SEAL’s Love by Leslie North

17

Harper dialed the number on her laptop, then waited, torn between hanging up and staying on the line. Her face showed in the on-screen video feed, anxious and worried—and maybe just a bit guilty.

But it wasn’t like she was going behind Colin’s back. Not exactly. She had brought up the idea during their discussion earlier, when they’d been strategizing about how to handle searching the compound. They’d agreed that it would be so much better to have extra eyes and ears and muscle on location, just in case. Plus, Colin was always safer with his teammates at his back. There just hadn’t been any options readily at hand. But if Harper could fix that…

A moment later, the video call connected, and she could see Logan’s frowning face. “Harper? Is that you? What’s going on?”

“Hey, boss,” she said, forcing a smile she didn’t quiet feel. “I just wanted to ask you for a favor.”

“A favor, huh?” His expression shifted to wary in about a second flat. “What kind of favor?”

“Is that Harper?” a female voice said from off-screen, and a moment later, Hope appeared behind Logan, bending down to wave at Harper in the camera. “Hey, girl. How are things progressing out there? Do you guys have your sister back yet?”

“Not yet, but hopefully soon,” she said, glancing up from her screen to the door across the room. Colin was still downstairs somewhere. She wanted to make this quick before he got back. Not that she was being sneaky or anything.

Okay. Fine. She was being a little sneaky.

But dammit, Colin had brushed aside her suggestion earlier, saying he could handle things on his own. But she was concerned, about him, about Serenity, about all of it. And even if they never worked out the kinks in their relationship, Harper knew in her soul she’d never stop caring about him, and she was determined to do everything she could to keep him safe. Even if it pissed him off in the short run.

“Listen, I called because we got some intel today that means my sister is in serious danger. We think she’s being held captive, and we’re planning to go into the compound in the next few days to try to find her and get her out of there.”

“Did I hear those magic words?” Greg said, joining the group around the video cam. She wasn’t surprised to see all three of them there so late at night. Investigation wasn’t exactly a nine-to-five gig. He rolled into the frame on the left, his wheeled office chair squeaking on the hardwood floors, ignoring the fact he’d bumped Logan off-kilter. Hope gave him a look, then rolled her eyes. “You need a search executed, I’m your guy.”

Logan gave Greg a nudge right back, sending him wheeling back off screen until he stopped himself with his foot. “Tell me the plan so far. When I talked to Colin the other day, he’d had a rough sketch of the operation, but nothing finalized.”

Harper relayed the plans they’d discussed earlier, then hesitated. “I want you to know, though, that me calling now is not Colin’s idea. He didn’t want to get you all involved, since technically this could be considered trespassing, especially if we go into restricted parts of the center without evidence of a crime. He didn’t want to risk any of you doing jail time for this. He was mad enough about me insisting on going along, but it’s my sister we’re rescuing, and we need someone to act as a decoy, so I insisted.” She shrugged.

“All right,” Logan said, getting that look on his face Harper had seen a thousand times in the office, the one that said he was plotting in his head. “So, from what you’ve said, it sounds like a lot of area to search for just two people. How long will Bone be away from the property?”

“No idea yet. Colin’s still downstairs waiting on the details from his dad,” Harper said.

“Well, I doubt it matters. The faster you get in and find her and get out again the better,” Greg added. “Bone is the biggest threat, but it’s not like he’s the only one who could call the cops on you.”

“Wait,” Hope said from off-screen. “I’ve pulled up the Wellness Center website and yeah. There’s no way you could execute a full search of that whole place yourselves, even if you had all day. Looks like there’s two large multi-room, multi-story separate buildings, plus a lot of smaller buildings. It’s also spread out over a hillside, with trails leading from the larger buildings up top to the smaller spaces on the beach below. It’s definitely a team job.”

“Then it’s settled. We fly out there and help,” Greg said.

“Not so fast.” Logan gave him a look. “Colin’s right. It’s not without risks. We need to go into this with our eyes open and our heads on straight. What about Mattie? You should probably talk to her before rushing off to face some unknown danger.”

Greg snorted. “Dude, she’ll be fine with it. You think she’d be cool with me leaving some innocent woman to be held captive? Especially when that woman is Harper’s sister? Not a chance. I’ll call her, for sure, but I’m telling you right now what she’ll say. She’ll be booking my ticket for me before I even hang up.”

“Stop being flippant—you need to take this seriously,” Logan lectured, looking more frustrated by the second. Harper bit her lips not to laugh. Poor guy. He was always trying to rein everyone in and make sure they didn’t take too many risks, but considering that all their security agents were former SEALs, playing things safe wasn’t really how anyone rolled. Especially when one of their own was at risk. They were a tight-knit bunch and genuinely cared about one another. Supported each other. Like a second family. Harper felt grateful to be a part of it. At least when Logan wasn’t pissed off.

“Dude. I am taking it seriously.” Greg chuckled. “I once took down an entire Taliban encampment, including hostage rescue, with my SEAL team and made it back to base in time for drinks and poker in the officer’s club that night. I’ve faced down snipers and even saved Mattie’s museum. I think I can handle one shady spa shyster in a cheesy white suit, even with my bum arm.”

Harper shook her head, her smile breaking through at last. Even she had to admit that Sebastian Bone’s photo on the spa website looked like a bad Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island knockoff. But looks could be deceiving and he’d taken her sister hostage, so he was definitely the enemy.

“Look, if it makes you feel better, let me call Mattie right now and see what she says.” Greg wheeled off camera again, leaving just Hope and Logan on-screen.

“How about you?” Logan said to Hope, wrapping his arm around her waist and tugging her down into his lap. “You okay with me doing this?”

“Of course I am. It’s the right thing to do, which means it has ‘you’ written all over it.” She leaned into him, nestling against his chest and tucking her head under his chin. The look of pure love on his face made Harper’s heart ache with yearning. She wanted that, she realized. What Logan and Hope had. What Greg and Mattie had. What Colin had offered her before, even though she’d turned him down.

But was she brave enough to take it?

That was the question that kept tumbling over and over again in Harper’s mind, clashing against all the other stress in her life. Her missing sister. Her nomadic past. Her fears that she couldn’t do enough, couldn’t be enough, to keep Colin happy in the future.

A small wail echoed from somewhere in the Oracle offices, and Hope kissed Logan fast before getting up to tend to their toddler, Reese. Soon, she carried the little girl back on her hip to say hi to Harper.

“There’s your Aunty Harper, honey,” Hope said, holding the tiny girl up to the camera. “Can you say hello?”

Reese, who looked like she’d just woken up from a nap, mumbled something unintelligible and Harper laughed again. So sweet. That ache in her chest intensified. Did she want one of those too?

Someday. With Colin.

Oh God.

The world seemed to shift beneath her feet. She loved him. Really loved him.

Not like in the past where it felt like love but then vanished in a few weeks or months. But love him like a forever kind of thing.

And that terrified her almost as much as Serenity being missing.

Because in her experience, love never lasted. That’s what she’d seen play out in her mom’s life, raising two girls on her own, never time for any kind of serious relationship, always being left behind or keeping to herself to avoid getting hurt.

Did Harper want to risk that with Colin?

Would she even have a chance, now that she’d basically told him she didn’t want what he’d offered her?

“Okay. I talked to Mattie and she’s all for me going, so I’m in,” Greg said, rolling back on-screen once more and beaming up at the kid. “Hey, Reesie girl.”

Logan and Hope continued whispering to each other for a few seconds before looking back to the camera and Harper. “Fine. We’re in.”

“I’ll book Logan’s flight as soon as we end the call,” Hope said. “We’ll be there by tomorrow evening at the latest.”

“Thanks, guys,” she said, her spirits lifting for the first time in days. “Be safe. See you soon.”

Okay. One hurdle down. One more to go. Namely telling Colin what she’d done and hope she didn’t fuck things up between them even more than they already were.

She was all braced to broach the subject when she finally heard Colin’s footsteps on the stairs—but when he walked in, he struck her speechless by informing her that she could have the bedroom to herself that night.

“What?” she managed to squeak out of her too tight throat, her heart banging against her rib cage.

“We’re not pretending to be a couple anymore,” he said. “No reason for us to keep sharing a bed. I’ll sleep in the guest room down the hall.”

“But…” But what? He was right. They weren’t pretending anymore. She should’ve expected this. It hurt, though, more than she’d ever thought possible. It made whatever was between them feel truly over. She took a deep breath and collected herself. There were more important things to tell him tonight. They’d deal with the rest after they got Serenity back. “Um, I called the guys at Team Oracle tonight, while you were downstairs with your dad.”

He stopped and looked over at her. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Just do it. Tell him. Quick and fast, like ripping off a bandage. “They’re flying in tomorrow to help with search and rescue at the compound.”

There. She’d done it. Even managed not to wince, barely.

And for a small eternity, Colin just blinked at her, like he couldn’t quite wrap his head around her words. Then his unreadable expression, that stoic wall he always had around himself, slipped and anger shone through. “Excuse me?”

His tone was calm, cool, lethal.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

She wanted to make him see that she’d done this for his own good, and not gone behind his back like it sounded…except, she sort of had done exactly that. “Look, I’m sorry that I reached out to them without clearing it with you. I was worried. About you. About the mission. About everything. And you’re used to working with a team, and I thought it would be safer for everyone if you had proper back up. You said yourself, we don’t know what we’re up against. Sebastian and his men could have guns for all we know. You need to have some trained people watching your back, just in case. That’s why we’re doing this. All of us. Not just me, Colin. Because we care about you.” A tiny wave of indignation washed over her because yeah. She loved him. Maybe not how he wanted, but tough shit. “And if you don’t like it, tough. Deal with it.”

“You,” he started, finger pointed at her as he came around the bed to face her. “You…”

His jaw was rigid and his eyes burned with fiery intensity as they locked gazes. Colin opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again, but said nothing. His brows knit as he stared down at her, as if working something out in his head. The storm inside him seemed to blow over, but not before she caught a glimmer of something in his eyes, too fast for her to interpret. Then she was in his arms, and he was squeezing her tight, nearly cutting off her breath. “Thank you, Harper. Thank you. Thanks for caring about me. I care about you too. And we’ll rescue Serenity. I promise.”