Breaking Away (Military Romantic Suspense) (Book 3 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)

by Teresa Reasor

He’d be more watchful, too. What the fuck was wrong with him, letting his guard slip so badly? With Gilbert out there and Sam’s ex, he needed to be at DEFCON 1 all the time.

  If he could get her ex on tape, then Cross would go back to jail for stalking and would be one less problem for Flash to deal with. “Let’s look at the footage from the south side of the garage facing the road. Just in case.”

  He pulled up the video and scanned it just as he had the other. The figure, already dressed in hoodie and mask, approached the house on foot from the street. Despite Flash’s efforts he couldn’t do anything more with the images. “I’ll email this, too.”

  “He’s a big guy. Broad through the chest and shoulders. It has to be her ex. But without a clear shot of his face we can’t arrest him. He’s a real piece of work.”

  “I looked him up when I first moved in.”

  “You’ve read about Judge Moreland?”

  “Yeah, I have.”

  “The lady got a raw deal. We’re trying to set it right. You hear or see anything, give us a call.” Davis offered his hand.

  “Will do.” Flash shook his hand and rose to walk him out.

  Flash followed him down the steps. He’d grown slack. He should have been more vigilant than this. Angry with himself, his shoulders and jaw tightened. Seeing her standing in the drive with the other officer, he stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep her from seeing them clenched into fists. A sign of aggression was the last thing she needed right now. But, damn it, he wanted to pound on something—hard. Like her ex-husband’s face.

  Sam’s expression held weariness, but no fear. “I’m sorry they bothered you,” she said as they watched Davis and his partner drive away.

  “It’s okay. I’d like for you to allow me to put in a security system. It isn’t the entire answer to your problem, Sam. If someone wants to get in, they will. But it would give you enough time to lock yourself into the bathroom until the police arrive. I’ll help you reinforce the bathroom door and facing.”

  She studied the word written on the car. “Why do you think he did this?”

  “It’s about control. You’re outside the realm of his control and he wants it back.”

  “And calling me a whore is going to make that happen?”

  Flash flinched from hearing her say the word. It was the last word he’d ever think of in terms of her.

  “Every time he does something like this it just makes me more and more grateful I’m away from him. And it makes me…tired. Tired of dealing with him. Tired I ever knew him. I wish I’d never met him!” She closed her eyes and her throat worked as she swallowed. Her breasts heaved up and down as she tried to catch her breath.

  What could he say to offer her comfort? Nothing. “He’s trying to wear you down. Exhaust you and your resources. Once you’re at your most vulnerable he’ll start sending gifts, and offering apologies. And start telling you how much you need him. And that he’ll never raise his hand to you again.” He’d heard it all when he was seven. Watched his drug-addicted mother beaten, then wooed over and over again. He’d watched Derrick Armstrong, his teammate, make the same moves with Valerie, his girlfriend. He’d threatened to turn Derrick in should he find out he was beating her again.

  “How do you know what he’ll do?” Sam asked drawing his attention back from the past.

  He wasn’t talking about his mother. He couldn’t go there. “I had a buddy who had issues. I watched his behavior escalate out of control.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He had a meltdown. He’s in jail. Been in for a while. I read about his arrest in the papers. But I saw what he did firsthand and called him on it. I even offered to help his girlfriend move out, but she wouldn’t do it.”

  “He didn’t—” Her voice faltered.

  “No. He didn’t kill her.” He shook his head. But he’d threatened to kill his own teammates and been taken down by his own team. And he should have been there. “He was arrested before that could happen. Now it’s going to be a long time before he gets out.”

  “Maybe it will give her time to rebuild her life. Maybe he’ll forget about her…if he’s in jail long enough.” A wistful note crept into her tone.

  Flash studied her expression, so carefully composed. But her body was fraught with tension. He wanted to run his hands over her shoulders, ease the tightness of the muscles there, and work his way down to her feet. And then kiss his way back up. He jerked his attention away from her. She wasn’t ready for a relationship with a man. It would probably take her years to recover enough from everything she’d been through to want a man’s hands on her again. The thought cramped his stomach.

  She was struggling to make a life for herself and her daughter and her asshole ex fucking worked against her at every turn. It made him tired to think about it. Sick and tired and fucking angry as hell.

  Sam ran a finger over one of the deep gouges carved into the quarter panel over the wheel. “I can get the paint from the dealership and touch this up myself. It won’t be hard.”

  The asshole hadn’t been satisfied with just scratching off the paint, he’d dug into the metal, so the word would be etched into the vehicle unless sanded out. She’d have to drive the car with that fucking word etched there for everyone to see. The outraged anger he’d kept a tight rein on ever since he’d seen it tripped over into rage.

  He spied the phone she’d left on the porch. Fuck this shit. “May I use your phone?”

  “Sure.”

  He strode to the porch and picked up the handset. The son of a bitch had to have called her some time or other. He scanned through the numbers until he saw one listed for Will Cross. He hit the redial button and waited for him to pick up.

  “Hey, honey.”

  From the oily, pandering tone, Cross hadn’t expected Sam on the other end, but Joy. “Wrong, dude. This is Tim, Sam’s neighbor. You know. The guy who rented the apartment next door?”

  Sam’s head went up. She frowned and shot him a curious look.

  “What are you doing talking on Sam’s phone?” The first burn of anger came across the line.

  “I’m calling to thank you, dude.”

  Cross hesitated. “For what?”

  “Every time you pull some asinine shit like puncture her tires or write crap on her car, it gives her a tiny push in my direction. And I really appreciate it. Cuts my seduction time in half.”

  Sam’s eyes widened and she strode toward him.

  Will’s tone grew cagey. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Flash made the sound of a buzzer going off. “Wrong answer, dude. We both know exactly who’s responsible for the damage to her car. You don’t mind me calling you dude, do you? As opposed to lowlife cocksucker.”

  “Put Sam on the phone.”

  “Isn’t that against the terms of your restraining order? I wouldn’t want to have to report to the police that you’ve been talking to her when you shouldn’t. But I really do appreciate all you’ve done to smooth the way for me, dude. Because I’m a good guy. Unlike you. And after hanging out with a motherfucker who punches women, she’s all too happy to hang with a real man who likes to make love, not war.”

  Sam’s mouth flew open. “Oh my God!” She clapped both hands over it and shook her head adamantly.

  “Keep your goddamn hands off my wife!” The possessiveness in Cross’s tone was manic, and his voice climbed to a high-pitched shout.

  Flash held the phone away from his ear. His temper tripped over into nuclear mode. “Ex-wife, dude. Ex. As in divorced. No-longer-married. Separated permanently. But I’m just calling to offer you a suggestion. Just keep doing all the fucked up shit you’ve been doing. I love reaping the rewards of your stupidity. And in case you’re thinking about doing anything even more stupid, I’m putting in a state-of-the-art security system at her house this afternoon with cameras and motion lights. You can show up in your Cross Construction hoodie and ski mask again. We’ll take some more video footage of
you doing some other chicken shit thing to try and make her life miserable. And I’ll be here to make her feel all better. Catch you later, dude.” He pushed the off button cutting the call.

  Flash’s rage-ridden haze lifted and he focused on Sam’s stark white face. She held her hand clasped over her mouth, as if she didn’t she might scream.

  Well, shit! He’d just let his rage rule him and fucked up big time.

  CHAPTER 23

  “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Her mouth and brain seemed stuck in a loop where that was all she was capable of saying. Oh, my God! Tim had just put himself between her and Will in a way no one else ever had. He had just painted a bulls-eye on his own back and made himself as much a target as she was.

  “Will he be able to call you back and harass you?” Tim asked, the frown darkening his brow, giving his features a harsh masculinity that shot her pulse into the stratosphere. The calmness of his tone leached some of the screaming panic surging through her system.

  “No. His number is blocked. Joy can call him, but he can’t call her.”

  “Good.” He nodded, his expression mirroring satisfaction. “I’ll have to do the same with my private and business numbers.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that. You don’t know what he’s like. What he’s capable of.”

  “Sure I do.” His jaw flexed. “Anything he thinks he can fucking get away with.”

  Sam’s head jerked up at his tone. This was more than just witnessing the meltdown of a buddy who had a problem. The burning rage she’d read in his face as he spoke to Will on the phone had been as explosive as anything she’d seen in Will’s, but while Will’s was hot, Tim’s was cold with control. The masculine planes of his face were razor-sharp with tension, and his voice had cut like a knife. Will Cross had never been spoken to like that. She was certain of it. And every time Tim had called him, dude, his tone had said something else. Will would kill him if they ever came face to face.

  Or was punching reserved for women who couldn’t defend themselves?

  Tim paced back and forth in front of the car, cooling down. She took in the balanced, deliberate way he placed his feet, the controlled movement of his body and the bulge of his biceps.

  On second thought, Will wouldn’t face off with Tim, but he might hire someone else to do it. Several someones. She couldn’t be responsible for that.

  “Tim. You’ll have to move. You’ll have to leave Henderson. He’ll put out the word to all his business contacts and blackball your business. He’ll stalk you like he’s stalked me. He’ll do whatever it takes to make your life a misery.”

  Tim swiveled to face her and grasped her arms. “It’s going to be okay. Just breathe a minute.” His cerulean blue eyes gazed down into hers, steady and calm. The bottom seemed to drop out of her stomach and a swift ache of physical arousal shot through her. It had been so satisfying to hear him chew Will up and spit him out with just words. And it was so wonderful to be able to look into a man’s face and know he wanted to protect you instead of hurt you. But he didn’t realize what he’d done.

  He ran the back of his fingers against her cheek. “I want him to come after me, Sam. For once he’ll have a target he can’t intimidate.”

  “There’s no way you can be devious enough, ruthless enough, to best him.” Will was going to kill him. He’d kill any man who came close to her.

  “I don’t want to best him. I want him to hang himself. But first I have to draw him out and make him slip up.”

  She pressed a hand to her stomach where sick knots of anxiety built, and she leaned back against her scratched and scarred car. “You’ve made him think we’re…more than what we are. He’ll be out of his head with rage.” She swallowed against a sudden wave of nausea. “You made him believe what he was already thinking.”

  He frowned. “He’s just a man, Sam.”

  “He’s unbalanced. You don’t know what you’ve done.” She’d thought she could have a life. That she could live in peace. It had all been a cruel joke.

  “It’s going to be okay.”

  Why wasn’t he listening? “No, it won’t!” Her voice rose in a panicked squeak and she shook her head. “He’s going to come after us both. And I can’t stay here all day, every day, hiding in the bathroom waiting for him to come. You’ve never been on the receiving end of one of his punches, his kicks. You’ve never been tormented and tortured and treated like something rather than someone. You’ve never lived in constant fear for months.” She had to sit down before she fell down. It took all her control to get to the steps. Her bones seemed to melt as she slumped down onto the top stair.

  “Yes, I have.”

  Those three words spoken with such barren control jerked her panicked thoughts to a standstill.

  “I was seven when social services took me from my mother. Her boyfriend was using us both as punching bags and she wouldn’t leave him. She let them take me because the drugs he supplied her were more important than me.”

  His words hit her with the force of a punch. He seemed so rock steady, so controlled, so normal. “I’m sorry,” Sam blinked back the instant tears. Tears for him and for herself.

  Tim sat down beside her. “I won’t let him do anything to hurt you or Joy.”

  “You can’t be here with us twenty-four hours a day. He works for his father and can take off any time he wants to do things to torment you. He’s a master manipulator. He doesn’t live by the same rules the rest of us do.”

  “He’ll have to if he’s back in jail,” Tim said. There was a dogged determination in his voice and his expression.

  She wanted desperately to believe him. More than anything.

  The front door opened. “Mommy,” Joy’s voice came through the screen on the storm door. “Can I change the channel?”

  “I’ll do it for you.” Sam stood.

  “I’ll need to come in and check the windows. I’ll be putting sensors on them.”

  “I don’t have the money for this.”

  “It’s my fault you need the system. I’ll pay for it.”

  “No you won’t!” She drew a deep breath to try and control the anger finally surfacing. At him for putting her and Joy in this position. And at Will for having triggered it. As always, Will was creating heartache and grief and financial hardship in her life. And she still had to drive the car with that word scratched across the side. “Two months free rent ought to pay for it.”

  “Part of one will be enough.”

  Now he was being reasonable. Now that he’d gotten his way.

  Men were all the same. She jerked the storm door open. The house had been a haven since she’d left Will. She wasn’t ready to let anyone break the sanctity of her home. Not even Tim. No matter what his reasons. Resentment high, she strode into the living room, leaving the door open but not really inviting him in.

  The great room combined with the kitchen stretched across the width of the house. The high cathedral ceilings with intricately woven wooden beams crisscrossing the space always surprised anyone who entered the house. Tim’s gaze jerked upward. “This is really something.”

  “My grandfather. He ripped out the attic above these two rooms, opened up the space, and put a skylight in the kitchen. There are smaller things throughout the house, too, that constantly make me think of him.”

  “If you ever needed to sell the place, this and the garage apartment would cement the deal.”

  Just the thought brought emotion surging through her. Never! She’d go hungry first. “I’ll never sell. This is home. I’ll work two jobs before I’ll see that happen.”

  He nodded. “I won’t damage anything. The units I’ll be putting in are small.”

  “Mommy!” Joy used what Sam called her universal kid voice. All children used it to remind their parents of their presence and their needs.

  She turned aside without comment to change the channel for her.

  “Want to watch cartoons with me?” Joy asked Tim with a smile.

  He grinned back
. “I haven’t watched cartoons since…Dumbo.” He paused. “Maybe I can do that another time. I’m going to do a special job for your mommy.”

  “’Kay.”

  Sam’s hands clenched. What had happened to him after they’d taken him from his mother? Had he been able to have a normal childhood?

  “We don’t have any sliding glass doors leading out of the house, but we do have double doors that lead out of the master suite onto the patio out back.”

  “I’ll check the locks and reinforce them if they need it. It’s part of the package.”

  She nodded. She’d hoped she’d never have to make the house a fortress. In doing so, it felt like Will had won yet another battle to make a mess of her life. But if it ensured she and Joy were safe, maybe it would be worth it.

  “I’ll show you the rest of the house.” She walked him through the two smaller bedrooms and the master suite. The two bathrooms had small windows she or Joy might be able to wiggle through, but not anyone larger. When she commented about that, Tim shook his head.

  “I’ve slid through something as small as that by popping out the top pane.”

  She studied him for a moment and waited for him to further clarify what he meant. “When you were in the service?”

  “Yeah.”

  Guys in the Navy stayed on board aircraft carriers, submarines and vessels like that didn’t they? Didn’t they?

  “Were you in Iraq and Afghanistan?”

  “Yeah.” His gaze, so clear and blue, remained steady on her face.

  “Were you Naval Intelligence?”

  “I can’t tell you what I did, Sam.”

  The anxious knot in her stomach tightened again. He wasn’t regular Navy. Special forces? Or something like that. She bit her lip. “Okay.” Her voice came out a little strangled. Should she be afraid of him?

  “It isn’t because I want to come off all mysterious. We just don’t talk about what we did or where we did it.”

  “O-Okay. I need to start lunch for Joy. I’ll leave you to it.”

  “Wait.” Tim grasped her upper arm, his touch careful, light. But the pads of his fingertips warmed her skin. Tiny jets of awareness raced through her breast where the backs of his fingers rested so close. If she shifted even an inch, the contact would become a reality.