Seal of Honor(56)

Not that she’d had very far to fall.

She replaced the dog tags and soothed a hand down his chest. “You’d make an excellent father, you know.” When every muscle in his body went tight underneath her, she laughed. “Just an observation, sailor.”

“Jesus Christ, Aud. That’s seriously not great post-sex conversation.” He groaned and slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. “And we didn’t use anything. Fuck!”

“Yes, that’s what we did.”

He shifted to face her, his gaze a little bit wild. “I didn’t… I never… Are you…?”

Stuttering. The big bad SEAL was stuttering! Audrey thought about goading him on, but he looked so genuinely distressed that she didn’t have the heart.

“Relax, Gabe.” She patted his cheek. “We’re safe. I’m on birth control.”

“You haven’t been able to take any—”

“Since I’m too forgetful to take a pill every day,” she interrupted, “I switched to the shot, which is good for three months, and my next isn’t due until July. So relax before you hyperventilate.”

“Okay.” He ran a hand over his eyes, heaved out a breath. “Okay. You should know I was clean last time I got tested. And I haven’t slept with anyone since before the car accident.”

That long ago? Wow. He was practically a monk. A very sexy, very very talented monk. And, yeah, the dirty little fantasy that just popped into her head of dressing him up in a Franciscan robe while she wore a school girl outfit probably just secured her seat in Hell. Mama would be so ashamed.

Gabe was watching her, waiting for a reply to… Um, what were they talking about? It definitely wasn’t Franciscan monks.

Oh, right. Him being disease free. “I had no doubts about that, Mr. Responsible.”

He lifted his head to scowl at her. She rolled her eyes and added, “I’m clean, too. I don’t take those kinds of chances. I don’t sleep around.”

“Good.”

Was that possessiveness she heard in his voice? Oh, a girl could only hope. She snuggled into his side and savored the feel of his heavy arm around her. His lips brushed her temple.

“Get some sleep, honey. We’re going to need it.”

She tried. She truly did, but as soon as she shut her eyes, she saw her brother’s face.

Was he still alive? If he was alive, was he in one piece? Had his captors beaten him or starved him…or worse? And even if they get him back, would he still be lost to her? She wasn’t a dummy. She knew what a traumatic experience like this could do to a man.

Did Mena really know anything about Bryson? She didn’t see how, and Gabe didn’t think so, but she felt like they were out of options. No telling when the FBI would try to exchange money for Brys, and although Gabe never said so, she knew he thought paying the ransom was an all-around bad idea. The captors would have no reason to keep Bryson alive after that. And sixty-five million reasons to kill him so he couldn’t identify them.

“Audrey,” Gabe whispered in her ear then moved over her. His mouth found hers in a sweet, gentle kiss that was more about comfort than sex. “I can hear your mind churning from over here. Shut down, honey.”

“I can’t,” she confessed. “I’m scared.”

“I told you I’d let nothing happen to you.”

Cocky man. But she believed him. He was more than capable of keeping her safe. “I’m not scared for us.” He raised a brow, his expression patient but dubious, and she sighed. “Well, okay, I am. But I’m more worried about Bryson. What if—”

“No, no. Never play the ‘what if’ game. You’ll drive yourself nuts.”

She bit her lip. “But what if we don’t get to him in time? They’ll kill him, won’t they?”

Gabe rolled over onto his back again and stared up at the ceiling. “If we can’t get to him in time, my team will find him,” he said after a moment and squeezed her against his side. “Don’t worry. Quinn knows what he’s doing.”





Chapter Fifteen

Quinn had no fucking clue what he was doing.

Since leaving the guerilla camp, Jesse and Ian had been at each other’s throats constantly, still bickering over Ian’s treatment of Cocodrilo, who was now a “guest” in one of the bedrooms at base camp. And since Quinn had all but sanctioned Ian’s actions, Jesse shared the love with him. Jean-Luc sided with Jesse, and Marcus sided with Ian once he found out what was going on. Harvard tried to mediate, but the poor guy got crushed between both sides.

This mission was turning into a snafu for the record books.