by Elle James
“Sweetie, we’ll get him back. In one piece.” Casey stroked Kalea’s thick dark hair, praying what she’d said was true. “With an entire SEAL team on the job, the drug cartel doesn’t stand a chance.”
“What if they don’t get there in time?” Kalea cried again.
“As my mother always told me, don’t borrow trouble.” Casey set her friend at arm’s length. “You can’t worry about what might or might not happen. Besides, you can’t cry all afternoon. You’ll wreck your face for the wedding tomorrow. And you want to be at your best for your man.”
Kalea nodded, swallowed a sob and straightened her shoulders. “You’re right. I have to look great for tomorrow.” She gave her friend a watery smile. “I’m getting married.” Another tear rolled down her cheek.
Casey frowned. “We’ll have no more tears.” She looked around the apartment. “You know, I’d planned on finishing up the tiny bags of birdseed to be used tomorrow. Why don’t you help me?”
Kalea scrubbed her hands down her face, wiping away the tears. “I thought you had everything done.”
She’d had everything in place, done and complete two days ago. Making a few more bags of birdseed would help pass the time and keep Kalea’s hands occupied.
As they poured birdseed into little squares of white tulle and tied them with small strips of white satin ribbon, Casey tried to think of something to talk about other than Hawk and what the SEALs were planning.
“Have you decided where you’re going to live after you and Hawk are married?” Casey rolled her eyes. “Of course, it’ll be Hawaii, but will you stay on the Big Island, or will Hawk need to move to Oahu where he can set up that other branch office of Hank’s Brotherhood Protectors?”
“We’re staying on the Big Island,” Kalea said. “I’m working with my father on managing the ranch. Eventually, I’ll take over when Dad retires. Hopefully, not anytime soon. Hawk will have an office on the ranch and another in Honolulu that he’ll travel to several times a month. He’s going to recruit more retired or separated special operations folks to man the Honolulu office.”
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the guys coming off active duty,” Casey said. “They can continue to utilize their combat training while protecting their clients.” She tied a little bow and set her bag in a basket quickly filling with the birdseed favors.
“I hope he’ll be happy in Hawaii,” Kalea said. “He’d had his heart set on moving to Montana before he was assigned to protect me.” She smiled. “No one seems to know about the big cattle industry we have in Hawaii. Parkman Ranch is one of the largest ranches in the United States. It just doesn’t happen to be on the mainland.”
Casey chuckled. “And it has perhaps the best weather of all the ranches. I can’t imagine anyone moving to Montana for the weather.”
Kaley smiled. “He does love the weather.”
“And you,” Casey reminded her.
“I hope he’s okay,” Kalea whispered.
“Me, too,” Casey echoed.
For a moment, silence reigned.
“What about you?” Kalea said, breaking through the quiet. “What’s this thing between you and Rooster?”
Casey shrugged. “What thing?”
Kalea’s lips twisted. “Seriously? You’re going to pretend he means nothing to you? After all that sucking face in the hallway before he left?”
“We’ve only known each other for a day.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of love at first sight?” Kalea asked.
“Heard of it,” Casey said. “Don’t believe in it.”
“No?”
“Is that what happened between you and Hawk?” Casey asked.
Kalea laughed. “Not hardly. I resented him. He followed me around, until I called him out on it. My father had hired him to protect me, without my knowledge or permission. He irritated the hell out of me.” Her lips twisted into a wry grin. “But he was darned sexy, and a real cowboy. How could I resist?” A frown pulled her brow low. “And he saved my life.”
“I thought you saved his when you had to crash land the plane on that deserted island.”
Kalea shrugged. “I saved my life. It was a bonus that I saved his as well. I’m a trained pilot. I had to land that plane, with or without him.”
“I imagine you gained his respect when you did that.”
“We’re lucky to be alive.” She stared down at the tulle and birdseed in her hand.
Casey laid a hand on her arm. “He’s going to be okay. You two didn’t go through all that hassle in Hawaii to come to California and have it end here. He’ll be back. You’ll get married, and we’ll all converge on Hawaii for the celebration after your honeymoon.” She squeezed Kalea’s arm and went back to work on the bag she was making. “Speaking of honeymoons, where are you two going? Many people go to an exotic island. But wait, you two will be living on one.”
Kalea laughed. “Right. Hawk is taking me to a mountain hideaway in Eagle Rock, Montana, for two weeks. Hank and Sadie have a friend who is letting us stay at her ranch retreat. It has everything. A pool, horses to ride, trails to hike, an incredible view, a chef and a large master bedroom.” Kalea sighed. “What more could I ask for? I’ve never been on a ranch in the states. I’m looking forward to it.”
“You should love it. I hear Montana is gorgeous in the summer.”
Kalea nodded. “And we’ll get to ride horses, something Hawk and I have in common.” She smiled across at Casey. “Who would have thought I’d fall in love with a cowboy?” She looked down at herself. “Who would have thought a cowboy would fall in love with this Hawaiian? I’m not the usual rodeo queen.”
“Sweetie, you’re gorgeous. Any man would be lucky to have you. I’d give my eyeteeth for your skin, your wavy hair and the way you move to music.” Casey sighed.
“You have gorgeous dark hair.”
“Yeah, but I can’t dance to save my life.” The memory of her dancing like a stripper made her cringe inwardly. She must have been a disappointment to the men at the bachelor party.
“You don’t have to know how to dance to attract a lover,” Kalea said.
“Obviously. If Jacob is any indication.” Casey smiled. He’d seen her dance and still wanted to make love to her.
“Back to you and Rooster,” Kalea started. “I thought you never wanted to get into a relationship with a military guy.”
“I didn’t.” Casey frowned and corrected. “I don’t.”
Kalea laughed. “What’s with you and military guys? Did you have a run-in with one that I don’t know about?”
“You could say that.” She poured more seed into a square of tulle. “You know I grew up a military brat, right?”
“Yeah, I knew that. But your parents stayed together.”
“Unlike so many marriages that couldn’t withstand the pressure of constant separation.” Casey shook her head. “I watched my mother cry every time my father left and shed more tears while he was gone. I never wanted that kind of relationship. I wanted a man who had a regular job. Who came home at night and was there on weekends.”
Kalea hiked an eyebrow. “How’s that working for you?”
Casey shrugged.
Her friend nodded. “None of those nine-to-five guys are as attractive as the men in uniform, are they?”
“Not hardly. And they don’t have the work ethic to stick to a job until it’s done. They wouldn’t work day or night to see it through. Wherever they left their work at the office at five in the afternoon was where they’d pick it up again the next morning at nine.” Casey’s brow puckered. “I like a man with work ethic and a sense of urgency to get the job done.”
“Like our military guys, who do whatever it takes to make things happen,” Kalea said.
“Yeah.”
Kalea shaped a bow on the bag she’d finished. “So, all military guys aren’t that bad.”
“No,” Casey admitted.
“Am I hearing that you might make an exception for Rooster…
?” Kalea met Casey’s gaze.
Casey couldn’t look away. “I think so.” She lifted a shoulder. “At least for a date. Maybe two.”
“Glad to hear it. Hawk says he’s a really great guy. He saved my man’s life on a number of occasions in battle. I owe him.” She paused, staring down at an empty square of tulle. “I hope they don’t run into too much difficulty getting Hawk out.”
“I hope Hawk is where they think he is,” Casey said. “As long as he is, they’ll get him out. With a team stacked with all that SEAL talent, they can’t be anything but successful.”
“I’m glad you’re so sure. Did you notice that there’s a storm rolling in off the coast? What’s that going to do to the guys out there on the water?” Kalea shook her head. “I’m worried about Hawk and the rest of the men. The storm isn’t supposed to hit until early morning, but we don’t know how long it will take to get in, out and back on the water.”
“They’re experienced operatives. I’m sure they know to check the weather as part of their planning process.” Now that she knew weather could be a factor on the water, Casey’s anxiety level ratcheted up a notch, or ten. She finished the bag she was working on and jumped up. “Are you hungry? I could cook something.”
Kalea shook her head. “Not really, but cooking might help calm my nerves.”
“Now that I offered, I hope I have something edible in the refrigerator.” She led the way to kitchen and started pulling out vegetables, a package of chicken breasts, pans and spices.
They smothered the chicken breasts, bell peppers, onions and zucchini in Cajun seasoning. While it baked in the oven, Kalea and Casey chopped lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and red onions for a salad.
When it was ready, they set the table with Casey’s best dishes and wine glasses. The sun was setting, casting the dining area in shadows. Casey switched on the chandelier over the table, and they sat down to eat.
Kalea stared at the plate of food in front of her. “It looks great.”
Casey did the same, the scent of all the food tantalizing, but not enough. She captured Kalea’s gaze. “Are you feeling as guilty as I am?”
Kalea nodded. “We’re sitting here with a pile of food in front of us, comfortable, safe and warm while the guys might be out on the sea, being splashed by cold Pacific waves, heading into a potentially hostile situation. And who knows what Hawk might be enduring?” She set her fork beside her plate. “I can’t.”
Casey’s stomach knotted. “Me either.” She set her fork on the table, gathered her plate and Kalea’s. “I’ll put this into a storage container. When we know the guys are safe, we can nuke it and eat it then.”
Kalea nodded. “I like that idea.” She helped Casey scrape food into containers and place them in the refrigerator. “I’ll wash, if you want to dry, since you know where everything goes.”
“I have a dishwasher,” Casey said.
“I know. But this will take more time. And we have way too much of that on our hands.”
“True.” Casey got a dishtowel out of a drawer, while Kalea filled the sink with soapy water. She was reaching for a wet plate when her cellphone rang. Laying the towel on the counter, she hurried into the dining room, her heart fluttering against her ribs. It couldn’t be Jacob. They wouldn’t be at their destination already.
She didn’t recognize the number on the screen and almost didn’t answer, thinking it might be a spam call. At the third ring, she answered. With all that was going on with the men, and a wedding that might or might not take place the next day, she couldn’t afford to ignore a call.
“Casey?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“It’s me, Mina Perez,” she said, her voice low and rushed.
Casey frowned. “Hi, Mina. What’s up?”
“I had a visit from my cousin Camila. She left just a few minutes ago.”
Casey’s hand tightened on her cellphone, and she glanced across the bar at Kalea.
Kalea had paused with her hands half out of the water, soap suds up to her elbows.
“Camila came to your salon?” she said loud enough for Kalea to hear. She moved the phone away from her ear and hit the speaker button.
Kalea dried her hands on the towel and came around the bar.
“Yes. She shows up on occasion without an appointment and wants me to drop everything and do her hair. This time, she wanted me to fix it in an updo. She said she’s getting married.”
Kalea gasped.
“Did she say who she was marrying?”
“No. But she said she was in a hurry and had to get everything together before she headed home to her family for the ceremony.”
“Home?” Casey asked. “And where is her family?”
“In Mexico.” Mina paused. “I thought you’d want to know. And she said something else that concerned me.”
As if getting married in Mexico wasn’t enough, considering she’d professed her love for Hawk the previous night. “What else did she say?” Casey asked.
“She said, she had one other thing to do before going. Something about insurance to make sure her groom didn’t bail on her.”
Casey met Kalea’s gaze and frowned. “I’m not sure what she meant by that.”
“Me either. But it didn’t sound good,” Mina said. “I thought you might want to know. Maybe you could figure out what kind of insurance she’d need if she was planning on marrying your friend. I hope you find him. Good luck.” Mina ended the call.
“What kind of insurance does one get to make sure a man marries her?” Casey asked.
“I’d like to get my hands on this Camila woman,” Kalea said, her face set in grim lines. “My hands around her throat, that is.”
“I’m betting she’s having trouble getting him to agree to marry her,” Casey said.
“He won’t do it,” Kalea said. “Even if his life depended on it.”
Casey’s heart dropped to her belly. “But what if Camila threatened the life of someone he loved?”
“I know Hawk. He’d move heaven and earth, risking his own life to protect a loved one. I mean, he could have been killed when he was protecting me.” Her eyes widened. “You don’t think…”
Casey not only thought it, she would bet her favorite clipboard on it. “If she wants to make sure he says yes, she has to hold a carrot over his head.” She pointed a finger at Kalea. “The biggest carrot she can find is Hawk’s bride. Holy hell, Kalea, she’s coming for you.”
Kalea’s eyes widened. “Get the gun.”
Casey and Kalea hurried toward the door and the hall table where Jacob had laid his nine-millimeter pistol.
Before they reached it, the entry door crashed inward, the wooden doorframe splintering into a hundred jagged pieces.
Two men dressed in dark clothes and ski masks stormed in, pointing handguns at Casey and Kalea.
With her own gun out of reach, Casey had two choices, throw herself at the gunmen and pray they didn’t shoot, or raise her hands and pray they didn’t kill them anyway.
She shoved Kalea to the ground and launched herself at the gunmen, screaming like a banshee.
The lead man fired one shot. Casey expected to feel the bullet slamming into her body. She didn’t change her trajectory, ducking low like a football player on the defensive line, plowing into the quarterback.
As she neared the lead man, she shoved his hand holding the gun, tucked her shoulder and rammed into his belly with as much power as she could muster in the short distance she’d crossed.
The man grunted and stepped back one step. He raised his gun hand and brought it down hard, hitting her on the side of the head with the flat side of the metal, sending her flying across the hallway.
Casey hit the wall and sank to the floor, her head spinning, a gray fog consuming her. She fought to stay conscious.
Kalea screamed somewhere in the cave of her apartment, and then she heard nothing.
Rough hands lifted and threw her over a hard-muscled shoulder. As she was carrie
d out of her apartment and into the night, darkness consumed her.
Chapter 10
Surf splashed in Jacob’s face as he leaned forward on the bow of the dive boat they’d commandeered from a friend of a friend of Hank’s to make the trip along the coast under the cover of darkness.
Each Navy SEAL wore a wetsuit to guard against the cold water of the Pacific and to blend into the night once they made it to the shore. They’d brought along a spare wetsuit for Hawk, once they extracted him from the cartel’s compound.
From the intel they’d received from Swede’s contact with the DEA, the compound was more of a resort home, perched on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean. They probably assumed they wouldn’t be attacked from that direction.
The cartel had never gone up against the Navy SEALs.
Jacob welcomed the cold water that soaked his hair and face. It kept him focused and charged for what would come next. As they neared the GPS location several yards off the coast, they could see the lights streaming from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the home that was surrounded by a concrete wall. All they had to do was scale the cliff, while carrying weapons, climb the wall and storm the building.
Piece of cake.
He prayed the cartel didn’t kill Hawk before they got inside. They’d timed their arrival for a couple hours past dusk, hoping the inhabitants of the structure would be lulled into a false sense of peace and security that sometimes comes with nightfall and the lack of overt attacks from land.
Hank stood beside the captain of the boat as he brought the craft to a halt. They’d carefully snuffed all onboard lights to avoid detection from the building the DEA had indicated as the cartel’s current stronghold.
Jacob removed the monocular from inside his wetsuit and fit it over his right eye, focusing on the structure clinging to the side of the cliff. The walls around it and the cliff rising out of the sea made it a veritable fortress. Thankfully, they’d known what they were up against before attempting the extraction from this direction.
