by Dale Mayer
RHODES’S REWARD
Heroes for Hire, Book 4
Dale Mayer
Books in This Series:
Levi’s Legend: Heroes for Hire, Book 1
Stone’s Surrender: Heroes for Hire, Book 2
Merk’s Mistake: Heroes for Hire, Book 3
Rhodes’s Reward: Heroes for Hire, Book 4
Flynn’s Firecracker: Heroes for Hire, Book 5
Logan’s Light: Heroes for Hire, Book 6
Harrison’s Heart: Heroes for Hire, Book 7
Saul’s Sweetheart: Heroes for Hire, Book 8
Dakata’s Delight: Heroes for Hire, Book 9
Michael’s Mercy: Heroes for Hire, Book 10
Jarrod’s Jewel: Heroes for Hire, Book 11
Books in the SEALs of Honor Series:
Mason: SEALs of Honor, Book 1
Hawk: SEALs of Honor, Book 2
Dane: SEALs of Honor, Book 3
Swede: SEALs of Honor, Book 4
Shadow: SEALs of Honor, Book 5
Cooper: SEALs of Honor, Book 6
Markus: SEALs of Honor, Book 7
Evan: SEALs of Honor, Book 8
Mason’s Wish: SEALs of Honor, Book 9
Chase: SEALs of Honor, Book 10
Brett: SEALs of Honor, Book 11
Devlin: SEALs of Honor, Book 12
SEALs of Honor, Books 1–3
SEALs of Honor, Books 4–6
SEALs of Honor, Books 7–10
Table of Contents
Title Page
About the Book
Complimentary Download
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Also by Dale Mayer
Copyright Page
Back Cover
Welcome to Rhodes’s Reward, book 4 in Heroes for Hire, reconnecting readers with the unforgettable men from SEALs of Honor in a new series of action packed, page turning romantic suspense that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Dale Mayer.
Second chances do happen… Even amid evil…
Rhodes knew Sienna years ago. When she’d been young and gawky, more elbow and carrot hair than style, but she’d had something special even then. Now she’s all grown. But she’s a trouble magnet, and even at the compound it finds her…
Sienna had a super-sized crush on her brother’s best friend years ago. Now he’s hunky and even hotter than she could have imagined. Only she’s new and doesn’t want to jeopardize her position. When asked to help out on a job, she agrees…and triggers a sequence of disastrous events no one could foresee.
But someone will stop at nothing to silence everyone involved, especially the two of them…
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Chapter 1
A shit job. A shit trip. A shit deal.
But he was home. Thank God.
Tired and haggard, Rhodes Gorman walked in the front door and headed straight for his suite on the second floor. He opened the door to his bedroom, dumped his bags and collapsed fully on his bed. He didn’t bother undressing, and the thought of a shower was a lot more than he could handle right now. He closed his eyes to let the world take him away.
But instead his mind filled with the scenes and pain of the last few days. He and Harrison had gone overseas, tracking down a person with some intel. Now they were both home, but it hadn’t been an easy job and the trip back—brutal. But they’d made it, and all he needed now was a chance to sleep.
Even with his door closed, he could still hear other people in the main house, the voices filtering through his head. One male. One female. Ice used to be the only female in the group, but that was rapidly changing. In his tired mode Rhodes couldn’t understand or identify who that female was. Until she spoke again. Sienna. So she was still here. Good. Saved him a trip to haul her back again. They had unfinished business, whether she knew it or not.
“Why would you want to stay here?” asked the guy.
Who was that? Rhodes wondered.
“Because it’s different. I feel safe here, “Sienna said. “I like the people.” Her voice had shifted there—softening. “I enjoy the work.”
“Safe?”
Yeah, that word caught Rhodes’s interest too. But the change in tone at the word people was something else altogether.
“Yes, even though the compound has been attacked twice,” she said, “everybody handled it so well. It was just like military clockwork.”
“That’s because it was,” the man said.
Whoever the man was, he had influence over Sienna, and from the way she talked to him, she obviously knew him well. There was respect and familiarity in her tone … and love. Rhodes frowned. Who the hell was this guy? Jealously crept in.
“Jarrod, you can’t rule my life.”
Rhodes’s eyes flew open. Jarrod? Jarrod Bentley, Rhodes’s navy buddy was here? He’d been gone for two different four-week tours overseas. Planned to come by here each time he returned to the States. The first time he’d talked Sienna into leaving with him. But he was not fully informed. Rhodes heard she was just tying up loose ends to move here. Permanently. Figured Jarrod had come back while Rhodes was gone. Slowly he sat up, his head cocked to better hear the conversation out in the hallway.
He had met Sienna years ago, since he and Jarrod were brother SEALs. But he hadn’t recognized her when she first came to the compound. Maybe because she had been a pimply face, awkward-arms-and-legs, bony-knees-and-elbows gangly teenager back then. Not the striking beauty who’d walked into the house with Ice that day. Even though she had said she was Jarrod’s sister, he really hadn’t made the connection. Not until hours later when he’d caught sight of that long-ago teenager inside the beautiful woman.
And then he didn’t know how to bring up their earlier meeting. He’d never forgotten her. In fact, Jarrod had warned him away back then, already seeing Rhodes’s interest, but who knew she’d turn out to be such a beauty?
Between the two attacks on the compound, the op in Afghanistan—rescuing Lissa—and then a series of jobs covering for Merk while he was busy protecting his ladylove, Rhodes had been more than a little busy.
With Sienna here, there’s no way he would sleep now. Plus he didn’t want to miss out on seeing his old friend, Jarrod. Rhodes sat up, then stood, stripped and stepped into the shower.
Soaking under the hot water gave him a sense of renewal. When he was done, he quickly dressed.
Nobody was in the hallway when he walked out. At the kitchen, he stopped to see Alfred and found him pouring a cup of coffee, which he handed to Rhodes. “I didn’t know if you would choose a shower and some food or just sleep.”
“I tried sleeping. That didn’t work so well,” he joked. “I figured coffee and some grub would hit the spot.” He glanced around. “Did I hear Jarrod’s voice?”
Alfred nodded. “Jarrod is indeed here. He came back to check on his sister.”
“Rhodes?” The man’s
voice came from behind him.
Rhodes spun, and sure enough there was Jarrod. The huge carrot top had been a new recruit when Rhodes had joined Levi’s SEAL unit. For some reason Jarrod and Rhodes had become great friends. He put down his cup and greeted his long-time buddy. “What the hell? I go away and come back to find you’re trying to step into my place.”
“Not quite,” Jarrod said with a smile. “Although Levi has made it very clear there’s a spot here, if I ever need it.”
“Damn, that would be great.” As Rhodes studied his friend’s face, he realized Jarrod wasn’t quite ready to make that change yet. “Being a SEAL is the best, but there comes a time … not many make it past ten years.”
“Understood.” Jarrod nodded. “It’s always in the back of my mind, just not yet.”
“Who knows? Maybe Levi will open a second compound on the West Coast. We certainly end up crossing to that side a lot to handle business. We almost have enough to keep us there full time.”
Jarrod’s eyebrows rose. “You guys are that busy?”
Rhodes nodded. “I just got back from one overseas. After I’ve had a bit of a rest and get filled back up, I’ll be bugging Levi to get me out of here again.”
“Who knew?” Jarrod shook his head.
“The world’s in bad shape right now,” Rhodes said soberly.
“What kind of work are you doing mostly? Hate to think of becoming nothing more than a glorified bodyguard.”
“Some of it’s foreign security stuff, and then there’s all the private kind for the elite. Ex-princes. Billionaires. Dot.com geeks. We do a lot of domestic work.”
“Any military stuff?” Jarrod asked.
“None that’s ever spoken about publicly.” Rhodes studied his friend. “Let’s just say we haven’t lost all ties.”
He realized that had been the right thing to say because Jarrod’s face lit up. He’d been a military man since forever, and it was really hard to walk away from that lifestyle. When one took pride in defending his country, everything else paled in comparison. But if Jarrod knew he would be able to do the same thing he was already doing, there was a chance he would join them. Rhodes motioned toward the long table in front of him and said, “Have a coffee with me and tell me what’s going on with your sister. How the hell did she end up here anyway?”
Jarrod shook his head. “I still don’t know, even after my first visit here. I thought she was safe and sound at home. Next thing I know, Levi’s texting and saying Ice brought her into the compound.”
“It’s what any of us would do,” Rhodes said quietly. “We might have helped her initially, but she stayed because she’s good at what she does. Ice and Levi wouldn’t allow anything less. And Alfred, I’m sure he’s run her ragged, testing her in ways she didn’t know.”
Jarrod grinned. “Yeah, she doesn’t quite get all that.”
“If she can do what she does and handle living here with us, then she’s got to be an angel.”
“If she is, I didn’t see it growing up.” Jarrod chuckled. “No, that’s not quite true. She was just so different. We treated her like a china doll because we didn’t know what else to do with the only sister to four brothers. We were afraid she’d break.”
Rhodes smirked. “I don’t think that treatment here will work. She wouldn’t appreciate it.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” said Sienna from the doorway, her tone exasperated and a little too loud. She sat down on the bench beside her brother, literally bumping against him and saying, “Move over.”
Jarrod gave a shout of laughter and nodded his head at Rhodes. “We might want to treat her as a china doll, but she won’t let us.”
Rhodes studied them, seeing the same closeness he’d noted a long time ago. “I met you way back when, you know?”
She shot him a shuttered look and nodded. “I remember.”
“I didn’t at first,” Rhodes said in confession. “Besides, you’ve changed a lot,” he said in an admiring tone. “You used to be this gangly teenager—all elbows, knees and freckles, with red hair going everywhere.”
Jarrod snorted. “She still is.” But he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hugged her close. “Now, if she would stop being so damn independent and let us know when she gets into trouble, it’d make us all happy.”
“You’re always so busy,” she said quietly. “Besides it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
Jarrod turned to her and, in a much harder voice, said, “Ice found you at the gas station with a backpack, sitting under a tree, lost. You had no place to go. You were out of money and had no wheels. How was that ‘handling’ the issue? The least you could have done was call. We would’ve been happy to help.”
She stared at the table but didn’t answer.
Rhodes understood. Independence was a hard battle. When life beat you down, you didn’t want anyone to know.
“At least Ice was the one who found Sienna,” Rhodes said calmly. “We’re not axe murderers. Once she got here, we were quite happy to invite her to stay.”
Other thoughts rippled in his head, but to add more was taking the chance he would just piss her off. She shot him a grateful look, and he realized he’d said the right thing. A good thing. He glanced at Jarrod and got a nod of approval from him too. Rhodes sighed. This family stuff was rough. He was an only child, and his parents had retired to Tucson, Arizona where they liked to do morning brunch beside the pool with the rest of the retirees who lived in the complex and then play Scrabble and other board games in the evening. They were happy, so he was too. He’d been a very late-in-life child for them, and his decision to join the military was one they both approved of. He didn’t see them very much, but called them often.
“Besides, Sienna has taken over the office work. And if you try to take her away from us, Stone may have something to say.”
“Stone?” Jarrod asked with a frown.
“Yes, office work was his punishment whenever he pushed his recovery too much. We’re always building new prototypes for that leg of his. Somehow he’d keep his stump more or less sored up. And that meant office work—and a lot of it.”
Jarrod gave a subtle laugh. “I keep forgetting he’s missing a leg. He’s adapted so well,” he said in admiration.
“It was a hard adjustment,” Rhodes said in a low voice. “He never let anybody know, but it wasn’t easy on him.”
Jarrod nodded. “I don’t imagine it would be.” He studied Rhodes’s face. “And you’re okay? I heard the whole unit got blown up. But when I realized you were all ambulatory and then created this company together, I figured you were fine.”
Rhodes said, “I’m fine now. Merk and I were injured but not anywhere near as badly as the other two. For us it was a couple broken bones. We were in traction for a while, lots of soft tissue damage, bruises on the liver, things like that.”
“Sounds horrible,” Sienna said.
Rhodes caught Sienna’s sympathetic look. He quickly turned away. Sympathy was the last thing he wanted. Although his gaze kept straying back toward her, he realized he deserved a special reward for keeping his hands to himself. Because dammit she was hot.
He swallowed hard and turned as Alfred walked in at the right moment, carrying a plate of roast beef, gravy, and veggies and put it down in front of Rhodes.
“Alfred, this looks delicious,” he said in relief. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now.”
“Just leftovers. They all had it last night.”
“Wow, they actually left me some?” But he was already busy with his knife and fork, cutting into the moist tender meat. He put the first bite in his mouth and closed his eyes as he chewed. “Oh, my God, this is so good.”
Jarrod said, his voice envious, “You guys are so lucky to have Alfred.” He turned to his sister and said, “So that’s the real reason you want to stay here.”
Sienna laughed. “Alfred is a dream. If he were thirty years younger, I’d consider going after him myself.”
Rhodes smirked. “Do you think we haven’t thought of that? I don’t twist that way, but I might consider it for a man who can cook like this. … Hmm-hmm.”
*
Something was just so damn attractive about a man who enjoyed his food. But he wasn’t eating; he savored every bite. Rhodes had come to her house a couple times with Jarrod way back when. Once, when Sienna had lived with her brother, Rhodes had spent five days at their place. She hadn’t taken her eyes off that big tough badass male. And yet he’d never once made her afraid.
In fact, the longer he’d stayed, the more she’d followed him around just to be in his presence. He oozed confidence and power. Back then, she’d felt ugly and awkward. To make it worse, she’d been fascinated by him but clueless as how to deal with it. Now, of course, she understood so much more.
They were both adults, free of relationships and living in the same place.
She couldn’t help but consider it. She again dropped her gaze to the table and played with the coffee cup in front of her. Odd to realize that, after all these years, the attraction was even stronger. She daren’t let Jarrod know because he’d fight tooth and nail to keep her away from Rhodes if that’s what she was staying for.
And Rhodes was only a small part of it, though he definitely factored into it. No way would he seek her out if she left. But while she was here, she could see if there was something to the attraction or not. She needed time to let Rhodes get past that code of honor that said friends’ little sisters were out of bounds. And Rhodes was the kind of guy who would see his good behavior as part of his honor system. Unlike a lot of men who would look upon her as prey, Rhodes would see her as untouchable, someone to protect while her brother wasn’t here.
A tiny smile played at the corner of her mouth. Or maybe it wouldn’t be an issue … if he found something he wanted badly enough.
“You okay, Sienna?”
She stopped and turned toward Jarrod. “Sorry, was lost in my thoughts for a moment there.” She stared directly into her brother’s eyes, knowing perfectly well that if she didn’t pass this test, her life could get very difficult.
