Rogue (SEAL Team: Disavowed Book 1) Read Free

Vicente’s men, he gave himself permission to stop.
    Though cloaked in hundred percent humidity and heat, Maisey’s teeth chattered. Shock? From a basic first aid kit he carried in one of many pockets on his black cargo pants, he took a metallic survival wrap. Wouldn’t do as much for her as a nice fire, but at least it’d keep her from losing additional body heat. As for that fire, he couldn’t take the risk of smoke leading Vicente’s men right to them.
    “T-thank you,” she managed through her latest violent shiver.
    “No problem.” He’d set her at the base of a cypress. Moonlight did nothing to sugarcoat the toll their adventure had already taken. For him, what they’d been through was all in a day’s work—physically easier than some of the missions he’d had to endure. For her, with her delicate features dirt-smudged, blond curls laced with leaves and small vines, shoulders sagging in defeat, she wore the dull-eyed mask of hopelessness he’d often seen on refugees.
    While his training told him to secure their perimeter with booby traps designed to give a few precious seconds notice in case they were found, he couldn’t in good conscience leave his pregnant friend alone and shivering.
    “You gotta relax.” Seated alongside her, he pulled her against him, intent on sharing his warmth. “We’ve got this.”
    As if operating on instinct, she snuggled closer. Leaning into him with what little remained of her strength.
    For the first time in forever, he felt every inch a protector. Ironic that he was feeling now. It was his inability to feel that had his teammates worried. His friend and business partner, Harding, had forced him to take some time off, told him to get his shit together. The pain of losing his wife and son had been indescribable. So bad that he’d found it best to construct a wall around that part of his life, compartmentalizing it in a corner of his heart that would never again see daylight.
    When Maisey stopped shivering, Nash reached into another pocket for a protein bar. “Eat.”
    She took it, but asked, “What about you?”
    “I’m good. There’s more. Plus, come daylight, I’ll go shopping.”
    “Shopping?” She lifted her brows.
    “Guess scrounging might be a better word. There’s plenty of food out here. We just have to find it.”
    “Please,” holding the bar in front of his mouth, she urged, “you have some, too. I don’t feel right hogging it all for myself.”
    To get her off his case, he bit a corner, then pushed it away. “Happy?”
    “You always were stubborn.”
    True. His tenacity served him well. The only thing he’d ever given up on was his love for this woman.
    Having chewed the last bite of her mini-meal, she said, “You told me my mom sent you. How did she know where I was? For her own safety, I begged her to stay out of my business.”
    “You and your mom used to be tight. What happened that you wouldn’t ask her for help?”
    She took a long time answering. “Vicente. From the first time I mentioned him, her warning bells rang. She had no trouble advising me to stay away.”
    Maisey had stopped shivering. Wanting to keep her talking, to keep her mind from their less than ideal location and situation, Nash asked, “Why didn’t you see the same signs?”
    “I wanted the fairy tale. For the first time in my life, I felt special. This man made me feel like I was the most amazing woman in the world.”
    “Thanks.” Her comment struck like a sucker punch. Didn’t matter that it’d been almost a decade since their last kiss, or that he’d already found and lost his wife, Maisey’s long ago rejection still stung. “Good to know how much you cared.”
    “Really?” she asked with a put upon sigh. “We hadn’t even graduated high school. Did you honestly, for one second, think I’d marry you? Signing on for a lonely life of living on some remote Navy base while you were off getting yourself killed? Or worse—behaving like my father? No,