybody in their right mind should be wary of you?” She pushed her plate away, and he frowned.

  “Is that what it is? You promised you were going to answer my questions honestly today. I’ve held up my end of the bargain. Now it’s your turn.”

  “Phantom, I never asked you to do anything other than—”

  “Don’t, Elena. I know what we both promised. Tell me the truth. Why are you afraid of me?”

  She was silent for several long moments, staring out the window at the dusk-colored world outside. She couldn’t tell him what haunted her. She couldn’t reveal the terrible experience. Only those closest to her knew about it, and Daniel. He had been the one to find her after…after… Damn him! Damn him for making me think about it! Keeping it buried keeps me sane.

  She drew a deep breath as her gaze returned to her plate. She couldn’t look at Phantom. She didn’t want to see his reaction to what she was going to tell him. “I made you a promise, and I want you to know that I will always be honest with you. It’s an important building block for a working relationship.” She rubbed the back of her neck, wondering exactly where to begin. Somehow, the words began to tumble out. “It happened a few years ago. Only a couple of people close to me know the truth of what really happened.”

  She saw his hands tighten briefly on the table, then relax. He exuded control over his words and motions. Everything about him was controlled. When he had offered to drive the truck earlier, she hadn’t even thought about it when she tossed him the keys. Yes, he had triggered memories of the painful night years ago. But it didn’t mean she feared him. Quite the opposite. She found herself beginning to trust him.

  “It—I was young and foolish. There was a ranch hand on Daniel’s ranch—your ranch—that had developed feelings for me. More accurately, I should say, he lusted after me. I didn’t recognize it. I thought it was harmless flirting just between friends. He didn’t take it that way.”

  She looked back out the window, staring at the truck and trailer. Tears burned her eyes and she blinked rapidly, forcing them away. “He caught me alone in the barn one evening. I-I didn’t know how to react to his advances. So I slapped him. It was the wrong move, and I paid for it.”

  Phantom was silent for a long time, so long that Elena thought he was done with the questions she didn’t want to answer. Then, “How badly did he hurt you?”

  Elena wrapped her arms around herself in a defensive gesture, something she had started not long after the attack. She forced her arms to relax at her sides. “It was intense. I don’t remember a whole lot.”

  “You remember more than you’d like.” It wasn’t posed as a question—it was a statement of fact.

  “Yes.” A tear slid down her face and she hastily wiped it away. “When I woke up in the hospital, the nurses told me it was a miracle I had survived such a terrible accident. Daniel had told them that one of the horses had been spooked and had trampled me.”

  “Trampled
you? Elena, just how badly did he hurt you?”

  She didn’t want to get into the details. She didn’t want to talk about the event that created her worst nightmares, and she had only recently been able to get through a night here and there without them waking her in a cold sweat. She had made a promise, though, and she would honor it.

  “I must have blacked out, because I don’t even remember how Daniel got me to the hospital in Laredo. The concussion is probably why my memory is foggy. But when I came around, I had two broken ribs. A broken nose. A broken clavicle. A bunch of bruises and cuts that took weeks to heal.”

  “I hope Daniel got the law involved.”

  Elena nodded absently, her mind drifting back to the ordeal. “He tried. By the time they made it to the ranch, though, Billy had disappeared. The sheriff searched for him, but he was gone. He must have left as soon as he finished attacking me, knowing I would press charges against him. I wanted to confront Billy. I wasn’t going to be his victim. But I never got a chance.” She curled her hands into fists. What would she say to him if she saw him now?

  “Elena, what happened to you—”

  “I’ve tried to put it behind me. I’ve been able to move on with my life, and I’m no longer afraid of men.”

  “Then why do you react to me the way you do?”

  “It’s only when you catch me by surprise. Billy is a large man. Like you. He’s tall and strong, and hurt me so easily. I thought I had erased him from my mind. When you’ve done something unexpectedly, though, the memories come rushing back.”

  “I’m nothing like him, Elena. I would never hurt you. I couldn’t. You’re an incredibly brave woman, and you’ve been through a horrific experience,” he said, his voice the same calm she remembered from the first day she’d met him. “It never should have happened. But if you carry that pain around with you, the weight of it will drown you. It will destroy you more effectively than Billy ever could. Burying the pain and the memories will make you vulnerable anytime a man as large as Billy gets close to you.”

  His words stung. How does he know I’ve buried the pain? How can he presume to know what I feel? “You don’t know anything about what I’ve been through.” The tears began to fall freely and she wiped at them angrily, hating that her emotions were getting the best of her. She had never cried like this when talking about what had happened, not even when sharing it with Anya. Why am I letting this get to me? Billy has no power over me any longer. Neither does Phantom. Still, a part of her had been taken the night Billy beat her. A part of the wild, free spirit she had always been.

  “You don’t understand.” Even as she said the words, she wondered how he had been able to tap into the pain she thought buried and gone. She rose to her feet and grabbed for her purse. She wanted to go home.

  “No,” he said, and there was the hint of regret in his voice. “No, I don’t understand everything about what you’ve been through. But I’ve known people who’ve gone through traumatic events, and I’m willing to bet this is the first time you’ve grieved for the loss of what you had.”

  How could he possibly know…? She grappled with her feelings. She knew the pain was all over her face—written in her tears. She had no idea she would react so intensely to his questions.

  He stood and slowly—very, very slowly—reached down for her face. She didn’t flinch from him this time. She realized distantly her heart wasn’t racing out of fear, but out of hope for something she couldn’t identify. He touched her cheek and swiped away the tears off one cheek, then the other.

  The skin on his fingers was rough but his touch was so very gentle, and she found herself wanting to lean into his hand. She had enjoyed a man’s caress in the past, but the feeling of Phantom’s skin on hers stirred her desire like no man’s ever had before.

  “I’d never hurt you, Elena.”

  Elena’s heart pounded hard and she was certain he could hear it. His fingers felt so good, she gave in to the temptation and leaned into his hand, laying her cheek against his palm. Then, her resolve returning, she pulled back. “I know.” His eyes widened slightly at her statement. “You’re nothing like him. I thought I had erased everything about him, but obviously I hadn’t. I’m sorry I reacted to you that way.”

  “Elena, I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, and you have nothing to apologize for. I could tell something was bothering you. No man should ever hurt a woman. You deserve to be treasured.”

  Elena looked back out the window, the day slipping into twilight. He hadn’t pulled his hand away as she continued leaning into it, a thrill sliding down her spine as his long fingers caressed the back of her neck while his thumb rubbed gentle circles on her cheek. How long had it been since she had felt pleasure from a man’s fingers? Six months? A year? She had been so busy trying to build her career she had put everything else at the bottom of her list.

  She and Phantom were working to build a business relationship together. She thought she had moved on from the pain, but Phantom had shown her she still had a broken piece that needed to heal. Could Phantom help her put it all behind her for good? No man had ever challenged her the way he had. No man had ever tried to understand her past whatever it took to just have a good time together.

  Elena turned away from the window and looked at Phantom. “It may not seem like it, but I’m grateful you asked me to talk about it. I hadn’t realized it still had such power over me. But not anymore. You have my trust. What does that mean to you?”

  “I hope it means you’ll take me back as your client.”

  * * *

  Stryker and Phantom met with the rest of the team in the conference room that they had specifically built when the home had been remodeled. It sat to the side of their communications hub, an area that Buzz oversaw with multiple computer monitors, satellite feed, and every gadget a technology geek like Buzz could ever ask for. It had taken a lot of time to install everything and get it up to specifications, but it was well worth it.

  “Something unusual came up today at the horse show,” Phantom began, and the team listened intently. A meeting wouldn’t have been called if something serious hadn’t happened. “I overheard a conversation about human trafficking.”

  Stryker sat up straighter. “What did you hear?”

  “I’ll break into the details on the call with Haslett. I have a serious concern that something is going down right under our noses.”

  Just at that moment the conference phone began to ring and Phantom hit the button on the speaker. “Sir, the entire team is here.”

  “Good. Stryker didn’t give me any information, other than it was urgent that we talk tonight.” Admiral Haslett’s voice came across tense and tired, but still attentive.

  Phantom relayed the conversation he had overheard in detail. “Do we have any type of intel about a human trafficking ring operating in this area?”

  “Hell, human trafficking has been going on for a long time, and there’s a dedicated task force in Mexico that oversees such problems. That doesn’t mean they aren’t still getting across the border somehow.”

  “I intend to investigate it further on my end,” Phantom said. “If there’s anything you can find out through your network, we may be able to put an end to a potentially dangerous ring.”

  “I will,” Haslett said. “Phantom, I want you to take point on this. I’ll be back in touch soon.”

  They ended the call and Stryker nodded to Phantom to continue. “Buzz, I’d like you to start searching on the dark web for anything regarding human trafficking or sex slaves. More often than not, it is prostitution that women and children are sold into once they make it across the border.”

  “Not a problem. I’ll begin running a search tonight,” Buzz nodded firmly.

  “I need all of you to start researching the human trafficking industry. Try to network with local truck drivers somehow to see if you pick up any details there.
It is obvious they are being shipped by large haulers, so that could pay off to be our biggest source of information.”

  “I’ll tap in to my connections within the Federal Government of Mexico to see if they’ve heard anything about a human trafficking ring operating close to south Texas,” Santo volunteered.

  “Good,” Phantom said. “Also, check in with the judge you’re friends with here in the county. She seems to always have her finger on the pulse of things.”

  Santo nodded and Phantom looked around the room at the grim faces. They all knew the evil that lurked behind human trafficking rings. The thought that one was operating in their own backyard was disturbing and left them all on edge.

  “This is what we are here for,” Stryker said to the team. “Our main objective when we took this assignment was to keep our ear to the ground and get out among the people. We know there are bad things happening, and we’re seeing just as many people south of the border get hurt as those here in the U.S. More, even, if you consider the political upheaval so many of the countries are facing. Our job is to protect the border—both sides of it. Phantom has brought us the opportunity to do just that. Is everyone clear on their next steps?”

  “Hoo-yah!”

  * * *

  Elena rubbed her hands on her jeans as she approached the front door of the large ranch house. Just yesterday she had taken Phantom to the horse show and she had revealed to him her most painful memory. His reaction had not been what she had expected. Instead of pity, he had challenged her not to let it define her and weigh her down any longer.

  Anya had called her when she got home after dropping off the horse. She had been grateful that Jonas wasn’t around and had been able to get in and out quickly. Elena figured Anya wanted to know how the horse show had gone, but instead had called her to invite her to breakfast with the entire group the very next morning.