SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series

by Lola Silverman

  Chapter Seven

  Now that the immediate danger was over, Jaipriya was feeling more than a little awkward about this whole damsel in distress image she was perpetuating. She glanced over at Sparks’s profile in the green glow of the truck’s dash lights. He didn’t seem irritated, but what if he really was?

  “I can practically hear you thinking over there,” Sparks murmured. “What’s on your mind?”

  She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I have some money, but I’ll need to get a job or something like that until I can return to school.”

  “So you don’t think your father is going to try and recover you after this incident?”

  “Incident?”

  He glanced over at her, his teeth flashing white as he gave her a boyish grin. “The running away.”

  “Oh.” She hadn’t actually considered that possibility. How foolish of her. “I suppose he might attempt to find me and convince me to come home.”

  “And what form do you think this convincing will take?” He steered with an almost lackadaisical attitude. “Do you think he’ll just attempt to call you? Maybe he’ll arrange a meeting?”

  “I suppose I hadn’t really thought about it,” she admitted. “I cannot imagine why he would know where I am if I briefly stay with you. And surely by the time classes begin again for the fall semester he will have gotten over this whole obsession about my marriage to the baby prince.”

  There was a big sigh from the other side of the truck, and she glanced over to see Sparks rub a hand down his face. He appeared to be very exasperated. Was he feeling that way about her? Why? She really wasn’t his problem. Jai squirmed in her seat, wondering how to let him off the hook. She didn’t want him to feel responsible, but she sort of needed his help until she figured out an interim solution to her room and board problem.

  “Yes?” he prompted caustically.

  “You don’t have to be so rude!” She made a frustrated noise and wondered why she had never realized how completely annoying men could be. “I was just thinking that I’m not your problem. Once we get to the pub you could just let me off, and I’ll call a friend.” If she could think of someone who might help without tipping off her father. Most of her real friends had gone home once term had ended and wouldn’t be back until fall.

  “Really?” His tone oozed sarcasm. “So I can just dump you in front of the pub, go upstairs, go to bed, and forget about you?”

  “Uh, sure?” she offered.

  “And does it seem as though I was able to do that before?”

  It occurred to her that she had insulted him without intending to. It was as if a light bulb had clicked on inside her head. It was something to do with that damnable male pride. She was sure of it. Now she just had to figure out a way to soothe the beast before it bit off her hand.

  SPARKS WONDERED IF she truly thought he was the sort of man who would just abandon a woman on the street in front of the pub after he had assisted her in running away from her family. And that wasn’t even taking into account the whole deflowering thing. Not that he actually used that terminology. It was antiquated and ridiculous, but still.

  He swung the truck into the narrow alley beside the pub. The alley opened up into a parking area. He pulled into his usual spot and shut off the engine. Then he sat for a moment and tried not to be pissed off at Jaipriya. It wasn’t like she actually knew him, and her track record with men hadn’t been that great so far. At least, not from what he had seen.

  “Come upstairs,” he told her in a measured tone. He could at least try not to be such a bear. “I need to make some phone calls. For now you’re going to stick with me.”

  “Why?”

  “Let’s just say I’m not so convinced that your father will just forget about this act of rebellion.” He didn’t add in the part where he was almost certain the princes would send someone after what they considered their property. There was no need to scare her any more than he probably already had.

  She opened the passenger door and slipped out. Sparks met her around the side of the truck and gestured to the back stairs. “That’s how we get up without having to go through the pub.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “Unfortunately it also provides another ingress if someone were to decide they want to pay us an unwelcome visit,” he informed her grimly. “We’ll have to bar the door somehow.”

  “Do you really think he’ll send people after me?” She bit her lip. “I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal.”

  He took her hand and started walking toward the stairs. “Let’s get out of the open, and then we can talk a little more about this whole situation. Maybe that will help make sense of things.”

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?” He glanced over his shoulder, frowning. What now?

  “For being so nice when you did not have to be.”

  Her words floored him. When had anyone ever just thanked him for doing the obvious? Sparks and his SEAL teammates didn’t have that sort of relationship. They were comrades. Sometimes their lives depended upon each other’s abilities. That was just the way things were. You did your best for your team, and they did their best for you. It was a very straightforward relationship. This was something altogether different, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

  JAIPRIYA WONDERED WHY he was so intent on minimizing what he was doing for her. It was as if it made him uncomfortable to be thanked for his assistance. Men were so odd. One second a woman was an ungrateful wench, and the next he was telling her she was ridiculous for thanking him for the obvious.

  Within minutes they were up the steps and through a back door that she had not noticed before in the one-room apartment. He flipped on a single lamp. A tiny pool of light illuminated one corner of the room. The rest of the place lay deep in shadows. He seemed unbothered by the darkness. He was more concerned about blocking their exits.

  It didn’t take long for Sparks to move a chair in front of the back door. He wrestled the oversized leather monstrosity into place and then gave a very satisfied nod. Then he bolted the front entrance and tilted another, smaller chair to jam it beneath the handle.

  She hid a smile. No doubt he would take some extraordinary offense if she tried to explain her thoughts at the moment. He was just so chivalrous in his own way. It was endearing.

  “What?” he demanded sullenly.

  Oh yes. He was going to take offense. She pursed her lips and wondered where to go with this. “I was just thinking that I was a very lucky woman when I stumbled upon you pawing through my father’s desk this afternoon.”

  “Lucky?” His left eyebrow arched high, and he gave her a look of such incredulity that she almost laughed.

  “Yes. Lucky.” Jai walked slowly toward the couch and ran her hand across the low back. The leather felt worn and smooth to the touch. “You could have been a man like one of the princes. Or perhaps I could have run into Jabar or Hasim up there. They certainly would not have looked favorably upon my decision to ram my knee into their little brother’s genitals.”

  Sparks’s lips quirked into a smile. “That was probably what made me want to help you.”

  “Really?” She turned to stare. “Assaulting another man’s privates made you want to help me?”

  He shrugged. “You obviously weren’t the type of woman to just lay there and take it. You’re a fighter. I can respect that.”

  “I suppose I hadn’t considered it like that.” She walked to the front of the couch and sat down. Perched on the edge of the seat, she began to feel the first twinges of alarm at everything that had happened. “I’m not usually like that. I don’t argue. I do what I’m told. If I need to negotiate, I do it without violence.”

  “Sometimes all of those other avenues—the civil ways to settle a dispute—aren’t going to cut it.” He moved toward her and took a seat on the other end of the couch. “Are you all right?”

  “Of course,” she snapped.

  SHE WAS ROCKING back and for
th and probably didn’t even realize she was doing it. Sparks had figured the woman would eventually go into shock. She seemed determined to insist that what had happened tonight was no big deal. The truth was that it was a huge fucking deal. She had run away from home. That was an action that would carry far-reaching consequences.

  “It’s going to be okay, Jaipriya,” he murmured. “You did the right thing.”

  “I just don’t understand.”

  “Your father is a finance guy, right?” Sparks decided that if they talked about facts it might help her digest things mentally. He would just have to be careful not to paint her father as the devil—yet.

  “Yes. He’s a financial planner, investment broker, advisor, accountant.” She paused, and a small smile made her face even more beautiful. “He’s brilliant with money.”

  “I would suspect that he probably met Jabar and Hasim through mutual acquaintances. It wouldn’t take much. I’m assuming your father has plenty of contacts in India.”

  “Yes. He and my mother emigrated from Punjab. I was born here in the US.” He saw the column of her throat move as she swallowed. “He used to joke that they had to have children in order to gain the right to stay in this country.”

  That probably wasn’t a joke, but Sparks wasn’t going to touch it. “So he meets the princes and starts doing some money work for them. They are rich.” Sparks paused to collect his thoughts. Sometimes he had trouble wrapping his mind around this. “They were running a human trafficking ring long before they decided to start hunting for women here in the US.”

  “Human trafficking is a large problem in India,” she said softly. “I know that. In smaller provinces, where there is so much overcrowding that the parents actually sell their own children to traffickers.”

  Okay, so at least she wasn’t completely naive. He continued, attempting to go easy. “So the princes hire your father. He becomes somewhat financially dependent upon them. They don’t like to share their resources. Do you understand?”

  Her dusky skin paled, and he could see that she did understand. She cleared her throat delicately. “Pita stopped taking new clients several years ago. He told my mother that he had too much work already. He only does taxes and investments for family members now. That and he works for the princes. I didn’t realize that meant he had gotten rid of all of his other clients. Why would he do that?”

  “Why not?” Sparks argued. “They were probably paying him a lot of money. By the time he realized exactly what they were, he was already in too deep to get out. Everything that we have learned about those men so far suggests that they are adamant about the men they do business with. They want to keep things in the family.”

  “So Pita has to link his family with theirs in order to prove his loyalty?” Her voice gained a shrill edge.

  “Did he say something to that effect?” Sparks pressed.

  “He kept saying that I had to marry Asif for the good of the family. Not just the honor, but the safety, and to protect our interests. He told me it was the cost for the life I had led.”

  “I’m sorry.” Sparks reached out and lightly touched her hand. “I can’t imagine what that must have felt like.”

  “In that moment,” she told him softly, “he was no longer the father I knew.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jaipriya blinked as the rays of sunlight stretched over her body. The warmth crept over her legs and up her torso. Then the brightness illuminated the backs of her eyelids until she could no longer remain still. She rolled over in the bed and immediately banged her nose on a very solid surface.

  The shock of contact with another person in her bed caused her brain to jump into high gear. She sat straight up, heart pounding, and looked wildly around the room. It wasn’t her bed. It wasn’t her bedroom. Where the hell was she?

  Then she looked toward the other person in the bed, and everything came rushing back with utter clarity. She was in Sparks’s bed. This was a room above a bar that he used when he was in town. She had run away from home.

  Oh God! I ran away from home!

  The tears came hard and fast. She pressed her hands to her face to slow the tide and to stifle the sobs that wanted to emerge from her throat. She couldn’t imagine how she could make a sound at all. Her throat was so tight she could barely breathe. Each time she tried to inhale air it just stuck. Soon she was gasping. She was going to die. Then none of this would matter anymore.

  “Hey. It’s all right. Shh, it’s going to be okay.”

  Suddenly there was a large, warm presence behind her. It was Sparks. She knew his scent when it wrapped around her along with his powerful arms. She leaned back, and he held her against his chest. Closing her eyes, she tried to relax.

  “Breathe with me, Jaipriya,” he murmured in her ear. “In and then out. Nice and easy.”

  She did just as he said, and soon she was calm. She could exhale and then inhale, and her body was getting oxygen. Perhaps she was going to be all right after all. In fact, if she could just stay right here forever, she was pretty convinced that the rest of her life would be charmed.

  “Better?” he asked.

  If she agreed that she was better would he stop holding her? If that was the case she was never going to be better. Except then she would be ridiculous. She took a deep breath. “Yes. Thank you.”

  SPARKS DID NOT want to stop holding her. Yet he didn’t want to overstep and freak her out, either. She had spent the night in his bed. Yes. They’d had sex yesterday evening, but somehow just sleeping with her beside him was satisfying in a way that transcended the physical release.

  He exhaled and then inhaled her soft, feminine fragrance. A few strands of her long dark hair tickled his nose. He felt her nuzzle his chest, and everything south of his waist began to wake up as well. A pleasurable tingle started in his spine and traveled throughout his body.

  I could get used to this.

  The thought was a bit jarring. Sparks wasn’t a long-term kind of guy. He didn’t do that sort of thing. He wouldn’t even know how. And why was he even going there? It wasn’t like Jaipriya had suggested it, or even hinted that she was looking for a guy to—come to think about it, he had no idea what she would even want. If anything. He was acting like an idiot.

  “Are you all right?” she asked softly. “Your arm muscle is like a rock.”

  She was pushing against his bicep. Then she giggled, and the sound might as well have been angel song considering how deeply it affected Sparks. He gazed down at the sparkle in her dark eyes as she began drumming her fingers against his bicep.

  “Look!” she said mischievously. “They bounce.”

  He couldn’t resist. Flexing his arm, he made his bicep muscle jump on purpose. It got another laugh out of her, which had been his intention anyway.

  “You have a beautiful laugh,” he told her gruffly.

  She gazed up at him with a startled expression on her beautiful face. “Really? My mother believes that I howl like a monkey. I think she has given up hope that I will ever manage to sound like a lady.”

  “Ladies suck.” The words tripped off his tongue before he could think twice about whether or not he might offend her.

  She seemed tickled by his opinion. “I agree completely. The only thing that sucks more is trying to act like a lady. It’s so exhausting. I fear that I am guilty of only half trying most of the time and not even bothering the rest of the time after that.”

  “I think you should just be you.” He wondered if anyone had ever told her that before. “You seem pretty damn perfect just the way you are.”

  “Thank you.” Two tiny lines appeared between her dark brows. “Although I suppose I should remind you that you don’t even know me. What if I’m a completely horrible individual once you get to know me a little bit?”

  “I sincerely doubt that’s possible.” In fact Sparks, couldn’t imagine liking her any more than he already did, much less not liking her. “Sometimes we are forced by circumstance to base our opinion of ou
rselves on people who can’t even like themselves, much less anyone else.”

  “That’s shockingly insightful for a Neanderthal,” she told him primly. “Perhaps I will have to revise my initial assessment of your maleness.”

  “Hang on there.” Sparks knew she was teasing, but he was enjoying the banter. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d flirted with a beautiful woman.

  Then a knock at the apartment door shattered what was left of the lighthearted moment. Jaipriya gave a squeak and dove beneath the covers. Sparks couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Who is it?” she demanded. The sheet muffled her voice.

  “I don’t know,” he told her. Then he shouted at the door. “Who is it?”

  The loud voice answered back immediately. “It’s Bones, you moron. Get your lazy ass out of bed and answer the damn door!”

  JAIPRIYA WANTED TO sink through the floor in embarrassment. Surely Sparks wouldn’t let this Bones person inside the apartment until she was properly attired? And who was Bones anyway? What sort of individual went by such a name?

  “Hang on, buddy,” Sparks shouted. “We’re not decent.”

  “Whoa.” There was whispering on the other side of the door, as if there were more than one person standing out there. Then Bones spoke again. “Do you have a woman in there?”

  “Sort of.”

  Jai huffed and emerged from the covers. She was wearing one of Sparks’s too-big Tshirts. It draped nearly to her knees. “Sort of?” she snapped. “I’m only sort of a woman? So were you lying when you said that ladies suck?”

  “What?” He looked completely shocked by her words. “No! I meant what I said. I was just trying to let Bones know that I didn’t have a hooker in here or something. You’re not the usual sort of woman I have in my room. That’s it.”