Page 31 of Ex-SEAL Bad Boy

As we head toward the beach, the early morning sun is already blazing in a cloudless sky. Rain is forecast for this afternoon, but there is no sign of it now.

“First, I want to apologize for snapping at you yesterday. Part of it is trying to deny what you seem to have figured out on your own. This whole thing stinks.”

She looks at me for the first time since we started walking. She seems surprised but not overly so.

“I don’t get you,” she says. “That’s your whole problem. You’re one way, then the other. Liam used to accuse me of being wishy-washy when I was a kid because I never could seem to make up my mind, but that’s your perfect description.”

“Your family tries to draw you into something you know doesn’t sound right, but then you try to defend them and do what they tell you. The bad thing is you had me believing in it, too.”

She pauses for a second. “So, what convinced you?”

“It’s this whole thing with Whitmore and why he wants this kid anyway. He already has a grown son, so it’s not that he’s looking for an heir. The only way to figure out what’s really going on is to talk to Lena tomorrow.”

“That’s why I need you. We’ll still have to go in there as Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood, just on the off chance this is all legit and we’re just misreading it.”

“If this is some scam, I will shut it down. Look, I know sometimes I’m confusing.”

“In the Navy you learn to make snap judgments, and sometimes, you judge wrong. It’s made harder by the fact that I’m a moral relativist, what’s best for the here and now. But that also means you sometimes make decisions with insufficient information.”

Her face shows she’s doubtful.

“Trust me, I’m working on it. I realize not everything in civilian life has to be right now.”

There are swings along the boardwalk, and they’re primarily unoccupied this early in the morning. I motion to the nearest one, and we take a seat, swinging gently and enjoying the salt air.

“So what do you do all day,” she asks, changing the subject. “I mean, surely you don’t just prowl along the beach saving drowning women and scheming with your parents?”

She’s joking, of course, but the “scheming with my parents” thing stung slightly.

“What do I do in my spare time? I write smutty novels,” I reply, also joking, and drawing a hearty laugh.

“Seriously?”

“No, I do write, though. I’m working on a memoir. I started keeping a diary when I was a SEAL. We had some wild missions. Yemen, Afghanistan, some dangerous shit. That was one of the reasons I felt like I wanted to help Lena, and why it’s so important that we do the right thing.”

“We were in Afghanistan, and we came upon this village, and there was a group of men dragging this young woman through the streets. We didn’t have any idea what was going on. None of us spoke Urdu, but we had a guide who was familiar with the countryside.”

“Anyway, we wanted to know what was going on. The guide told us the woman had been raped by someone in a nearby village and had gotten pregnant.”

“I don’t know how much you know about Islamic law, but when something like that happens, the woman is in the wrong, not the rapist.”

She looks at me incredulously.

“So, these men from the village were taking her out to stone her to death.”

Sophia gasps.

“So, what did you do?”

“Nothing. There was nothing we could do. We were outnumbered, and they were following the laws of their country.”

“It’s fucked up, but our rules of engagement say we can’t interfere with local customs unless coalition troops are in danger. And we needed their help to fight the terrorists that we were after.”

“Sounds like they’re the terrorists.”

I nod. She’s right of course.

“Anyway. I have a soft spot for women who find themselves in that situation I guess. It can’t be easy, even if your life isn’t in danger.”

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