Chapter 19

 

Patrick pulled onto base at 0600 Monday morning. Hell if it didn’t feel good to finally be getting back to training. Although he’d loved time home with his family and new bride, he was itching to join the rest of his men. He wasn’t the type of man who enjoyed sitting around idly and didn’t like being sidelined during training, missing out on missions. Although he admitted that he needed recovery time in the beginning, during the second month, he’d been ready to roll out.

Not that Navy had seen it that way.

Two months of recovery had given him too much time to think.

At thirty-six, he probably had another couple of years as a SEAL, but after that? He’d be ready to move on to something else. Maybe commanding his own team like his CO. Maybe conducting BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, training back in Coronado, or making a move to the Pentagon.

Rebecca’s career was here though. Their kids were happy here. Her parents and his sister were local. It seemed unlikely he’d ever end up leaving the Virginia Beach area. And something felt damn right about that. It was good to set down roots. Have a home and a family. A wife and kids. All he needed was the white picket fence, and he’d be the epitome of domestic bliss.

He smirked.

If domestic bliss included parachuting out of planes and tracking down terrorists, drug lords, and other adversaries in foreign lands.

Not a chance in hell was his life normal. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He parked his SUV and climbed out as Christopher was getting out of his pick-up truck a few spaces over.

“Damn, good to have you back, Ice.”

Patrick grunted in affirmation. “It’s good to be back, Blade. You know as well as I do that guys like us need to be moving. Doing something. Sitting around too long is bad for the soul.”

“You picked a hell of a day to return though.”

Patrick’s gaze swept toward Blade. “How’s that?”

“Couldn’t say anything over the weekend with everyone around, but we may be heading out on an op soon.”

Patrick nodded, concern filling his gaze. He’d always hated leaving Rebecca and the kids, but now that she was pregnant, he was worried about her. And after his last mission had gone FUBAR, he’d sensed Rebecca’s unease about his career as a SEAL. She was an independent woman, with her own career, and he respected that. Admired the hell out of it. But likewise, she’d accepted that his career was with the Navy. That he’d devoted his life to serving his country.

Unease filled his gut, nonetheless, because he didn’t like being the cause of her worry. Of being the reason there was fear in her eyes. He’d always assured her he’d be safe, but things hadn’t exactly gone as planned on the last op, now had they?

Hell.

“The CO mentioned he’d have some big updates this morning. Where to?” Patrick asked as the men walked toward the building.

“Columbia,” Christopher said, watching as Patrick’s gaze slid toward him. Well hell. That should be a piece of cake compared to the shitstorm going on in the Middle East.

“Drug traffickers?”

“Yup. The amount of heroin coming into the U.S. has been increasing exponentially. The CO said the Pentagon is looking to stop it before it gets completely out of control. We may be sent to cut it off at the source.”

“And Delta?” Patrick asked, referring to the other SEAL team based out of Little Creek.

“We may all be sent it,” Christopher said.

Patrick nodded. The last time they’d deployed with Delta was the op when he’d been injured. He’d been thankful as hell that Hunter’s team had been there assisting them that day. Who knows if his men would’ve been able to make it out of the insurgents’ camp otherwise. His injury had no doubt slowed his men’s departure, and with Delta providing cover, his team had dragged him into a waiting Black Hawk, bleeding out.

He owed Hunter a beer now that they were back in town. Hell. He owed the guy an entire case.

He smirked, thinking of how those guys were just like his own team a couple of years ago—nothing but a group of single, rowdy alpha males who loved women. They loved hitting the town and taking a pretty woman home for the night. And hell if every guy on Patrick’s team hadn’t been exactly like them.

Patrick and Christopher dropped their gear in the locker room and headed into the bullpen for their morning briefing. They usually started their days with PT, but the CO had called for a meeting since it was Patrick’s first day back.

Patrick had always thought of their CO as a hardened SEAL, destined to be single for life, a man who was married to the Navy. But after Ryan had begun dating Patrick’s sister over the summer, Patrick had begun to see another side to the man. Although normally he might take issue with any man dating his younger sister, Ryan and Sarah were damn near perfect for one another. She was a free-spirit who needed someone down-to-earth in her life. And he was a stubborn, hard-ass who could use someone like Sarah to lighten him up. Besides, he respected the hell out of the man and knew he would do right by her.

“Good to have you back, Ice,” Ryan said.

“Thank you, Sir,” Patrick nodded. “Good to be back”

“And congratulations again on the wedding.”

Patrick smirked.

“What’s so funny?” his CO asked.

“Just wondering if you’ll be following that path someday with my sister. Never thought I might have you as a brother-in-law.”

Ryan grumbled as Christopher chuckled beside Patrick. “Hell, they’re not even engaged. Yet. Give the CO a break.”

Ryan muttered a curse.

“What’s on the agenda today?” Mike asked, walking into the bullpen. “Hell, Ice, good to have you back.”

“Thanks to you,” Patrick said, his eyes sweeping toward Mike. As the medic on their team, Mike had applied emergency aid to Patrick while they were in the field. A couple men had dragged him out, but hell. Without Mike, he damn well might not be here today.

“Just doing my job,” Mike said good-naturedly.

“About time you did something right,” Brent scoffed, sauntering in.

“Sonofabitch,” Christopher muttered. “Cobra, I thought Ella would’ve softened you up a bit.”

Brent smirked. “Not a chance in hell. But she doesn’t seem to have a problem with my hard edges—or anything else that hardens around her.”

Mike guffawed. “That’s because you don’t act like an ass around her,” he said, crossing his arms as he watched Brent in amusement. “The rest of us are the shit out of luck ones who get to see your pissed-off personality on a daily basis.”

“Enough,” Ryan said, clearing his throat as Evan and Matthew walked in. “Now that the team’s all assembled, we can begin. As everyone is aware, Ice is back—temporarily.”

Patrick raised his eyebrows as all eyes slid to him. “Sir, I’ve been cleared to return to duty.”

“Affirmative—and I’ll get to that in a moment. The latest briefing from the Pentagon indicated that a team will be sent out in two weeks to track down a drug lord in Bogota.”

“Two weeks?” Christopher asked. “I thought we were moving in ASAP.”

“Negative. The Pentagon’s waiting on more intel—undercover DEA agents are on the ground in Columbia. We wait for their word. Some big meeting between the cartel and their rival isn’t happening for ten days. They want eyes and ears on that before a SEAL team moves in to nab the leader. There’s a possibility the two drug cartels will fight each other without our involvement. As you’re already aware, the drug traffic flowing into the U.S. had increased at a tremendous rate over the summer, and Washington is looking to staunch the flow.”

“Shit, we’ll track those bastards ourselves,” Matthew drawled. “That’s some nasty stuff that needs to be off the streets.”

“Agreed,” Ryan said, his eyes narrowing. “These guys are the real deal. It’s not fucking amateur hour here with some junkie dealer on the corner in the bad end of town. They’ll be packing firepower, and they’ll be lots of protection around the kingpin. DEA agents are on the ground. The FBI is involved. But we’ve been called on to assist.”

“We’ll smoke him out,” Patrick said, his cool blue eyes narrowing.

Ryan cleared his throat. “Ice has been cleared to return to active duty, so when we move in, Alpha will be taking the lead. Delta will likely be sent in as well.”

“Hell,” Brent muttered.

“There’s always some new asshole causing problems over there,” Mike smirked.

Patrick nodded, an unusual feeling of worry in his gut. Rebecca’s face filled his mind, and he wondered how he could leave her knowing she’d be frightened.

He’d be leaving with the knowledge that she was pregnant with his baby growing inside her. Sure he’d left plenty of times before, but that was before he’d been injured. Before they were married.

“You okay, Ice?” Mike asked, raising his eyebrows. Mike was known to have a sixth sense about things, and Patrick knew he could sense his unease.

Patrick nodded, his face hardening, his cool gaze flicking toward the CO. “What’s on the books for today?”

“Nothing for you.”

“Come again?”

“You just got married and spent months in recovery. Go take your goddamn honeymoon.”

“Sir—”

“That’s an order, Ice.”

“What about training for the Bogota op? Ten days isn’t far off. I’ve been sidelined for months.”

“We’ll see you at 0600 a week from today. The team will be gearing up for deployment that week—the men can continue training without you.”

“Who-hoo!” Brent whooped. “Ice is gonna get lucky tonight!”

Patrick silenced him with a glare.

“The CO is right,” Christopher said. “Take Rebecca on a honeymoon—hell knows when you’ll get a chance to be alone again with a baby on the way. With us deploying all the damn time.”

“I can’t just leave the team to train alone. I’ve been out for months—I need to get my damn head back in the game. Get briefed on the newest intel.”

“You can and you will,” Ryan said. “Next week. The guys had to train while you were in recovery. One more week away isn’t going to make a difference. There’s no way the Pentagon is sending us in until the DEA agents finish and the meeting between the two cartels takes place. Now get out of here and take your wife on a honeymoon before I change my mind.”

“But the kids—”

“Will be fine. Sarah’s already got that covered,” Ryan said, a slight smirk on his lips.

“Sarah,” Patrick muttered. “I should’ve know letting her get involved with you was a mistake.”

The corners of Ryan’s eyes crinkled as he tried not to smile. “She’s persistent—I’ll give you that.”

“Persistent, pushy—”

“Dating the CO,” Matthew drawled, a lopsided grin on his face.

“Hell,” Patrick muttered.

“Now get out of here, Ice. It turns out that Sarah is also good at making travel arrangements.”

“My sister planned my honeymoon?” Patrick asked, his brow creasing. “We’ll probably be staying in sustainable resource huts somewhere eating vegan, cruelty-free dinners. Do they even have running water, or is that too much of a waste of resources? Maybe I should pack some MREs just to be safe.”

Ryan chuckled. “See you next Monday. Wheel’s up in four hours, Ice. Dismissed.”

Patrick muttered a curse before saluting his CO and then went to grab the gear he’d just stashed in his locker. He’d call Rebecca from his SUV and see if she knew anything about their surprise trip.

Honeymoon.

Hell, she was probably in on it with his sister. After the surprise party he’d let the men pull off without her knowledge this weekend, she was probably thrilled to pull one over on him.

Patrick slid his sunglasses on as he beat feet back across the parking lot on base. Clicking the keyless entry on his remote, and he climbed into his SUV and revved the engine.

Hell of a way to start a Monday.

 

***

 

Rebecca clasped Patrick’s hand late that afternoon as the airplane banked to the right and began to make its slow descent toward the airport a few miles away in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The blue water from the Pacific glistened in the sunlight, the skies shown bright and clear, and she squeezed his hand tighter and closed her eyes.

“We’re almost down,” Patrick said, his deep voice soothing. “We’re not even over the water.”

“I still can’t believe you fly regularly for fun.”

“I don’t know if fun is the operative word when you’re stuck on a military transport—”

“But you jump out of airplanes for fun.”

“Hell of an adrenaline rush,” Patrick agreed, his cool blue eyes twinkling as she peeked over at him.

“It’s not actually the flying I mind—just the being over water part.”

“We’re just circling around before landing—barely over any water at all.”

“Holy crap—I used to always want to go to Hawaii. Now you couldn’t pay me enough to get there.”

Patrick lifted her hand to his lips and gently brushed his lips across the back of it, sending shivers racing down her spine. “So we’ll take an overnight flight there—you can sleep.”

“I don’t think they have overnight flights there from Virginia—not unless we go the wrong way around the world.”

Patrick’s deep laughter filled the cabin. “Now that would be a hell of a long flight even I wouldn’t want to take.”

“Amen,” Rebecca muttered.

“Fasten your seatbelts,” the flight attendant said over the loudspeaker. “We’ll be making our descent shortly.”

“I hate this part,” Rebecca whispered.

“We’ll be on the ground in a few minutes—on the beach in less than an hour.”

Her stomach lurched as she glanced out the window and saw the buildings at a weird angle below. Quickly she pulled the shade down, enjoying the sound of it hitting the bottom. “We live right by an actual beach—we could’ve just driven there without flying in this death trap.”

“And then we’d be hauling around pails and shovels, showering off sandy kids, and making chicken nuggets for dinner. As much as I love our family time, that’s not exactly a romantic honeymoon.” He ducked his head lower, so that his lips were at her ear. “And I have plenty of kid-free activities for us in mind.”

Rebecca smiled, her cheeks heating as a surge of warmth washed over her. “And exactly what would those be?” she asked, meeting his gaze.

Patrick wove his fingers between hers, his thick fingers nudging hers apart. Reminding her of all the ways he loved to touch her. “You. Me. A king-sized bed,” he said, his voice low. “I know we’re at the beach, but I might change my mind about going there right away—definitely not within an hour of landing.”

“And what would we be doing instead?” she teased.

“Not leaving our room for the first twenty-four hours. At least.”

She laughed and then gasped in surprise as the plane gently touched down, speeding along the runaway.

“What was that bump? Did we just land?” Gingerly she lifted the shade on the window, watching the trees swiftly pass by as the plane raced along.

“We landed. Safe and sound here in Mexico.”

“Well you’re certainly good at distracting me.”

“And baby’s okay?” he asked, eyeing her stomach. “No sickness?”

“Baby is perfect. I know you were recovering before, too, but seriously, I never could’ve taken this flight a month ago. I would’ve needed all the barf bags on the plane. Ick,” she said with a shudder.

“Sarah assured me the resort is top-notch. You won’t need to worry about if anything we’re eating is safe while we’re here.”

“I still can’t believe Ryan gave you the time off. I mean, Sarah told me it was all under control, but you never know with her. When you left early this morning, I couldn’t help feeling like the honeymoon wasn’t happening at all.”

“And the thought of clueing me in didn’t cross your mind?” he asked with a chuckle, raising his eyebrows.

“It did, but I also know the way your job works. If something had come up and we couldn’t go, you’d just feel guilty. And if you had to deploy right away on some important mission, I didn’t want your mind on this. Distracted. You were supposed to be going back to work and wouldn’t have known the difference.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “It was a hell of a surprise when the CO told me to leave this morning.”

“I’ll bet. I wasn’t sure if you’d be walking in the front door again or not.”

The unfasten seatbelt light came on after the plane completely stopped, and Patrick rose to get their bags from the overhead bin. “Hell, what did you pack in here?” he joked. “Your suitcase must be twice as heavy as mine.”

Rebecca laughed. “Shoes. Dresses. Bikinis.”

Patrick raised his eyebrows.

“Hey, I might as well wear them while I can. I’m not one of those women who can get away with a bikini when I’m nine months pregnant. And I never dare wear one with the kids around.”

“Why not?” he asked, clutching the handle of his suitcase in one hand while he pulled the other behind me. “You look amazing in one.”

“I don’t need to flash the entire beach while chasing the kids around. There’s nothing scarier than teenage boys around a woman in a swimsuit.”

Patrick chuckled.

“You think I’m kidding—just wait until our kids are older. You’ll see what I mean.”

“I dread that day,” he said as they disembarked. “And since I was a teenager once myself, you’re absolutely right. Teenage boys are exactly as bad as you say.”

They collected their bags, and after clearing Customs, caught a cab to their luxury resort. Patrick hauled everything into the room, not letting her carry a thing aside from her purse. He hung the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door before he shut it, a heated look in his eyes.

“The sign’s up, and we’ve got a room-service menu. Maybe by tomorrow morning I’ll be ready to see the actual beach,” he said, stalking toward her.

Rebecca flushed, giddy with happiness.

She rose onto her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders as he ducked lower for a kiss. She could feel his thick erection against her stomach, and she couldn’t wait until they were undressed and under the sheets.

“Maybe by tomorrow night we’ll be ready,” she said, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

“Hoorah,” he said, before sweeping her up into his arms. “I was supposed to carry you across the threshold,” he said, “but I guess this will have to do.”

He sauntered across the room and lay her down on the king-sized bed, his large frame coming down atop her.

As their lips met in one heated kiss after another and he slowly began to undress her, she forgot about everything else but him.

She was finally on her honeymoon with her husband, starting their own perfect version of forever.

 

THE END