“It doesn’t make a difference. The answer to both could be the same thing,” he argued. His movements were quick as he dressed.
“To me, it is. You won’t hear that. You refuse to see it, and now I’m even more confused than I was.”
“Look, we’ll go home and relax. Take it day at a time and go from there.”
“That’s what you should have said this morning, Heim.”
“Katya.”
“I’m going home, Heim, but not with you. I’m going back to D.C. where I can see if I claim my life back. If I can be who I need to be.”
“You don’t have to leave to do that. I swear to you, I’ll give you time.”
She shook her head, and his stomach dropped to the floor. When she wrinkled her nose, spilling tears down her cheeks, his heart broke into tiny pieces. She was leaving. He knew as surely as the night they’d spent together. She was saying goodbye, but she was too fragile for him to stop like he did in the hotel. Too close to the edge to yank her back.
“Princess—”
“Let me go, Xavier.”
He froze at her use of his name. How could he deny her when she needed it so bad? “Fine, Princess. I’ll have Snake take you back to the house to get your things.”
“Goodbye, Heim.”
She walked out of the planetarium and he sank to his knees. Whatever sat in his gut soured and burned.
“What the hell is going on?” Snake asked as he slammed through the door. “Why is she telling me to take her home.”
“Go ahead and help her, Snake. Right now she can’t be around me.”
“Don’t let this end like this, man. If you do, you’ll regret it. Talk to her, try to convince her.”
“She isn’t Goddess, Snake. I can’t wrap myself in anger to get rid of her, and the tears in her eyes make me want to coddle a woman who doesn’t want to be coddled.”
Snake’s jaw tightened. Though the SEALs told each other everything most of the time, only Heim knew about the relationship the SEAL had with the famous singer. Because of both of their jobs, they’d kept things quiet. But a year before it had ended nasty. Something with some tabloids and a new man. Snake didn’t talk about her, ever, but he bought every album she released, and tickets to her shows. When he could stand seeing her, Heim went with him. They hovered in the shadows, watching the woman Snake loved and hated.
Katya wasn’t Goddess.
She hadn’t cheated and Heim hadn’t stormed out without letting her explain.
“Low blow, Heim.”
“It wasn’t meant to be, Snake. She asked me to let her go. Her worst fear is losing control, to being trapped again. I can’t be the one to do it to her. I have to let her go.”
“I’ll make sure she gets home safely, brother.”
“Thank you, Snake.”
Snake spun to leave, but he stopped when Heim spoke again. “Viktor, thanks for everything.”
“No problem. I know how bad this will get. Trust me. I’ll be there.”
It was long after Snake was gone before Heim forced himself to his feet. His legs nearly gave out under him, but he locked them and stood tall. The distance between him and the door stretched on forever, but he forced himself to march. There was a saying among SEALs: a SEAL didn’t rise to the occasion when shit got nasty. No, they sank to the level of their training, so train well. Training helped him put one foot in front of the other. Training helped him to his car, despite the questioning looks from his remaining team members. Of course Snake would have told them something and made sure they stayed with him. So when Glitz grabbed Heim’s keys from him, Heim didn’t argue. He just got in the passenger side and let them drive him away.
It wasn’t until a while later they reached the bar, and he decided that it might not be such a bad thing to drink his pain away.
Chapter Twenty
Katya
It only took a month. A month to realize she’d made the worse decision in her life. A month of waking up alone in her apartment unable to breathe. A month of nights where she went to sleep frightened of what her nightmares would bring. Sometimes she held the phone clasped in her hand, gripped so tightly she didn’t know what to do. Tonight was one of those nights.
She saw Hakeem bin Mohammed Tahib behind her closed lids. After coming home she’d researched her captor. His clean-shaven face, in order to mix in with the varied crowd of Qatar. His menacing eyes that were dead and forgotten. The metal of her phone pinched the soft skin between her thumb and forefinger. Heim’s number screamed at her, in black and white. Call him. Get help. Find a way to stay safe.
But she didn’t want to rely on him. That was why she left. To clear her head, to escape the memories, and remember who she ever had been. How she’d been. Leaving Heim only made everything worst. She missed him. To the depths of her soul, she craved him. Her sheets were hot and sweaty. The material stuck to her overheated limbs. Heim. She wanted Heim. To tell her it was better. That she would be okay.
To keep the memory of Hakeem at bay.
But he wasn’t beside her, and her lungs seized. As she remembered gunshots and the scent of decaying flesh she lost all ability to breathe. Therapy only helped so much. Her heart stuttered, sluggish and frightened. She pressed the call button on reflex. Shadows danced along the walls, darker than the night. They were coming back to finish her off. They’d found her, somehow, and she couldn’t make it. She didn’t have the strength to fight them again.
“Princess?” God, his voice. It rolled over her, filling her up and eased the pressure until she could take a needed breath.
“Heim!”
His name came out as nothing more than a wheeze. A please. A prayer.
“What’s wrong, baby? Where are you? Snake!”
“They’re coming. Oh God, Heim. I’m sorry. I never should have left. I love you. I love you so much. I just wanted you to know before it was over.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? Where are you? Katya.”
She heard fumbling and raised voices before Snake came on the line. “Talk to me, Princess. I need to know your location, how many, and what you see. If you can get to the floor, go now and whisper. Anything you can give me will help. Heim is getting your father on the line now because he’s closer, stay with me.”
“In my bedroom.” She took another breath. “I can’t tell how many. Tell Heim to hurry.”
“Princess, focus. I’ve seen you bite a chunk out of a man’s arm when you were tied to a chair and unarmed. Panic isn’t like you. Get to that floor, SEAL, and tell me what’s happening. Now!”
She rolled off her bed, hitting the floor with a resounding thud. The force of her hit sucked what little she had to oxygen trapped in her lungs whooshing out.
“Dammit, she’s in full anxiety attack mode. Where is the MCPON?”
“In route. Tell her we’re jumping on the next hop and help is coming.”
Welsh. She recognized his voice. Clung to it. Darkness encroached, spots danced on the edge of her vision. Her throat closed and she dropped the phone. She couldn’t hold it anymore. Pure terror raced through her as she clawed at her neck.
“Princess? Katya!”
Heim’s voice was the last thing she heard before everything went black.
*****
Warmth seeped into her skin, burning her up from the inside. It chased away the chill that spread through her from the moment she left California. And she could smell the salty tang of the sea. It buoyed her and swelled in her breast. She curled into the heat.
Then her heat chuckled. “Your nose is cold, Princess.”
Memories of the night before jolted through her system and she sat straight up in bed. She’d panicked and called Heim, and now he lay in bed beside her.
“You came,” she said.
“Of course I did. You took ten years of my life. By the time your father made it, you were unconscious. Passing out saved you though, because your body kicked back into breathing normally.”
“No
one was here?” she asked.
He pulled her into his arms and rubbed her back. “No one, Princess. You were trapped in a nightmare, like before. You couldn’t find your way out.”
“And I called you.”
“Yeah, you did. Did you mean it?” he asked.
“Did I mean what?” She knew, of course, what he talked about. Those three words he’d worked so hard to get from her before.
“How you felt. Did you mean it?”
She closed her eyes and inhaled, pulling his scent deep into her lungs and then exhaled. “Yes, Heim. Being apart showed me that I was scared. Scared of everything, including my feelings for you. I felt so out of control, and I needed that control back. I had to try. And then I came home and my bed was so empty. I didn’t have to cook for an army.”
“Sailors, baby. You didn’t have to cook for sailors.”
She slapped his arm playfully. “You know what I meant.”
“Well, the guys may be plenty hungry. They wouldn’t sleep until they’d patrolled the entire neighborhood, just in case your nightmare was brought on by a real intruder.”
“Patrolled? They’re here?”
“Of course. One of our own was in trouble. They all came, Princess.”
A different sort of warmth suffused it. It was slow and steady, like the rolling sea. It spread from her toes up her legs, across her torso and down to her fingertips. They’d come, for her. Staked out her neighborhood to make sure she was okay. Came to protect her, even after how she left. A watery chuckle slipped out as she looked at the man she loved.
“I promise to never walk away again, Heim.”
“Say it again, Princess. While I’m looking at you. Tell me you love me, so I know it’s real.”
“I love you, Xaver Eugene “Heim” Spencer. More than my fear, the control, and the darkness of my memories.”
“The whole name, huh?”
“Don’t you have something to say?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Not sure? Don’t make me grab that nightstand and bash your head in.”
“There’s my girl. Katya, you stole my heart that first night, and never gave it back. You took it with you when you left, and I wasn’t worried about you returning it. It will beat for you until the day I die. I love you is just not enough for how I feel.”
When he kissed her the sun blazed hotter and the world stopped spinning. The fragmented pieces of her soul, broken by her fear, slid back into place, bonded by the glue of his love. And when he took her, she didn’t hold anything back. Because to love a SEAL, a woman didn’t show any fear in the face of danger.
THE END
About the Author
Thanks for reading Protecting Butterfly, A SEALed Fate Novella, Lost Series Spin-off. I really hope you enjoyed it!
Want to know when my next book is available? You can keep in the know by signing up for my new release newsletter (or joining my Boundless Beauties advance review crew!) here, follow me on twitter at @LeTeishaNewton, or like my Facebook page at http://facebook.com/AuthorLeTeishaNewton.
Reviews help other readers find books. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.
This book is a spin-off of my Lost Series, a collection of stand-alone novels that are all about the stories of those who need second chances, or have lost so much in their lives, finding love. I hope you love them as much as I enjoyed writing them!
Coming soon is Protecting Goddess, A SEALed Fate Novella, Lost Series Spin-Off
Viktor “Snake” Franklin loved Akwasi Onwuachimba, and it broke him. She couldn’t see past the deceit, and he was too angry to explain himself. He buried his soul in SEAL missions with his teammates, and thought he left his heart behind.
The past has a way of catching up.
From their union came a child he knew nothing about, until Akwasi’s death became public. Al-Saif, a rich influencer of ISIS stationed out of Qatar, takes credit for a USO Concert attack that took Akwasi’s life. Revenge seems like the perfect remedy. Things change when an SOS message received by John “Tex” Teegan has only four words: Tell Snake I’m alive.
Snake is on a rescue mission to save the mother of his child, and just maybe his heart. For this SEAL, no one gets left behind.
Other Books by LeTeisha Newton
Contemporary Romance
One Hour Girl, Lost Series Book 1
Scarred, Lost Series Book 2
Phenomenal, Lost Series Book 2.5
GLITCH, Corporate Hitman Vol 1
SCRATCH, Corporate Hitman Vol 2
JACK, Corporate Hitman Vol 3
Paranormal Romance
Seer’s Burden – STRAND Book1
Sin’s Pleasure, Happily Never Happened #1
Rose’s Thorns, Happily Never Happened #2
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Butterfly (Kindle Worlds Novella) (SEALed Fate Book 1) Page 9
