Seduced by a SEAL

by Makenna Jameison

  Camila brushed her long, dark hair back over one shoulder. “I can take care of myself. Always have, always will. I refuse to rely on a man for anything—including my own father.”

  Rosa’s eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a joke. Maybe you could turn down a rich man at a nightclub, but a member of another cartel? A group of men after you? It’s better those bodyguards are with you at all times. Whether you like it or not.”

  Camila pressed her lips together. Her brief escape to Miami a week ago had been wonderful—literally a breath of fresh air. No need to watch her back every moment. The freedom to come and go where she chose. She didn’t have to be escorted by armed men everywhere she went.

  And then there was the extra night she stayed.

  Colton.

  She’d teased and taunted him for sure.

  But he’d met her move for move. Kissing and caressing every inch of her skin until she was writhing on the bed, literally begging him for more.

  A waitress walked over to their table, and Camila’s thoughts were instantly back in the café. On her friend. Her eyes darted again to the men outside, now conferring intently with one another. She ordered a coffee and eyed Rosa as their waitress walked away. “It’s been this way for a while now. The rival cartels looking to take over the market. The new members wanting to unseat my father from his position of power.” She shrugged. “My father always comes out ahead. Everyone knows this.”

  Rosa shook her head. “If your father’s own men turn against him? That’s not anything you can stop.”

  “Pffft. Too many of the men have been with him for years. They’re seduced by the allure of money and power and women. Why would they go against him?”

  “Because they want it ALL. Not just whatever Miguel Rodriguez is willing to hand out to them. Besides. Three more women have gone missing.” She raised her eyebrows, pointedly eyeing Camila.

  Everyone in Bogota knew why the women had vanished. Maybe they didn’t know the specific location, the specific men who had taken them. But the why? The how?

  The Rodriguez cartel had been kidnapping more women left and right. The entire city was afraid—and rightfully so. Camila and Rosa might be safe, but other women their age?

  “You know I don’t have a say in my father’s operations. I don’t think it’s right either, to kidnap and sell innocent women. But what am I supposed to do? Even the police won’t do anything to find them. My father has them under his thumb even more than his own men.”

  “Money talks,” Rosa said, rubbing her thumb and fingers together.

  Camila laughed. “I have money, sure. But my father pays them far more than I ever could. And if he found out I went against him? That I did something to impede his entire operation? He’d sell me off to the highest bidder.”

  Rosa snorted. “He wouldn’t. His only daughter? If anything, he loves taunting his men with you too much.”

  Camila’s eyes narrowed. “That would be infinitely worse. A rich man paying for a woman would be preferable in about a thousand ways to letting those thugs have their way with me.”

  The waitress nearly dropped the tray, clumsily setting Camila’s coffee down in front of her. Some of the dark black brew sloshed over the side of the mug. The waitress mumbled an apology, hastily dabbing it with some napkins before placing a small pitcher of creamer and a bowl of sugar cubes on the table.

  She hurried back toward the kitchen before even asking if they needed anything else.

  Rosa glanced back at Camila. “I guess she overheard our conversation.”

  “It’s no secret who I am.”

  Camila eyed her friend until she shrugged and changed the subject. “You never finished telling me about your trip to Miami last weekend. The other night you barely even looked at another man when we went out dancing. You? Camila Rodriguez? Not go home with a handsome stranger?” She laughed, and Camila couldn’t hold back the smile playing at her lips.

  “Did you meet someone there? You did!” she shrieked when Camila didn’t immediately answer.

  “I did meet a man. When I got stranded at Miami International Airport for the night?” She leaned forward in her seat. “Let’s just say I wasn’t alone. I had some very good company for the evening.”

  “Spill!” Rosa said, her eyes lighting up. “Is he American? Colombian? Incredibly handsome?”

  Camila nodded, slowly stirring sugar and creamer into her coffee. “Si. American. Very handsome. And very good in bed,” she added with a throaty laugh.

  Rosa smirked. “So, are you going to see him again? Maybe another impromptu trip to Miami is in order?”

  “I won’t see him again. We spent the night together but didn’t exchange any contact information. I got on my flight to Colombia the next morning, and he headed off toward domestic departures. I can’t even remember where he said he was going—somewhere in the States.”

  Rosa smiled knowingly. “Mmm-hmm. Not much time for chit-chat?”

  Camila laughed. “We talked. Although mostly it was about all the ways he wanted me to scream his name.”

  Her friend giggled as she took a sip of her coffee. “So, he’s a fantastic lover, and you didn’t bother to get his name? What if he had a handsome brother for me to meet?”

  “Oh, I got his name. Colton something or other.” She shrugged.

  “Are you blushing?” Rosa shrieked. “Camila Rodriguez blushing over a man?”

  Camila tried not to laugh, a feeling of warmth washing over her. She smoothed her dress over her legs, remembering Colton’s hands running over her thighs. “I may have cried out his name a few times in bed. He was very, very persuasive,” she added with a wink. “But don’t worry, my friend. He was shocked when I pleasured him, too. After all, I couldn’t let him have all the fun.”

  “I don’t doubt it. Word has gotten around about your expertise.”

  Camila pouted. “A gentleman never kisses and tells.”

  Rosa raised her eyebrows. “And who’s to say the men you’ve been taking home with you are gentlemen?”

  “Touché.”

  “What did you buy?” Rosa asked, eyeing the shopping bags on the floor. “Hopefully something in my size.”

  “A little of everything—new stilettos, a sexy little dress for the next time we go dancing. Perfume. Lingerie.”

  “What didn’t you buy?” Rosa joked.

  Camila waved her hand in a gesture of dismissal. “I needed something to do. My father wanted me out of the mansion for some important meeting he had. I’m not sure if he didn’t want me to see what was going on or if he didn’t want the men he was having over to see me.”

  “I’m worried about you.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “You’re completely oblivious to what’s going on all around us.”

  Camila’s gaze hardened. “Oblivious? No. I know what I can and can’t do in my life. I’m lucky, yes—my father gives me everything. Money. Protection. A certain amount of power being that I’m his daughter. But I’m in a gilded cage, no? I can have what I want as long as I stay here and do exactly what he says.”

  Rosa nodded. “But are you happy living that way forever? You have fun seeing different men now, sure. But if you want your own family someday? If you ever fall in love?”

  “Am I happy?” Camila asked in disbelief. “No. But what choices do I have?” She reached over and grabbed her purse, carefully pulling out her compact and reapplying her red lipstick.

  “Exactly,” Rosa chided. “You put on a happy face, looking the part, but inside? You’ll never have what you really want.”

  Camila pursed her lips together, the truth of Rosa’s words settling inside her. Her gaze shifted toward the door of the café as the two guards she was with suddenly came storming in. Camila watched, startled, as the biggest one moved to grab her arm. “We have to leave,” he said, his voice gruff as his thick fingers wound around her bicep.

  “Now? Why?” she asked, glancing around in confusion. There didn’t appear to be any threa
ts, either in the café or outside it. “We haven’t even finished our coffee yet.”

  His grip on her arm tightened, and she winced in surprise. “Now,” he repeated.

  Her other bodyguard stood eyeing Rosa, his interest piquing. Camila’s heart thumped in her chest, and she glanced from her friend toward the front door as she stood up. The other patrons in the café were beginning to take notice of their loud discussion, but none appeared interested in confronting her or her bodyguards.

  She stumbled slightly in her high heeled sandals as the guard tugged her toward him.

  “My bags,” Camila said, reaching out as the first guard steered her away, bodily moving her toward the door.

  “They stay,” he said, his voice steel.

  “Rosa,” Camila said helplessly as the second bodyguard followed, the two men ushering her between the tables toward the front door. The other customers looked down, and their waitresses stood perfectly still, not daring to move.

  Camila’s purse lay on the table where she’d left it, her bags on the floor. Rosa looked slightly alarmed. For the first time, Camila’s chest tightened in panic. Her bodyguards weren’t moving her out of the café for her protection. Weren’t letting her gather up her things.

  They were taking her. Hustling her toward a van idling on the street. Kidnapping her just like all the other women and girls who’d gone missing. Camila opened her mouth, ready to scream, when a dark cloth covered her face.

  A sickeningly sweet smell overwhelmed her senses, and her mind began to fog. She fought to maintain her balance as she stumbled on the sidewalk, her dress blowing lightly in the wind.

  Vice-like arms gripped her from behind, binding her arms to her sides, constricting her movement. She was too scared to scream. Too weak to fight back.

  A man bodily lifted her into the waiting van.

  And then everything faded to black.

  Chapter 6

  COLTON SCRUBBED A HAND across his day-old stubble, grabbing a chair in the bull-pen and sinking down into a seat. His rumpled shirt was tucked into his jeans, and the boots he’d pulled on in haste this morning weren’t even tightened. The rest of his team shuffled around him, dragging chairs over as well for the impromptu 0500 meeting. They’d been called into base with less than an hour’s notice, and Colton figured that whatever was happening was big.

  Take-down a Colombian drug lord big.

  Their team leader Hunter moved to the front of the room with Delta’s CO, the two speaking in low voices as they conferred with one another while the massive flat-screen TV in front of them flickered with static, waiting for the secure connection to go through.

  “You look like shit,” Ryker said as he sat across from Colton, smirking. His gray eyes flickered with amusement.

  Colton raised his eyebrows, glancing at his rumpled-looking teammate. “I didn’t get all my beauty sleep last night. What’d you do? Roll out of bed and grab something from your dirty laundry?”

  “Yeah, how’d you arrive looking fresh as a daisy?” Noah quipped sarcastically, his gaze landing on Ryker.

  Ryker scowled as the other men on the team guffawed.

  “Let me guess, you were otherwise occupied.” Colton said. He crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair with a grin. “What’d you do? Sneak out on your one-night-stand?”

  “No need to look so damn happy about it,” Ryker muttered. “She was gorgeous. I had to leave her in bed and swing by my apartment to grab my ID to get onto base. Not exactly how I planned to start my morning.”

  “Hoorah,” Noah said, adjusting the aviators atop his head with a smirk.

  Their gazes all landed on the TV at the front of the room as the secure connection to the Pentagon finally went through. A moment later Admiral Pearson’s face appeared on the screen, surrounded by a room full of military personnel and top brass at the Pentagon. “Good morning, team. By now you’ve received the latest SITREP on the situation in Colombia.”

  “Affirmative,” their CO said. “I’ll brief the Delta team on the latest updates. We can be ready to move out within the hour as soon as we receive orders, sir.”

  Colton raised his eyebrows. SITREPs, or situation reports, provided up-to-the minute intelligence on situations unfolding all over the world. The Delta team had been primed and ready to go for several days, waiting on word from the Pentagon as to when they’d make the move to deploy. An emergency briefing before going wheels up meant something else was going on.

  A doorway behind him opened, and Colton glanced back to see Captain Ryan Mitchell, the Alpha SEAL team’s CO, striding into the room. He nodded at the Delta team as he passed, his face stern and unreadable, before he stopped beside their own CO at the front.

  “Captain Mitchell,” the admiral addressed him. “What’s the update on the situation in Kabul? Your team has moved out?”

  He nodded. “Affirmative. The Alpha team went wheels up at 0400. They’ll be ready to move in as soon as they land.”

  Admiral Pearson nodded and eyed the men on the Delta team from the secure video call. “As everyone is aware, the Alpha team was sent on another critical operation. They won’t be deploying to Colombia with you. We’ve been waiting on intel for over a month to take down Miguel Rodriguez, the head of the Rodriguez cartel down in Bogota. Practically every damn three-letter agency has been involved gathering intelligence on this—DOD, DEA, FBI. Even the damn TSA is on alert at airports. We’ve had our eyes and ears open, and now is the chance to move in. Although we’d planned to send Alpha and Delta together, we don’t have time to wait for their return. Rodriguez has been more accessible than usual due to the current situation unfolding. Now is our chance to bring him in.”

  “What situation is that, sir?” Hunter asked from beside the CO.

  The admiral cleared his throat. “His daughter was kidnapped. The latest SITREP provides additional details, but it appears Rodriguez’s own men have turned on him. The bodyguards of his own daughter nabbed her—possibly for their sex trafficking ring. Possibly for their own purposes. They could be demanding ransom. The intel is still out on the specifics. Rodriguez has been out in the open looking for answers, more careless about his security than ever before, and we’re moving in to take him.”

  Colton blinked, momentarily in a daze at this new piece of information. Images from his night with Camila at the Miami hotel flashed through his mind. Her throaty laugh filled his ears. The memory of her scent slammed into him.

  His gut clenched, and he ground his jaw, his blood boiling as he tried to focus on the secure feed. To listen to the rest of what the admiral was saying. His hands fisted at his sides, his anger a living, breathing thing.

  “Camila?” he asked, his voice low.

  As far as he knew Miguel Rodriguez only had one daughter.

  But he needed to be certain. To make everything crystal clear.

  His CO eyed him coolly, calmly assessing Colton’s demeanor. “Affirmative.”

  All eyes swept back to Colton as he muttered a curse. “When?” His voice sounded hoarse. Desperate. Unlike him.

  “Yesterday afternoon from a café in Bogota. Her bodyguards were right outside according to witness accounts, and then they rushed in and took her. Her friend was there, too, but left untouched. Nobody made any attempts to stop them. Not surprising, given that Miguel Rodriguez has even the local police under his control. She was thrown into a van and taken, location unknown at this time.”

  “Fuck,” Colton muttered under his breath.

  His CO addressed the admiral. “Colton put trackers on her belongings last week when he intercepted her at the airport. They could still lead us straight to Rodriguez if he’s going after her himself.”

  “So, we’re still able to track Camila?” Colton asked, something like hope springing forth in his chest. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, giving him purpose. Strength.

  “Negative. She left everything in the café—purse, phone, belongings. Even if we wanted to flush out her father that way, we c
ouldn’t. It doesn’t matter either way. Our operation isn’t about recusing the woman—any of the women. We’re taking down the kingpin.”

  Colton sat stiffly in his seat as the admiral continued the rest of the secure call, providing some details of the operation and other government agencies involved. And then just as quickly he dismissed them, turning off the feed to move on to other matters of national security with his team assembled at the Pentagon.

  Some of the men began murmuring around him, and Colton’s eyes landed on the CO.

  “Is this personal?” his CO finally asked, eyeing him as static once again filled the screen behind him.

  “Personal? No. Yes. Of course it’s fucking personal,” Colton spat out. “I spent the night with her at my hotel. In my hotel room.”

  Ryker snickered, and Colton shot him a look that could kill.

  “She was in my bed all goddamn night. And I went through her belongings—every last thing. She’s clean. No trace of anything her father is involved in. You saw the emails we pulled. There’s nothing that connects her to any of his operations.”

  “Then we move in and get her, too,” Noah said. “Plus all those other innocent women who’ve been kidnapped.”

  “Not part of the op,” their CO interjected. “If we find them along the way, we rescue them. Turn them over to the Colombian military. But we’re not chasing after every damn woman they’ve nabbed. That would take weeks, months—hell, even years. Our mission is going in after one man.”

  Colton clenched his fists, resisting the urge to pound the table. To break something. To shout out in anger.

  Hell.

  He barely even knew the woman but knew he’d do anything in his power to rescue her. Protect her. Hell, he’d do everything. It wasn’t even a question.

  Ryker eyed him coolly from across the table, and Colton could practically see the wheels turning in his head. None of the team would abandon their mission, but when push came to shove, not one of the men was willing to leave a woman to be sold off as a sex slave.