Entrusted To The SEAL: The Inheritance (The McRaes — Book 6)

by Hill, Teresa

  She tried to place the bottle between the side of his nose and his eye, but her stupid hand was shaking a little. She had to brace it on his forehead, but eventually, she made it work for the first bottle.

  Mace sighed in relief.

  On the second bottle of saline, she finally worked up her courage. “So, it sounds like you went to a lot of trouble to find me. Do I want to know why? Because I do and I don’t. I don’t need any more bad news or bad things in my life.”

  “It’s not a bad thing,” he said.

  “If it has to do with Aaron, it must be, because everything about him upsets me.” That sounded embarrassingly hard-hearted and mean. “Sorry. I don’t talk about him anymore. I haven’t in a long time.”

  “I understand. I know what it’s like. I’ve lost friends in this job who were closer than my own brothers, people who knew me better than anyone in my family does.”

  “Right. The thing is, I didn’t really know Aaron.”

  “I don’t understand. You’re not the woman he married in Greece?”

  Gritting her teeth, Dani said, “He most definitely did not marry me in Greece.”

  “That makes no sense,” Mace said.

  “Not to me, either. But it’s true.”

  Dani tried to calm down and think.

  How did he know about what happened in Greece? No one did except her and her friend Betsy, who’d been with her when she found out Aaron was dead. Well, she’d told Aaron’s mother, but the woman hadn’t believed Dani, and it turned out she was right not to.

  So how could Mace know?

  “Wait, you’re not … This isn’t about Aaron’s mother, is it? Did she send you?”

  “No. I don’t know his mother. I went to her house, hoping that she might help me find you — ”

  “Oh, great. Aaron’s mother hates me.”

  “Why?”

  “She thinks I’m a liar, and that I just wanted Aaron because of his money. Or her money. You saw the house. The woman obviously has money. But I didn’t know that, and I wasn’t the one using Aaron. She didn’t tell you that? I’d think she would have.”

  “No. She wasn’t there.”

  “Good. That woman scares me, and I never want to see her again.”

  “I promise, this is nothing to do with Aaron’s mother.”

  “Okay.” She let out a long breath and tried to calm down. She was lost, drifting, barely getting by. She didn’t need anyone making it any harder by trying to drag her back into the past.

  Dani heard a door in the back of the apartment open and tensed. Only one thing that could make this horrible night even worse, and that was …

  Her roommate’s creeper boyfriend, Randy.

  Perfect.

  He walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else, bleary-eyed, his hair a mess, at least three days worth of stubble on his cheeks. Typical middle-of-the-night appearance for him. He’d likely been drinking. That seemed to be his natural state. But at least he wasn’t stumbling drunk.

  “Dani, you look fine tonight.” He leered at her. “Who’s your friend?”

  Mace rose to his feet and did that thing guys do where they try to look as big and intimidating as they can, shoulders back, chest out, you-don’t-want-to-mess-with-me scowl on his handsome face. Randy did a double-take and didn’t look so cocky. Dani almost laughed, loving how much less of a man Randy seemed to be in comparison.

  “Mace Daughtry.” Mace held out a hand and scowled.

  Randy shook hands reluctantly. Dani fought off a chuckle as he grimaced. Mace was almost trying to kill the jerk with a handshake.

  “What the fuck happened to you?” Randy stared at Mace’s messed-up face.

  “Just a little misunderstanding,” Mace said.

  Randy laughed, then said to Dani, “You get lonely, I’m right here. Just say the word.”

  “Really? With your girlfriend sleeping in the room next to mine?”

  “We could make it work.” Randy pulled a beer out of the refrigerator, popped the top and took a long drink. He also showed no sign of going away.

  “Do you mind?” Mace said. “We’re talking.”

  “I don’t mind. Go ahead.” Randy took another long drink.

  Dani was used to Randy acting like an ass. She refused to let him scare her — or at least, to let him see that he scared her. “It’s late,” she told Mace. “Time to call you a cab.”

  * * *

  Chapter Five

  Mace

  He pulled out his cell phone and asked Dani to wait outside with him until it came. Randy, that prize of a human being, watched them all the way out. When they got outside, Mace called for a cab, then told Dani, “That guy’s a real jerk.”

  “I know.”

  “Your roommate’s boyfriend?”

  “Yes, and it’s her house, so I can’t kick him or her out. I’m not even on the lease, just renting a room from her after her old roommate moved out — ”

  “Wonder why.” Mace frowned. “And why are you living like this?”

  “Because it’s cheap. Because I couldn’t afford to be picky. Because it doesn’t matter where I live. Because nothing much matters to me at all — ”

  “Don’t say that — ”

  “I’m sorry you went to all this trouble to find me, and I’m sorry I pepper-sprayed you, but Aaron and I don’t have any unfinished business, so whatever you think you need to say to me, just … don’t. Forget it. I’m trying to.”

  “No. We have things we need to talk about.”

  “Why?”

  “Something’s not right about this, Dani.”

  “Nothing is right about this, but like I said, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “It does to me.”

  “Fine. You figure it out. I’m going to bed.”

  “Dani, your roommate’s boyfriend – I don’t think you’re safe with that guy.”

  “I don’t like him, but he’s never hurt me.”

  “Doesn’t mean he never will. I hate leaving you here with that jerk.”

  Dani shot him a stubborn look. “I’ve been living here for months. Randy’s been my roommate’s on-again, off-again boyfriend the whole time. Nothing’s really happened. Go home. Go to sleep — ”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to, because I’m gonna be worried about you. I … I have sisters. I’d never let one of my sisters stay in the same house with that guy.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I’m not your sister.”

  “You could … I don’t know. I have a spare bedroom. There’s a lock on the door. You can shove furniture against it, if you want to. Whatever it takes to make you feel safe.”

  She shook her head and laughed. “You’re just a guy who showed up at the bar where I worked. I don’t even know you — ”

  “You know I’m not dangerous, right, and I’m not drunk. Just … You’ll be safe with me, I swear.”

  “I don’t know that — ”

  “Safer with me than here or with those two drunk guys at the bar — ”

  “Okay, that’s it. Go away.”

  Ahh, fuck. Shouldn’t have said that. He grabbed her by the arm as she brushed past him on her way to her front door. She jerked out of his hold and glared.

  “I’m sorry. That was a shitty thing to say — ”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “Please, just listen to me about this. I … I have friends I can stay with tonight. You can have the whole place to yourself, and tomorrow, we can talk.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m not going home with you. I don’t want to talk about Aaron. My life and how I live it is none of your business.”

  “Okay. Can I just … ” He dug in his pockets and found a pen and a dry-cleaning receipt. He scrawled his name and number on it, then handed it to her. “Please? In case he tries something.”

  She gave a dismissive snort. “And then what? You’ll come charging to the rescue?”

  “Yes.”

 
; “Are you like this with all women? Thinking you have to save us all?”

  He shrugged.

  “Something is seriously wrong with you.”

  “I know,” he admitted, still holding out the slip of paper to her. “Please?”

  “Fine.” She snatched it from his hand. “I’m going inside. Goodnight.”

  “I mean it. One phone call. That’s all it’ll take.”

  * * *

  Dani

  Stubborn man.

  One phone call, and he’d do anything for her? Just because he had some connection to Aaron? Even Aaron wouldn’t do anything for her. Why should she believe one of his friends would?

  Sometimes it seemed like the whole world was out to mess with her.

  Like Randy, that ass!

  She had lied to Mace. She wasn’t that confident she was safe with Randy. He was seriously creepy, and she really didn’t like the way he looked at her, especially when his girlfriend wasn’t in the room, or home at all.

  But the not caring part? That wasn’t a lie.

  She found it hard to care about anything in her life since she’d accepted the fact that Aaron was a liar. She hadn’t been looking for a man. She didn’t trust easily and certainly wouldn’t count on something as ephemeral as love.

  Her mother got pregnant with her when she as only a teenager. Her father tried, to hear her mother tell the story, but having a child so young had taken its toll. He’d walked out on them when Dani was little. She had no memory of him. Her mother had been great, fun, sweet, loving, but she’d died from anaphylactic shock when Dani was eight.

  Her grandmother, her only living relative, had taken Dani it, but Dani had always felt more like an imposition than anything else in her home. A serious, hard-working, no nonsense woman, her grandmother had expected the same from Dani, who spent her childhood trying not to need too much or cause too much trouble, so she didn’t get kicked out of the only home she had left.

  They’d always struggled financially. Dani had been holding her breath, hoping to finish college before money ran out and she had to quit. She’d still be living at home during her next-to-last year of school when her grandmother developed a severe case of pneumonia one winter and died.

  Dani never knew people died of pneumonia. She also hadn’t realized how terribly alone and vulnerable she’d feel without her tough-as-nails grandmother. There was no one to turn to, save for the few friends her age at school who were in the same shape she was financially. Finishing her degree had taken all the faith, determination and strength she had, plus two jobs while being in class full-time.

  Still, she’d done it. She’d always seen herself as a survivor.

  But after Aaron?

  God, he’d broken her. She felt like she had nothing left, like she existed in a thick fog, drifting along, barely keeping her head above water.

  Granted, throwing back shots until she was numb — until flirting with the idea of going home with not one man, but two — that was a definite low point for her. She was so tired of feeling awful, desperate even. Drunk was better, at least temporarily.

  Those two guys had bought her shots and knocked them back with her. Maybe they thought she’d eventually pick one or the other, but honestly, the differences between them didn’t really register to her. They seemed to be about the same age, basically the same build, same lame pick-up lines. Picking one over the other had seemed too much of an effort. At some point, she had thought, if she thought at all, she’d let them decide.

  Once they were outside and they seemed to think they’d both get a piece of her … That was a lot more than she bargained for, but did it really matter?

  Did anything?

  Especially not after she’d seen the widows.

  The widows had torn her apart.

  It wasn’t their night to be there. They had a regular night, and as after the first night she’d been there when they were, she made sure never to be there on their night again.

  They had actually been married. They’d lost real husbands. People acknowledged their loss, honored their feelings, embraced them in their grief. They supported each other.

  Dani had been branded a liar, a gold-digger, a stupid tramp. It had been shocking and horrible and so hurtful.

  She thought about what Mace had said — Aaron talking about getting married, claiming to be in love.

  Why would he ever do that?

  Back in the kitchen, she sipped a glass of water and considered taking something to help her sleep. She needed that time when her brain turned off and nothing hurt. But taking sleeping pills made her uneasy when Randy was around. The pills were in the kitchen cupboard beside the sink. She headed toward the living room to get some distance from them.

  Suddenly, Randy’s head popped over the back of the sofa, and she nearly shrieked.

  “Whoa.” Randy laughed. “Jumpy, huh?”

  She glared at him. “Just surprised. I thought you’d gone to bed.”

  “Nope. Not yet. Your friend gone?”

  “Yes. Gone.”

  “I don’t like him.”

  As though Randy’s opinion mattered.

  “Yeah. I figured that out.”

  He smirked and walked toward her, like she was his prey, and he was stalking her. Dani refused to back away. You couldn’t give jerks like him that satisfaction.

  He didn’t touch her, but he was standing too close. She wanted to shove him away, but she was trying not to escalate things, and not give in to this little power game he played.

  “You look like you need a man, Dani, and I could make you feel so good.”

  She gave him her best get-the-hell-away-from-me scowl. “A man is the last thing I want or need.”

  “Offer stands,” he said.

  She bit her tongue and walked away.

  In her room, she thought again about Aaron.

  She blamed herself for letting him in so easily, for soaking up all the kindness and affection he offered, and then what seemed to be love. She’d thought she and Aaron would be partners, both working and taking care of each other. He’d kept telling her that she could count on him, that he wouldn’t let her down.

  God, what a load of crap that turned out to be.

  Her pathetic tears made her even angrier. That man — Mace — had stirred up bad memories. How dare he? At the moment, she didn’t feel so bad about pepper-spraying him after all.

  She locked her door and gave into the urge to do as Mace suggested. She slid her dresser over to block the door. Randy could probably still get through the door, but at least he’d make a lot of noise and wake her up first. She slept with a baseball bat by her side, and now that she knew how well pepper spray worked, she’d buy more and keep some under her pillow. Maybe she could find something small enough that she could keep it in her pocket or tuck it into her bra, never be without it.

  She could enjoy seeing Randy suffer the way Mace had tonight.

  Stripping out of her work clothes, she pulled out an old t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants to sleep in. She felt her four shots of tequila giving her that sickening, room-spinning feeling, but she wasn’t sure she had the energy to sit up and make it stop. She settled for piling all her pillows behind her, so that when she leaned back, her upper body was at a forty-five degree angle from the bed. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better.

  Then she had to fight off thoughts of Aaron.

  God, if she could just forget everything he’d ever said or done to her, every feeling she’d ever had for him. She hated being a stupid girl, the kind who’d fall for a guy and believe everything he said. She’d never been like that until Aaron. There’d never seemed to be an ounce of cruelty to him, at least none she’d ever seen.

  She was scared of what Mace had to say to her. She couldn’t let herself get sucked back into all the Aaron drama that had so completely messed her up. She had to save herself this time. No one else was going to do it for her, regardless of what Mace had implied before he’d left.

 
She would never again trust a man to take care of her.

  She slept fitfully. It turned into one of those nights that felt like it lasted a hundred years, and she woke up exhausted and with bitter tears rolling down her cheeks.

  The night before came back to her. Drinking too much, flirting with those two strangers, trying to make herself like having their hands on her, copping a feel every chance they had.

  Even worse, it hadn’t been just those two guys at the bar she flirted with.

  She remembered smiling up at Mace, dragging her hand down his chest.

  Had her hand made it to the waistband of his cargo shorts? She feared it had, and that he’d had to grab her hand to stop her.

  No, no, no, no, no!

  She got so stupid when she was tipsy. She’d mashed her breasts together, too, to create more cleavage and laughed when she’d caught him looking down her shirt.

  Dani cringed at the memory.

  He had to be a friend of Aaron’s and find her on a night when she’d slammed back four shots of tequila and done the bump and grind on the dance floor with not one, but two guys?

  The first person to ever know anything about Aaron marrying her — or claiming to marry her — and that’s how he saw Dani for the first time?

  Which made her think … How did Mace know about the marriage?

  Aaron had been killed less than twenty-four hours after their pretend marriage. He could have called a friend while waiting around for his plane to take off or while sitting in a train station or even on the train. But why would he tell anyone, if none of it was real?

  To share the joke?

  Oh, God!

  Was Mace in on the joke? Was it a bet? Some game he was playing?

  Her stomach cramped up. Heat flamed through her body. She started to sweat. She barely managed to get the dresser away from her door and run to the bathroom before she heaved violently over the toilet, coughing up everything in her stomach.

  Angry tears streamed down her face as she sat on the cold tile floor. She kept gagging, but there was nothing left to come up.