Hot Alpha SEALs: Military Romance Megaset

by Sharon Hamilton

  He nodded. Her calm settled his roiling gut, but not the fear. He had to get a grip on that himself. “Thanks, Doc.”

  “Her appointment is on Friday for a preop workup and more tests. We’re not dragging our feet on this, Oliver.

  He nodded, unable to speak around the knot in his throat.

  “I’ll be talking to you soon,” she said as she stood.

  “Okay.”

  They had never had a quiet marriage. Whether they were making love, fighting, even cooking together, they made plenty of noise. But for the last three days silence had been their language.

  And now in the car it resonated between them as loud as a scream.

  It took twenty-five minutes to reach home, every second taut with unspoken recriminations. It was almost a relief when she finally asked, “Did you mean it?”

  He didn’t need her to clarify what she was asking about. “Yeah. I meant it. If it comes down to a choice, I choose you, Selena.”

  “They’re going to take the cancer out and that will be the end of it.”

  God, he hoped so, prayed it would be so.

  “We made this baby just like we did Lucia. It was made with love, Oliver.”

  He gritted his teeth against a flood of painful emotions. He could turn the tables on her and lay on some guilt, but he wasn’t there yet. He’d save that for when it counted. “You said you’d wait and see what they discover during surgery. If it’s aggressive, cara—” he couldn’t say the words.

  “This is my body, Oliver. I don’t say anything to you when you put yours at risk every time you deploy.”

  “This is different, Selena.”

  “No it’s not. You put yourself in harm’s way to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Where is the difference?”

  The difference was she was the one who was in danger now. It was only supposed to be him. “I’m a trained soldier. I do everything I can to make sure I come home to you, Selena.”

  “But there’s never any guarantee. I’ve watched you go to war twice, waited for you to return. I knew there’d be a chance I’d lose you each time. Even when you go somewhere to train, with all the dangerous stuff you do, I know there’s always a possibility you could be injured or killed in an accident. That’s my reality.” She laid her hand on his thigh and his muscles tightened. “This is our family, Oliver. I need you to be as supportive of me as I am of you.”

  He’d never heard her talk like this before. And whatever he’d planned to say couldn’t stand up to everything she’d just dumped on him. So he said nothing at all.

  Chapter Five

  ‡

  Selena picked up the loan application she’d been assessing and scanned the applicant information again. With every word her stomach pitched a little further off-kilter. She dropped the paper and closed her eyes, willing the morning sickness, which had finally kicked in today, to ease.

  Two seconds later she lost the battle and darted down the hall to the ladies’ room. She’d barely made it into one of the stalls when she lost the breakfast of yogurt and granola she’d eaten an hour before. For ten minutes she heaved until she thought her lungs might come up and her stomach muscles ached. Despite the ick factor, though the floor looked clean, she sat on the tile for another five minutes and simply breathed in and out, resting against the stall door.

  She was having a baby. Somehow morning sickness made it more real than even the positive pregnancy test and hearing the doctor say it.

  A pair of low-heeled black pumps appeared at one side of the stall. “I’ve made you a cup of hot tea and scared up some soda crackers.” It was Sheila Masters, the secretary she shared with two other loan officers at the bank.

  “You are an angel, Sheila. Thank you.”

  “Do you need me to call someone to pick you up?”

  “No. Going home won’t help. This isn’t a virus.”

  Sheila remained silent for a moment. “Does it mean what I think it means?”

  She hadn’t told her family. Or even her closest friends. She was allowing this cancer thing to drain every bit of joy from her life. Was she keeping the baby a secret because of the door Oliver had opened…even though she’d insisted it remain closed? She cupped her hand around her lower abdomen. Hell, no!

  “Yes, I’m having a baby.” The strong sound of her own voice helped her feel more positive, more certain. The baby Oliver and I wanted.

  “Congratulations!”

  “Thank you. I haven’t told Mr. Watts yet, so I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it quiet until I have a chance to speak with him today.”

  “As the English say, mum’s the word.”

  She smiled at the joke. “Thanks.”

  She’d have to tell her boss everything and let him know she’d also be out several weeks after the surgery. Would they hold her job for her if she had to be out for an extended time? Without her salary, their financial situation would take a big hit. How would they make it?

  She realized she was falling back into the pit of worry again and shoved it away. They’d figure it out some way.

  She staggered to her feet and leaned against the stall door for a moment, till she was certain her stomach had settled. A cup of tea did sound good. She entered her office to find it sitting in the center of her blotter with the crackers. Once again she breathed a relieved sigh and mentally thanked Sheila for being female and understanding.

  She returned to processing the loan application, then called her boss’s extension to ask for a few minutes of his time.

  Because of her pregnancy, more blood tests and several more ultrasounds had been done of her breasts and armpits. With every test she became more certain the outcome of the surgery might not be what they’d hoped.

  She kept her thoughts and feelings to herself, for fear of upsetting Oliver even more. This was up to her to deal with. It was her body. Her life. As much as she loved him, he lived on the periphery of her and Lucia’s lives much of the time. He seemed content with the arrangement. He loved them, she was certain of that. But, like most men, he identified so completely with what he did, he was a Special Forces operator first and a husband and father second. She’d accepted the reality long ago.

  But things were different now. She didn’t have time to pander to his ego.

  Her surgery was scheduled for next Friday. Two weeks from her first visit to the ObGyn. The baby would be nine weeks along and would be about the size of a grape. She was going to count her own progress through the weeks of her pregnancy. She was going to concentrate on having a healthy baby and doing whatever she had to do to stay alive.

  Clinging to her resolve, she went down the hall to speak to her boss.

  *

  The desert sun beat against the back of Oliver’s neck, despite his Boonie hat. He should have tied a bandana around his neck before he’d taken the controls. Why the fuck was it so much hotter out here? It was the same state, the same sun.

  Intellectually he knew all the reasons, but this one small irritation fed the black mood which had festered ever since he and Selena had left the doctor’s office. He was angry because it was easier to feel rage than to acknowledge the fear. Rage at God for letting this happen, rage at Selena for being sick, for choosing a fetus over their family, rage at himself for not being home enough, not spending enough time with her, not doing all the things a husband should do.

  Coming out to Camp Billy Machen for this updated training was a blessing. He was no good to Selena in his current frame of mind, and when he’d told her he needed to go, she seemed relieved. Or was it because she was resolved his job should come first even now? God, he didn’t know how to feel anymore.

  Oliver gripped the black control box to the drone like he’d just been thrown a lifeline. It gave him an excuse to concentrate on something else. The electronic screen flashed as he moved the toggle, directing the surveillance drone to fly at a specific speed and altitude.

  It was like flying a souped-up model airplane using a flight simulator. The e
ngine was designed to be quieter, and the powerful camera attached to its small fuselage homed in on objects, mapped their location, and could use infrared technology to detect heat signatures. It also sent recorded images to the computer Hawk had balanced on the hood of their Humvee. The drone was an expensive device designed to surveil the enemy and save lives.

  Six of his teammates, three two-man teams in Desert Patrol Vehicles, DPVs, were out there waiting to be located Though the DPVs were no longer used as much as they had been during Desert Storm, they still came in handy for training and at times were fun to drive over the rough terrain.

  The only down side was they had no air conditioning, and after four hours out in the sun, the guys would be eager to return to base and get out of the heat. But they had to be detected before they could do so. Oliver switched the camera to infrared, swooped the drone down to two hundred feet, and skimmed across the area.

  The topographic landscape flying past the drone’s lens looked similar to what they’d experienced in Afghanistan and Iraq. For a moment he flashed back to the dry, sandy heat. The smell of the place would be forever locked in his memory. It reeked of poverty, suffering, death and war.

  He designed his flight path to cover the grid he’d been assigned. Two red heat signatures, moving west, popped up on the screen and he swooped overhead and took a picture of the armored dune buggy decked out with a gun mount on the reinforced framework. Hawk, his team leader, leaned his six foot four frame back against the front quarter panel of their Humvee and watched the screen from over Oliver’s shoulder. Hawk radioed the two men detected in the vehicle that they’d been spotted and to return to base.

  Two more DPVs to go and they’d get out of the heat for a while. Three minutes later the drone caught up to the next vehicle moving south and tagged them with a picture. Five long minutes followed until he discovered the next two men, who were parked and working on one of the wheels on their vehicle. Oliver switched off the infrared to identify them.

  “Bowie and Doc are having a mechanical issue,” he said as he took the picture.

  Hawk nodded. “We’ll swing by their location on our way back to base and see if we can assist or give them a ride.”

  “I have their location saved so we can track them with GPS.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Oliver pushed the drone to a higher altitude and directed it back to them. He circled to get the lay of the land, and finding a bare strip where traffic from Humvees, trucks, DPVs and the occasional motorcycle had cleared a path, and lined up for a landing. The drone swooped down and he slowed its speed. The wheels extended and the machine settled on the hard-packed, bumpy sand twenty feet or so from their ride.

  “Have you thought about taking flying lessons, Greenback?” Hawk asked as they loaded the drone into the back of the vehicle. “Looks like you’ve already got the landing part down.”

  “Private lessons are too expensive, but if you can sweet-talk command into paying, I’m definitely up for it.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  He felt a brief moment of excitement before reality hit. He couldn’t volunteer for extra duty or training while Selena was sick. What was he thinking? This goddamn waiting was holding their lives up. He needed to tell Hawk what was going on, but, Jesus, his team leader’s mother had died of breast cancer while he was down range. It was hard as hell to bring it up.

  He needed to come up with something else to talk about until he figured out what he wanted to say to Hawk.

  “Will Brett make it back for the wedding?” he asked.

  Hawk frowned. “You’ve asked the six-million-dollar question. I hope so. Tess is going to be one very disappointed bride if he doesn’t.”

  “Maybe she can cancel at the last minute and have it on the beach or in someone’s back yard when he makes it.”

  “There are a hundred and fifty guests coming. A quarter of them military.”

  Or maybe not. “I told Selena they could Skype the ceremony, and then have another when Brett hits CONUS.”

  Hawk glanced in his direction. “If it comes down to the wire, it wouldn’t be a bad idea as last-minute saves go. I’ll put it out there.”

  “It was insane to attempt a big, fancy wedding. If Selena and I hadn’t already done the deed before I went into the teams, we’d have eloped or had a simple ceremony with our closest friends, like you and Zoe.”

  “In our case it was good and bad at the same time, Greenback. Good we got hitched, but somewhere down the road, Zoe may regret not having the big show. But there are worse things. I missed her whole pregnancy.”

  “At least you were there for the birth. I missed it all.” He couldn’t avoid this pregnancy or Selena’s illness. What would he have done if he were out of the states when she’d gotten ill? His breathing hitched.

  His own struggles brought Derrick Armstrong to mind. “Any news about Strong Man?”

  Hawk remained silent for a moment. “He took a plea. Four years’ prison in a military facility and a dishonorable discharge. He avoided facing us, but it also saved the team some unwanted publicity in the SEAL community and the public.”

  Silence stretched for several beats.

  “It was a waste,” Oliver mussed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why would he try and kill his best friend?”

  “It had to be him. Doc and Bowie were together during the op. Flash was on the roof across the street. We all saw him exit the structure after the explosion, and besides, he was busy taking out insurgents up there. The others saw the muzzle flashes and the guys above them going down.”

  “Who did Doc see going back in besides you?”

  “Maybe Derrick had a change of heart. But I don’t know how he got back out before the place blew. And I sure as shit didn’t see him inside.”

  That last mission with Brett had changed the whole makeup of the team. They’d lost Brett and Flash, first to other challenges, then to other teams, and Derrick Armstrong to prison. What had happened would remain a mystery until Brett remembered what happened or Derrick decided to man up and come clean.

  Five minutes later they pulled up beside Bowie and Doc. “We’ve broken an axel.” Bowe announced. “I’ve called in our coordinates and requested a tow.”

  Hawk got out of the Humvee. “If the motor pool has the coordinates, they can come out and get the buggy. You can ride in with us.”

  “Roger that!” Doc’s redhead complexion was flushed from the heat and sun, and his freckles looked darker in the strong light. He jogged around the car to get in on the other side.

  “Guess he’s ready to go back to base,” Bowie said, his dark eyebrows quirked. He jerked the door open and climbed in.

  Teammates and friends since BUD/S, the two guys could read each other’s body language in the dark and instinctively knew what the other was thinking. Oliver had seen the communication between them at work. Oliver wondered why he hadn’t bonded with one of the other guys like that.

  Maybe because most of them had been single and he was married. After BUD/S, there’d always been beer runs and parties the single guys had organized in between trainings, but he’d gone home to Selena. He’d been a married man of three years before taking on the teams.

  He sure as shit could use a friend to confide in right now. His gaze swung to Hawk. He’d been through the breast cancer thing with his mother. He’d understand his need to be with Selena as much as possible.

  Hawk’s wife Zoe had scars from a hit and run accident and had physical issues from it. He didn’t seem to give a damn about her limp or her scars. He was crazy about her. Every guy in the team knew it.

  Hawk would identify with what he was going through. He had to tell him, and he was going to need some time off for Selena’s surgery and other treatments. Fill out the paperwork.

  Anxiety shot heat into his face, nullifying the cold air blowing out of the vents. And his breathing quickened.

  Hawk pulled away from the DPV and drove east. />
  “Stop looking at your cell phone,” Bowie said in tune to the click of their seat belts. “You’re acting like a girl.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Oliver caught Doc’s movement from the corner of his eye as he flipped a half-hearted backhanded punch to Bowie’s solar plexus and Bowie umphed in pain. “You’re just pissed because you’re between girls right now.”

  The car seemed to close in around Oliver, growing smaller and smaller, the seat belt too tight over his chest. He tugged at it to relieve the pressure.

  “Dude, I’m always between girls.” Oliver knew he was smiling from the tone of his voice. “Remember those twins? And they were identical in every way.”

  As the sound of his own breathing got harsher, his heartbeat louder, pumping through his ears, Bowie and Doc’s voices grew muffled.

  “Yeah, I remember them. How could I forget? You’ve been rehashing the details for the past year. Makes me think you’re spoiled to multiples and can’t man up to a single woman anymore.”

  The sweat coating Oliver’s skin turned to ice water and nausea rolled over him.

  “Doc you’re not getting the whole picture man. We’re talking hands, mouths, tits—”

  “Stop!” The word exploded from Oliver. Hawk slammed on the brakes.

  The seat belt locked and jerked Oliver back before he hit the dash. He slammed open the door, and the inferno of heat outside rushed in with the dust stirred by their tires. He fought free of the seat belt, rolled out of the car, and barely caught himself before doing a face-plant in the dirt.

  He choked on the dust, and his attempts to draw breath turned to hacking coughs interspersed with sobs while tears streamed down his face, as much from his efforts to breathe as from emotion.