Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Guarding Suzie (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

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  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Stoker Aces Production, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Special Forces: Operation Alpha remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Stoker Aces Production, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  Guarding Suzie

  Nicole Flockton

  Contents

  About The Book

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Nicole Flockton

  About The Book

  After getting out of a bad relationship, Suzie Waterson has worked hard for her independence. Nothing is going to throw her off track, even if her life is taking a turn she hadn’t planned on thanks to one night with a sexy Navy SEAL three months ago.

  When Ryan ‘Joker’ Smith gets shot on a mission, the last person he expects to see walk into his hospital room is the woman he hasn’t been able to forget. Her reluctance to have anything to do with him only makes him more determined to be front and center in her life.

  Thanks to her past, Suzie can’t give up her hard fought control over her life, though Ryan’s sweet patience and sensual kisses, makes her want to. But when her life is threatened, she needs Ryan more than ever. Will he make it in time or will their chance to be together be lost forever?

  Chapter One

  A red-hot, searing pain pierced Ryan ‘Joker’ Smith’s leg.

  “Fuck.” His left leg buckled beneath him. Before he could face plant into the mud an arm banded around his waist and pulled him upright.

  “I got you, man. Can you walk?” yelled Greg ‘Cowboy’ Robertson, both of them ducking as another round of shots were fired in their direction.

  Ryan gripped his left thigh. “Yeah.” Even if he couldn’t there was no way he’d let his teammate know.

  Cowboy nodded. “We’ll get to cover and then we can check out your injury.”

  Gritting his teeth Ryan shifted most of his weight to his right leg and, with Cowboy’s help, they made their way to a grove trees.

  “Sitrep.” Robot’s voice came over the coms.

  “Joker’s hit,” Cowboy responded to their leader. “We’re heading to the trees ten clicks west from our last check in. Will give update when we can.’

  “Roger, that.’

  A few seconds later they were covered by trees and Ryan collapsed on the ground. “Shit, this burns like a fucker.”

  Cowboy slapped his pack down on the ground next to him and pulled out his first aid kit. “This is gonna burn even more.”

  Ryan knew what exactly was going to happen next. “Tell me something I don’t already know. Where are the other guys?”

  “Who the fuck knows. Now get ready.”

  Cowboy ripped the QuikClot pack and poured the contents over his bullet wound. Ryan bit back a groan at the sting of the powder. He breathed through it, when what he really wanted to do was curse up a blue streak. He knew the QuikClot was only a temporary measure, but it would be enough to get him through until they were able to get safely out of the hellhole they were in.

  He closed his eyes and rested his back against the tree trunk, waiting until the burn died down to a more manageable pain level.

  “You okay?”

  He grunted in response to Cowboy’s question. He knew the bullet hadn’t gone through. It was still lodged in his thigh which meant he had surgery in his future. Thinking about surgery reminded him of the night he’d spent with the hot nurse he’d met when the team had taken his teammate, Italy’s, woman, Erin, to hospital after her kidnapping. Behind his closed eyes, a vision slammed his brain, the hot nurse, her hair spread across the pillow, her mouth open groaning out her release, as they climaxed together.

  It had been one night three months ago. They’d agreed on the one night. No numbers had been exchanged, but sometimes he thought about her. More than he’d thought about any of his other hook-ups. Ryan refused to acknowledge that he hadn’t even thought about sleeping with another woman since that night.

  “I don’t think it hit any major arteries,” Cowboy said as he pressed his fingers around the wound, interrupting Ryan’s stroll through his bedroom memories with arrows of pain. “But, I reckon you’ll be headed for surgery.”

  He trusted Cowboy’s diagnosis. He was the guy on the team with the medical training. Plus, it confirmed his own thought.

  “I guess so. Where are the others?” The second he finished speaking, rustling sounded nearby. It wasn’t the sound of an animal. He may be injured but there was no way he was going to let himself or Cowboy be sitting ducks for the insurgents their special ops team was still in the middle of battling. Ryan raised his rifle ready to shoot the motherfuckers.

  “It’s us,” A voice hissed in his earpiece. A moment later, Carlos ‘Italy’ Porcelli’s face broke through the trees. “You okay, Joker?”

  “Fucking peachy. What’s happening?”

  While they’d been sitting treating his injury, the unmistakable popping of rapid gunfire had all but disappeared.

  “Insurgents are dead, and we’ve got the hostage. Red and T-Rex are dealing with her.” Robot answered as he squatted down beside him. He stretched out his hand and Ryan spied two white pills.

  No fucking way was he taking pain pills. “I’m good.”

  “Take them. We’ve got transport out arriving in five minutes. Once we get airborne I don’t wanna hear your whiny ass complaining?” Robot thrust his hand under Ryan’s nose.

  Fighting with his team lead wasn’t a good idea. Not in the middle of a mission. Without a word, he snatched the pills and dry swallowed them. Once he had, Robot and Carlos framed him and in tandem hauled him up. Ryan slung his arms around them, hating that he had to rely on his teammates to get out to their pick up point.

  He may not be one of the new guys on the team, but he still felt the need to prove himself as an integral part of the team. A shrink would probably say it was a left over hang up from being bullied in high school. He would say it was all part of being a SEAL. But getting shot hadn’t been part of his plan.

  Cowboy had their back as they threaded their way through the thick mass of trees and foliage to the designated pick up area. The thwump thwump thwump of a black hawk helicopter grew louder, and they broke into the clearing as the bird hovered above them.

  The pills started kicking in, dulling the pain and his senses at the same time. He glanced to the right and saw a woman dressed in clothes that had seen better days. Her top was ripped and covered in mud. The pants she wore also bore numerous tears. He clenched his fists, hoping she hadn’t been sexually assaulted while she’d been in captivity.

  T-Rex hauled her close to him as the ladder was dropped from the ‘copter. One by one the team climbed up. Italy went to grab Ryan’s pack, but he shook the other man off.

  “I’ve got this,” he ground out. No matter how much pain the next twenty seconds were going be, he had no plans to show any weakness
in front of the guys.

  Ryan gripped the rope and heaved his leg up onto the first rung. Pain ripped down from his injury to his ankle, but he pushed it away. Putting one foot after the other he made his way up until the opening yawned before him.

  A pair of hands hoisted him up into the machine. He limped over to a seat, sweat pouring down his face as he willed himself not to pass out or throw up, or both, in front of those already seated.

  “What happened?” A rough voice next to him asked.

  Ryan lifted his eyelids and looked to the left where a man with a wicked scar on his face sat. “Gunshot to the left thigh.”

  The other man looked at his leg and nodded. “QuikClot appears to be doing its job.”

  “Yeah.” The last thing he wanted was to make polite conversation with a guy he didn’t know.

  “Truck’s the name.”

  Ryan sighed, okay, the guy wanted to chat. “Joker.”

  The helicopter dipped forward once everyone was onboard, and Ryan looked around to find other unfamiliar guys seated in the small area. Like the guys on his team, their faces were smeared with black paint. Unlike his team, who were dressed in camos, these men were dressed in head-to-toe black. Their demeanor indicated they weren’t another SEAL team. They were more than likely an elite forces squad, and he knew better than to ask who they were and what they’d been doing.

  Another look around showed him there didn’t appear to be another hostage on board, so they may have been in the same location on a recon mission or had completed their task and were on their way back to a base so they could head home.

  He shifted and winced at the pain. It was going to be a long ride home.

  Seventy-two hours later, Ryan was lying in a hospital bed in Virginia waiting for a doctor to clear him so he could go home. The whole helicopter ride and subsequent surgery had all passed in a blur.

  The door opened and he hoped like hell it was the doc with release papers in his hand. Instead a tall, willowy nurse walked in. His eyes were half open, feigning sleep. She looked vaguely familiar. There was something about the tilt of her head that teased a memory in his mind. His body stirred to life as she got a little closer. The scrubs did nothing to hide the generous swell of her cleavage, nor the curve of her ass.

  Great, just what he needed, a woody when he was dressed in a stupid hospital gown that exposed half his ass and was thinner than a tissue. A fresh rose scent assailed his senses, blanking out the antiseptic smell of the hospital.

  The hidden memory roared to life. He recognized the scent. He’d inhaled it deeply when he’d trailed kisses along a silky-smooth shoulder. When he’d caressed the most perfect breasts he’d ever seen. When he’d had the best orgasm of his life.

  “Roses,” he muttered.

  “Oh, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

  There was nothing in her voice indicating she recognized him. He ran the hand not attached to an IV over his face and connected with the bristles covering his chin and cheeks. The time they’d been together he’d been clean shaven. Maybe that’s why she didn’t recognize him. Or he’d totally mistaken his nurse as the same one he’d hooked up with. “Ready to get out of here.”

  “We’ll have to see what the doctor has to say about that.” Her cool fingers closed over his wrist and fired darts of pleasure through his body. His dick hardened even further, and he shifted so his erection wasn’t obvious beneath the blankets.

  This nurse had to be the same one he’d spent the night with. His body had responded the same way the night they’d had dinner. “It’s Suzie, isn’t it?”

  The pressure from her fingers against his wrist tightened for a fraction of second before going back to their previous tension. “Is what Suzie?”

  “Your name. You’re Suzie Waterson.”

  Her fingers released his arm and she made some notes on the clipboard in her hand. “If this is a pickup line, it’s not very original, Einstein. I’m wearing a nametag.”

  “The name’s Joker, not Einstein.”

  The clipboard she held clattered to the ground. Yep, she remembered him.

  Suzie squatted down and used the few seconds it took to pick it up to gather her thoughts. Her heartrate tripled its normal rhythm. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. The last person she expected to see was the man she’d had a one-night stand with three months ago lying in a hospital bed.

  The man who was the father of the baby she carried.

  A man she never thought she’d see again. Although she’d known, at some point, she’d have to try and locate him to let him know he was a father. She figured it would be a few years down the track.

  “Are you okay down there? Do I need to find a doctor for you, Roses?”

  Roses. What the heck did he mean by that.

  Breathing deeply, she gripped the board tightly against her chest and stood up, a smile pasted on her face. “My name is Suzie, not Roses and it’s been a little while since I’ve seen you—” She glanced down at the chart for his name. No way was she going to call him Joker, even though that was the name she’d called out numerous times the night they spent together. “—Ryan. I would ask what you’re doing here, but it’s pretty obvious.”

  A gunshot wound to the thigh. He had been extremely lucky the bullet hadn’t nicked the femoral artery.

  “Roses, because that’s the scent you wore the night we were together and you’re it now. How have you been?” he asked. His voice as smooth as ice cream sliding down her throat.

  Her face flushed at why he was calling her Roses, and she couldn’t stop the bubble of desire forming in her blood.

  It had always been that way, since the first time she met him when he’d come in with a couple of women who’d been kidnapped. Working at a hospital in Virginia she was used to seeing military personnel coming and going. But the second Ryan and his team had walked in all the nurses had swooned a little. Even with her vow to stay clear of men who gave off alpha vibes, she’d been drawn to him. The corny jokes he’d told as he flirted with her had her laughing and before she’d known it she’d agreed to have dinner with him. At the time she’d had no idea which branch of the military he’d belonged to. He’d told her he was a SEAL over dinner and the cloak of danger that surrounded him made sense. He’d also explained he was called Joker because of his joke telling skill. She kind of figured that out herself as she didn’t think anyone would name their kid Joker.

  “I’ve been good. Busy. You know how it is. You get up, go to work, go home, go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.” Oh God, could she stop babbling? She never babbled. Seeing Ryan again had thrown her for a loop. There was a reason she hated rollercoasters, all those unexpected loops where your stomach falls into your throat and you think it’s never going to return to its proper position.

  Clearing her throat Suzie concentrated on checking the rest of Ryan’s vitals and getting out of there as quickly as she could. “Well, everything looks good,” she said as she made a final notation on his chart. “I’ll check to see what’s holding up Dr. Morton. I’ll see you around, Ryan.”

  Suzie escaped quickly from the room and rested her back against the wall beside his closed door, her heart racing so fast she’d be beeping all over the place if she was attached to a heart monitor.

  She couldn’t regret falling into bed with Ryan. No matter how many times since she’d told herself it was a mistake. He’d treated her like a princess and, after her ex-husband who’d dominated her in every aspect of her life, including the bedroom, she’d fallen under Ryan’s spell, but they’d agreed on one night only. Now the consequences of that night grew in her belly. Fate had literally thrown Ryan at her mercy. All she had to do was tell a man she’d known for less than twenty-four hours that he was going to be a father.

  Didn’t that just take the cake?

  Suzie lifted her hand and paused. The second she knocked on the eight foot slab of wood she was setting herself on a path of no return. She’d argued with herself so often over the last coupl
e days. Did she tell him. Didn’t she tell him. What if he didn’t believe her? What if he threw her out on the street? At the end of it all her decision had been—she couldn’t keep it from him.

  It didn’t matter that she’d planned to travel this new path fate had set her on by herself. After tonight she could still be traveling it alone or she could have someone walking alongside of her. The only way she’d ever know is by telling him.

  She ignored the shiver of this-is-a-bad-idea rattling through her. Deep inside she knew it was the right thing to do. The only thing. If the hospital found out she’d written down a patient’s address, she’d be out of a job.

  God knows, she needed her job now.

  It had been two days since Ryan had gotten released from the hospital. Two days to build up the courage to break the news to him. How the hell was he going to react? They’d been careful. He’d suited up and she figured she was in the safe zone of her cycle. Guess that tiny print on the condom box was correct when it stated it wasn’t one hundred percent foolproof, and she hadn’t been in her safe zone after all.

  Closing her eyes, she rapped her knuckles on the door. The complex Ryan lived in wasn’t fancy. From the outside it appeared serviceable. The exact type of place a bachelor would live in.

  Seconds passed and she couldn’t hear any noticeable sound to indicate Ryan was home. She should probably go. It was a bad idea in the first place. She’d already decided to go it alone with the pregnancy. She needed to keep it that way. Besides, Ryan was a SEAL his job was dangerous, proof of that was his stay in hospital with a bullet wound. For her sake, and sanity, it would be best if she turned tail and walked away.