RULES OF LOVE (A Navy SEALs Romance) (12 page)

Now was not the time to fall apart. This man had given her the greatest orgasm of her life and hadn’t even tried to get one himself. She was impressed and felt a bit of the icy wall around her heart crack. But there was still work to do, and a voice in her mind whispered that once he knew the truth, he would run from her and all she’d done.

***

Beau stretched his neck, heading quietly back around the front of the house. His erection finally subsided but threatened to come back anytime he heard her groan in his mind, saw her eyes darken with pleasure, or remembered the way she whispered his name. She was sweet on his tongue, and all he wanted was to have her, but he needed to be patient.

He was amazed he’d gotten so far with her. When he’d gone back to her room, he’d expected her to throw him out, but she’d trusted him. She put herself in his hands, and Beau could not let that go to waste. The hunger to compel her to come—to see her body as the orgasm tore through her—and watch the iciness in her gaze slowly melt took over his mind in that moment. When he’d tasted her, his eyes hadn’t missed the scars covering her body, and he walked out of that bedroom with more questions than answers.

Those scars that marred her legs and arms… They weren’t caused by a car accident, he was sure of it now. Beau’s hands curled as he pictured a man doing those things to her, hurting her, and he wanted to wrap his hands around that man’s neck and break it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Beau woke early the next morning, the last remnants of his dreams with Naomi riding him hard fading quickly as he glanced out his window. If only that had happened last night… But what she did let him do was a damn good start. And he’d managed to actually get a few hours of sleep. Shane and Ted dealt with the night shift, and he’d be there all day to watch out for her so Shane and Ted could switch off and get some much needed rest.

He dressed in fresh clothes, grabbed his holster, and checked that his knife was tucked at his lower back before he peeked in on Naomi. She was sound asleep in her bed. Beau grinned, a sudden need to touch her coming over him, but he stepped back and quietly closed her door. He’d let her sleep. She needed it.

When he reached the kitchen, he found Shane speaking with Jackie and Gareth.

“Ah, there he is,” Shane announced. “I’m going to go snag some sleep on the cot in the storeroom if you can handle everything here.”

Beau helped himself to a cup of coffee. “Course.”

“Tell Ted we can trade off in four hours. It’s all I need.” Shane disappeared up the stairs, and Beau turned around. Jackie watched Shane closely before she eyed Beau over her coffee mug.

“So,” Jackie said. “Naomi deck you again? You look a bit worn this morning.”

Beau choked on his coffee and cursed. “No… no, she hasn’t.” His eyes slid sideways to see her narrowed look. “What? Nothing happened.”

“What did she do to you, then?”

He shrugged and tried not to meet her gaze as his neck warmed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
How the hell could she know? Had she heard Naomi last night?

“Did you kiss her again?”

“What?”

“You did,” Jackie muttered. “Damn, she must like you more than I thought. What else have you two been doing?”

Beau shifted and buried his face in his mug after he said, “I don’t think she’d want me to tell you.” He thought of Naomi on the bed, her legs spread before him, and her cries as he thrust his tongue inside her. His jeans pressed painfully against his growing erection, and he forced himself to think of something else—anything else as he angled himself so Jackie and Gareth wouldn’t see.

“Fine, keep it to yourself. Just… take care of her,” she ordered, her eyes cold. “She’s been through a lot and it was touch and go for a while. You’re the first in three years.”

“You care about her, and so do I,” he said, his tone deep as he thought of holding Naomi again and seeing her smile, hearing her cry out for him. “What happened to her?”

Jackie fell silent and ran her fingers over the rim of the mug. When she spoke next, her voice was filled with hate. “Think of the worst thing that could happen and multiply it by ten. That’s what happened to her.” She turned to the front windows. “But I didn’t tell you a damn thing. Got it?”

“Understood.”

“Good. The last thing I want is to piss her off on her birthday, whether she wants to celebrate it or not.”

“It’s today?”

“Yeah, got a cake to make for her,” Jackie said. “Well, Gareth does. I don’t cook.”

“No,” Gareth agreed from the table, “you burn the shit out of everything.”

“One time!” she muttered before her eyes landed on Beau again. “Any news yet on who’s trying to kill her?”

Beau frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything,” he replied tightly.

Jackie’s look darkened. “That’s a ‘no’ then.”

“They’re doing everything they can.”

Jackie raised a brow. “Of course they are. Sorry, it’s just she hates being cooped up like this, and we’re lucky we were able to get here.”

“Though now we’re escorted and followed around everywhere too,” Gareth added.

Beau understood, but he could do nothing about it. “I’m sure they’ll find something soon. I think I should take her a cup of coffee. She’ll be waking up soon.”

Beau poured another cup of coffee and walked up to Naomi’s room. He found her curled up on her side under the quilt, her face still more relaxed than he’d seen it while she slept. Carefully, he shook her shoulder, drawing her out of her sleep. She rolled over, stretching, and her lips curled into a sated grin.

“If you wake me up like this every morning, you might never leave this house,” she said, yawning as Beau offered her the cup. She took a sip and sighed. She grabbed for her cane and pulled herself out of bed. Beau let her walk out ahead of him down the stairs. “What’s that smell?”

“I believe that’s a cake being baked by your friend,” he explained. They’d reached the bottom step when his cell chirped.

“Take that if you have to. I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Naomi said and nudged his arm before she limped into the kitchen, scolding Jackie about whatever she was doing.

Beau stayed close and answered the call. “Sir?”

“Savage, how’s the civilian?” Reinhart asked.

“Still alive, sir. Any leads yet?”

“We may have found one. Our software was finally able to analyze the shooter from the video. Hugh Coleman.”

Beau’s eyes narrowed as he turned away from the kitchen. “What did you say, sir?”

“You heard me. He’s still in charge of the cocaine operations running from Nicaragua to Thailand. Have you received any new intel on him over the last few months?” Reinhart inquired. “The others in the video have been identified as well, but until we can track them down, you’re stuck with the civ.”

“I’m not going anywhere if that bastard’s involved, sir, and no, nothing has come up on Hugh.”

“Good,” Reinhart said. “That’s what I wanted to hear. I will keep you posted if anything else turns up, but your main priority is protecting that woman, Savage.”

“Yes, sir.” Reinhart told him to keep in touch and disconnected the call.

Beau tucked his cell away and tried to act as though nothing was wrong. He’d spent the last six years hunting down Hugh Coleman. His cocaine empire was only the tip of the iceberg. They knew his arms were also elbow-deep in weapons trafficking and even human-trafficking at some point, but the damn man covered his tracks. Beau thought he’d hit the man three years ago with a kill shot, but he’d managed to survive. A year after that, when they’d tracked him down again, Beau put a bullet through his head for good measure, but it had been a double. Hugh escaped, and no one had seen him since. Until Naomi Veri happened to stumble upon him executing men in the jungles of Thailand.

As he walked back to the kitchen, he forced his face to go blank. Jackie and Gareth were walking towards the stairs, leaving Naomi alone nursing a new cup of coffee and watching him closely. When her eyes met his, they darkened. “What’s wrong?”

He debated telling her, but maybe the name would mean something more to her. If they discovered more leads to track down, they could find Hugh faster and end this ordeal. The need for him to keep her safe and away from a man he’d personally hunted more than once provoked him to do something he normally wouldn’t.

“They identified the shooter in the video.” He took a deep breath, watching her closely just in case the name did mean something to her. “Hugh Coleman. Does that mean anything to you?”

Eddie’s blood ran cold the second the name left Beau’s lips. “What did you say?”

“Hugh Coleman. He’s a drug lord, moves cocaine mostly,” Beau said slowly, and she felt his hand at her elbow. Her face must’ve paled enough to cause him worry.

Eddie tried not to react, but the coffee mug slipped from her numb fingers and shattered on the floor at her feet. Coffee splashed up her legs. She thought it was hot, but she wasn’t in the kitchen anymore. She was in a dirty cell, and her own screams echoed around her.

“Naomi? What’s wrong?”

“Oh God, I’m sorry,” she muttered and bent to clean up the mess. She took a deep breath as he squatted down to help and tried to keep it together. She was Naomi Veri, not Eddie. “I need to go make a call,” she said, words shaking as much as her hands. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

She tossed the broken mug pieces in the sink and limped as quickly as she could up the stairs. Beau called after her, but she told him again she was fine. When she was sure he hadn’t followed, she traipsed into the other storeroom where Shane had crashed and found him passed out on the cot.

“You bastard! Why didn’t you tell me?” She reached over and smacked his head until he woke up, reaching for his gun.

“Eddie? What the hell?”
She ignored him as she reached for his radio and told Ted to keep an extra eye out while she had a word with her brother. She tossed the radio back at Shane, hitting him hard in the gut, and stared him down. “Why didn’t you tell me who was involved in this?”

Shane rubbed his head as he sighed and his face reddened. “It wasn’t my idea, Eddie. Reinhart thought you’d be able to focus better on Savage if you didn’t know.”

“Hugh is after Savage? I thought it was someone else!”

“Reinhart got the lead late last night. Told me and said he’d run the name by Savage, play it off as the shooter in the old video to see if he’d learned anything that was missed. How did you… oh,” he muttered. “Savage told you.”

“He didn’t know any better not to.”

She stomped around the room as her sanity cracked and frayed. Hugh Coleman was the man’s real name, but for a very long time, Eddie and the others on his team had known him as someone else entirely. His treachery cut the deepest, and for years, they tried to bring him down, nearly captured him, and lost him again. She knew why he was after Savage. He’d been a key player in not only injuring the man severely, but also managed to shut down his weapons trafficking for a whole year. She thought he was out of the picture. And now, she found he was right back in the middle of the game.

“This is why Savage needs to know,” she argued. “If this goes any farther, he’s going to find out. He’d be more of an asset than anything else.”

“Reinhart will say no.” Shane stood and took his sister’s hand. “Can you handle this?”

“Course I can,” she snapped angrily. “Not like I’m going to face the bastard down unless he comes here himself.” She pulled her hand from his, still pissed, and stalked towards the door. “You tell Reinhart the next time he tries to keep pertinent information from me, I will tell Beau exactly what’s going on here and he can kiss my ass.”

Eddie stalked straight to her office and slammed the door closed, shaking the walls. Whatever bit of peace Beau gave her last night disappeared, and she was staring into the abyss again, staring down a man who ruined her life. Who broke her. No matter what happened, she’d never be the same again.

Hugh’s cell rang, echoing in the empty hotel room he was still stuck in. “What is it now?”

“We’re nearly in position,” a man rasped on the other end. “Final preparations are being made. Three days, tops.”

Hugh grinned darkly. “Good, and you have our gift prepared for my sweet flower?” he asked, picturing Eddie’s face in his mind. He wondered if she had any idea he was involved or if he could still surprise her.

“We do.”

“Good. Do not screw this up,” he snapped and hung up. Revenge was so close he could taste it. The minute those two were dead and gone, his real plans could fall into place, plans he’d been working on for eight years. “My, my, how the time flies,” he whispered and sipped his whiskey.

Eddie didn’t leave her office until Jackie dragged her out of it for her birthday dinner, though being sociable was the last thing on her mind. She’d gone back through everything she knew about Hugh Coleman, hoping to find something they missed, but there was nothing new. After all these years of hunting him, the damn man learned to cover his tracks.

Now she sat at the kitchen table, Jackie and Gareth beside her and Beau across, and all of them watched her. She hated it and wanted to disappear, but running away would only have Beau ask more questions. She’d argued with Jackie for nearly an hour about telling Beau, but she’d been shot down… again.