Authors: Caitlyn O'Leary
Her Vigilant Seal
Her Vigilant SEAL
Midnight Delta Series
Book One
By Caitlyn O’Leary
© Copyright 2015 Caitlyn O’Leary
ISBN# 978-1-943843-46-6
All cover art and logo © Copyright 2015 by Passionately Kind Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Cover by Croco Design
Table of Contents
An Excerpt from Revealed by Caitlyn O’Leary
An Excerpt from Miami Inferno by Elle Boon
An Excerpt from Soren’s Bondmate by Mardi Maxwell
An Excerpt from Claiming His Cowgirl by Lori King
To all of our men and women who have served.
Sophia Anderson takes care of everyone but herself. She will stop at nothing to keep her family safe. When she goes searching for her runaway little brother in a bad part of town, she becomes the one in need of rescue.
Navy SEAL, Mason Gault, faced many dangers while in the line of duty. No matter how bad a mission has gone, he finds solace in three things: His family, friends and the waves of the Pacific. When he hears a woman’s screams for help, he charges in to save her without a second thought.
Sophia is burdened with scars from her past. Mason understands that empowering her spirit is just as important as protecting her well-being. As their love and passion soars, so do threats against her. Can Mason continue to be the compassionate white knight that she needs, while ensuring her safety?
January…
“Lieutenant, you gotta let me carry him, you’re wounded.”
“I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.” Mason knew he wasn’t holding his team back. Even while holding Jones’ body with a knife wound in his forearm, he could keep up with the rest of them.
“We’re still six miles to the shoreline you can’t keep up at this pace.” Mason couldn’t believe Drake was serious as blood seeped through his own tourniquet.
Stubborn fool.
“Drake, when it becomes a problem I’ll make a different decision, until then, I’m carrying him.” They’d taken down their target. Six of Mason’s team of eight men had been together for over two years and Lou Jones was their first casualty. He hadn’t followed orders and it cost him his life. Didn’t matter, it was on Mason’s watch and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to be the one to carry him home.
“Let me take him Mason, just for fifteen minutes.” He looked over at his second-in-command. Drake was out of his mind, he’d actually taken a worse hit to his thigh, and he was volunteering to carry a dead man.
“Your job is to keep from bleeding to death,” Mason gritted out.
“I’ve cut myself worse while shaving.” Drake flashed him a grin.
“You shave your legs? Is there something you want to tell me?”
He laughed, just as Mason known he would.
“Somebody set us up, they knew we were coming.” Mason was beginning to feel the burn from the long run and carrying his load.
“That’s my take too,” Drake agreed. “Seriously, let me take Jones’ body, I’m good for a half a mile, and you need to fall back a bit and check on the others.” Drake was right, Mason needed to check on the other six SEALs. They made the transfer and he slowed his pace so he could mix in with the other men.
“I’m sorry I suggested you leave Jones behind earlier. I was wrong,” Ensign Steve Fairfax said. All of them were whispering as they ran through the jungle. Mason still had trouble believing Fairfax had first suggested it when his friend had been shot. All of the rest of Midnight Delta had been dumfounded.
“Yes you were,” Mason concurred. Steve joined them a few months ago, and he’d been Lou’s best friend. Neither man had followed orders. Steve wouldn’t be with the team after this op. Mason felt a hand clap his shoulder and knew it was Petty Officer Larry Clark.
“Mase, you okay?” His voice too low for Steve to hear.
“I’m good, what about you?” Mason saw Larry had been grazed. Darius, the team’s medic, must have applied a tourniquet while they were at the compound where the raid went down.
“I’m fine.” Larry grinned. “Nothing a little time in the hospital won’t take care of.” Mason shook his head. Larry was currently dating two different nurses at the naval base.
“If you ever get caught this injury will seem like a walk in the park.”
“I keep hoping neither of them will want to give me up, so we’ll have to settle for a ménage.” He winked.
“I want to live in the wonderland that is your mind for just one hour. It must be nice to still believe in fairytales.”
“What’s nice is all the
tail
.”
Mason looked at his friend in amazement and Larry gave him a shit eating grin.
Mason reached Drake and took Jones’ body again. Five hundred yards before they were going to break through the jungle to the beach everyone halted. Drake went ahead to the waiting Zodiac to make sure things were clear. A half hour later he came back shaking his head, and they huddled around him.
“We’ve got tangos three in the trees waiting to pick us off, and we have four at our boat.”
“We’re going to have to take them all at the same time,” Mason said. He and Drake outlined their plans. “No matter what happens we have to shoot at precisely five minutes after the hour. Remember, one SEAL, one shot, it’s a piece of cake.”
They spread out according to their assigned targets. Mason looked at his watch, in five more minutes they would be in position.
Mason heard the crack of someone stepping on a tree branch and then a shot rang out.
Dammit!
He knew his men weren’t in position. Mason already had his bogey targeted so he took him out and ran forward as fast as he could to the next tree. The man was still taking shots at the SEALs on the ground. Mason aimed carefully and took him out. The third man in the trees was at least a hundred yards to his left so he headed for the beach confident Finn would take him. Almost to the tree line that opened to the shore, he found Larry’s body covering Steve Fairfax. Fairfax was hit in the chest, and he was critical but trying to talk.
“Save your breath, son,” Mason said calmly, trying to soothe the young man.
“I’m sorry, Lieutenant.” Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Not your fault.”
“I shot too soon. Thought…” He gasped for breath.
“Stop talking that’s an order. I need you to save your strength.” He pushed Larry’s body back on top of Steve’s chest, knowing it was the best option to compress the wound. He couldn’t shout for Darius, not yet knowing if the coast was clear or if the medic was under fire.
Mason crept towards the beach hoping the lack of gunfire was a good thing. Finally he heard someone yelling his name.
“I’m here!” Mason yelled. “I need Darius.” He pushed through the trees. The rest of the team were standing or bending over, but at least on they were all on their feet. Darius rushed forward.
“Where are you hurt, Lieutenant?”
“Not me it’s Fairfax.” Mason saw Darius’ lip curl before he masked his feelings.
“Show me.” Mason took him to the spot he’d left Fairfax. They moved Larry, and Darius went to work on the ensign.
“Mason, it doesn’t look good. We’ve got to get him on the boat fast.” When Mason looked up, he saw the rest of the team was already there. They picked up Larry’s and Lou’s bodies. Drake helped him and Darius carry Fairfax to the Zodiac.
Finn was the last one in, he was carrying Larry, but he slipped and they both went into the water. Mason went over, plummeting into cold ocean water through the slick of warm red blood. He forced himself to get Larry’s body back onto the boat.
“Mason, are you listening to me?” His arm was being yanked, and he saw Darius ripping the arm of his shirt.
“What? It’s nothing. How’s Drake?” Mason looked around the boat. There were three bodies, how in the hell had that happened?
“Mase, you need to listen to me. You’re going into shock.”
“I’m fine, Dare. Go look at Drake.”
“I already did. He wasn’t in the water. He didn’t rip his wound open even more lifting two hundred pounds into a boat.”
Larry. How was the team going to function without Larry?
“I’m doing great. I lived, Dare. I lived. Just tie it off, and we’ll wait ‘til we meet up with our ride, okay?” Mason looked his friend in the eye. Darius must have seen something, because he quit talking and just bandaged him up and left him leaning against the side of the boat, lost in sorrow and regret.
Mason Gault paddled on this board in the Pacific Ocean, focusing on the pristine water of Moonlight Beach. He felt the swell, and hopped up onto his surfboard in a crouch like he was sixteen again. He stayed in place waiting, swaying, and then he was off like a rocket, sailing upwards, catching the mass of energy taking him into white and shiny water. He rode the wave for seconds, minutes, or maybe hours. Time had no meaning. Finally he went down and laughed as he bobbed back up through the surf, seeing the dawn sky.
He surfed for a long while. He had come alone, like he had every day for the last week. He was still trying to get his head on straight from his last mission. He was doing all of the things the Navy thought was
good
for him, but nothing was better than these moments in the waves. Here he could breathe. Here there were no bullets, no blood, and no death.
****
Sophia remembered when she had a sunny outlook on life. That’s why she came to Moonlight Beach at sunrise. She hoped she would get the spark to come back. Oh, she faked it for her mother, but she wanted to be that little girl again for real, the one who believed the world was a good place. She tasted the noodles in her cup. They weren’t warm anymore. She pulled the thermos of hot water out of her backpack and poured a little more into the Styrofoam container. She needed the hot meal, so she better eat it, after all breakfast was the most important meal of the day.
Sitting on top of the picnic table, she sat on her pink blanket and huddled in her over-sized red sweater. Eating her noodles, she watched the surfer as the sun came up, wishing for things that weren’t meant to be.
It was the fifth day in a row she and the surfer had been here. There were plenty of other surfers, but none seemed as frantic, as lost, or as lonely as she was. The fact she was projecting her emotions on to him just proved how close she was to losing it.
Looking into her empty cup of noodles, Sophia realized she was still hungry. She smiled, it was her second smile of the morning. Of course she was still hungry, her stomach was constantly growling for three months now. But her mom’s medicine was more important than food. She looked to see if she could get a third smile before she left. Yes, there was a God! The surfer was coming out of the water carrying his board. She’d yet to see him with the wet suit unzipped, imagine how hungry she’d be then?
Sophia hastily put the remnants of her meal into her backpack, folded the blanket, and headed for the parking lot. This little detour to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas ate up an extra buck fifty in gas, but the way it soothed her soul was worth it, wasn’t it? She headed towards the compounding pharmacy to pick-up her Mom’s medicine, then went on towards the food pantry in San Clemente.
“Sophia, you look pretty today.” Mr. DeLuca smiled at her. He pointed her to the smallest box of bananas that must have just come in. He grabbed the larger box and took them to the back area of the pantry.
“Thank you, Tony, and you look very handsome today,” she said to the older man as she started to sort the fruit. Unfortunately only one third of the bananas would be fresh enough to go into the children’s lunches.
“It must be the way I did my hair,” he said as he smoothed his hand over his bald head.
