Look Again: A Novella (Echo Platoon Book 1) Page 7

  Crowley took the envelope and quickly bagged it. “Don’t worry, hon,” he said to Katie. “I’ll see you get every cent of it back tomorrow. Thanks for protecting my niece,” he added, nodding at Tyler one more time before turning away. “Evans, call for a tow truck!” he bellowed.

  Tyler followed Katie’s gaze to her battered Honda Pilot.

  “Sorry about your car, Katie Cat,” he said, giving her a squeeze.

  “That’s okay,” she answered glumly. “I’ve got insurance.”

  “What’s your deductible?”

  She heaved a heavy sigh and turned her head to send him a wry smile. “Almost exactly what’s in that envelope.”

  “Come on,” he said, with a compassionate squeeze. “Let’s get your purse and phone and take you home. I’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

  Epilogue

  “You look so happy,” Katie remarked, as they left the Military Advanced Training Center inside of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and stepped into the elevator. “Does it still feel good?” She punched the button that would take them to one of the suites allotted to amputees getting treatment. They would stay there for two nights while Tyler underwent gait testing and assessment.

  “It feels great,” he replied on a note of wonder. She noticed he could not stop staring at his new prosthesis, clearly visible where it stuck out from his tennis shoe and connected to his ankle. “Almost feels like a real foot.”

  According to the prosthesis’ specs, it worked almost like a real foot, too. His appended tibia fit snugly in a casing lined with soft silicone to prevent chafing. Beneath the casing, an ankle, jointed to bend just like a real one, connected to a carbon fiber pedestal that fit inside his shoe just the way a real foot would.

  “I feel like I’m dating the bionic man,” Katie teased.

  He shot her a grin. “I wouldn’t go that far. But now I can keep up with the other deputies.”

  Katie rolled her eyes. “You can do more than that and you know it.”

  Their eyes met as the elevator doors closed, and the elevator began to rise. Tyler backed her against the wall, fitting his hard body to her softer one. “Have I admitted yet that I’m in love with you, Katie Cat?” he asked.

  Euphoria welled in her. “Maybe once or twice,” she said, gazing deep into his gold-brown eyes and loving him so much her heart threatened to burst.

  He raised his eyebrows waiting. “This is where you say something back,” he prompted, “even though I’ve heard it before.”

  “Oh, sorry. I was caught up in the moment. I love you too, T-Rex,” she replied.

  He growled low in his throat. “You know what it does to me when you call me that,” he warned, lowering his lips over hers.

  But then the elevator chimed, and the doors swept open at their floor. Katie broke off the kiss and squirmed free. Now was not the time for them to get carried away. “Let me see your walk again,” she said, backing down the hall ahead of him.

  “Can I pull off a sexy swagger?” he asked, trying for a little bounce and making her laugh.

  She worked their room key out of her back pocket. “Absolutely.”

  Not a sound came from behind their door, but then again SEALs were trained to be utterly silent. She stuck the key into the lock and pushed the door open. The room stood in semi-darkness with the curtains pulled.

  Bronco stuck his nose out to greet them, but Tyler shot out a hand to prevent Katie from entering. “Wait a minute. Who pulled the curtains?”

  “I did,” Katie reassured him. “Bronco wouldn’t let anyone in, would you buddy?”

  Tyler relented, but his expression remained wary as he entered the room ahead of her, flicking on the light. He waded cautiously into the living area, signaling for Katie to stay behind him.

  Without warning a dark figure stepped out of the bedroom door. “Surprise!”

  Another man leapt off the floor from behind the couch and two others slipped out from behind the drawn drapes.

  Katie studied Tyler’s reaction to finding his former teammates in their roomy suite. “What the—?” He swung a startled look at her. “Did you know they were in here?”

  “She invited us, man.” The swarthy god of a man who’d hidden in their bedroom crossed the room and threw both arms around him.

  Katie’s throat closed up as Tyler returned his teammate’s fierce embrace. This must be Sam, she concluded, the one she’d made arrangements with after a long and frustrating attempt to find him. SEALs truly were private people, and virtually invisible at that.

  Sam finally released Tyler so he could greet the others.

  “Bronco.” He turned toward the man with sun-streaked hair, thumping his back as they exchanged a hearty embrace. “You know I named my dog after you, right?”

  “I saw that on his collar,” drawled the warrior with dancing blue eyes and a wicked grin. “You must have missed me.”

  “Hardly. He annoyed me the same way you do. Hey, Bullfrog,” he said, holding out a hand to the tallest of the four, a man with a compassionate and intelligent expression. “Haiku,” he added, shaking the Asian man’s hand with gusto. “Damn, it’s good to see you guys.”

  “You look good, Tyler,” Bullfrog declared.

  An aura of unquestioning camaraderie and boundless energy filled the room.

  “Thank you. I feel good. Where’s Cooper?” he asked.

  “Couldn’t come,” Sam answered with a grimace. “Your platoon just headed back to Malaysia to avenge you and to grab Haji once and for all.”

  “I thought Echo Platoon was going to do that.”

  “We were.” Sam grimaced. “But then we were asked to recover the daughter of an oil tycoon instead, and Echo Platoon went without us.”

  “Damn,” Tyler swore, regarding him closely. “What was that like?”

  “I’ll tell you about it some time,” Sam promised.

  Just then Tyler seemed to remember her. He swiveled toward Katie, beckoning her closer and putting an arm around her. “Guys, I want you to meet the reason for my resurrection. This is the beautiful Katie Crowley. She trains therapy dogs like this mutt here.”

  Sam stuck his hand out. “We spoke on the phone,” he reminded her. “Thanks for taking good care of our brother here.”

  “Thank you for coming,” she replied. Just as she thought it might, the support of Tyler’s former teammates had obviously cheered him.

  “Katie’s going to marry me one day,” Tyler interjected, drawing her startled gaze. They’d only been together for a month, and yet the declaration thrilled her more than it caught her off guard.

  “Whoa, did you just propose?” Bronco the SEAL demanded, looking back and forth between them.

  “No, I don’t have a ring yet,” Tyler said with a shrug. “I just wanted you guys to know that this is serious.”

  “And how do you feel about that?” Bronco asked Katie, extending an imaginary mike.

  She laughed at his antics. “I’m looking forward to it,” she honestly replied.

  Marrying Tyler Rexall! Only in her wildest teenage dreams could she have predicted that would happen.

  “Well, now that introductions are over,” Sam inserted briskly, “we can still catch the second half of the UFC championship, Velasquez is taking on that guy from Denmark.”

  Tyler responded enthusiastically. “Where’s the remote control?” He found it on top of the television.

  “What is UFC?” Katie asked, mystified, as SEALs scrambled for the limited seats.

  “It’s the Ultimate Fighting Championship—mixed martial arts.” He sent her a pleading look. “Do you mind?”

  “Of course not.” She grinned at the lot of them—nothing but overgrown boys. “You guys have fun. I’ll take Bronco for a walk and look for popcorn.”

  As she clipped on Bronco’s leash, Tyler located the sport’s channel featuring the event. Then he chased Katie to the door.

  “Hey,” he said, following her into the hall and leaving th
e door cracked. Catching her face in both hands, he stared into her eyes. “That was the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me, Katie Cat. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you.”

  Joy blossomed inside her. “You’re welcome,” she replied. “By the way, I’m going to hold you to your prediction.”

  “The one about us getting married?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “Not a problem,” he assured her. Lowering his mouth over hers, he sealed his promise with the world’s sweetest kiss.

  Coming in August

  Danger Close

  Echo Platoon series Book #1

  The sound of running water preceded the feel of a large hand sliding under the back of her head, cradling it as he helped her to lift her shoulders. A paper cup touched her lips. “Here, take a sip, ma’am. It’ll help.”

  The respectful term made her think of the military. As she swallowed a soothing draught, Maddy cracked her eyes and assessed her Good Samaritan through her lashes.

  Definitely military, she confirmed. He was darkly handsome, thirtyish. Dried blood crusted the underside of his swollen nose. Dark green eyes regarded her with brooding intensity.

  “Who are you?” she croaked, as he lowered her head and untangled his fingers from her hair.

  “Lieutenant Sam Sasseville,” he introduced himself. “This is Bronco, my chief,” he added gesturing to the second man who wore a baseball cap over his burnished locks. Blue eyes shone out of an unnaturally bronzed face.

  “Pleasure,” said Bronco with a familiar chuckle.

  Those blue eyes. That laugh. She’d met these men before. A wave of alarm rolled belatedly through her. “Where am I?” she demanded, coming up on her elbows to assess the small, sterile space. Even that small movement made her want to lie back down and close her eyes, but she didn’t. “How did I get here?”

  “You’re aboard the Harry S. Truman, currently in the Gulf of Mexico,” the lieutenant said, in a tentative manner. “We’re SEALs. We were tasked to recover you from Matamoros. Your father must have friends in high places,” he tacked on unnecessarily.

  A muted roar filled Maddy’s ears. She started to sit up all the way, kicking off her blanket in order to stand, but the lieutenant laid a heavy hand on her shoulder, pushing her shoulder toward the pillow.

  Another memory stirred. Something violent and frightening.

  “You shouldn’t move,” he said.

  “Don’t touch me!”

  He snatched his hand back as she sorted through the rush of emotions.

  Ignoring his cautionary statement, Maggie sat up carefully. The room went into a slow spin and then subsided. “So my father is the reason I’m here,” she deduced, putting the pieces together.

  “Yes,” both men said simultaneously.

  Damn it, Daddy. “And you—you what?—you slipped into the school while I slept and you grabbed me?” Surely her father would not have condoned such underhanded measures.

  “Affirmative,” said the lieutenant, but his inscrutable expression suggested there was more.

  “Why can’t I remember?”

  “We, uh, we had to subdue you,” he stiffly confessed.

  The blue-eyed chief looked down at the floor, his lips crimped.

  He was trying not to laugh, Maddy realized, outraged. The faces of Imelda, Graciela, Mercedes, and the other dozen girls at El Santuario flashed before her eyes. If they hadn’t realized she was gone yet, they soon would. Her stomach cramped in anguish as she envisioned their confusion, followed by their terror when they realized how Maddy’s desertion would impact them.

  “What have you done?” she cried, directing her dismay at her father foremost, then glaring at the two men standing near her. “What have you done?” she repeated. “Those girls aren’t safe without me!”

  Lt. Sassville’s mouth firmed with what might have been remorse. His companion—what was his name? Bronco?—clapped him on the shoulder.

  “It’s all you, sir,” he stated with confidence. Then he nodded in her direction. “Feel better soon, ma’am.” He backed swiftly out of the hatch behind him, leaving Maddy to direct her fury at just one man.

  In a matter of days—maybe a week if they were lucky—every girl in the school would be preyed upon by a man, her innocence forcibly taken from her. The knowledge lodged in Maddy’s throat like a pill, too big and bitter to swallow.

  Dropping her face in her hands, she hid her devastation. A tide of degradation was overtaking Mexico, and she was no longer there to deflect it.

  “Go away,” she begged wanting desperately to be alone, to sulk, and to reconsider her options.

  But the SEAL didn’t move, not even when the pain in her chest doubled. “Why are you still here?” she raged, lifting her face from her hands. She couldn’t grieve with him here in the room.

  At first, his only answer was silence. But then he broke it, speaking in a condescending tone that made her eyes widen. “You realize you would’ve ended up raped or murdered if you’d stayed around much longer,” he pointed out.

  She glared at him. “How does that concern you?”

  “Concern me?” He gave a purely Hispanic shrug. “It doesn’t. I don’t give a damn what might have happened to you.” Except that his irate, protective tone said otherwise.

  Stung by his antagonism, all she could do was stare at him with her mouth open.

  He took a step toward her, planting his hands on the edge of the bed and leaning down until his dark green eyes looked straight into her blue ones, and his scent stole over her. “I should be halfway around the world right now, hunting down high-value targets, not wasting my time protecting the daughter of an oil tycoon.” His tone made his resentment obvious.

  Memories bombarded Maddy, flickering through her mind so quickly she could scarcely get a read on them. Silhouettes emerged out of the darkness.

  “You attacked me,” she recalled, seeing a vision of him hauling back her mosquito netting.

  He straightened like she’d slapped him in the face. “No way.” He pointed a long finger at her. “I told you exactly who we were, and you resisted us, remember?”

  All she remembered was him grabbing her out of the window and throwing her atop her bed. “You mauled me on my mattress,” she added, remembering how she’d fought back.

  “No,” he exclaimed, shaking his head vehemently.

  But a touch to the knot swelling just above her eyebrows confirmed the accuracy of her statement. She sent him an accusing glare. “Yes, you did.”

  “No. You tried escaping out the window,” he insisted, his expression growing sterner by the moment. “And then you went crazy. Look what you did to my nose!”

  She eyed his swollen nose ridge with a smidgen of satisfaction. Without the flaw, the man was simply too handsome for his own good. “Serves you right for scaring me half to death,” she said, dismayed by her behavior. But his was worse.

  His chest expanded and his hands clenched. “What the hell were you thinking ignoring a mandatory evacuation?”

  Maddy bristled. “I was thinking that I was protecting innocent lives. What was I supposed to do? Just abandon those girls? How dare you lecture me for doing what you do every day, you overbearing hypocrite!”

  The epithet sent his eyebrows winging toward his hairline. A disbelieving laugh escaped him and he unclenched his hands. “You couldn’t begin to do what I do, Miss Scott,” he countered, propping them on his hips with a smirk of confidence on his lips.

  Maddy narrowed her eyes. Fury pounded through her. No man had ever put her back up in so short a time. “I never said I can do exactly what you do, Lieutenant. But I will risk my life for a cause that I believe in. In that sense, we’re exactly alike.”

  His smile faded abruptly. “We are nothing alike,” he insisted, his gaze sliding over her.

  She sat up straighter, angling her chin at him. “Oh, I see. SEALs don’t protect the weak and combat corruption?”

  She thought she had him bested
when he paused for the barest second. “No,” he finally countered. “We kill the enemy, Miss Scott. That’s the difference between us.” He tapped his broad chest. “I’m not a potential victim.” He pointed at her. “You are.”

  More by

  Marliss Melton

  Navy SEAL Team 12 series

  Forget Me Not

  In the Dark

  Time to Run

  Next to Die

  Don’t Let Go

  Too Far Gone

  Show No Fear

  Long Gone, A Novella

  Code of Silence, A Novella

  Taskforce Trilogy

  The Protector

  The Guardian

  The Enforcer

  About the Author

  Marliss Melton is the author of a dozen counterterrorist/romantic suspense stories, including a 7-book Navy SEALs series, a counterterrorist Taskforce Trilogy, two novellas and two short stories. She relies on her experience as a military spouse and on her many contacts in the Spec Ops and Intelligence communities to pen realistic and heartfelt stories about America’s elite warriors and fearless agency heroes. Daughter of a U.S. foreign officer, Melton grew up in various countries overseas. She has taught English, Spanish, ESL, and Linguistics at the College of William and Mary, her alma mater. She lives near Virginia Beach with her husband, young daughter, and four college-aged children. Be sure to “friend” Marliss on Facebook! Visit www.marlissmelton.com for more information.