Watch Over Me: A Military Romance (Uncharted SEALs Book 1) (7 page)

“S
eñor
,
you said
to tell you if anyone asked about the girl…”

Deke held the handset of the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he rolled up his shirt sleeves. He and Nicky had been freshening up before dinner. He shot a quick glance toward Nicky who was busy brushing blush across her cheeks at the bathroom mirror. Her gaze met his in the reflection then her eyebrows rose in question.

He shook his head and gave her a small tight smile, and then turned away to hide his tight expression. “Who was inquiring?” he asked in Spanish.

“He didn’t register for a room, so I don’t have a name. And he didn’t ask for your lady by her name. Only asked whether any American women had checked in recently. Pretty ones. And young.”

Maybe he was just a jackass looking for a green card romance. A slim possibility, but Deke didn’t believe in coincidences. “What did you tell him?”

“I said there were several American couples here. Since you and Miss Martir have been spending time together, I did not lie.”

“Is he still here?”

“He left about an hour ago, after he’d walked through the restaurant and checked the beach.”

“Did he say anything else? Was he alone?” Deke ran through his memories of docking the boat and returning to the hotel. No one had been paying them undue attention.

“Nothing else. And I didn’t notice any others with him. But he…”

The clerk’s hesitation made his stomach knot. “Is there more, Manuel?”

“He had dead eyes. If you know what I mean.”

Deke took a deep breath. He knew exactly what the other man meant. He’d seen the expression many times before—down the scope of his rifle. He wrapped his fingers tightly around the handset. “Thanks for confirming our reservation for tonight,” he said in English, pitching his voice a little louder to keep Nicky from becoming suspicious.

“
Comprendo,
Señor
. I will inform you if he returns. And if you stop by the desk, I will have a photograph I printed from the security camera.”

“I’ll be sure to stop by your desk.” Deke hung up and remained still for a moment. The hair had risen on the back of his neck. Maybe the man with the “dead eyes” wasn’t looking for Nicky, had another woman targeted, but he couldn’t take the chance. He glanced at Nicky, only to find her staring steadily back at him, her makeup forgotten.

“I take it something’s happened?”

He was tempted to shield her from the news, but what would doing so buy them? They wouldn’t make that date in the dining room. He couldn’t take the chance with her life. Even if this turned out to be nothing, she deserved to know. “We have to leave.”

Her lips pursed, and then she nodded. “All right. Are we going to another hotel?”

How had she guessed that a threat had arrived? “We’re taking the first flight home.” With his cell phone stashed across the hall, he picked up the phone again, asked for an outside line, and quickly punched the numbers for his handler for this mission. The conversation was brief. A chartered flight would arrive first thing in the morning.

“We’ll order a meal from room service,” he said, not meeting her gaze, because he remembered all too well how he’d teased her about room service. But now wasn’t the time for distractions.

“Do you think we should leave the hotel, spend the night somewhere else?”

He shook his head. “We’d be more vulnerable in the open. Besides, if he hasn’t gotten sight of you yet, he won’t be sure.”

“He?” Her body stiffened.

“The concierge only noted one suspicious man.”

“So, you have the hotel staff involved in your surveillance?”

“Since this was strictly off books, I used what resources were available.”

“And yet, you have a plane at your disposal?”

“A friend of your father’s arranged it.”

Her face had grown pale, but her gaze remained steady. “This could be all for nothing, you know.”

“That how you feel about this?”
About us?

“I’m not sorry he chose you, if that’s what you mean. But after hearing the arrangements, I’m feeling pretty guilty about inconveniencing so many people.”

“Your dad said you tend to be stubborn.” He shrugged, not wanting to add to her uneasiness. “That you refused to reconsider your plans despite his warning.”

“That makes me sound stupid…and petty. And I guess I was.” A grimace twisted her lips and her head dipped. “I did take his warning into consideration. It’s not like I headed straight to Columbia or deep into Mexico. This island seemed safe enough. Off the beaten path.”

“Which means someone kept tabs on you since before you left Virginia. If this is what I think it is.” He crossed his arms over his chest to keep from reaching for her and hauling her close. “Or they could simply have put your picture out to all their contacts and asked them to find you. This guy could be working alone.”

“What do you think this is?”

The knot that had tightened his stomach the second Manuel said someone had asked after Nicky grew heavier, clenched tighter. “An abduction.”

“For ransom?”

“Or to influence your father.”

Her mouth formed a bitter smile. “All that bother, and you know he won’t negotiate with them.”

“He might not negotiate…”

“But he would send someone after me, wouldn’t he?” She closed her eyes for a brief moment.

“Yeah, they likely know he’d never deal with them in any official way, but maybe they’re just flexing muscle. Showing us they’re not afraid to take on U.S. SEALs.”

She made a little scoffing sound. “Could they be more stupid?”

No argument there
. He gave her a one-sided smile. “You seem to think highly of us.”

“You’re the best in the world at what you do,” she said, her eyes sad. “My issue was never with the SEALs.”

“Your issue was just with your father?” At last, Deke strode toward her and opened his arms.

She snuggled against his chest. “My mother said she never signed up for a career military man.” Her voice was muffled against his shirt. “She thought he’d give it up once they started a family. Long deployments killed their relationship.”

Deke nodded. “The life’s not for everyone. But for every guy I know whose marriage failed, I can show you another that’s solid. Wives don’t have to go it alone. There’s a whole community of people who step in to help. I’ve done my part.”

She drew back, her brown eyes glittering. “I saw it from her side. She was afraid every time he left that it would be the last time she saw him.”

“And that’s a risk we take,” he said, lifting her chin with his thumb. “I’ll admit it’s tough. On both ends.”

Her gaze fell away. “Time away didn’t seem to weigh on him the same way it did her.”

“Give him a break, Nicky,” he said, lowering his voice. “He had men under his command he had to keep safe.”

“I know. Being the last priority, after the mission and after the team, well, I’m not sure I could handle that, either.”

Her words left a bitter taste in his mouth, but Deke shrugged. “Since I’ve never been married with a wife waiting for me to come home, guess I’m not entitled to an opinion.”

She stared at the buttons of his shirt, then slowly lifted her face. “I’d still like to hear it.”

Deke felt as though whatever he said next would be judged and weighed. That a misstep here might be a deal breaker. But he couldn’t sugarcoat what he felt. “I think the woman who takes on a SEAL has to know what she can expect, and then she has to accept what she can’t change.”

Her lips twisted. “Whining not allowed?”

“Baby, I can’t imagine you ever whining.”

She sniffed and raised her chin. “Since I’ll likely never marry a SEAL, I guess we’ll never know.”

Deke swallowed hard, another weight settling in his gut. He gave her a bleak smile and turned toward the door. “I have to pack my things. Close the door behind me. Butt the back of the desk chair against it, too. Do not open the door to anyone but me.” Then because there wasn’t anything more to say, he left.

After she jammed
the chair beneath the door handle, Nicky sat on the edge of the bed, feeling hollow. What the hell had just happened? All her bitterness over her parents’ divorce had come spilling out like a tidal wave right over Deke. He hadn’t deserved that. Hell, she wasn’t even sure her father would have deserved it—except perhaps for choosing her mother as a wife, knowing full well she hadn’t been made to be a SEAL’s wife. Her mother had been enamored of a handsome man in uniform, someone tall and brave, but she had thought he’d quickly come to heel, join her father’s business and pull out his old uniform on Veterans Day to reminisce. She’d never really understood his deep devotion to the SEALs.

Nicky had hated leaving Little Creek. Hated leaving her father. But she’d spent too many years hearing only her mother’s complaints. Her father had never talked about the demise of his marriage. Had never talked badly about her mother except to say they ended up not being compatible.

Now Deke thought she hated what he was, which just wasn’t true. But it was probably too late to take back everything she’d said. And Lord, how she wished she could because she wanted a chance to know him better, to see if this feeling growing inside her—an instant resonance of another person’s heart and yearnings—was the real thing.

Something had clicked inside her when she’d seen his shutter come down, seen the light in his eyes grow dim. In a flash of intuition, she’d known that loving a man like Deke wouldn’t be easy, but since when had doing things the easy way made her happy? Loving him, period, would make the long absences worth it. Any time spent in his arms would be savored. She wasn’t her mother, but had a life of her own, a job that would keep her busy. If children came along, he was right—support could be found within the community, other wives who shouldered the burden of child-rearing, but who pitched in to help out. She didn’t have to go it alone.

A sharp laugh gusted from somewhere deep inside her. Ragged. Thick. She’d only known him a day, and she was already imagining being married
and
having his kids?

A knock sounded at the door. Too soon to be Deke. Her heart skipped a beat and she pushed off the bed, heading to the door. Peeking through the peephole, she saw a short, stout woman in a white housekeeping staff uniform, a cart laden with towels behind her. While Nicky watched, the woman knocked again.

Nicky bit her bottom lip. They’d need more towels since Deke would be staying in her room tonight. Still, better to be safe than sorry. “Yes?” she called out through the door.

“
Señora
, I come to clean your room,” she said in heavily accented Spanish.

“We won’t need you to clean today, but could you leave extra towels beside the door?”

“
Sí, señora
.”

She watched as the woman frowned, but turned quickly to the cart and counted out several towels, before turning back and holding up the stack. “Will this be enough?”

“
Está bueno
,” Nicky said in her rusty, middle-grade Spanish
. “Gracias
.”

The woman disappeared for a second as she bent down. Then she straightened and wheeled the cart down the hallway.

When the woman moved down the hallway past the second and third doors, only then did Nicky unlock the door and bend to quickly retrieve the towels. The moment she straightened, she felt the hairs on her arm rise. Something cold and metal pressed against her neck.

“Come quietly,” came a low-pitched voice from right beside her, “unless you want your boyfriend dead. I am here for you,
Señorita
Martir.”

Damn
. Nicky glanced toward Deke’s door. If he walked out this minute, she had no doubt the man would shoot him. She could hear the cold resolution in his voice. From deep inside, she began to tremble. Without looking behind her, she gave a nod. Words were impossible because her jaw was clenched so tight with fear.

A hand closed around her upper arm in a vice-like grip and propelled her down the corridor toward an exit stairway. They passed the woman with her cart, but she didn’t glance their way, her stony face set as she opened another patron’s door.

So, she’d been part of this man’s plan.

God, how could she have been so stupid? Deke had only asked one thing of her and she’d ignored that simple request. Was always bucking authority a habit? Had she thought he’d been so specific simply because he liked giving her orders? She prayed he’d figure out what happened, and quickly, but didn’t know what he could do, one man alone, to help her out of this mess now. Then she added another prayer for his safety. Unsure what her future held, she couldn’t bear the thought of him being hurt because of her.

At the exit, her captor shot out a hand and twisted the door handle to open it. Then he gave a shove against her shoulder, propelling her into the darkened stairwell. Farther from Deke.

She wanted to dig in her heels, stall for as long as she could, but cold hard steel was pressed against her ribs. So holding tightly to the rail, she descended. Despite the terror making her skin clammy, she stiffened her spine. The farther from Deke she went, the less likely he would be able to pick up the trail. He might never know what had happened to cause her disappearance. She couldn’t rely on Deke rescuing her. She might have to figure this out on her own.

Deke shoved the
last of his clothes into his go-bag then slid his Beretta into his ankle holster. He’d taken a minute to place a call to Nicky’s father to apprise him he suspected the cartel had found them. That single call had taken too long. Too many minutes had ticked away. He exited his room, glanced up and down the hallway, but all he saw was a short, heavy-set Hispanic woman from house-keeping, His glance slid past her, but the way she’d averted her gaze—too quickly—set his senses tingling.

He raced across the hall, slid the key in the lock, and opened the door. Towels lay on the floor just inside. “Nicky!” When he didn’t hear an immediate answer, he ran to the woman with the cart. She tried to ignore him, but he grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to face him. “Where is she?”