by Taylor Hart
Shay endured the ribbing from his siblings as they entered the helicopter. Even though he was a tad nervous about where they were going and what they were going to do, he had one hundred percent faith in his brother.
Jaycee held his hand, and he leaned in and swiped a kiss.
“O-kay, people, honeymoon over.” Liam sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and wagging his eyebrows at him. “But I bet it was good.”
Shay only pumped his eyebrows back.
“Quiet,” Jack said in his commanding tone.
His people were helping everyone on the aircraft, and Jack was busy tapping on some electronic, but he did pause and reach out a hand to Tauni as she got on the helo. Awkwardness stretched briefly between them, and then Jack leaned in and brushed his lips against hers.
Tauni’s face burned red. "I never said you could do that."
Jack laughed and patted her bum as she turned.
Tauni frowned at him, then moved to sit by Jaycee. “Hey.” They met each other’s eyes and both burst out laughing, then started whispering to each other.
Shay grinned and leaned back, resting his head against the back and closing his eyes for a second. He and Jaycee were here together. His family was here. Everyone was safe. That was all that mattered.
The helicopter started to take off. He looked to his mother and father, who were holding hands and smiling at him and Jaycee. He waved at them, and they nodded.
Yes, it was good. He glanced at all of his siblings, and most of them were looking at him and Jaycee. Their attention made him feel a bit shy.
Liam elbowed him. “Dude, always gotta be the star, don’t you?”
Shay grunted, rolling his eyes. “Hey, you were the one who had to come out second and be on oxygen. You’ve been stealing my attention for twenty-four years.”
They shared a laugh. “We’re all happy for you, Shay,” Liam said. “Really happy for you.”
“Holy crap!” Jack suddenly called out, waving his hand. “Put the bird down; we have incoming!”
Chapter 24
Jaycee was terrified. The helo landed, and the SEALs were already firing upward. Everything was so loud and confusing. Before she knew what happened, three helicopters were closing in on them, landing.
“Stay!” Jack roared at them. He pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and held it out.
“Jaycee!” she heard.
Her heart raced. It was her father yelling on some kind of megaphone.
Jack turned back, giving her a severe look.
“Stand down, sailor,” her father called out. "I want my daughter."
Jack’s men were all poised next to the helo, ready to fight.
Shay’s hand had hers in a vice grip. “No!” he said to her, looking around at everyone. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“Come out right now, Jaycee!” her father thundered.
Duke stood, moving to the entrance. “No, Dad. She’s not coming.”
Her father appeared at the entrance to the help, flanked by two guards. He turned to Duke. “What are you doing here?”
Duke stepped out of the helo. He threw his head back and let out a huge laugh. “That’s funny, you didn’t even know I was gone.”
Jaycee wouldn’t let him face her father alone. She wiggled out of Shay’s grasp.
But Shay was quicker, and he grabbed her hand before she could get out.
Duke turned back and met her gaze. "I'll deal with our father."
Her father looked at her, then back to Duke, anger on his face. "How will you deal with me, son? You've never been able to deal with anything without a drug pipe at the bottom of your hand."
Without warning, Duke pulled out a firearm and aimed it at his father.
The guards’ guns went up and targeted Duke.
“Whoa,” Jack said, walking toward them, putting his hands up.
“I know what you did, Dad. I know what you’re involved with, and it’s time to pay,” Duke said. He took another step forward.
“Duke,” Jaycee said, stepping off the helicopter and moving with him.
“No,” Shay followed her.
Now more soldiers were coming toward them. And Jack's guys were circling up.
Her father had come with three helicopters full of armed men. They were clearly outgunned.
Her father kept his gaze on Duke. “Finally, you have the guts to do something. Who would have thought that you’d be doing the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?” He snorted. “But I do give you credit for finally doing something.”
“You killed our mother,” Duke said, his hand steady, his glare firm. “You tortured our mother, putting her in and out of mental institutions, keeping her on drugs.” He nodded to Jaycee. “Then you tried to do the same thing to my sister.”
His father let out a sardonic laugh, sounding just like a villain in a movie. He put his hand to his chest. “I killed her? Me? If you know anything that you say you know, then you’ll know I was protecting her.” His face hardened into stone. He pointed to Jaycee. “I was protecting your sister, too.”
The moment went quiet.
Jaycee's heart raced and didn’t know why, but she had to tell him. “I got married yesterday, Dad.”
Her father reared back, moving his gaze to Shay. “Oh?”
“George Stetson married us.” It was ridiculous, but she wanted her father to know. The situation was ironic, in a way.
Her father looked ticked off, and he ran a hand over his head. “Of course he did. George,” he muttered. “I should have known he’d be involved in all of this.”
Another moment stretched interminably, with Duke holding the gun on her father and her father glancing from one of his children to the other.
"I guess we all know who each other is now," her father said.
Jack took a small step closer to Duke. "We can all work this out, let's put the guns down."
“What are you going to do, Duke?” her father asked.
Duke’s eyes glimmered with wetness. He gripped the gun harder. “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you and end all of this.”
“Naw.” His father turned to the soldiers, signaling them. “Put your guns down. He’s not doing it, or he would have done it.”
The soldiers were slow to act, but they started getting closer, putting their guns down.
Duke still kept his gun on his father. "I hate you."
Jack cleared his throat. “Duke, you don’t have to do this. We have evidence. We’ll take this to the top, and it’ll be over.”
A tear fell down Duke’s cheek. “Don’t you see? He comes here with three government helicopters. It’s not going to be over.”
“Oh, but it will,” her father said, drawing a gun of his own. “It’s already over, son. Put the gun down, because if you shoot me, I’ll shoot you.”
Duke sniffed, then laughed. “The funny thing is that I’ve been trying to get clean the past year so I could be the man you needed me to be and now I know the final report will say I was drugged and out of my mind, won’t it?”
Her father snarled, pointing the gun at Jaycee. “Exactly. That's exactly what you were when you killed your sister."
It all happened so fast. The shot went off.
Duke dove in front of Jaycee.
She fell to the ground, and Shay caught her.
More gunfire exploded.
Then … everything went dark.
Chapter 25
Shay sat by Jaycee’s bedside, waiting. Duke had knocked her down and saved her life, but she’d taken a blow to the head in the process. It’d been a half hour, and she hadn’t woken up.
“Jaycee,” he whispered, trying not to grip her hand so tightly. “Baby, come on now. Wake up.” Tears ran down his cheeks as he thought of the sacrifice Duke had given for her—his life.
After the senator had fired, Jack’s men had fired on him. Luckily, the rest of the Summervilles were still in the helo. One of Jack’s guys had been hurt, but Jack had
yelled so loudly and with such force that the other men had stopped firing. He’d pointed at them all and said, “I command you to stop this assault on civilians by the power of the American government and in the name of all that is good and holy everywhere and where freedom reigns.”
The other soldiers had actually listened.
Now, Shay cried as he thought about the power that Jack had always been so self-righteous about. He could see why others followed Jack’s command: he was a good man, the kind of man who would stand with you in battle and face down the Devil.
In the commotion of it all, Shay, Liam, and their father had rushed Jaycee back to the house. Tauni had come, too. Now, they were sorting the whole thing out. He could hear all the soldiers and Jack speaking loudly, cursing periodically.
Then … Jaycee’s eyes fluttered, and Shay’s world went right again. “You’re awake,” he breathed.
Jaycee opened her eyes. “Shay?”
He embraced her and crushed her against his chest. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”
“Duke?”
Shay shook his head.
“Duke!” she called out, bursting into hysterical tears. "Duke!"
Epilogue
1 Year Later
Jaycee hadn’t pictured herself living at the manor house with Shay this summer. It wasn’t that she hated the place, but so many difficult things had happened there. Now, as she stood on the porch overlooking the lake, her hand to her belly, she thought about her mother. And Duke.
The year had been hard. Her brother’s funeral had ripped her heart out. They’d dismantled her father’s campaign and made sure that he was locked away in prison.
She shivered. It’d been so crazy and so …
“Hey,” Shay said, setting a light shawl on her shoulders and pulling her into his arms. The screen door shut behind him.
She leaned back into him, drinking in the strength of this man behind her. He’d stood by her side through every bad thing … and every good thing.
He touched her belly and kissed her neck. “How are you both doing tonight?”
Shay had been over at his family’s sound studio with his siblings, pounding out a new album. Even through all the craziness of the last year, the Summervilles kept getting more and more famous.
What was the saying? “All PR is good PR”? Yeah, it hadn’t been hard for Mason to spin a somewhat truthful, somewhat careful story about the whole thing with her brother and father.
Of course, Jack had made sure that Mason didn’t reveal anything classified. His main concern was protecting the family from the organization and all the other people involved in this evil.
They’d decided, as a family, to let her father rot in jail, but leave it alone.
The line of government people involved was miles long, and at the end of the day, it would only prove their destruction if they kept pressing it all.
She linked her hands with Shay’s. “I’m good now that you’re here.”
He kissed her cheeks, then turned her to face him inside his arms, pressing his lips against hers.
She was getting close to having this baby, so it was harder to get as close to Shay as she wanted.
He wound his hands through her hair, tugging at it gently.
She moaned, loving how he touched her, held her. His hands roamed, and pretty soon she was feeling a little revved up.
He smiled against her. “Can I talk you into retiring to the bedroom early with me?”
She laughed against his lips and kissed him.
He deepened the kiss, then picked her up.
Surprised, she grunted. “Why do you carry me around? I’m too heavy.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her as he pulled open the screen door and carried her inside. “I gotta show off.”
Jaycee giggled and leaned into him. For the past year, she’d gone with Shay on tour, and it’d been the best experience of her life—touring and getting to know his family even better. She’d gotten to know him like never before, and she’d fallen even more in love with him. Of course, the physical parts of their relationship had been amazing, but he was her best friend. Her lover. Her everything.
Once he’d laid her on the bed, he picked up a guitar. “I have a song to show you before …” He winked at her. “We do something you’re going to like.”
She propped herself on her side, which was no small feat considering her heavy belly. “Oh yeah?”
He scooted the chair next to the bed, looked up to her and started strumming the guitar. The song was familiar, but she’d never heard it played this way. “It started in a small town. A girl and a guy. That’s how it always starts … in a small town, she kissed him by surprise. He wasn’t sure he liked her; she kinda was princess-y.”
She laughed.
“She didn’t even really want him, just wanted to torture her fam-i-ly. It started in a small town. A girl and guy. It started in a small town … but it was the best surprise.
She asked him to go to Vegas; he didn’t want to ruin her dreams. She asked him to just marry him; he thought he wasn’t good enough.
It started in a small town, a girl and a guy. It started in a small town—she kissed him by surprise. But what he finally knew, when she was taken from him … he shouldn’t ever let her go … out of that small town.”
He played the guitar hard and took it through some chord changes, then came back to the first key. “But when she finally came back to him, it was the best day of his life. When she finally came back to him, he knew he wanted her for his wife. In a small town, a girl and a guy. In a small town, now it’s better than he could have seen.
The vision of them here. It’s better than he could have seen … to have her in a small town, a girl and a guy. To have their baby in a small town.” He put the guitar down and slid onto the bed with her. “Married for all time. In a small town.” He kissed her.
So many emotions were running through her mind, and she didn’t even care that the tears ran freely down her face. “I love you, Shay. I will always love you.”
His hand brushed down her hair. “Forever, Jaycee. Forever.”
Then they were lost, speaking a language they’d only ever spoken with each other. With touch and intermittent singing, everything she ever could have hoped for.
I hope you enjoyed Her Country Star Cowboy Second Chance!
FREE Book!
Don’t miss a single release from Taylor Hart!
If you would like to receive updates on new releases and receive a book FREE, The Rookie, sign up HERE.
Sneak Peak Her Navy SEAL Cowboy - Jack and Tauni
Chapter One
At five-thirty in the morning, Jack Summerville pounded the dirt roads surrounding his house. Sure, he had lots of chores to help with, plus he’d have to help out at his dad’s auto body shop after school, but he was a senior this year. There were only two months until graduation, and then he could dust his heels of this small town and join the Navy. Finally, he could begin the journey to his dream of becoming a SEAL. He was tough and lean, and he had mental strength. You had to have mental strength growing up on a ranch as the oldest of nine kids.
He counted himself lucky that he had a good mother and father. They were proud of him and they’d support his dream, even though they didn’t really understand his intensity and they didn’t like that he was joining the Navy. It scared his mother to death, not that he cared. His father—well, let’s just say his father was more stoic about it all because he recognized the need for a man to pursue his dream in life.
Jack checked the timer on his phone. He was clocking just under a six-minute mile. Not fast enough to be a SEAL. He kicked it up a notch.
When he got home, he changed and ate a quick breakfast of eggs his mom had made him. He thanked her with a kiss on the cheek, then play-punched Shay and Liam, his freshman twin brothers. He retrieved his backpack and tickled Noah and Shar, the other twins, beneath their chins; they were six years younger than him, and they were too pleased by his
teasing. Once that was taken care of, he headed out the door with Shay and Liam.
He was climbing in the driver’s seat when his baby sister, five-year-old Kira, called out to him from the back porch. “Jack!” She rushed toward the truck in her nightgown, her hair still ratty from sleep. “You didn’t say goodbye.”
Jack got out and caught her as she threw herself into his arms. With a laugh, he kissed her cheek and put her down. “How’s the baby girl today?”
“I’m not the baby.” She scowled.
He kissed the top of her head and jumped back into the truck, rolling down the window. “Sure you’re not. You’re a big girl now.”
His mother rushed out the door. “Kira! You’re going to be late for your kindergarten bus. Let's get your hair done!”
Kira frowned back at her. “I don’t want my hair done.”
Jack took off, waving, and he and his brothers laughed at the whole scene. “Bye!” he called to his mother.
His mother put up a hand. “See you at dinner.”
This was his life. Well, this would be his life for two more months of senior year. Then, he’d leave this small-town life forever. Jack intrinsically knew that he was meant for more.
He and his brothers rocked out in the truck, and when they got to the school, he dropped everything in his locker before going to the ROTC training. They put the flag up and did some lame running in their little uniforms. Was it lame? Yes. But it would also give him some type of scholarship if he decided to pursue college instead of taking bullets his whole life. A little backup never hurt anyone. He finished getting the flag up, ran through the ceremony with the guys, then took a three-mile run around the school. Since running was his jam, what was another three miles?
He took a quick shower, just for the sake of smelling a little better, and went to class. First period was Mr. Mower, world history. Jack could get a snooze in there. Thank the good Lord. Problem was, when he slipped into class a minute before the bell rang, someone was in his seat.
