Tempted by a SEAL(18)

“I’m telling you, there’s more going on than meets the eye. Mysterious phone calls before dawn. His rushing off to the base and not in uniform. The fact his apartment is almost empty of personal stuff. He’s some kind of Black Ops like in the movies. You’ll see.” Marissa wasn’t letting this go but Lydia had to.

She sighed. “Fine. Believe whatever you want, but right now I have to shower and find where I put my books.”

After the eventful weekend she’d had, the last time she’d been to classes seemed like a year ago, rather than just days.

“Your books are under the sofa,” Marissa called after her.

Lydia let out a breath as the memory of shoving them under there before she left for Virginia Beach hit her.

When had Marissa become the roommate who knew where the books were and Lydia be the one who had to shower off the remnants of her wild night of sex with a man who ran off on a moment’s notice?

Perhaps she was in the middle of some crazy dream.

The sad part was, the chances were far greater that this was all real. In that case, Lydia had a phone call to make. Perhaps talking to her mother would give her the information to get to the bottom of this James mystery.





CHAPTER 15

“There’s evidence ISIS might be using females as couriers. Possibly even fighters. We’ve known for a long time they’ve been actively recruiting females and using them to recruit males, but them placing females in these other roles is news.” Grant Milton sat opposite Mack in what had become their ad hoc meeting room since the team’s arrival.

Rocky let out a breath. “Them using females as fighters goes against everything we know about them and how they treat their women.”

Brody let out a snort. “Yup.”

Grant nodded. “Correct. But if we know one thing, it’s that they as an organization will adapt if it suits their purposes.”

Thom, seated next to Brody, looked weary. Mack could relate. The team had been guests of their allies for weeks, cooling their heels in Turkey along the Syrian border.

Their efforts still had yet to locate and acquire the target they were after, but in the meantime they’d accomplished their secondary goal. They’d gotten a good look at what was happening in Syria.

Raqqa was a disaster. ISIS had shut down the roads tight, trapping innocents in the wreck of a city, which was being routinely bombed in an attempt to rid the population of ISIS.

Electricity was out. Buildings were abandoned. Work for the population was getting scarce. Luxuries were non-existent.

Still, the population put up with the bombings, for one, because they had no way to stop them. But more, they still had hope of taking back their once liberal city from the extremist group that had already dictated what women could wear, made smoking cigarettes illegal and forced schools to close.

“Well, lucky for you all, it’s not our problem to fix anymore.” Grant tipped his head. “You’re all ready to go home, I assume.”

Thom shook his head. “I still don’t get why they’re sending us home.”

“The defense secretary has approved deploying up to forty additional special operations force members in addition to the support personnel. We, for whatever reason, were not among them.” Grant lifted one shoulder and acted as if he didn’t care, but beneath the surface simmered barely concealed emotion.

Tightly controlled anger? Annoyance. Frustration. Probably all of the above.

“Ours not to reason why . . .” Softly, Brody quoted a line from Tennyson all men at arms understand too well.

Ours but to do and die. Mack finished the rest silently in his head.

“This ever-revolving door of personnel is not helping the fight against ISIS, I can tell you that.” Rocky let out a huff.

“Know the enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles,” Brody quoted

“The Art of War?” Rocky asked.

“Yup.”

Mack swiveled his head to stare at Brody. “You’re just full of philosophical shit today.”

Brody lifted one shoulder. “Rick was always quoting Sun Tzu when he was still on the team. Besides, it seemed fitting.”

Mack lifted a brow. He was still getting used to this team, and he realized he had a lot to learn about these guys.

Thom blew out a breath. “The world hasn’t even agreed what to call them yet. The press, the president, it’s different all the time. ISIL. ISIS. Islamic State. Daesh. If the allies can’t even settle on a single name for a common enemy, that doesn’t bode well for that whole know thy enemy philosophy.”

Grant let out a snort. “Sad but true. Actually, I personally prefer Daesh myself. The enemy hates that one. It’s got derogatory meaning for them. And I find it’s always good to insult the enemy as often as possible.”

Their commander’s deadpan, dry sense of humor caused a few snickers from the men around the table.

“Well then, I propose we all use Daesh from now on. All in favor?” Brody glanced around him as he raised his arm high to vote for his own proposal.

Every man in the room followed suit.

Brody nodded, looking pleased with himself. “It’s unanimous. Motion carries.”

Not that it mattered what the team chose to call ISIS or Daesh, as the vote had determined. As Grant had mentioned previously, they were heading home to live among civilians who most likely wouldn’t understand the term or their reason for using it.

Mack always had mixed feelings about going back home.

Of course he wanted to be stateside where hot showers and good food and a decent night’s sleep were a bit less scarce than where he was. But going home, transitioning from war zone to suburbia, was a challenge.

Being surrounded by his team twenty-four-seven one day and then alone in his apartment the next was jarring.

Fighting to stay alive here, but then being expected to flip a switch and be normal for lack of a better word the moment he stepped foot in Virginia was difficult.

Sometimes being a good son and law abiding, model citizen felt harder than taking down the terrorists.

This time there was another layer of feelings he had to deal with when he thought about going home.

There was a discomfort deep inside him, like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, caused by business left unfinished.

Lydia was a huge part of it. His father was right. For better or worse, he had a new family now. He needed to go home and set the record straight with them. That meant confessing he’d only told them half truths.

How would Lydia take the fact he’d been dishonest?

Now he knew how his father felt. That he’d honored Mack’s request and not told his new wife the complete truth yet meant Mack owed the man a big debt.

The least Mack could do was end the charade as soon as possible and relieve his father from having to lie and tell half truths any longer.

He’d come clean, but they’d have to accept that most times he wouldn’t be able to tell them what he did or where he went. At least now they’d know why.

Grant pushed back his chair from the table. “I got things to do. Talk to you all later.”

When he was gone, Brody blew out a breath. “It’ll be good to be home. I just wish they’d leave us stateside for more than a week at a damn time.”

Rocky knocked his elbow into Mack’s on the table. “Notice how now that he has a girl, he wants to be home? Before he’d be happy if we were out of the country ten out of twelve months.”

A frown creased Brody’s brow. “Not true. I always liked going home as much as the next guy.”

“Uh, huh. Sure. But especially now.” Rocky got a childish grin on his face.

Brody rolled his eyes. “Okay, yeah, it would be nice if I was home long enough so that Ashley could come for a visit without the risk of me getting recalled the moment she gets there.”

Mack couldn’t argue with Brody’s reasoning. Having a girl waiting stateside was a powerful motivation to get there.

This was something Mack didn’t have much experience with. Something he’d have to think about more because right now, he wasn’t sure what Lydia was to him. She wasn’t really his girl

The way he’d left, she probably thought she was only some hook-up.

All of his pondering did no good as long as he had no idea what she was thinking and feeling.

Hell, Lydia was an attractive, fun loving college girl. Who knew how many guys she had at school?

That thought had the male ego inside Mack bristling.

He’d never wanted to tie himself down into a steady relationship with one woman before, but now he was considering it, if only to put in a claim on Lydia as his own and keep other guys away from her.

So this was how men ended up finding themselves married. Pure animalistic territoriality.

Maybe a little more than that. The girl made him smile. That was something he hadn’t done all that much of recently.

Smiling. Was that enough to build a relationship on? He supposed it was a start. It was definitely more than he’d had with other females in his past.

Rocky turned to Mack. “You’re quiet.”

Brody laughed. “Mack’s always quiet.”

Mack hoped Brody’s smart ass comment would end the conversation he didn’t want to have.

“True, but it seems more than usual. What’s up?” Rocky asked.

Given it was a direct question, Mack had to respond somehow, but it didn’t mean he had to tell the truth. He lifted one shoulder. “Nothing.”