Her Fierce SEAL: Midnight Delta Book 6 Read Free

table, in his favorite bar overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Diego.  Soon the sun would set, and he was finally beginning to relax.  He was doing the right thing.
    The day after the all-nighter at Mason’s house, Finn had finally come clean to the Midnight Delta Team about what had happened.  Drake and Dare knew some fugly shit had gone down when he had been undercover at the farmhouse, but they’d had no earthly idea how bad it’d been. Normally, his confession would be something he would just tell his commander, but they all needed to know the kind of man he’d become.  So he told them all as a group.  He’d told them every ugly fucking detail.  Even the stuff he’d held back when he’d initially talked to Drake up in Canada.
    Even now, sitting in a spot that was basically paradise, chills raced down his spine. He started to gag as he set down his beer.
    He thought back to the little bit of time he had worked undercover guarding the young women who had been trafficked.  His mission had been to pretend to be one of the bad guys and keep them holed up in the farmhouse for two days until the auction.  It had gone against every bone in his body not to break them out and take them to safety. 
    Yeah, but you didn’t. Did you, Crandall?
    Instead, he had acted like a sadistic asshole as they cried and begged to be released.  One girl, who couldn’t have been more than sixteen, had gotten down on her knees in front of him.  She had pleaded in broken English to do anything to be allowed a chance to escape.  Her meaning had been clear.
    Another girl, who had been caught trying to run away, had been pulled back to the farmhouse by her hair and almost raped by two men before Finn had been alerted and stepped in.  Suspicious of him, Mike and Howard had made Finn hold Penelope down while Howard forced her to drink a bottle of hot sauce as punishment.  Part of his soul died that night.
    Fast forward two days to the night of the auction and the shootout.  He had to admit, Rylie and Darius had planned the takedown slicker than snot.  The only discordant notes were that he hadn’t been able to beat Howard and Mike to death the way they deserved.  Still, he had killed Albert Liu, the man who had orchestrated the hell at the farmhouse.  He only wished he could have prolonged his death.  Thinking of the operation, of the defenseless women, cracked him wide open with helplessness and anger.  Even now, a cloud of self-loathing threatened to swallow him whole. 
    Even almost two months after the events, he wasn’t able to hide his rage as he would have liked.
    He clenched and unclenched his fists.  A new habit he had picked up.  He closed his eyes and focused on the present.  His buddies had invited him for a drink tonight.  He looked at his watch.  Any minute they’d arrive at the bar.  It was just going to be a different bar than the one Finn was at.  He knew they were planning an intervention.  Finn tipped back his chair and closed his eyes, and played out what they would say.
    Mason would start, God love the man.
    “Finn, where have you been hiding?  Haven’t seen your ass around except at the base since you dropped your bomb.  We told you it didn’t matter.  You did exactly what every one of us would have done in your shoes.”
    “Would you believe I started dating this girl?” Finn would start out.
    “Fuck no!  You’re ducking us, and this shit has to stop.”  Drake would roar.  “Pull your guilt-ridden head out of your ass and talk to us.”
    “What the big guy means is that we’re here for you.” A typical Dare comment.
    “I know you are.  I just don’t feel like socializing.  I want to focus on work.”
    Mason would look uncomfortable.  He just knew it, because that’s the kind of leader he was.  The very reason for this intervention was because Mason was trying to arrange a safety net for Finn in his time of need.  If that didn’t work, Mason would sit him down privately