HOT SEAL Redemption

by Lynn Raye Harris

  “I wouldn’t have let you if it’d really been dangerous. But that’s not the point. The point is you got pissed that I tried to stop you. Your sister is a woman with a baby. If she can’t make her own decisions by now, how will she ever?”

  Bailey blinked as tears pricked her eyes. She was the oldest, the one who had to keep them both safe. She’d been in that role for so long. She’d watched her little sister suffer from the loss of their mother and the neglect of her father, and she’d wanted to protect her as much as she could. But maybe she’d done too much. Maybe she’d been too hard on Kayla. Clearly, Kayla hadn’t trusted her with some pretty big moments in her life. And some ordinary ones too, like the fact she’d had a boyfriend—even if the boyfriend had turned out to be a creep.

  Bailey had tried to protect Kayla, but she’d ended up getting shut out of her sister’s life in the process. Instead of being a friend and a confidante, she’d been a judgy bitch who thought she knew everything. Who would share their secrets with that kind of person?

  She took a deep breath and started typing. I’m sorry. I should listen more, shouldn’t I? I’m listening now. I’m trying, Kayla. Come home. Or let Alex come get you. I won’t even go with him if you don’t want me to. If you don’t want to talk to me, you can talk to him.

  She made sure to type Alex instead of Alexei because that’s what her sister knew. She glanced up at him. “Is this okay with you?”

  “Yeah. Send it, baby.”

  She did. Nothing happened for several minutes. Then her phone buzzed with an incoming call. She handed it to Alexei, even though it hurt to do so.

  “Hey, Kayla,” he said softly, getting out of bed and walking into the hall so as not to wake Ana. “How you doing, girl?”

  Bailey didn’t follow him. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, shivering as hot emotion rolled through her. She’d raised Kayla and given her everything she could—but she’d failed where it counted most. She’d failed to be someone her sister could trust.

  Chapter 21

  “How did you get involved with him?” Bailey asked her sister, being careful to sound nonjudgmental and supportive. Kayla sat at the counter in Alexei’s kitchen, a warm cup of tea in her hands. It was nearly five in the morning, and she’d been here an hour now. Alexei had gone to get her while Bailey waited with Ana.

  When the door finally opened again and Kayla walked inside, she’d stopped and folded her arms over her body. She was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and jeans with the knees ripped out. Her blond hair was piled on her head in a messy knot. She looked small and vulnerable and lonely, and Bailey had nearly sobbed with relief at seeing her.

  She’d rushed over and wrapped her sister in a hug. Kayla had stood for a long moment without moving, then she’d hugged back. She’d also started to cry. Bailey had steered her to the couch and held her while she sobbed. Bailey mouthed thank you to Alexei over the top of Kayla’s head. He’d tipped his chin at her, acknowledging the sentiment.

  After a while, Kayla stopped crying and asked to see Ana. Bailey led her to the room where the bassinet was. Ana was sound asleep, so Kayla didn’t touch her, though she stood and watched her for a long while.

  Bailey had led her back out to the living room and then into the kitchen and plopped her down. Now she’d made tea and handed her sister a cup. They’d been talking haltingly about James Dunn and Kayla’s relationship with him.

  “He came up to me in the grocery store and told me I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. I know that’s lame, and I didn’t fall for it at the time, but then he turned up at Buddy’s one night.” She shrugged. “He’s very charming when he wants to be. He kept coming in, kept ordering from me. He never pushed me into anything, was never inappropriate. He was just so nice and sweet, not like some of the other guys there. Plus he was interested in me.”

  She shot a glance toward the back rooms where Alexei had gone. Bailey knew it was to give them privacy, though Kayla probably thought he could come back at any moment. “Alex was nice to me too, but he was never interested.”

  Bailey felt a tingle of uneasiness. “Were you interested in him?”

  Kayla’s expression was solemn. “At first. But he never looked at me twice, like I said—and then there was James. He treated me like I was precious and rare. So I started going out with him. He’s not as crazy good-looking as Alex, but he’s rough and rugged—and I just sort of fell for him.”

  “You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend.”

  She sighed. “I didn’t think you’d like him. He was in a motorcycle club, and they were all kind of rough and tough, you know? He took me to their clubhouse on the Eastern Shore. There were drugs and alcohol. I knew you’d never approve.” She took a sip of the tea. “It was illicit and exciting. He never pushed me to do anything though. He seemed to respect that I didn’t want to drink or smoke pot. He found it cute, I guess.”

  “When did you find out you were pregnant?”

  “I was feeling super tired and I realized I hadn’t had my period at all. I looked it up online and decided to take a pregnancy test. When I told James, he gave me this story about how we’d get married and raise our baby together and be a family.”

  “So you went to California?”

  Kayla’s gaze dropped. She didn’t say anything for a long while. Then she met Bailey’s eyes again, tears sparkling in hers. “I didn’t go anywhere, Bale. I went to the Eastern Shore and stayed with James in the compound. He didn’t want me working, didn’t want me doing anything but resting and preparing to have our baby.”

  Bailey’s heart throbbed. Kayla had been in the same state the whole time. Across the Chesapeake Bay, so close she could have come to visit at any time.

  “Why didn’t you ever come see me?” Bailey asked, throat tight. “I worried about you.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I told you I was in California. It was James’s idea so you wouldn’t come looking for me. And he wouldn’t have let me visit you anyway. He didn’t let me leave the compound without an escort.”

  Bailey wanted to put a bullet between James Dunn’s eyes right about now. But she told herself to remain cool or Kayla would clam up.

  “He was afraid that you’d convince me to leave him.” Kayla shook her head. “I know it’s crazy, but he had me believing that you were looking for me so you could break us up and force me to have an abortion.”

  Bailey’s jaw dropped. This asshole she’d never even known about until this week had spent a lot of time maligning her. And all so he could control Kayla.

  “I would have never done such a thing,” Bailey protested. “That kind of choice wasn’t up to me, and I would never presume it was.”

  Kayla reached out and squeezed her hand. “I know, Bale. I let myself believe him because he cared so much. Loved me so much. He put me on a pedestal and I believed him. I didn’t realize what was going on until after Anastasia was born. I was such an idiot; I know that now. I knew the club did things, had their fingers in illegal activities, but James told me he wasn’t involved in any of that. And then I found a suitcase with condoms and weed in the closet and I confronted him about it. He had an explanation, of course. But then I read an article in the Post about sex trafficking—and it explained what the condoms and weed were for. James would take trips, just a few days at a time, and always driving. I knew then that he was pimping out girls. Keeping them stoned and selling their bodies to as many men per day as he could. Several of the guys do that with the younger girls. But the club also runs a prostitution ring with willing girls.”

  Bailey wanted to go and burn this club down. Right damn now. But she remained calm, cool. Soothing for her sister. “You decided to leave.”

  She nodded. “I did, but I wasn’t sure how to get away. He kept my phone, only letting me message you sometimes so you wouldn’t report me missing. I had no license, no phone, no car. I relied on the club for food and medicine for Ana.” She sucked in a breath
and it came out in a sob. “Sorry,” she choked out. “Dammit!”

  “It’s okay, honey. You don’t have to keep talking about it. You’re here now. And James Dunn isn’t getting to you.”

  “He tried to take Ana away. He wouldn’t let me breastfeed her, so we bottle-fed her—it was so he could sell her for adoption. I told you my milk didn’t come in, but it did. My God, it was so painful to have it and not be able to feed her.” She closed her eyes. Shuddered. “Anyway, he got a call from the agency, and he didn’t even bother to hide it from me. That’s when I knew I had to go no matter what.”

  Bailey hated James Dunn with the fire of a thousand suns. If he were here right now, she’d kill him with her bare hands. And if she felt that way, what must Kayla be feeling right now? Bailey put her arms around her sister and hugged her tight.

  “It’s going to be all right, Kay-Kay,” she said, using the name she’d called Kayla growing up. “You’re safe with us. Alexei and his friends won’t let anything happen to you or Ana. Nobody is taking that little girl away from you.”

  Kayla hugged her tight. “Thank you, Bale. I know you love me. I know it.”

  “I love you and Ana both. And hey, I didn’t fuck her up while you were gone,” Bailey said brightly. “I learned to change diapers and everything!”

  Kayla laughed through her tears. “I was so scared to leave her—but he called me. He told me he was coming for me. And I knew I had to leave her or risk him finding us both. I called one of the girls I knew who had successfully left the club. It was risky, but she really does hate them and had no interest in letting James know where I was. But I wasn’t sure at first, and I couldn’t take the chance. If she turned me over, at least he wouldn’t get Ana too.”

  A wail came from the bedrooms. “Well, I guess someone is awake,” Bailey said. “I bet she’d love to have her mama instead of silly Auntie Bale for a change. Though I have to tell you, she does kind of love Alexei. He’s amazing with her.”

  “Alexei. You said that before. I didn’t know that was his name.”

  Bailey flushed. “Family name. He mostly goes by Alex. Speaking of the devil,” she said as Alexei emerged from the hall with a fussing baby in his arms.

  He looked up at them and smiled—and Bailey’s heart stuttered to a stop before racing into overdrive. God, she loved his smile. Loved his body. Loved being with him. Loved that he was so competent and protective.

  It hit her then what all those things meant when added together. She loved Alexei Kamarov. Somewhere in the past few days, she’d taken a leap—and fallen head over heels for the man striding toward them with a tiny baby cradled tenderly in his grasp. My God, it was an ovary explosion looking at him like that.

  “I changed her, but she’d probably like a bottle.”

  Kayla rushed over and took Ana in her arms, cooing and talking as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Did you miss Mama, little Anastasia-belle? Did you? Mama missed you. Oh my God, sooo much!”

  Alexei met Bailey’s gaze. Her heart throbbed and her eyes filled with tears. But were they for Kayla and Ana, or for herself and the realization she’d fallen for a Navy SEAL who’d told her he didn’t do commitment?

  “I’ll get the bottle,” he said to her as he passed. But then he stopped and bent down to give her a quick kiss. It took everything she had not to throw herself into his arms. “You did good,” he said softly. “Way to listen and be supportive.”

  “Thank you.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss him again when he would have walked away. “I owe you.”

  His eyes blazed hot. “You don’t—but there are some things I can’t turn down. Just so you know.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  He grinned. “I’ll tell you later.”

  “The Kings of Doom,” Lieutenant Colonel Alex “Ghost” Bishop, HOT’s second-in-command, announced as they sat in the SEAL team’s ready room and stared at the projection on the screen. “They’ve been on the Eastern Shore for about two years, expanding their operations slowly. They’ve been running guns, drugs, and women—and they’re looking to expand operations even further. When James Dunn went to West Virginia with nineteen-year-old Megan Root, it was a test. He drove her around the state, kept her high, and pimped her out—up to twenty guys a day. When the police pulled them over for speeding, Megan wouldn’t say she was being held against her will. The only thing the police had the two of them on was possession. But of course Dunn left as soon as he was freed and came back here.”

  “Jesus,” Colonel John “Viper” Mendez said. He’d walked into the room right after the briefing started. Every last one of them, including Ghost, had snapped to attention when the main man came through the door. He’d told them to go at ease and then taken a seat and told Ghost to continue. “Sick fucks.”

  “Understatement, sir,” Ghost said.

  Alexei had called his team commander, Dane “Viking” Erikson, and given him the story about Kayla. Viking called the team together for a meeting. They’d informed Ghost, who’d gone to work—set subordinates to work, actually—digging up all the intel that could be found about the Kings of Doom. Which was significant, apparently. Dunn had spent time in Buddy’s a few months ago, but he’d been the only member of the club there, and they’d had no reason to suspect him of anything. He’d just been a guy in leathers hanging out and waiting for a girl.

  “This is outside our scope of operations,” Mendez said, frowning hard. “We’re active-duty military. We don’t enforce laws inside the borders of the United States by an act of Congress.”

  Alexei had known that, but he couldn’t sit by and do nothing. If HOT knew, maybe something would happen. Even if it wasn’t by direct order or acknowledged by the command. One of the downsides of HOT was their inability to do what they did best within the borders of the US. But that’s what other organizations were for.

  Mendez looked thoughtful. Then he snorted. “I think I know just who to call.”

  Alexei thought the man would disappear at that moment. He’d get up, go make his call, and they’d find out later if he’d managed to do something about the Kings of Doom. But no, Mendez made the call right there on the secure phone in the ready room. He set it to speaker so everyone could hear.

  “What’s up, sweetie?” a male voice on the other end said. “You taking care of my girl?”

  Ian Black. It took Alexei a moment to recognize the voice, but once he did, he knew what Mendez was going for. Black was deep cover CIA. He had resources, not to mention a fluid interpretation of what he could and could not do. The man employed mercenaries around the globe. He was precisely the guy to get the job done.

  Mendez shook his head and rolled his eyes at the same time. “Kat is pregnant and demanding. I’ll survive, but barely. I think.”

  “Aww, well, you should have been more careful with your loaded weapon, Johnny. Hi, boys,” he added, letting them know he was aware they had him on speaker.

  “Everyone says hi,” Mendez deadpanned. “And as much as I’m enjoying the girl chat about my private life, I’ve got a problem I need you to look into.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  “Sex trafficking.” Mendez laid it out for the man.

  When he was done, they all heard Black growl. “Motherfuckers.”

  Alexei shot a look at his teammates. They all wore some variation of surprised expressions. Ian Black was typically irreverent as hell and unflappable. He was the kind of guy who’d tell jokes at a funeral if asked to speak. Nothing seemed to bother the man.

  Except this, apparently. Alexei wasn’t a fan after that incident in Qu’rim where his team had nearly gotten killed by a tribe of nomads that Black had negotiated to sell their women and weapons to, but the man rose a notch in his opinion with that single word.

  “So, you got an idea about it?” Mendez asked.

  “I’ll see what I can do. I know some people.”

  “Appreciate it, Ian. Let me know what I can do for you.”

  “Th
ere is something, now that you mention it.”

  Mendez lifted an eyebrow. “Care to enlighten me?”

  “Not at the moment. I’ll be in touch. Over and out.”

  “Over and out. Take care of yourself, you crazy fucker,” Mendez added.

  They heard Ian laugh. And then the connection went dead.

  Chapter 22

  “So,” Kayla said, eyebrows lifting. “You and Alex, huh?”

  Bailey looked up from where she was washing the dishes that she’d used to fix breakfast for her and Kayla. It had been a strange morning after a sleepless night. They’d been awake most of the night, so sleep was done in snatches that morning. After Kayla and Ana went to the guest room and lay down, Bailey and Alexei collapsed together for a few hours. There’d been no sex because they were both tired, but he’d wrapped his arms around her and held on while they slept.

  At some point, he’d stirred, kissing her neck and cheek. “I have to go in to work, babe. Be back as soon as I can.”

  She’d stretched and arched her body against his, making appreciative noises at the erection pressing into her abdomen.

  “Got time for a quickie?” she’d whispered.

  “Fuck yeah,” he’d said. He’d entered her without the condom this time, and they’d both groaned with the perfection of it. “I shouldn’t do this,” he’d whispered. “But damn, it feels good.”

  “Pull out when you come. If it makes you feel better.”

  He’d stroked into her hard and fast until she caught fire and came with a cry that she muffled against his shoulder. When he came, he withdrew and pumped semen onto her belly. It was sexy as hell to watch him come. She spread it over her skin, painted her nipples with it.

  “Jesus, Bailey,” he’d said fiercely. “I just fucked you, and you still manage to make me feel like I need to do it again.”

  He’d left her in bed and gone to shower, then stopped to kiss her before leaving. “Stay here today, okay? At least until I come back. Dunn’s in jail, but that doesn’t mean some of his cronies aren’t looking for Kayla too.”