Page 4 of Protected By the SEAL

The banging sounds explode inside me, all around me, all the way through me. I still don’t know what’s going on, but I’m scared. I don’t get scared in the middle of war zones. I can’t. None of us are every allowed to. It’s what’s stripped from us intraining, but right now, I am. I’m utterly terrified to my bones. I’m frozen to the spot. I don’t know if I can move.

Someone needs me, someone really needs me, and I’m pretty sure it’s someone I care deeply about as well, but that’s why I can’t move. I’m too terrified of messing up. If I mess up and someone dies, I can’t handle that on my conscience. Too many people have already died. I know that I’ve lost friends, comrades, people I wanted in my life forever more. I don’t want that again. I can’t handle another funeral, another loss, another person, another piece of my heart being shattered.

Cassie.The voice wasn’t male. It wasn’t one of the guys in my platoon. Why didn’t I pick up on that before? It’s the beautiful young woman who was calling out to me, and she’s a person Ineedto get to. She’s in so much unbearable trouble. I hate it. Yet, I still can’t move. It’s as if I’ve been encased in lead. Nothing will move. I freaking need to get to Cassie soon.

A snake or a rope might as well be wrapped around me, yanking at me, pulling the world out from underneath me, and all I can think about is the stunning redhead who keeps calling out my name in sheer desperation. She needs me, and I’m useless.

I’ve never laid eyes on her before, not in real life, yet the magnetic depth of the pull toward her is unbearable. I can’t fight it, I can’t beat it, even with everything inside me screaming for more. I don’t even have the space inside me to yell back to Cassie, to let her know that I’m coming for her. I want her to know that she will be safe soon enough, but I can’t.

“Fuck.” The curse explodes out of me as I bolt upright in bed. Sweat pours down my face, stinging my eyes as I open them, andI gasp hard in a pathetic attempt to get some air inside my lungs, but it isn’t exactly working out. “Fucking hell…”

When I first left the Navy, I had a lot of nightmares, a whole lot of horrible dreams that put me smack bang in the middle of a war zone once more. Not one that was real, just a mishmash of experiences. But that hasn’t happened in a very long time. Yet, something about Puerto Rico has me back in this place. Something about this job puts me on edge.

“Fucking hell,” I whisper this time as I rub the sweat off me. “Oh, my God, this is a nightmare. What am I doing?” My eyes ache. I press my palms into them to try and block out the world for a second. “Fucking hell, this is a pain in the ass.”

With my heart pounding quite as horrendously as it is, I just know that I won’t be going back to sleep anytime soon. This motel room isn’t exactly designed for sleep, anyway. It’s hot and uncomfortable with a weird smell clinging to the air, so it was just lucky that I was exhausted enough to get some rest before what lies ahead. But not anymore. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, what’s going on, because I’m wide awake and I need to sort myself out. I can’t be likethisanymore. It isn’t working out.

I decide to slide out of the bed, which is doing me no favors anyway, and I head into the bathroom. I flick the shower on and stand underneath the tepid jets of water as soon as it’s warm enough to be bearable, trying to calm myself the hell down. My body is messy, my emotions are all over the place, and that isn’t the place where I need to be mentally. Not for a mission where there’s a life at stake. It’s a recipe for disaster. Yes, I did lose people during my time as a Navy SEAL, which is actually why I had to walk away from that career. It was too much for me to see others die while I remained alive, but I don’t normally let thatcrush me anymore. I always hold my head up high and survive for them. It’s the only way I can keep on going.

I willnotfuck this up for Cassie. My dream won’t come true because nothing will stop me from getting to her.

4

CASSIE

“There, you’re fucking stuck there now, aren’t you?” My kidnapper tugs on the ties which keep my arms wrapped backward around this tree in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the fucking jungle, as if I can go anywhere. “That’s much better.”

I try and tug my arms free, but this piece of work has me stuck again. The dehydration and exhaustion are making me woozy. My brain isn’t exactly in top form, which is making all of this so much harder to wrap my head around. Iknowthat my life depends on my making some smart decisions here, but how can I when I’m in such a mess? I don’t stand a chance.

I’m weak as well, and my body hurts more than I want it to. I feel like I’ve been beaten to a pulp. What has happened to me?

“There’s no point in trying to escape, Cassie,” he sneers at me. “I know what I’m doing here. You’re trapped. And that’s exactly where you’re going to stay until the guys come to pick you up. That should be… a few hours away now.”

“We’re going to be here for a few hours?” I croak back. I guess I haven’t used my voice in a while. “Why?”

He rolls his eyes at me. “I don’t need to tell you all my plans. I just need you to understand what’s going on. I don’t exactly want you ruining my sleep by screaming even if no one can hear you. It’s been a long ass day for me.”

That was a fucking joke. A long day for him? My whole life has been ruined today. I’ve been snatched from my home, ripped from my life, torn apart, and now I’m going to die in the middle of this jungle somewhere. Andhe’sthe one struggling?

“I wasn’t going to scream,” I mutter back angrily. “I’m not stupid. I know that no one can hear me here.”

“Oh, whatever. Just keep it quiet. This doesn’t need to be any more painful than it already is. Understand?”

I fight back the tears. It isn’t easy, but I struggle hard to keep them inside. This asshole has had enough of my crying today and he hasn’t shown a scrap of sympathy. The same will happen again. If I try and weep, then he will just laugh or ignore me. No, I don’t need my emotions to make this any worse. Crying will wear me out, which will ruin any chance I have to escape.

Although, where the fuck am I going to go? I was blindfolded the entire time I’ve been with this man, up until the moment he started pinning me to the tree. Even if I got out of my ties, I wouldn’t know which way to start, where to run. I would end up dead, anyway. I don’t want to fucking die alone in the middle of this jungle. I don’t want to die anywhere.

“What’s going to happen to me?” I ask meekly. It’s a sign of weakness that I don’t want to show, but I have to. I can’t hold theunbridled terror in any longer. It’s tearing me apart. “When they get me, whoever they are? They want money?”

The man snaps his eyes open and glares at me. “Are you kidding me? Did I tell you that I just need sleep?”

“I just want to know how quickly I’m going to die. Don’t you think I have a right to know that? Since I’ve just been taken from everything that I know just to be here in the middle of hell, I just want to know what’s going to happen to me.”

“I don’t care.” He shrugs his shoulders in a blasé manner. “It doesn’t matter to me what happens. I don’t even know the guys who are coming for you. Not properly. They just hired me to get you. That’s all I know. I’m in it for the money.”

“You said something about a ransom, though.” I push my luck, deciding to tip him over the edge if I need to. I need information and as much of it as I can get. “Are they trying to get some cash because of who my father is?”

“I don’t knowanything,” he insists. “They might have said something about a ransom, but I don’t know fully.”

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