SEALs of Winter: A military romance superbundle

by Seton, Cora

  I stared at him, not moving any closer. We were about five feet apart, which was far too close for my tastes. I rummaged in my purse and pulled out the envelope with the money in it. I tossed it to the ground between us. “There’s your money.”

  I turned to leave, but his voice rooted me to the spot. “Just a minute.”

  He picked up the envelope as I turned back, and he counted out the twenties within. Slowly, his eyes rolled up so he met my gaze. “There’s only five hundred in here.”

  “That was the agreement.”

  “Yes, but I did some checking. You’ve got far more in your bank account than you were letting on.”

  “What?”

  “Your college savings account? It has quite the balance.”

  “That’s not my money,” I said.

  “It’s in your name.”

  “It belongs to my—the Morgans,” I said. I stopped myself from saying they were my parents. He probably knew my home situation, but I wasn’t about to call attention to them.

  “Anyway,” he dismissed me with a wave of his hand, “I have to take all your assets into account. You could pay off the entire balance.”

  “If I take all that money out at once, it will raise questions,” I protested. “I can’t do that.”

  “Because you don’t want your precious new parents to know what a fucked up family you have.” I didn’t reply, but I didn’t need to. He had the right answer. The stupid grin on his face created a turmoil of rage inside me. I wanted to hurt him. He swaggered toward me at half-speed, confident and fearsome. I stepped back on instinct, straight into the brick wall behind me.

  He stopped, only a few inches from me.

  “Please…” I whimpered. “Leave me alone.”

  “I will, once I have my money.” One hand gently brushed my collarbone. Panic seeped through every pore of my being. His hand slid along my skin, from my collarbone to my neck and up to my chin. The glint of steel in his palm, flush against his index finger, froze me into place. The blade rested at the point where my jaw met my neck, just below my ear. “Not getting my money will be… hazardous to your health.”

  “We agreed on payments. Please,” I whispered.

  His hand whipped across my face, and the sting of that small blade as it cut through my skin sent terrors through my spine. Heat warmed on my cheek, and cool blood slid from that center of warmth. I didn’t dare touch it, or try to pull away. He watched my reaction, and smiled. “I adore your strength. Sanders taught you well.”

  I fought tears, hot and stinging. They built up inside, and I tried to keep them from surfacing. He grabbed my throat and squeezed so hard my eyes watered and the blood built up in my head. “Right now, love, I own you. Lock, stock, and barrel. And I want my money.” His growly voice, forceful and full of anger, permeated every sense I had. “Go to the bank, get my damn money, and meet me here Wednesday night. Then you’ll never have to see me again. Our business will be concluded. Don’t you want that?”

  “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. The bank isn’t even open.”

  “It’s open in the morning. I suggest getting up early,” he replied. “And I also suggest not lying to me again, Charlene. Good little girls don’t lie, or they get punished.” That blade slid across my chest, twice. Stinging pain echoed after each slice. “Cross my heart.”

  He let go of my neck, shoving me backward and I stumbled, but remained on my feet. I glanced down and found the welling wounds, two thin slices made in an X shape, right over my sternum.

  He grinned, and without another word, vanished into the darkness. I didn’t even wait until he was completely gone before I bolted the other direction, toward the parking lot where my car was.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jesse

  ‡

  I left the restaurant after drinking five beers and feeling incredibly sorry for myself. Charlie hadn’t shown up. I shouldn’t have been surprised with how I’d been acting lately. I was losing my ever-loving mind. So, I’d gone home but I didn’t feel right there either.

  There was something suffocating about being around family. I loved them like crazy, but when I hadn’t seen them in three years, it was strange to spend so much time around them. My parents’ living room was a jungle of holly and poinsettias, stockings that had survived a six-child household. The entire house smelled like a home, especially with my mother cooking for Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow. And I couldn’t stand that either.

  Something was wrong with me that I couldn’t get with the program, that I couldn’t just enjoy being with my family. Maybe that was why, three hours later, I was walking along a deserted Main Street instead of being at home. Maybe I didn’t deserve to spend that time with my family. Maybe not enjoying it was part of my penance for letting Jane die. Maybe Charlie not showing up for dinner was part of that penance as well.

  Footsteps in the distance broke me from my self-deprecation. They were rushed, like someone was running, and light, like a female’s would be. I frowned, and took off in the direction I’d heard it. I turned the corner and heard sobbing. Loud, uncontrolled sobbing. I couldn’t see anything, so I followed the street in the general direction of the crying until I reached the next intersection, and glanced both ways. Toward the right… well, that was Charlie’s Jeep. And she had her head down on the hood and her body was shaking.

  “Charlie?”

  She gasped and jumped away from her Jeep. She faced me and that’s when my vision turned red. She lifted red, puffy eyes to meet mine. Her face was tear-streaked and mixed with dark crimson dried on her face. Blood? What the ever-loving fuck?

  “Jesse…” She hiccuped halfway through my name and a sob caught in her throat. “I didn’t… I’m sorry. I can’t make dinner tonight.”

  “That was three hours ago,” I said. “I thought you’d changed your mind.”

  “I had something come up. I should have called. I’m sorry.”

  “Come here,” I demanded, well aware of how harsh my voice sounded and I didn’t care. I was furious, but I wasn’t sure if it was her or whoever had made her bleed. Surprisingly, she did, slowly, but without hesitance. I opened my arms and folded her against me. She just turned her face so her uninjured cheek was against my chest. Her arms squeezed my torso and we stood for several minutes like that, together, not saying anything. A million different explanations ran through my mind. How bad was she injured? Did she need to go to the hospital? Did she need stitches? Was I going to squeeze the blood out of her if I didn’t let her go? And was someone after her now?

  Finally, I pulled back, unable to contain my curiosity any longer. I lifted her face, tilting it to the side so I could see her cheek. A long thin line, surrounded by dried tears and blood ran the length of her cheek.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “Liar.”

  She shook her head. “No, really. I mean, physically… I think I’m okay…”

  I glanced down, and found the two thin lines, already scabbing over on her chest. “What the fuck is that?” Anger sliced through me just as cleanly as whatever blade had sliced into her. Heat blossomed all over my body, fueled by the rage inside. “Who did this? Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Like hell. This was a purposeful injury.”

  “It was just a warning.”

  “From who?”

  “The guy my—Brent owes money to. He’s getting impatient.”

  “Impatient…” Suddenly, things started to click together. “He’s trying to get money from you?”

  She looked ashamed, which made me even angrier. “He wants the money Brent owes from me. He found out that I have access to my college savings account, and he wants the debt paid in full.”

  “You’ve been making payments?”

  “Yes. He promised he would leave my family alone if I did.” A fresh set of tears fell from her eyes, creating fresh streaks. “I’ve been really stupid thinking this would go to plan.”


  “You should go to the police.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Like hell you can’t. He’s hurt you. This is assault.”

  “No.” She shook me off and stepped back. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Charlie,” I took a breath, “He’s threatening you.”

  “No!” She wrenched herself loose from me. “You don’t know anything!”

  “That’s why you need the police!”

  “I can’t!”

  “Why not?”

  “He threatened my family. I told him that if I missed his payments, I’d be his., as long as he left my family alone.” A sob escaped her.

  I took her hand, approaching her gently. “You need help, sweetie. You can’t do this alone. I’ve seen guys like this.”

  “I thought you were a SEAL.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “That means I’ve seen all kinds of bad guys.” I couldn’t tell her that Thirteen was just a little outside of the bounds of the SEAL teams. Our job description wasn’t anything like them anymore. “I’ve seen all kinds, including rotten loan sharks.” I cleared my throat, and squeezed her hand. “If you give him what he wants, he’ll come back for more in a few weeks, in a few months. It’s an endless cycle you can’t win.”

  I paused, watching her and that’s when I realized it. I wasn’t just falling for Charlie. I already had. With her, it wasn’t that I wanted to protect someone, it was that I wanted to protect her, to keep her safe. And here Charlie was, with real life demons she couldn’t control, unlike Jane’s demons that had entirely been in her head.

  “Okay, we can’t discuss this right now, obviously. You’re upset. Let me take you home, Chuckles.”

  I started pulling her toward her Jeep, but she shook her head and yanked her hand back. “I’m… I’m sorry I came here. I can’t go home like this. My parents… they don’t know about this.”

  Understanding bloomed. Why she hadn’t told her father about that night we met. Why she was sitting out here with her Jeep instead of breaking down the door to the police station. “And that’s why you don’t want to touch the college account. Because if you took a chunk of money out at once, your parents would get alerted.”

  “It’s a joint account. I’m on my last chance with them, Jesse,” she said. “I promised them I wouldn’t get involved with Brent anymore. That I wouldn’t clean up his messes. That I wouldn’t have any contact with him. I have broken all that.”

  “I’m going to drive you home.”

  “I can’t go home.”

  “Stay with me,” I told her. “We’ll sneak in through the window.”

  She grinned a little then, a weak chuckle escaping her. “Like teenagers?”

  I shrugged. “Something like that. Now come on,” I told her. “You can get me up to speed while I drive.”

  Finally, I got her in her Jeep, and sat down in the driver’s seat. She handed me the keys and within minutes, we were on the way home. She talked to me about the guy finding her, threatening her. She ran it all down. A lot of it I knew now, but I was glad to hear her say it all. When she was done, I was fuming mad, but I kept a lid on it. I didn’t want to scare her, but I was livid.

  She paused, and pulled a necklace from her pocket. “Brent sent me this. It means something, but I’m not sure what.”

  “It’s his?”

  She nodded. “My mother gave it to him, before she died.”

  “So, you’re sure it’s a message?”

  “Absolutely,” she replied. “Brent never takes it off. He hadn’t, in my lifetime. But then he mailed it to me. He’s never mailed anything. He’s far too paranoid.”

  “What did the postmark say?”

  “I don’t remember,” she replied. “I was so upset when I got the necklace, with no note or anything in the envelope with it, that I don’t really remember anything else except the necklace.”

  “Is there something in it?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No. It’s not a locket. It doesn’t open.”

  “Okay, so we have a necklace, sent somewhere by Brent Sanders to your house. It was given to him by your mother, and we’re sure she’s nowhere around?”

  She shook her head. “She died when I was a baby. Brent brought me up his own.”

  We pulled up to our houses, and I parked the Jeep on the curb in front of hers. She sighed, loud and frustrated. “I can’t go in there. If they see me like this… they’ll know.”

  “So, let’s go to my house,” I replied, and stepped out of the Jeep. She hadn’t moved by the time I came around, so I opened the door.

  “I can’t… Your family is in there. I… I don’t want… oh, hell… I’m such a mess.” Fresh tears populated her face, sliding through the dried blood. She wiped her face, but only smeared the blood. “Shit.”

  “Let me take care of you,” I whispered.

  “Not here,” she said. “I can’t here.”

  I studied her, seeing the panic rising in her eyes. “There’s the B&B Mrs. Winkle owns.”

  “She’d tell my parents.”

  “Next closest is that motel by the highway. It’s a good twenty minutes away.”

  “Fine.”

  “It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow. You can’t hide on a holiday.”

  “I’m scared, Jesse.” She let out a rough sigh.

  I grabbed her hands. “Come on. We’re going inside.”

  “Jesse, no!”

  “You can get cleaned up in my bathroom, and I’ll get you something warm and comfy to drink while you do.” This time, I didn’t let her tell me no. I dragged her by the hand, but she didn’t really protest at all. She just glanced at the house uneasily as we approached. I stopped outside the front door. “Don’t worry about my family, okay? By now, everyone’s probably scattered anyway.”

  Two of my family had warned me against seeing her, and I’d been acting crazy since I met her. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but she needed help. Jane had needed help too, but I hadn’t known about it in time. This time was different. I knew, and I could physically fix this for her. I opened the door, and ushered her inside, never letting go of her hand.

  No one was paying attention when I slipped her across the hall to the stairs, or at least I’d thought until my mother’s voice behind us stopped me cold. “Jesse, I hope you realize that you’re too old to be sneaking girls up to your room.”

  We both turned around and my mother’s eyes widened. I spoke before she said another word. “Please don’t tell anyone else she’s here.”

  Her mouth shut, and her lips pursed. For a long moment, she didn’t say anything. Then her hands went to her hips. “Clean towels in the upstairs closet. Charlie, you go take a shower in the master bedroom, and I’ll bring up some bandages and things in a few minutes, if she’s still bleeding, though by the looks of things, it appears they may have stopped.” She started to turn away when she had another thought. “Jesse Richter, you get her settled, and get your ass back here to give me an explanation.”

  After she walked away, Charlie cleared her throat. “So… that went well.”

  “Yeah,” I said, absently looking after my mom. Mom was always a force of nature, but she didn’t even blink at this, or ask questions. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

  I took her to the master bathroom, which was quite a bit bigger than the one I shared with my brothers. I grabbed a clean towel and the washcloths she’d talked about before going inside. I shut the door and turned to look at her. I knew some basic first aid, but I wasn’t a corpsman. Maybe basic first aid was all I needed. “We should get those cleaned up. Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll go run interference with my mom?”

  “I didn’t mean to get you into trouble, Jesse.”

  I chuckled. “I’m an adult. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get grounded.”

  “I just… I can’t go home because my parents… they don’t know that I’ve been talking with Brent at all, let alone to the point of being threatened.�
� She sniffled, and a fresh round of tears fell down her cheeks. “I didn’t know what to do! I was going to leave.”

  I smiled at her. “You’re safe here. Just, take the shower, and I’ll get you something clean to wear, okay?”

  She nodded, her breath shuddering on the exhale. I set the towel and washcloth down on the toilet seat, and left the bathroom. I waited until I heard the shower start before I headed back toward downstairs, but my mom met me in the hallway before I made it to the stairs at all. She stared hard at me and then pointed to my room.

  Without a word, I followed her into my room and shut the door behind me.

  Mom poked me in the chest with her finger. “You’ve lost your mind.”

  “What? Why?”

  “You can’t save the entire world from themselves, Jesse.”

  “I know that, Ma.”

  “What’s going on?” I blinked.

  “Oh. It’s… I’m just helping her.”

  “What is this about, then?”

  “Charlie’s father, her biological father… he owes some money to a really dangerous man, and he came after Charlie. He could have killed her, Mom.” For the first time, I let out a shuddering breath. Just voicing that made me angry and panicked all over again. “I found her crying on the hood of her car.”

  “Why is she here? She should go to the police.”

  “She’s scared to do that. She’s afraid her parents will be done with her if they find out. I didn’t know what else to do when I found her.”

  Mom sighed. “Well, of course, you should help her. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. But the problem is… when are you going to help yourself like you help everyone else?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ever since Jane died, you’ve been wandering this earth with the singular purpose to save the world from itself. You can’t do that, munchkin. It’s not healthy.”

  Munchkin? She hadn’t called me that since I was a child.

  “I know Jane’s death hurt you a lot, and I’m happy that you’re finding love again.”

  Love? “I’m not in love.”

  She ignored me. “But you’re intent on continually putting yourself in harm’s way. Jane is why you pushed yourself so hard to be a SEAL. Because you figure if you save other people, you can ease that guilt you feel.”