Page 12 of Rescued By the SEAL

“It wasn’t much like this, but close enough.” I can’t give her any details because of confidentiality, but she isn’t asking anyway. “But if you’re going to stay around, then I’ll make sure I go out shopping tomorrow.” God, I hope she stays around. “But for now, I’ve got enough to make a meal. Don’t you worry about that. You just go and take a seat to relax, okay?”

She does what I command with her hands held up in a surrendering gesture. “Sure, sounds nice. It’s been a long time since anyone spoiled me and cooked for me like that. I actually can’t even remember the last time it happened.”

“Well, you stick around here and I’ll spoil you as much as you want,” I assure her with a wink. “Whatever you need.”

“Yeah, until you’re back in Argentina or somewhere like that.” Uh-oh, she sounds a little sad. “Then I’ll be alone.”

Oh, I can see on her face that she isn’t keen on the idea of me running around the world saving people, putting myself in danger in the process. Hmm, that’s something I might have to think about given half the chance. Because Heather is worth everything to me, she’s worth more than any job, including this one. But I’m not going to throw everything away just yet over one little comment. I don’t need to toss my whole life over when we don’t know what our future will be just yet.

“What about your work?” I ask her quietly. “What about your journalism? That must keep you busy, right?”

She practically shrinks in on herself. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about that, to be honest. I’ve never seen it as a dangerous job before, even when other people have told me thatit is.” Her father. I can see those words coming from him. “But now I’ve been proven wrong, haven’t I? I got kidnapped and was about to be sold off, if you hadn’t saved me.”

She shudders hard, and I immediately throw my arms around her to try and comfort her as much as I can, but I can’t do anything to take away the terror that my father has instilled in her. I hate him for that. He’s an absolute asshole. Heather is such an amazing person that I can’t believe he would do that to her. No one deserves the treatment he gave her, or what he was going to do to her, but Heather least of all. The fact that my father knows Heather just makes it worse. I know he’s a bad guy, but both of my parents always liked her when we were kids. Her father, not so much. I always thought that was because of his strictness, but now I obviously know it’s because he was the cop and on to them and their stupid criminal schemes.

“I’m sorry you feel this way,” I mutter quietly to her. “I’m sorry this has happened. I’ll do what I can to help you recover, and if it means getting another job, then I can assist you or whatever. Or I can even protect you as you work.”

“You would do that?” She twists around to smile at me. “You would follow me around and do that? Protect me like that?”

“Of course I would.” I lean down and kiss her softly on her lips, my heart hammering like crazy as I do. Yep, I really am feeling intense emotions for her in every single way. I adore her, I love her, I want to keep her with me for the rest of my life. I’m overwhelmed with how much I want to keep her around. I’m scared I might do something wild like telling her at some point. “I would follow you around for the rest of my life if it meant nothing else happened to you. If you didn’t get hurt again.”

“Is that because of your father?” She strokes my cheek gently with adoration in her eyes. “Because you don’t have to feel bad about that. It wasn’t you who did anything to me. You’re the one who came to save me. You don’t have to hold on to his guilt. I don’t want you to think that I blame you for your father’s actions. You have never been the same as him.”

I almost well up with emotion as she says this. I changed my surname to take me away from my family, to separate me from that, but even with knowing who I am, Heather sees me for a better man. She sees me for who I am. I hold on to that emotion as we eat the food that I’ve cooked and make our way up to bed. I do have a spare room which Heather could sleep in if she wants to. It’s part of the reason that I’m happy to have her stay over, but she wants to be with me.

As we hold one another in my bed, I allow my mind to wander off, to dream about what life will look like if we do somehow find a way to make this work between us. Just because we want it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will happen. We aren’t silly teenagers now with stars in our eyes and the belief that the world is our oyster. We’re adults with lives and responsibilities. We have to really think about what we’re going to do to make sure things are right.

But all of that reality doesn’t stop my mind from wandering. It doesn’t stop me from thinking about what our livesmightlook like given half the chance. I see us falling in love once more, or remaining in love since I don’t think that feeling ever went away, and living together. Maybe in this house, maybe somewhere else. Getting married and having children too, having a little family of our own. The sort of life that we always dreamed of with a white picket fence and a whole lot of happiness.

Ever since I joined the Navy SEALs, I put more into my work and travel. I thought that was what I needed to keep me smiling, but now I know differently. Now, I know what I’ve always really needed is right here beside me. Now, it’s just going to be a case of keeping her somehow, of finding a way for the pair of us to make a life together.

11

HEATHER

“Oh, wow,” I mutter to myself quietly as I watch Landon sleeping calmly beside me, looking like the happiest man alive. “Is this for real? Am I actually here with Landon freaking Ross? Oh, my God, I must be losing my mind.”

I keep reaching out to touch him, just to check that he’s really here, but not enough to wake him up. I giggle like a giddy schoolgirl with a crush, like I’m seventeen years old all over again, and I love it. I’ve missed this carefree version of myself. I would love to be her again… well, if I ignore the danger surrounding my life, that is. Bill Ross and his gang, the human trafficking, all of that could still be happening. Plus, there’s the fear that my job is screwed now, that I’ll never be able to go back to it. I haven’t even spoken to my boss about this mess yet. I don’t knowhowI’ll address that issue, what he’s going to say…

“Stop it,” I whisper to myself as I smack my palm to my forehead. “Don’t worry about things you can’t control. There’s no point. You will only stress yourself out and not get anywhere. Worry means nothing. Productiveness is everything… probably.”

God, what am I even thinking? I don’t even know what I’m talking to myself about. It’s all just nonsense. Words are just flooding me because I’m all worked up about everything and I don’t know how to shake this off. I don’t know how to be okay.

Instead, I would much rather think about Landon and whatthiscould lead to… but I suppose I can’t think too much about the future without worrying. The idea that I could stay here forever and live in these terrifying, overwhelming feelings for the rest of my life can’t be considered without the concept that all the danger might come for us at some point. It’s definitely out there.

I push myself up into a sitting position and curl my knees up to my chest while I allow all of this to wash over me. For the last few years, my future has been set in stone. I would keep working as a journalist, living in the same apartment, maybe dating now and again, all while trying to make my father see me as an adult rather than the child he believes me to be.

Now, though, I don’t know where I’m going to end up. I don’t even know what the next hour will bring, and that’s scary. The foundation that I’ve been building myself on has been ripped out from underneath me, and I can’t rebuild it anytime soon.

It might turn out alright,I try to convince myself as my breathing becomes heavy once more.This could be a good thing.

I suppose if I really think about it, I was stuck in a rut. I wasn’t exactly living the dream, was I? Things weren’t so perfect that I wouldn’t change anything. It was okay, but not enough. It wasn’teverything. I guess for people like me, I need something dramatic to snap me out of my shell and make me move on. I just need to get myself over this hump to see what’s next.

“Landon isn’t a criminal.” I nod to myself. “Dad thought he might be because of his parents, but he isn’t. Dad was wrong, just as I knew he would be.” It’s kind of annoying, actually, that he wouldn’t listen to me. Even then, I knew.

That’s a great thing, really. It means my father was wrong about that part, but when he eventually finds out what Bill Ross did to me and what he tried to do to me, then he’s going to lose his shit for sure. Oh, God, I’ll have to make sure he doesn’t do something stupid. Something that could result in his losing his job. I might want to separate myself from my father by using a pen name and everything, but he’s good at his job. Ruthless, maybe, but really good, and it’s his identity. I don’t know who my father would be without his police work. I can’t let happen because ofmeand my job. I need to work this out somehow.

Of course, I’m also going to have to bring Landon and my father together again somehow, but that’s another thing I can’t worry about just yet. That shit won’t go well. I just know that my dad will hold on to the same resentments that he did fourteen years ago. He won’t give Landon a chance, just like he didn’t way back when. Not unless I figure it out somehow. I guess I’ll have to be a mediator between two men who are strong and powerful in a dreadful way. Urgh, that will be a nightmare.

---