Her Relentless SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 10)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “Tell me,” he repeated.

  “Sometimes guys get the wrong idea when they’re too close to a bed, and there’s a woman close. I remind them real quick what maid service does and doesn’t include.” Please, let him think that was the worst.

  Evie watched Aiden’s features turn to granite. “How badly have you been hurt?” he asked quietly.

  “Jim and Blake are always a scream away,” she said side-stepping his question.

  His expression darkened.

  “Except for today. Jim and Blake are in Australia. There was nobody to scream for, now was there?” he bit out. “Here you are bitching about your brother with no backup, and you were out there with your ass flying in the wind, never mind the normal losers, but you have a bunch of convicts gunning for your family, and you’re just running around like there isn’t a worry in the world. Jesus, woman, you have no sense!”

  Damn, when he put it like that...

  “Ah, the light dawns,” he growled.

  She jerked out of his hold. She hated that he was right.

  “Eva-”

  She whirled back to stare at him. “You should stop calling me that. Everybody else is calling me Evie these days.” She should have never told him to call her Eva. It made her feel special.

  “You introduced yourself to me as Eva. It’s a beautiful name, for a beautiful woman.”

  Gah! She was five feet nothing and pretty at best, while he was a walking Greek god.

  “Don’t change the subject, Kitten. We aren’t done talking about the foolish chances you took today.”

  “Fine! I was out of line, is that what you want to hear?”

  “I want to hear you promise not to do it again.”

  “Fine! I won’t do it again.”

  And she wouldn’t. He was right, damn him. She’d had her head up her ass. All she’d thought about was her responsibilities at the hotel, not the fact that it was possible she was in danger, and it would divert resources from taking care of Piper. Fuck! Fuckity-fuck. She’d totally screwed up.

  “You’re absolutely right. I was a dumbass.” She sighed.

  Aiden’s blond eyebrows rose, and then he grinned. He walked the two steps over to her, and swept her into a hug. She pushed against his chest.

  “What’s your deal?” she demanded.

  “I love how you are so up front. You just tell it like it is, don’t you? There are no games where you’re concerned. You get pissed off, you’re in my face. When you’re worried about your brother, you’re not afraid to show your love and concern. And finally, you’re not afraid to admit when you’re wrong. You’re quite a woman, Eva Lavender.”

  She scowled up at him.

  “You don’t have to use my middle name.”

  “What, you don’t like it? How about Kitten?”

  She rolled her eyes.

  He gave her a breathtaking smile.

  “I think I’m going to stick with Kitten.” Then he bent close and whispered in her ear. “You and I will know it really means hell cat.”

  ***

  Same Day - Tennessee

  Drake’s sister, Trenda, and her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Bella were waiting for them at baggage claim.

  “Unca Dwake!” Bella called out as she ran towards him.

  For the first time since Aiden had seen him in Mason’s office, he saw Drake smile. He swept his niece high into the air. She giggled.

  “Hi, Pumpkin. How’s my favorite girl?”

  “You came. I has a unicorn. Mommy has her. You wanna see?”

  “I would love to.” Drake smiled.

  Suddenly the little girl caught sight of Aiden.

  “Mister O-Man?” Aiden grinned, tickled that little Bella remembered him.

  “Hi, Bella.”

  The girl gave him a sweet smile, and her mother grabbed her out of Drake’s arms and cuddled her close to her chest, and scowled at him. Her expression was so reminiscent of Evie it made his heart clench. She turned to Drake.

  “What is he doing here?” she hissed.

  Drake sighed. “I couldn’t scrape him off.”

  “You should have tried harder.”

  “He’s going with me to Turkey. An extra set of eyes and hands will be welcome.”

  Aiden kept his expression neutral. That was the first time Drake had said anything positive, and he wasn’t going to ruin it.

  “Just make sure that if anyone is in the line of fire, it’s him, and not you, and I’ll be happy.” Trenda glared at him again, and Aiden laughed. God, he loved these Avery sisters. They were bloodthirsty, and they didn’t hold back.

  “Don’t you dare laugh at me,” she railed at him in a stage whisper, so that Bella wasn’t disturbed. It didn’t work.

  “What’s funny, Mommy?”

  “Your Momma’s funny. She’s just like your Aunt Evie,” Aiden answered. It was the absolute wrong thing to say. Bella’s lip trembled. She turned her head to her mother and placed both hands on her face and smooshed her cheeks.

  “Where’s Auntie Evie? I want Auntie Evie, Mommy.” Then she promptly burst into tears.

  Trenda tenderly grabbed her little girl’s hand and kissed her palm. “Aunt Evie will be home soon, Baby.” Trenda shot Aiden a dirty look.

  “You’re right, she will be,” Aiden said.

  “Damn straight,” Drake said at the same time. He looked at his niece who was still sniffling.

  “I swore, don’t I owe you some money?” he asked. The little girl just stared at him. “Don’t you remember our game, Peanut?” he prompted.

  “She’s too upset.” Trenda sighed.

  “A deal is a deal.” He pulled out his wallet and extracted a dollar. “Here you go, kid.”

  Bella bit her lip, then offered him a wan smile. “You said a bad word.”

  “I did. So you earn a dollar.”

  “You really shouldn’t encourage her, Drake,” Trenda cautioned her brother. “But I’m glad you did.”

  Drake reached out and cupped the back of her sister’s neck. He touched his forehead to hers. “We’ve got this. Take us to the hotel. We want to go through Blake and Jim’s office. Have you been able to get ahold of them while we were in the air?” he asked quietly.

  “No,” she whispered. “Their voicemail is full. I keep texting them to call me. I also left your phone number on the texts so they might get ahold of you.”

  “Good idea, Baby.” He smiled at Trenda. “We’ll get her. I promise.”

  Bella patted her uncle’s face as she relaxed between two of her favorite people. It was a touching scene.

  ***

  When they got to the small hotel right outside Jasper Creek, Aiden allowed Drake to take charge while Trenda looked on.

  “You go grab their quarters, I’m going to go through their office.”

  “How good are you with computers?” Aiden asked.

  “Fair. Clint’s our computer expert, but I have him on tap. He said that if I set up a connection, he can go through everything with a fine-tooth comb,” Drake assured Aiden. He nodded. Aiden knew that Clint would find anything that could be of possible use on the men’s computer system.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Aiden helped himself to the keys he needed and made his way to the men’s room, bypassing painters in the hallway. He wasn’t surprised to find that the two military men’s suite was neat as a pin. It looked as if they had combined two suites into one large set of rooms for themselves. There was a master bedroom, a living room, small kitchen and dining room. Aiden did a thorough investigation of their entire living quarters. The only things of interest were the photographs of friends and family. Aiden had to believe that everything relevant was kept in their office.

  Evie’s room was next. He stepped around boxes containing new light fixtures on his way down the hall. When he opened the door to her rooms, he was stunned. It was like a cyclone had hit the living room. For a moment, he thought that somebody had broken in and searched her space, but then h
e realized that it was upended sacks from various stores, and opened packaging that littered the floor. Evie must have packed everything at the last minute. What the hell? This was an absolute mess.

  He picked his way through the disarray on the floor and made his way to the bedroom, and found an even worse mess. Every single drawer was open, and it looked like her entire wardrobe was piled on her bed. Had she even packed one thing? His eyes caught a bikini that was haphazardly discarded on the top of the pile. It was bright yellow and still had the tags on it. He felt a profound sense of relief that it had hit the reject pile, and she hadn’t been wearing it on the beaches in Greece.

  Focus, O’Malley!

  Shit, when he thought about Evie Avery, he thought of jeans and flannel shirts, he never thought about bikinis and those flowy dresses that he saw on her bed. He wasn’t sure he liked this. And he sure as hell didn’t like the fact that men other than him would be seeing her in that type of wardrobe. Turning to look in her drawers, he smiled when he saw nothing but serviceable cotton bras and panties, but then he frowned. If there was a bikini and two discarded summer dresses on the bed, chances were there had been lacy lingerie that had been purchased and packed.

  He needed to start looking to see if anything might give them an indication of what had happened to her. Looking at her wardrobe was not helping. He moved to the small desk in the corner of her room. At least that was tidy.

  His phone vibrated.

  “O’Malley,” he answered.

  “Get back here. Clint found something,” Drake said. Then he hung up.

  Chapter Six

  “Where’s Trenda?” Aiden asked.

  “I waited to call you until she went to the kitchen to get something for Bella to eat.”

  That didn’t sound good.

  “Hit me,” Aiden said.

  “We’ve got three emails from the same guy.” Drake handed him a printout. Aiden scanned it.

  “Did Clint say who this joker is?” Aiden asked, as he threw the paper onto the desk. He’d read it. The third email was begging Jim to come to Turkey and bail him out of a jam, and bring him a shit ton of money.

  “Old Army Ranger buddy of Jim’s.”

  “He wanted thirty thousand dollars out of the blue? Do these guys have that kind of money laying around?”

  “According to Clint, yeah. Jim arranged for a transfer of funds to a bank in Turkey.”

  Aiden’s gut clenched. “Please, God, don’t tell me he took the money out in cash.”

  Drake stared at him.

  “Goddammit,” Aiden whispered harshly. “Just how close were Jim and this guy?”

  “Nathan was a hero. He saved their entire unit. When he left the Army, he did some time as a mercenary, but they kicked him out for drugs. Since then, he’s been a fuck-up. Clint managed to pull up all the correspondence between Nathan and Jim. They’ve kept in touch for years, but this is the first time he’s asked for help. He must have kept tabs on Jim, and known he was in Europe and decided to make a play.” Drake sounded pissed and worried at the same time.

  “How stupid is Jim?” Aiden asked in disbelief. Pulling that large of an amount of cash out of a bank in Turkey would have raised all kinds of red flags. He would have caught the eye of the Turkish government, besides the fact that he would be involved with God-knew-what kind of criminals.

  “Stupid,” Drake said, pounding his fist on the desk. “Clint’s doing a deep background check on Nathan Alderman. By the time we get to Turkey, he should have his great-grandparents’ middle names, as well his underwear size.”

  “I want Dexter working on this,” Aiden said, as he pulled out his phone.

  Drake’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell are you talking about?” he roared. “Clint and Lydia will have this wrapped up tighter than a tick,” he said, referring to Clint’s fiancée. Aiden didn’t have time for the fight. He pressed Dex’s number, and walked out of the office into the hall.

  “I heard. Whatever you need, I’m here for you.” Aiden relaxed at the sound of his friend’s deep voice. Dexter Evans was more than just the resident tech guru on the Black Dawn SEAL team. Years ago, they’d realized they came from similar backgrounds. Dex’s dad was a cop who had been gunned down in Seattle, and Dex had arranged for revenge.

  Dex and Aiden understood one another at a soul level.

  “I need you to go deep, and I don’t care what laws you have to break or who you have to hack.”

  “Gray said your woman has been taken.”

  Aiden paused, gripping the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I was stupid Dex, I threw away my shot because of crap from my past. I don’t know if she is my woman, but I do know she’s in a world of trouble.”

  “Then we get her out of trouble, and you grovel. It’s that simple.”

  Aiden barked out a laugh. God, he loved this man. “Sure it is. You don’t know Evie.”

  “Groveling works wonders. Chocolate, diamonds, and orgasms also need to be on the agenda, and you’ll be fine.”

  Aiden felt his heart lighten. “Okay, here’s what you need to know,” he started.

  “No need. I’ll just tap into Clint’s computer.”

  Aiden raised his eyebrow. “It can’t possibly be that easy. His shit is tight.”

  “Nah, that last joint mission we went on, he thought he was being sneaky when he tapped into my system. I let him do it because I knew that I could use it to backdoor into his.”

  “He did that to you? That’s totally out of line.” Aiden’s blood began to boil.

  “Relax. I’d been flirting pretty hard with Lydia. I set it up.”

  “You are one twisted bastard.” Aiden pictured Clint’s face when Dexter started hitting on his woman. He would have pushed back a little, but he was the type of man who would have wanted to get even.

  “So give me five minutes to get up to speed, another twenty to do all of the illegal shit that Clint might have steered away from. But I’ve got to tell you, for Drake’s sister, I don’t think he would have let anything stop him from getting information.”

  “I know.” Aiden sighed. “But, here’s the deal. I need you to get in touch with my uncle. That will open up an abundance of information from the criminal element. He’ll talk to you, he won’t talk to Clint.”

  “Gotchya. Anything else?”

  “As soon as it makes sense, pool your resources. No point in having you, Clint, and Lydia working at odds.”

  “I’ll call him after I talk to your uncle.”

  Aiden went back into the office. Drake looked up and punched a button on his phone. “I just put you on speaker, Mason.”

  “Aiden, we don’t need people tripping over their dicks. Drake is right, let Clint handle this.”

  Aiden winced. He knew Mason was angry if he was talking like that. He was normally much calmer.

  “Dex is calling my Uncle Leonard right now. Even though he’s in Mexico, his network of friends and resources is vast. After he loops in with Uncle, he’ll be calling your people.”

  “Goddammit, O’Malley, it isn’t a matter of us and them. We’re all SEALs. You need to cut that out right now.” There was a pause, and Aiden could hear Mason’s wheels turning. “Tell me how in the hell does Dexter know enough information to talk intelligently to your uncle, if he hasn’t already talked to Clint or Lydia?” Before Aiden could open his mouth, Drake was starting to swear.

  “Shut it, Avery,” Mason shouted over the phone. “O’Malley, is Dexter surveilling my team members?”

  “I think you’ll find that the surveillance goes both ways, Lieutenant,” Aiden said carefully.

  “Dammit.” The phone went dead. Aiden knew Mason was calling Clint.

  “Black Dawn has eyes and ears on Midnight Delta?” Drake asked menacingly.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake. I think you, Mason, and I are looking at it totally different than the computer dweebs. They look at it as some kind of damn game. I think they have some kind of weird scoreboard, and they probab
ly buy each other drinks at some bar we’re not invited to. Mellow the fuck out, Drake. Dex and Clint are good, and...” He looked down at the watch on his wrist. “In three more minutes, they’ll be working together on this project to help us figure out where Evie is.”

  “Still doesn’t make it right that your guy is fucking with my guy.”

  “Drake, we’re back,” Trenda called out a warning as she rounded the corner. Obviously, she’d heard her big brother’s rant.

  He glared one last time at Aiden before he smiled at his sister and niece.

  Trenda handed off her squirming daughter to a glowering Drake, and he was immediately soothed. “You’re going to make a good Daddy.” Bella settled in his arms, and Trenda looked between the two men. “What have you found out?”

  “There is an old friend of Jim’s who asked him to go to Turkey and give him some money,,” Drake answered.

  “How much money?”

  “Thirty thousand dollars,” Aiden told her. “Have you ever heard him talk about a guy named Nathan Alderman?”

  Trenda shook her head. “I wouldn’t know I don’t hang out with Evie and the guys that much. This Nathan guy would have to be a heck of a friend. Was he an Army buddy?”

  “How’d you know?” Aiden questioned.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Outside of each other and their families, the only people who are close to them, are Evie and their former military buddies.”

  “We have some of our computer folks checking into him. They’ll find out everything about him,” Drake assured his sister.

  Aiden’s phone rang. It was Dexter, and he put it on speaker. “Keep it clean, we have women and children listening to you,” Aiden warned.

  “Hi, all y’all. I’m Dexter.” Bella giggled at the man’s exaggerated Southern accent.

  “Cut the comedy, and tell us what you know,” Drake demanded.

  “Hold on, I’m connecting Clint and Lydia.”

  There was a pause, and then Clint’s disgruntled voice came on the line. “Archer here.”

  “What do you have?”

  “I think I need to take Bella back to the kitchen,” Trenda said, reaching for her daughter.

  Drake nodded and handed over the little girl.