Guarding Brielle_Special Forces_Operation Alpha Read online

  “Want some company?” asked Abe. “My son, Tommy, loves going there. I’m sure Summer and the girls would love to have a girlie day.”

  “Sounds great, man, ‘Preciate the offer.”

  “Great, before you leave we’ll make arrangements. Hey Benny,” Abe called out to his teammate. “Wanna come to Legoland with T-Rex and me tomorrow. He’s looking after his nephew so I’m gonna bring Tommy.”

  Benny’s gaze drifted to the brunette behind the bar, as if they were connected by some invisible link, her head lifted, and she blew Benny a kiss. “Nah, the kids are all going to a friend’s place tomorrow. My wife and I have the day to ourselves and are going to make the most of it.”

  A collective groan went around the table. “Oh, fuck Benny, no more babies,” said Cookie.

  Tim tuned out the banter being tossed around among Wolf and his team. An occurrence he was very familiar with since he and his team did the same when they were out drinking together.

  A round of cheers and whistles went up as the door opened and in walked a group of women. The leading lady had a cheap white veil perched in her hair, wearing a sash across her body with the word ‘Bride’ emblazoned on it.

  “It’s going to get noisy,” commented Wolf as he canted his head to the group of women.

  “And messy,” chimed in Abe with a laugh.

  “And even louder,” said Cookie as he raised his beer and a collective clink went around the table as his teammates tapped their drinks against his.

  Tim looked around the group. “Seen a few in your time, have you?”

  The group of men laughed louder. “Plenty.” They replied in unison.

  Wolf leaned forward. “Before we all found our women, we lived for bachelorette parties. Boy, those girls were always ripe and ready for a good time.”

  “Better not let Ice hear you talking like that,” laughed Duke.

  “She knows all about my life before I sat next to her on that plane. She also knows from that moment on, I only wanted her. Like we all did when we found our women.”

  Wolf’s team raised their beers and clinked them together again. Tim watched with dubious amusement, so far on his team Carlos ‘Italy’ Porcelli was the only one with a significant other. Although his teammate Ryan ‘Joker’ Smith seemed to be heading down the same track as Italy.

  His gaze lingered on the bachelorette party, all but one looked like they were wasted. Leaning forward Tim looked closer at the lone woman, frowning at the feeling of knowing her, which was bizarre and impossible as he didn’t visit San Diego very often. Not since his BUD/s training.

  “Who’s got your attention?” asked Abe.

  “The blonde with the bachelorette party.”

  “Yeah, which one. There’s like three, including the bride. You’d better not be eyeballing her. If she’s here, means her man is likely one of ours and we don’t encroach on other guys women.”

  “I hear ya, Abe. It’s not the bride, it’s the one standing off to her right. Looks like she’d rather be anywhere other than here.”

  “Yeah, she does.”

  For the next five minutes Tim kept sliding glances the group’s way, trying to see if he could recall where he’d seen the woman before. Dressed in a blue sleeveless sheath that skimmed her body and finished just above her knees, it wasn’t a dress designed to draw attention, but it sure as hell drew his.

  Someone bumped into her and a look of sheer terror crossed her face and recognition slammed into him hard. He’d seen that look before, only when he’d seen it, her face had been covered with dirt and grime, her blonde hair a mass of knots and her clothes were ripped.

  “Fuck. I know who she is,” he muttered under his breath, but loud enough to draw Wolf’s attention.

  “Who?” he asked.

  “I think he’s talking about the blonde in the blue dress who’s part of the bachelorette party,” supplied Abe.

  “Right.” The other team’s lead sat straighter in his chair. “So, who is she?”

  “She’s a girl we rescued on a mission a few months ago.” He hesitated before going on. Talking about missions wasn’t the norm, and often restricted, but these guys weren’t likely to blab to anyone in particular. Plus, they’d worked together a few times in the past. If he couldn’t trust them, then who could he trust? Tim leaned forward, and the other men copied his action. Keeping his voice low he started speaking. “Our mission was to rescue her from India where she was kidnapped while on vacation. Her father owns a big diamond mine and she was being held for ransom. We got involved because her uncle is Senator Wilson. The Senator wanted his favorite niece rescued as quickly as possible.”

  Cookie whistled low. “Sounds like how I met my Fiona, I rescued her from a hellhole in Mexico.”

  Tim locked that piece of information away, it might come in handy. “I was partnered with Red and when we found her, she clung on to me tighter than the knife strapped around my ankle.” He’d always wondered how she was doing after her ordeal, he kept that thought to himself over the intervening months, because it wasn’t one he normally had after a mission.

  “Doesn’t look like she’s coping too well,” Abe commented.

  His friend’s comments made Tim look up again and observed the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Unfortunately, her friends seemed to be oblivious to what was happening to a member of their party. Everything about her body language screamed she was about to bolt.

  Not giving it a second thought, Tim was out of his chair and strode toward the woman he’d rescued.

  When he reached her side, her eyes widened, more in fright than in recognition. Somehow Tim managed to control the impulse to sweep her up in his arms and take her outside, like he’d done when he carried from the squalor she’d been held captive in. Instead he placed his fingers lightly on her shoulder, leaned down and spoke softly in her ear. “It’s okay, breathe in and out. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

  Those were the same words he spoke to her when she’d fought him like a hellcat the day they’d found her.

  The more he repeated the words, the more her breathing slowed, but the panicked look never left her face.

  “Brielle. Oh my God, are you okay?” Finally, someone in the party noticed their friend’s distress. It had taken them long enough.

  The blonde wearing the bride sash eyeballed him. “Get your hands off her.” Even though she may have had plenty to drink, fire lit her eyes. Tim pitied her groom and hoped he was strong enough to deal with this firecracker.

  “Gemima, it’s fine.” The woman tucked closely to him spoke softly. “I think I know him.”

  “You think you know him, is not good enough for me, Brielle. Not after what you’ve been through.”

  The woman he held stiffened beside him, and Tim worried she was about to go off into another anxiety attack. Not happening on his watch.

  “My name is Tim Exeter. I was pa—”

  “T-Rex,” blurted Brielle her eyes widened, and she attempted to pull away from him. Wanting her to feel safe he loosened his hold on her. “You’re T-Rex.”

  He smiled, she remembered him. “Yep, that’s my nickname.”

  All the fire extinguished from Gemima. “Oh, you’re military. Are you a SEAL?” she asked.

  The last thing he wanted to do was go into too much detail about his chosen career with a complete stranger, so he only nodded in response to her question.

  “I’m marrying a SEAL,” she sing-songed each word. “He’s so fine.”

  A woman in love she was, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her antics. “Congratulations.” While he was happy for the bride, his main concern was Brielle, who still possessed a hint of the wild look in her eyes, as though she was clawing back her panic by her fingernails, and wasn’t succeeding. “Do want to get some air?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Changing his position, Tim stood in front of her, blocking off her view to the rest of the bar. The last thing he wanted to do was encroach on her personal spac
e and freak her out. “Brielle,” he said quietly. “Look at me.” After a couple of seconds her gaze lifted. “I promise I will keep you safe. Do you want to get some air?”

  She nodded, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her through the crowd. Before he reached the door, Cookie was beside him. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I think she’s a little overwhelmed and her girlfriends are a little pre-occupied, plus they don’t know what to look for when someone is about to spiral into an attack.” He spoke quietly so as to not upset or embarrass Brielle.

  “Gotcha. I’ve been through this with Fiona many times, if you need anything let me know.”

  “Thanks. I will do.”

  Cookie nodded and strode back to the table. Tim opened the door into the cool night air. When Brielle shivered, he pulled her a little closer to him. The door shut and the noise from the bar disappeared.

  Not sure where to go but wanting the frightened woman in his arms to know she could go back to the bar and her friends if she wanted to, he walked to the side of the building. The lighting was bright so when Brielle came back to herself she wouldn’t be surrounded by darkness and, potentially, fall into another attack. There was a wooden bench resting against the side of the building, he sat down and their knees brushed.

  An overwhelming need to guard Brielle washed over him. During the helicopter ride to a nearby base after they’d rescued her, she’d remained close to his side. He could only imagine how frightening he and the rest of his team looked with their faces blacked out. Not to mention Joker’s bullet wound and the blood staining his trousers. He wasn’t aware of how much she took in, but he’d tried to convey to her that he wouldn’t let anyone harm her.

  “Thank you,” she said after a few minutes, her voice much stronger than it had been in the bar.

  “You’re welcome, are you feeling a better now?”

  “A little.” A small smile played across her lips and he’d give anything to see her smile more often. “You always seem to be rescuing me. I’m so embarrassed about what happened in there.”

  Tim hooked a finger under her chin, lifting her face. Her eyes had lost the panicked look by they were still shadowed. “You have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about.” Knowing he had to get the point across that what she’d experienced wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, he had to share something about him. “I have nightmares, too. I’ve seen and done a lot of things that normal people can never imagine doing. Stuff like that always stays with you and haunts you no matter how much you talk it out and know you did the right thing.”

  “This is twice you’ve rescued me. Thanks, T-Rex.”

  Hearing his nickname fall from her lips should’ve been weird. No one apart from the guys on the team called him that. But he had to admit, he didn’t mind it coming from Brielle.

  “No thanks needed.” Silence dropped between them and he scrambled for something to say to fill it. “Do you come here often?”

  When she laughed lightly, some of the tension riding his shoulders dissipated. “That’s some cheesy pick up line.”

  “Totally not what I was going for,” he responded drily.

  “It’s okay.” Her fingers played with the hem of her dress. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea I’m here.”

  The words were spoken so quietly, he wasn’t sure he’d heard them correctly.

  “What do you mean? Here with me outside or here in San Diego?”

  “In San Diego. I’m okay being here with you, T-Rex.”

  Chapter Two

  Brielle couldn’t believe she was sitting beside the man who’d risked his life to save hers. When she’d tried to find out the identity of the men who rescued her, particularly the man who’d called himself T-Rex, her father had told her to leave it alone and move on with her life. Uncle Ronald had ignored her requests, even though she figured it was his pull as a Senator that had gotten her rescued.

  A shudder rippled through her and a calloused hand gripped her clenched fist. “Relax, Brielle, no one’s going to hurt you. How about you tell me why being in San Diego is not a good idea?”

  “You don’t think the way I freaked out in there when a guy bumped into me isn’t a good indication that I shouldn’t be anywhere near people?”

  Brielle still couldn’t believe she’d been sucked into the black pit of an anxiety attack while at Gemima’s bachelorette party. She’d been feeling pretty good about herself, the flight hadn’t been an issue, neither had been being around a lot of people at the airport. The way she’d handled all of that had her thinking her doctor had been correct, a trip away was just what she needed to get over her anxiety. But the second she’d walked into the bar, seeing how full it was and all the testosterone swirling in the air, mind-numbing nerves had assailed her, and they had escalated until a guy accidentally knocked into her. He’d apologized, but it had been enough to set her off.

  “You’re getting sucked into it again, aren’t you?”

  “Sucked into what?”

  “The memories of what happened to you in India and what happened in the bar.”

  T-Rex’s presence was calming to her. The smooth, baritone of his voice seeped into the cold places within her, warming her up.

  “Yes. Every day I think about it. My shrink said I should go on a trip. She thought it would help me to take a step back into living life again.”

  T-Rex released his hold on her hand and, for a second, she wanted to grab it back, only stopping herself when his arm curled over her shoulder, bringing her up against his solid body, like when he’d held her on the helicopter. Letting him go when they’d landed had been the last thing she’d wanted to do, but she’d been whisked away and so had he. She’d thought she’d never see him again. Yet here he was, in San Diego.

  “It’s not easy to forget about what happened to you. It’s only been a short while since it occurred. Why did you choose San Diego?”

  “Fate,” she muttered.

  “Fate?”

  “Yeah, the day my doctor told me to take a trip, Gemima phoned to tell me she was getting married in two weeks and wanted me to come to the wedding. I figured the universe was telling me I needed to get my shit together. So, I said yes. Now I’m wondering if it was a good idea after all.”

  The wedding was in two days. To turn tail now and fly back home only gave the power back to the men who’d taken her. She was tired of living half a life, but living a full life scared the crap out of her. T-Rex’s big shoulder was only millimeters away from her. It would be easy to lean on it, but she didn’t have the right.

  “I think you’re brave taking this step even though you knew it was going to be hard. I’m sure, if your friends weren’t wasted on champagne they would’ve noticed your distress and acted. I don’t think you should leave. You’ll regret missing your friend’s wedding.”

  It all sounded so reasonable coming out of his mouth, but he hadn’t lived through what she had. Hadn’t been terrified with every single, agonizing second that passed that she’d be raped, or beaten, or killed. It was a miracle she hadn’t. A fact she didn’t understand.

  Why hadn’t her kidnappers shared her about? It made no sense.

  “Will you come to the wedding with me?” The invitation burst out of her. Asking him hadn’t even crossed her mind, yet it was out there now, and she couldn’t take it back.

  “Umm…”

  “Forget it, I don’t know what came over me.” Brielle stood. She’d come on this trip to find her confidence to face life, so burrowing into T-Rex’s arms wasn’t a good idea.

  “Brielle.” His voice low and powerful, pulling at something deep within her.

  “What?” she snapped at him.

  He stood and closed the small gap between them. He reached out and took her hand, holding it gently and in a non-threatening manner. “Yes.”

  “Yes. What?”

  He chuckled. “I’ll come to the wedding with you. I’d be happy to.”

  Brielle blinked a
few times, sure she’d misheard him. “Really? You want to come to the wedding?”

  “Uh-huh. I’ll need to know the details. I’m here with my nephew so I’ll have to make some arrangements. But I’d like to come with you,” his voice dropped a few octaves and she shivered wondering if it would sound like that first thing in the morning.

  Whoa. That wasn’t the type of thought she should be having. “I can’t take you away from your nephew. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  “Trust me when I say Chris will be fine. I’ve taken him to Disneyland. Tomorrow we’re going to Legoland. He’s getting plenty of my attention.”

  “Where is he tonight?”

  “He’s staying the night at a friend’s place. He won’t be heartbroken if I ask him if he wants to stay another night with him.”

  Brielle chewed her bottom lip. She may not have meant to blurt out the invitation but now that she had, she really did want to take T-Rex with her to the wedding. “Are you sure?”

  He smiled, and her heart fluttered at the sight. “Yep.” He pulled his phone out and held it out to her. “Why don’t you put your details in here and then I can text you and you’ll have my number.”

  Determined to take back control of her life and push her fear of living far away, Brielle took T-Rex’s phone and entered her details. When she handed it back his hand closed over hers again. She looked up and a serious glint had entered his eyes.

  “I promise I’ll keep you safe, Brielle.”

  Words lodged in her throat. Hadn’t she recalled him saying those words to her during her attack in the doctor’s office? It had been him she’d been hearing and not Dr. Baker.

  “I know,” she whispered.

  He lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a sweet kiss across the top of it. “You ready to go back in?”

  She grimaced at the thought of being back in the loud bar, but if she was going to take the steps necessary to not live a fearful life, then walking back into the bar was one of them.

  “Yes. Yes I am.”