Undercover SEAL

by Paige Tyler

  Her stomach tensed at the thought of someone shooting the man she cared about, and she had to hold onto the counter to steady herself. Grabbing the big key on the end of the rack, she turned to leave when she spotted two scary looking rifles leaning in the corner. She had no idea how to fire the weapons, but she knew they might come in handy.

  Taking both of them, she ran across the big garage to the monstrous, red military-style SUV her father adored. She was terrified at the idea of driving something that big, but she knew it was powerful, fast for its size, and best of all, bulletproof.

  Bristol tossed the two weapons on the center console of the vehicle, then climbed in. Quickly adjusting the seat so she could reach the pedals, she started the vehicle with a deep throated rumble, but then had to waste endless seconds trying to figure out what to do with all the different gearshift looking things beside her right knee. Knowing she didn’t have time to mess around, she shoved one into drive and prayed the other two weren’t important.

  The heavy vehicle lurched forward, so she’d guessed right. Flooring the gas pedal, she squawked out of the garage, almost losing control before she straightened out and headed for the front gate. The guard there tried to block her path, but he chickened out soon enough, throwing himself to the side as Bristol crashed through the metal gates. She barely felt the impact.

  The drive to the range seemed to take forever. She spent half the time looking behind her to see if anyone was following her and the other half fighting the big steering wheel as she tried to go as fast as she could. She had no idea how far ahead her father was, but all she could think of was what it would mean for her Nick if she was too late.

  She was barely in control of the vehicle as she took the last turn onto the range. Her heart almost died at what she saw. Dalton was running toward a vehicle he was never going to reach before getting shot, while her Nick was on the ground with Shaw as her father and the real Nick Chapman were shooting to kill.

  Bristol punched the gas and drove right past her Nick, dispersing the crowd of guards and crashing into her father’s sedan. The impact slammed the lighter vehicle backward, taking her father and the real Nick with it. While the shooting might have stopped for the moment, it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

  Putting the big SUV in reverse, she quickly backed up, then stopped and hopped out of the Hummer. The last time she’d seen her Nick he was on the ground. Could he walk? Was he even alive? Terror shot through her and she almost stumbled as she ran toward the rear of the vehicle. She’d barely gone two steps when her Nick ran around it, dragging Shaw with him. Blood stained the left leg of the man’s jeans, and his face was contorted in pain.

  Her Nick’s eyes widened when he saw her, like he’d expected someone else to be driving the Hummer. He motioned for her to get in the SUV, then opened the back door and practically tossed Shaw into the backseat.

  “I’ll drive,” he said, climbing into the driver’s seat and urging her over the center console into the passenger seat. She got her seatbelt on just as Dalton jumped into the backseat besides Shaw.

  Her Nick put it in reverse and floored it, backing up the Hummer a few hundred feet before slinging it around to get them pointed in the right direction. Then he took off, driving even faster than she had on the way in.

  Bristol opened her mouth to ask him what the hell was going on and what his real name was, but Dalton leaned forward, blocking her view of the man she was pretty sure she was in love with and grinning like he was having the time of his life.

  “Completely bitchin’ entrance, Bristol. Slamming into your daddy’s Mercedes really saved our asses.” Dalton glanced down at the weapons, his eyes going wide. “You brought guns? Oh, that is friggin' too much! Nash, if you don’t marry this woman right now on the spot, I’m going to do it myself.”

  * * * * *

  “Nash?”

  Bristol’s voice was soft, almost tentative as he maneuvered the big Hummer along the curvy coastal road toward town. The hurt and pain in her voice tore at his gut, but this really wasn’t the time or place to get into it. Not until they could get off the streets and find somewhere to hide. Unfortunately, doing that in a big, red SUV while hauling a bleeding CIA agent in the backseat was going to be tough. They kind of stood out.

  “Is that your real name?” she prompted.

  The wary look in Bristol’s beautiful eyes just about did him in and he couldn’t ignore the question.

  “Yeah. Nash Cantrell…that’s me.” He darted a quick look at the rearview and caught sight of two black SUVs closing on them fast. He floored the gas, glancing at Bristol. “I guess you’ve figured out that I’m not the real Nick Chapman, huh?”

  Bristol nodded.

  “Yet you came to help me anyway,” he pointed out. “You drove right into the middle of a gunfight for a man you couldn’t be sure you could trust. Why?”

  Bristol didn’t say anything for a moment. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt. Even after I realized you lied to me.”

  “I never lied,” he said. “I didn’t tell you everything because I couldn’t. But what I did tell you wasn’t lies.”

  “You told me that you were a mercenary and an arms dealer,” she accused him. “That’s not true, is it?”

  “I never actually said I was either of those things.” In the review mirror, the SUVs were getting closer. He wasn’t going to be able to outrun them. “I told you I was a SEAL just doing SEAL things, like jumping out of planes and landing on ships when I ended up working with people I didn’t know, doing things I’d never imagined doing. I even told you that sometimes it felt like it was all make believe. That was true, every word of it. I’m an active duty Navy SEAL from San Diego they brought on this mission at the last second because I look like the real Nick Chapman.”

  Bristol stared at him, like she really wanted to believe him. “You’re a US Navy SEAL. Seriously?”

  Nash started to answer, but Dalton leaned forward and interrupted. “Yes. he’s a SEAL and I’m a SEAL. Shaw is CIA with real CIA blood leaking out of him. And we have two bogeys coming up on our tail really fast. Now that we have the important facts out on the table, any chance we can skip the rest and focus on the part where we get out of this alive?”

  Nash threw a quick glance over his shoulder. Dalton had torn the sleeves off his shirt and used them to bind the wound on Shaw’s leg. There was some blood soaking through the bandages already, but it didn’t look too bad. The agent was in pain, but he’d survive. At least as long as the rest of them, however long that might be.

  He turned back to find Bristol regarding him thoughtfully. “You said you were from Brussels.”

  “No, I didn’t. I said I couldn’t remember the last time I was there. And that sometimes it felt like I’ve never been there. That was the truth. I’ve never been there.”

  “What about your family?” she demanded. “Did you really grow up in Colorado?”

  “Yup. I’d never lie about family.”

  She nodded, and he thought he might finally be getting through to her. But the moment was lost as automatic weapons’ fire slammed into the back of the vehicle, clanging against metal and bulletproof glass.

  Nash glanced at Dalton. “If I let them get closer, any chance you can slow them down a little?”

  Dalton snorted as he loaded the small Mexican HM-3 carbine that had been on the center console. “It’ll be difficult since I can’t roll down the windows or shoot out the back like in a military Hummer, but I’ll figure out a way to get it done.”

  Nash slowed down. A moment later, he heard a door open and he looked back in time to see Dalton lean out of the vehicle with Shaw holding onto his legs. The rapid chatter of gunfire filled the air and the windshield of one of the vehicles behind them shattered. It spun off the road and into the ditch in a slow-motion roll. The second vehicle pulled back a bit, not so eager now that someone was shooting back at them.

  Nash turned his attention back to the road and found Brist
ol leaning over the center console toward him.

  “And the kisses?” she asked, her face intent. “Were those for real or just part of the make believe, too?”

  “Seriously?” Shaw grunted. “Is now the time for this?”

  Both he and Bristol ignored the interruption.

  “I think you already know the answer to that question,” Nash said. “I wasn’t planning to fall for you like I did. But when it happened, I wasn’t going to act like there wasn’t something there.”

  He was ready to say more, anything he needed to convince her that what had transpired between them over the past few days was the realest thing he’d ever felt. But then she smiled at him and that derailed his thought processes faster than he would have ever thought possible.

  “You’ve fallen for me?” she asked.

  Another burst of gunfire smacked into the back of the Hummer. This time the bulletproof glass started to fracture a little. A few more hits and those bullets would be coming into the cab with them.

  “Damn,” Dalton said, leaning back in the vehicle with his weapon. “Could you two just admit you love each other and get it over with already?”

  Nash started to say that he wasn’t in love with Bristol, that he couldn’t possibly be in love with any woman he’d only met a few days ago, but the words got hung up in his throat. Maybe the impossible wasn’t quite as impossible as he thought.

  Beside him, Bristol looked equally stunned, like maybe she’d been struck dumb by the same thought. Maybe Dalton was right. Not that Nash was ever going to admit it.

  Suddenly, Nash desperately wanted to be alone with Bristol so he could find out exactly what was going on in her head and tell her what he was thinking, too. But before they could do that they needed to get rid of this last bad guy on their tail.

  “Hold on,” he said.

  Slamming on the brakes, he slid to a stop in the middle of the road, then grabbed the other carbine from the center console and jumped out of the Hummer.

  The vehicle following them tried to slow, but they were already too close for that. Nash lit them up. A split-second later, Dalton did the same. The hood blew up with a gout of flame and smoke, and the black SUV drove off the edge of the road without even slowing. It bounced and tumbled down toward the beach, but Nash didn’t wait for it to come to a stop. He jumped back in the Hummer and got the big vehicle moving again, his mind already focused on what they had to do next.

  First, they needed to find a place to hide. Second, they needed to deal with Shaw’s injuries. And third, they needed to get on a phone to San Diego and get help down here.

  “There’s a small road to the left a few miles up,” Bristol said, as if reading his mind. “I know someone who will help us hide until we can figure out what to do next.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  BRISTOL SAT ON the bed and watched Nash wash up in the adjoining bathroom. She liked his real name so much better. It fit him better than Nick.

  “Where’d you learn to do all that?” she asked. “I know some first-aid, but you looked like a doctor down there.”

  Nash chuckled as he scrubbed the bar of soap all the way up to his elbow. “Hardly. The SEALs trained me to be a combat medic so I do okay with gunshot wounds and other major traumas. But I’m not even close to being a doctor.”

  Bristol wasn’t sure of that. She’d never met a man who looked more calm and sure of himself as Nash had been when he’d dug a bullet out of Shaw’s leg fifteen minutes ago. The fact that he’d done it on a kitchen table without any medical equipment only made it more impressive.

  Rinsing the soap off his hands, Nash dried them on one of the freshly washed towels Isabella’s sister, Josefina, had put out for him, then came back into the room. Shaw was resting in one of the bedrooms on the first floor, and Dalton was in the kitchen with Josefina helping her make something for all of them to eat.

  “We’re lucky Isabella has family that lives close.” Nash picked up the cell phone he’d borrowed from Shaw from the night table and sat down on the bed beside Bristol. “And that Josefina was willing to help us.”

  Bristol had never doubted Isabella’s sister would help them. She was only glad Josefina’s husband and two sons were out fishing in Cuyutlan Bay and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. They were even more fortunate that Josefina was prone to seasickness and had stayed home. Hiding the Hummer in the barn and getting into the house would have been a lot more difficult if everything had been locked up.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked as he dialed the phone.

  All kinds of crazy thoughts ran through her head as she envisioned him calling in the CIA or the U.S. Navy. In truth, she had no idea how this kind of undercover thing worked. Were Nash and Dalton on their own now that their cover was blown? That seemed to be the way it happened in the movies.

  “The Chief of my SEAL Team. He’s the only person I trust in a situation like this.”

  Bristol listened as Nash talked to someone named Chasen, telling the other man how he and Dalton had been dropped into an undercover mission in Mexico, that it had all gone bad, and where they were now. Though she could only hear Nash’s side of the conversation, it seemed his chief took the news in stride. Maybe SEALs were in situations like this all the time.

  “I’m pretty sure Roman and Santiago are both dead,” Nash told Chasen. “It’s the only thing that explains why we haven’t seen or heard from either of them since early this morning. It also explains how the real Nick Chapman was able to get free and why the Mexican army never showed up at the weapons exchange.”

  On the way here, Bristol had told Nash about the conversation she’d overheard outside her father’s study last night. It had only strengthened his suspicions that somehow the two American agents had screwed up and revealed their identities, and that her father had killed them as a result.

  Nash gave Chasen the address of Josefina’s farm, promising to stay put until backup arrived, then hung up and tossed the phone on the night table. “Chasen is going to get in contact with the CIA and let them know what’s happening, then get some of my teammates down here to help get us out.”

  Bristol did a double take. Did he mean him and Dalton or was he including her, too? “Us?”

  Nash frowned. “What did you think? That I was going to leave you here to deal with your father and Leon on your own?”

  Her heart beat a little faster. She hadn’t been entirely sure what to think. And she’d been afraid to assume anything regardless of what Nash said on the drive there about everything between them being real. “Will you be able to get me into the US without my American passport?”

  “That’s not a problem. I know some people who can talk to the State Department for me.” He regarded her expectantly. “I was kind of thinking you could come back to San Diego with me. If you want to, I mean.”

  Her heart began to race so fast she thought it might explode. “With you?”

  Mouth curving into a smile, Nash traced his thumb lightly along her jawline. “Like I told you in the Hummer, I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to act like there’s nothing between us when I know there is. And since we can’t stay here to see where it goes, I thought you might want to come home with me so we can figure it out there.”

  Bristol closed her eyes, covering Nash’s hand with her own where it rested against her face, wanting to experience this moment for a little while. She’d spent a good portion of last night daydreaming about what it would be like to find out that Nash felt the same way about her that she felt about him. It had been more wishful thinking than anything else. She didn’t want to jinx anything by putting the cart before the horse, but a few tears slipped out at the realization that maybe her wish could really come true.

  She opened her eyes to find Nash still wearing that sexy grin. “I hope those are tears of happiness or I’m going to feel pretty damn foolish.”

  She laughed. “Yes, they’re tears of happiness. It’s just that this is all so much to take in.”

 
; Nash moved his hand slightly burying his fingers into the hair at the nape of her neck, gently tugging her forward until their foreheads were touching. “Hey, it’s okay. I promise I won’t rush you into anything. We can take things at your pace.”

  “I know.” She gazed deep into his eyes, loving the sensation of being so close to him. “It’s not about you rushing me. It’s about me wanting this so badly.”

  His lips brushed against hers, his warm breath caressing her skin and making her shiver. “I want this, too.”

  She tipped her face up, kissing him back. His tongue slipped into her mouth to slow dance with hers, and she moaned softly. Nash tightened his hand in her hair, holding her firmly as his tongue teased and explored. Damn, he could kiss.

  Bristol wasn’t sure when she decided this was going further than a kiss, but suddenly her hands were under his T-shirt, her fingers running up his ripped abs, pushing the material higher. Nash pulled back, breaking the kiss and pulling his shirt off.

  “You sure about this?” he asked softly. “I don’t have a condom on me. I wasn’t exactly thinking I’d need one today.”

  She laughed, gliding her palms upward along his deeply muscled pecs to his broad shoulders and strong neck. It was nice being with a man who cared about stuff like that. “As far as a condom, I’m in the safe part of my cycle for another four days, so that’s not an issue. I also got tested for STD’s before I came back to Mexico. Since then, I haven’t slept with anyone. And as far as being sure, I’m more sure about this than I’ve ever been about anything. I know we don’t have to rush, but that doesn’t mean we have to go slow either. I want this…and I want you.”

  Nash relaxed and pulled her close again, his mouth coming down on her neck, warm lips tracing fire all the way from her collar bone to her earlobes. “Not as much as I want you. And in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve been tested, too.”