“I’m proud of you, son. You’re a great man. As a woman, I’m even prouder of the fact that you can love her and look beyond her past. Not many men would be able to do that, and treat her with respect. She’s lovely. I love you.”
“Love you too, mom.” I still hadn’t told Annie I loved her. I was her husband and I still couldn’t do it. What was holding me back? I told myself that I was waiting for the right time. But I wondered if there was something else in my subconscience that was preventing me from truly opening up to her.
Annie emerged and sat down the sofa. My mom brought out old photo albums and decided to embarrass the shit out of me.
“Here’s Pat with his favorite teddy bear.”
Annie loved the old pictures. I just sat back and watched her bond with my mom. If I’d taken that reward money her dad offered, I could’ve bought my mom a new house. But she’d never accept it from me. I wished I could take care of her.
“So what was Pat like as a kid?”
This was fun.
“Pat was very sweet and sensitive. Very attached to me. Loved trains and dogs. Always tried to protect me.”
“So pretty much exactly how he is now.”
I laughed. “I’m hardly sweet.”
“You are too. And super romantic. He remembers everything I say, though he usually doesn’t react. But then months later, boom. All my dreams come true.”
My mom was eating this up. I barely had time to see her anymore so I think getting a glimpse into my life was fascinating to her.
After humiliating me a bit more, we finally went to bed. Had to wake up early the next morning and hit the road.
“Well Annie, it’s been a pleasure. Please, you’re welcome in my home anytime. When Pat deploys, I hope you will come up here and visit me. I want to get to know you.”
“I’d love that.”
They hugged. Then my mom turned to me.
“I love you, Patrick. Stay safe. I’m so proud of you.”
“Love you, too.”
Annie and I went to my childhood room and snuggled up in bed. My little league awards were still on the shelves, a cheesy poster of a topless Britney Spears wearing nothing but white cotton panties trimmed with pink lace hung on the wall. Exactly as I had remembered.
Annie glanced around the room. Probably wondering why my room was stuck in a time warp and hers had been turned into a museum. “I love your mom. She’s so different from mine. Sweet and warm.”
This was my opportunity. I had to tell her. But I just couldn’t. She seemed so happy and I didn't want to ruin it.
“She’s your family now. When I’m gone, she means it, if you get lonely, fly up here. She’ll take care of you. I need you to promise me that you’ll come see her.”
“Of course, I will.” She kissed me. “I’m worried about telling my parents we eloped. You’re coming with me, right?”
Damn straight. She wasn’t setting foot in that house without me. And if my talk with her father went as I expected it would, I doubted that she’d ever see them again. “You can count on it.”
She drifted to sleep in my arms. Before I met Annie, my only goal in life was to survive and protect my fellow men. But now, my attention was split. I felt torn by my desire to protect her and loyalty to my Team. Maybe this is why I’d always felt that the Navy didn’t want the SEALs to have wives or families, despite what they said about the importance of a support system. Because if I had to choose between my Team and Annie, without a doubt I’d choose her.
27.
After we left my mom’s house, we spent a day in Marin County and then took scenic Highway 1 along the coast back to San Diego. I couldn’t wait to come back from deployment, plan a real honeymoon with Annie. No Caribbean cruise, that was for sure. We talked about spending time in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Half Moon Bay, Big Sur, and Santa Barbara.
Annie wanted to go straight to her parents’ house. I debated convincing her to wait a few days, but I’m sure she’d fight with me. That was fine. I wanted to get this over with.
I dropped Trigger off at my house. Annie called and told her parents that we were going to be stopping by for her to pick up the rest of her stuff.
My mind raced. I had to be smart and watch what I said. I’d given Matt my word. I was leaving in a few weeks and I wanted to make sure that her father was out of her life. Before I met Annie, I’d planned to apply to the world famous SEAL Team Six, as known as DEVGRU. They were stationed in Virginia Beach and it would be great to put distance between Annie and her dad. I’d just become eligible—they required five years of stellar service in the Teams and the selection process took six to eight months. But those SEALs were the real badasses, the ones that took down Bin Laden during Operation Neptune Spear. It would mean even more time training, even less time with Annie. But it was a career goal of mine. I would make my decision once I came back from this next deployment, and I knew that Annie would support my decision one hundred percent.
The gate opened to Annie’s parents’ house. Last time I came here, I was nervous. This time I came here, I was pissed. Let’s roll.
We walked up the stairs to the front door. Before Annie could get out her key, the door opened. Her dad stood in front of us, with his nostrils flaring.
“What are you doing here, Annie? I told you not to set foot again in this house as long as you were seeing him.”
What the fuck? I glared at Annie. She’d only seen them once since she started staying with me, when she went over the first night to pick up her clothes. She’d told me they’d warned her about me but she’d never mentioned that they’d forbid her to see me or given her an ultimatum. I guess we both kept our secrets to protect each other.
“I’m not seeing him, Dad. I’m married to him. He’s my husband.”
Annie’s mom popped around the corner. “Annie, baby, how could you elope?”
I still couldn’t figure her out—did she know that her husband found her and left her there to die? She was cold also, redecorating her room. My impression is that she cared more about her image than her own daughter, but I could be off base.
“Mr. Walsh, I’d like a word with you.”
“My pleasure.” I’d like a word with him also. I’d also like to put a bullet in his head.
Mr. Hamilton took me into his office this time. I’m sure he had a gun under his mahogany desk. Not worried, my weapon was concealed and accessible.
He sat in his black leather chair, poured himself a shot of whiskey from the bottle on his desk.
He bared his teeth at me. “I thought I told you to stay away from Annie. You trying to get more money out of me boy? Name your price. Then you can tell Annie you made a mistake and get an annulment.”
“I don’t have a price, motherfucker.”
“Fine, you leave me no other choice than to accidently leak your involvement of her rescue to the press. You’re career will be ruined and I’ll make damn sure you’re kicked out of the Teams.”
I cocked my head. This guy not only left his daughter to live in hell, but wanted to ruin any chances she had of happiness. But I wasn’t threatened. “No you won’t. Because I’m not the only one with a secret. I know everything about your, uhm how shall I put it, how hard you tried to save Annie. Do the words Neptune Group mean anything to you?”
His hands shook the whisky glass and I was certain it was going to break. “How dare you, you cocky son of a bitch? Come into my house and threaten me? No one would believe you.”
I laughed. “Try me.”
His posture slumped and he ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t know what you think you know but you’re wrong. I tried everything to save her, they couldn’t find her, that’s the God’s honest truth.”
“You can lie to me all you want. But you left her there to die. I’m not an idiot, something didn’t sit right with me. We have eyes everywhere, remember that.”
“What do you want, Walsh?”
“Simple, won’t cost you a penny. Stay the fuck away from Annie. If
I hear that you so much as text her, I’ll come after you. I’m not sure if your wife is in on this, but if she reaches out to Annie, that’s fine. I’m making this easy on you. Tell her that you can never accept me as her husband and make her chose between you and me. She’ll chose me. The only reason I’m not telling Annie the truth is to protect her, not you. It would crush her, and she’s been through enough and I refuse to add to her pain. I’m deploying soon, but Annie will be safe here with my buddies. If I find out you try to hurt her in any way, you won’t live to regret it. Understood?”
He nodded but wisely remained silent.
“Good talk.” I walked out of the room. Annie’s mom was talking to her about throwing a wedding reception.
“Come on, Annie. Let’s go.”
“Already? I haven’t packed my stuff.”
“I’ll buy you new stuff.”
Annie’s dad walked out of his office. I gave him a stern look.
“He’s right, Annie. Leave. We don’t want to see you again. I can never accept Pat into this family. You made your choice when you married him. You’re dead to us.”
Bastard had probably been waiting to officially declare her dead.
Annie bit her lip, but she didn’t break down. It was almost as if she expected this.
“I love Pat and if you can’t accept him, I don’t care. I learned to live without you once, I’ll do it again. Sometimes I think you both wish I never came back. I was worth more to you dead than alive. Pat’s the only one who loves me. Don’t ever contact me again.”
She clutched on to me and we walked out the front door. I hoped we never had to see them again.
We got into my truck and cruised down to my place. She looked out the window. I didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry, Annie.”
“It’s not your fault. I meant what I said in there. I love you and I don't care what they think. He'll never accept you and I don't really care."
I placed my hand on her thigh. I was all she had now. I wasn’t one of these men who wanted to isolate his woman from her family and friends. I wished Annie’s family were decent people and I was fine if she wanted to maintain contact with Chris. But as long as I lived, no one would ever hurt Annie again.
28.
Deployment day was here. I didn’t know how long I’d be gone, but at least seven months. Annie and I had spent a great month together. We were assigned a wonderful housing off base in Point Loma, near Liberty Station. It was a three-bedroom townhouse with a small yard for Trigger. I introduced Annie to all the SEAL wives and of course they loved her. They saw her just how I did. As a survivor. The SEAL wives had promised to keep her busy while I was away. Maybe I had been wrong about marriages in our community. Yes, most fail. But the ones that worked, were because of the strongest, most loyal women. And I knew Annie was stronger than them all.
Annie started taking college classes again. She was majoring in sociology, which sounded depressing and useless to me, but who was I to judge? I had a high school diploma and had no need for a college degree. Annie also threw herself into yoga and volunteering at the animal shelter. Our love grew deeper by the day and for the first time since I’d become a SEAL, I dreaded deploying and leaving her.
Kyle and Vic would be deploying with me. They were both still tragically single, which was ironic since I was the one of the three of us who’d been most dead set against a relationship.
Annie stood outside on our tiny balcony. The breeze blew Annie’s hair off her face. She was wearing a sundress that showed off her tan skin. She looked up to me, and her crooked smile that I’d first noticed in the brothel melted me.
“I’m going to miss you, Pat.”
“Me too.” I kissed her slowly. I need this kiss to take me through a long deployment.
Her arms wrapped around me. She held me tight, and nibbled my ear. I loved it when she did that. She reached out and grabbed my hand and led me to the bedroom.
I was about to undress her and make love to her for the final time before I left. But she stopped me and knelt in front of me on the bed.
She took me in her mouth, and I gasped. No condom, no barrier between us. I felt guilty receiving pleasure from her, so I hadn’t let her go down on me since the night in the brothel.
I stopped her and made her look at me. “You don’t have to do this Annie.”
“I want to, Pat. I missed you so much it hurt. I love you. I want to please you. I’m your wife.”
She wrapped her lips around me, her tongue dancing again. My mind flashed to that night in the brothel. We’d come full circle. Same girl, same amazing technique. But this time, instead of imagining that she was my faithful, loving, girlfriend, that she lived for pleasing me, and that being with me even for just a few months out of the year was worth enduring the loneliness when I was gone, it was real. She was real. She was mine. She respected being a SEAL was my calling, and she didn’t want to change me.
I pushed her off me. I had something to tell her.
“I love you, Annie.”
She squealed, probably thought she would never hear those words coming out of my mouth. Hell, I never thought I’d say them.
But I meant it. I loved her.
She was no longer my mission.
She was my wife.
The End
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the love of my life, my husband, Roger, a real Marine hero. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband to me and the best daddy to our sons. For watching the boys while I write. For keeping me caffeinated during late night writing sessions. I love you.
To Nicole Blanchard. This book would not have been written without you. For your initial blurb challenge, to your endless tolerance for my what ifs, your social media prowess, your sex scene edits. But mostly for being such an amazing woman and friend.
I would like to thank my amazing editor, Deborah Halverson, for the fast edits and endless support.
To my two beautiful sons, Connor and Caleb for your smiles, your laughter, your hugs and kisses.
To my betas: Erin, Mia, Geri, Margreet, Feifei, Stacia, Linda, and Carly: thank you all for your honest critiques and making this the best story it could be.
My sister-in-law Susie Chulick, for motivating me to finish this book.
To all the wonderful bloggers who have promoted Invincible: Totally Booked, Aestas, Sinfully Sexy, Lezley-Lynn’s Book Blog, and the countless others that have posted about my book.
To Indie Sage Promotions for handling all the promotion for the book.
To all the fans who have written me about Invincible. Thank you for all your support.
About The Author
Alana Albertson is a multi-award winning author and the former President of Romance Writers of America’s Chick Lit and Young Adult chapters. She holds a Masters of Education from Harvard and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford. A recovering professional ballroom dancer, Alana currently writes new adult, contemporary romance and young adult fiction. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two sons, and four dogs. When she’s not spending her time needlepointing, dancing, or saving dogs from high kill shelters through her rescue Pugs N Roses, she can be found watching episodes of House Hunters, Homeland, or Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team. Please visit her website at www.alanaalbertson.com
Invincible (The Trident Code) Page 14
