Her Dominant SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 9) Read online

  Her Dominant SEAL

  Midnight Delta Series

  Book 9

  A Novel

  By Caitlyn O’Leary

  © Copyright 2017 Caitlyn O’Leary

  ISBN # 978-1-63587-127-2

  All cover art and logo © Copyright 2017 by Passionately Kind Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Lynne St. James

  Cover by Croco Designs

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and places portrayed in this book are entirely products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find any eBooks being sold or shared illegally, please contact the author at [email protected].

  Dedication

  To all those who have served.

  Synopsis

  A Cry for Help

  It only takes one phone call, and Navy SEAL Drake Avery is rushing back to Tennessee in the middle of the night. His sisters are in danger, and he will do whatever it takes to protect them.

  A New Twist

  Now is not the time for a relationship, but damned if Drake doesn’t cross paths with a smokin’ hot kindergarten teacher named Karen Eastman. Miss Eastman has Drake thinking naughty thoughts when he needs to have his head in the game. He never thought he’d be hot for teacher.

  Demons from the Past

  Part of the hell of going home is that you know everyone and they know you. Just when you think you can trust someone, they can turn on a dime. Old and new enemies are thrilled to discover Drake has a beautiful new weakness—Karen. But messing with the women in his life is a mistake. You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  Biography

  Books by Caitlyn O’Leary

  Chapter One

  It was past midnight when his cell phone rang. He hoped it was a call for a mission, and not another call from Trenda, like the one’s he’d been getting from her when he’d been at Declan’s place. She tried to make it sound like everything was all right, but he could read between the lines. There was something going on that she wasn’t telling him, and it was keeping her up at night. He didn’t know if it had to do with their younger sisters or their mother. He hated to hear her struggling to cope, she had enough on her plate with her three-year-old daughter. He looked at the phone and saw a number he didn’t recognize. He picked up.

  “Avery here.”

  “Drake?” It was a fragile whisper. It didn’t sound like Trenda. Was it one of the twins?

  “I’m here, Honey. Is that you, Chloe? Zoe?”

  “It’s me, Piper. I don’t have much time. He’s out. He came with friends. Mom let all of them stay.” Drake was having a tough time understanding her. She was crying. “Drake, he was tearing through the place, screaming for me. I jumped out my window.” He heard her take a shuddering breath.

  “Why aren’t you at Trenda’s?” he demanded from the youngest of his six sisters.

  “I’m pretty sure he’s got men watching her.” Piper’s voice was clogged with fear and tears. “I don’t understand it. I thought he wanted to kill me.”

  “Dammit, go to the police, right this fucking minute,” he commanded.

  “I can’t. Delmar Arnold is still sheriff.” Somehow, she managed to get herself under control.

  Drake closed his eyes in disbelief. She was right, Delmar was as dirty as they came. Piper was also correct not to involve any of their sisters. If he was watching Trenda, there was no telling which of the others he was watching, and they would just end up hurt, or worse.

  “Where are you?”

  “Remember the old campgrounds where you took us those couple of times?” she asked. He remembered.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m at the communal showers.”

  “How’d you get to the campgrounds?” he asked. He didn’t think his sixteen-year-old sister had a car.

  “I hitched.”

  Drake felt his head start to pound. His left fist was clenched so tightly he thought he might shatter the bones in his hand. But he couldn’t yell at Piper, she was too close to the edge. Still, the idea of pretty little Piper hitchhiking scared the piss out of him. “Stay put. I’ll be there later today.”

  “They told you to never come back. He wants to kill you more than he wants to kill me. Then there’s the sheriff. I don’t want you hurt. I was thinking I could hitchhike to the airport and you could-”

  “I’ll be there today.” His tone brooked no argument. Drake thought about February in the Smoky Mountains and knew it would be colder than a witch’s tit. “Are you going to be all right until I get there?”

  “My coat was in my backpack, and I took it before I went out the window. The trucker gave me a blanket.”

  Fuck, a trucker? She hitchhiked with a trucker?!

  “Where are you calling from?”

  “I’m using the pay phone and my pre-paid calling card.”

  “Baby, can you stay close to the showers, and just hunker down? It’ll be safe there. I don’t want you near the woods, okay?”

  “Drake, I don’t want you to come, it’s not safe for you.”

  Drake laughed. “Honey, I think I can handle it. The real reason I’ve stayed away is because that’s what Mom wanted, not because of some backwoods sheriff and what some judge threatened twelve years ago. Just stay safe. I’ll be there before you know it.”

  “How will you recognize me?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Hey, we just SKYPED at Christmas, plus I have your picture in my wallet. It’s you after your play in September. You were Rebecca in Our Town.”

  He heard her hiccup.

  “Really? How’d you get it?”

  “Trenda sent it to me.” How could she even doubt it? “Really. She’d be in trouble if she didn’t. I’ll be there in two shakes, Baby Girl. I love you.”

  “I love you too.” The tears in her voice about broke his heart. “My minutes are running out. I gotta go.” The phone went dead.

  Drake stared at his phone. Holy hell, he was actually going back to Jasper Creek. He’d just turned eighteen the last time he was there. He started to dial his teammate Clint but stopped. The last thing he wanted to do was get his buddies involved in the shitstorm he was heading into, especially now that they had their women to consider. Nope, he wouldn’t risk them. Not when it was his father who was at the heart of this mess.

  Then there was Delmar to consider, and his dad’s prison buddies, all of whom would be gunning for him. No this was a family thing, and as much as his Navy SEAL teammates might be family, well, they didn’t need to be dragged down into this special kind of hell. Nope, it was reserved for blood kin.

  ***

  Drake could handle tired. He could handle pissed. It was scared that got to him. And the only thing that ever got him scared was when people he loved were in danger, it was like his knees turned to water. It wasn’t until he had them firmly behind him so he could protect them, that he felt solid. Then there was always hell to pay.

  It took everything he had not to shove the people in front of him out of his way so he could get off the plane quicker at the McGhee Tyson Airport. He needed to get to the rental car place and on the road. It was already getting dark, and he knew it would be freezing outside. The Smoky Mountains in Tennessee was a vastly different climate to the one he had gotten used to in Southern California. He couldn’t give a shit about himself, it was Piper he was worried about.

  Drake had to go to baggage claim because he had checked a small bag that included his pistol and a couple of other items that might come in handy. He picked up his suitcase from the carousel then headed to the rental car counter.

  “I’m sorry, Sir, but we don’t have your reservation on file,” the pompous young man said with a bit of a sneer. “I can try to get you a car for tomorrow. Right now everything is booked.”

  At last, somebody to take his anger out on. “I have the confirmation e-mail here in my phone, Son.” Drake gestured to his phone on the counter.

  “I don’t know what to tell you. That confirmation number isn’t pulling up as valid.”

  Drake looked over at the other agency lines, and they were long. Two counters had signs up that said there were no rental cars available. He’d had enough of this happy horseshit. He looked at the kid’s nametag.

  “Roger, you have three options. You find me a rental car now. You get your manager who will find me a rental car now. Or you give me the keys to your car. I really don’t give a damn which of those options you choose. Do you understand what an executive complaint is? Do you know what will happen when I call your corporate headquarters and say that Roger, of the McGhee Tyson Airport ExecuCar Rental Car Agency, failed to get an active member of the military his rental car when he had a valid confirmation number?”

  Drake really wanted to pound the little shit into sand, but that wouldn’t get him the car he needed. He watched with a little bit of disappointment as the tiny asshat turned gray and his fingers flew over the keyboard. The pompous jerk finally looked up with a forehead shiny with perspiration.

  “I found you something. We didn’t actually have a car in the class that was on your confirmation, but we have an SUV. It’s a higher price.”

  Drake raised his eyebrow.

  “Of course, there won’t be any additional charge,” Roger said quickly. Drake handed over his license and credit card. “Will you need a map?” Roger questioned.

  “No.”

  Roger quit asking questions and processed the paperwork.

  Soon Drake was on Hwy 321 toward Jasper Creek, and he was dismayed with what he found. Before Christmas, he’d watched the news of the fires that destroyed acre after acre of the treasured countryside, but to be there and driving through it months later was another thing entirely. It hurt to see the burnt-out shells of businesses beside the road.

  As he drove past Floyd’s gas station a little past Gatlinburg, he saw the out of business sign on the husk of the small store where his mom used to buy cigarettes. Drake remembered using his very first fake ID there to try to buy beer and being thrown out. He wondered whether Floyd hadn’t had insurance, or if he had just given up.

  Drake wanted to drive faster, but he knew that speed traps were as abundant as Elvis sightings. He didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize getting to Piper as soon as possible.

  Which means quit turning your head, Avery!

  But Drake couldn’t help noticing Pearl’s Diner. The building was a burned down mess, but the iconic sign with a winking fifty’s waitress holding a tray with a burger, had been refurbished and was good as new. The building had a sign that said that it would reopen in the spring. He remembered his mom taking him, Trenda and Evie there once. It had been a real treat. He and his sisters had shared a root beer float and French fries.

  Finally, he saw the highway turnoff to Jasper Creek. He continued past it towards the campgrounds. He’d googled it when he’d been in Denver making his connecting flight. He couldn’t remember the name of the campgrounds, and he hadn’t thought to ask Piper when he’d had her on the phone. All he really remembered is that it had a creek and a puppet stage. When he had looked up the campgrounds near his old hometown, he had eventually hit on a name he remembered, Camp Smoky. Not necessarily the right image for those who wanted their children to not take up smoking, but it made sense in the Smoky Mountains. As he drove, continuing to watch for Camp Smoky, it began to sink in that after twelve years he was finally home. It was surreal.

  There it was over on the left. He waited for traffic, then pulled in. He was surprised to see a few cars besides his own and three RV’s. Now, all he had to do was find Piper. Drake got out of the car as if he were on a mission. He pulled a blanket of anonymity around himself. He and his teammates had learned how to walk around almost unnoticed by changing how they moved, which at six foot six inches tall, and two hundred and sixty pounds, Drake sorely needed.

  He watched as a father and son carried a cooler, while the mom and sisters smiled and followed behind them on the way to their car. Drake was used to seeing that type of scenario play out in California, but it seemed odd to have it happening at the campground. Not in the dead of winter. He kept moving and surveilling, knowing that just because Piper thought she’d gotten away, didn’t mean that she hadn’t been tracked down.

  At last, he got to the communal area that contained the restrooms and showers. There were some picnic tables as well. He scanned the area and didn’t see her. She could be in the women’s restroom. He took another lap around the perimeter, so it didn’t look like he was loitering outside the ladies’ room. A small figure came out of the concrete structure. She had the raven black hair of all the Avery’s, it was twisted into a braid that swung down the middle of her back.

  Drake hated to see her moving so tentatively. She peered around the campgrounds looking for any sort of threat. She was doing a shit job of it because her eyes rolled right over him and kept on looking. He started towards her, and then she shifted her glance back at him. A huge grin split her face, she dropped her backpack and started running towards him.

  “Drake!” In a nanosecond, his arms were filled with a small sprite of a girl. At sixteen he’d been almost as tall as he was now, but she hardly hit the middle of his chest.

  “I thought you were in high school? I didn’t realize you were still in junior high, Piper. Damn girl. Tinkerbell is bigger than you are.”

  “Drake?” her voice wobbled. Big brown Avery eyes looked up at him, and he was about ready to kick his ass to the moon and back.

  “Oh, baby sister, you’re beautiful. I’ve been so worried about you. You’re just a might on the short side, and the idea of you being so tiny and hitchhiking is making my head want to explode. You’re a gorgeous young woman.” He watched as the tears started to dry up, and he relaxed. “You need to have your butt spanked for pulling such shit.”

  “Darn it all, you’re as bad as Trenda said you were.” Piper tried to wiggle out of his embrace, but he wouldn’t let her. “She said that having you for a big brother made it so she was a virgin until she was twenty-three.”

  “Hell, Piper, I left when she was sixteen!”

  “Exactly, all the boys were still scared that you would come back and beat the shit out of them if they did her wrong. She had to leave town to get the deed done.” Piper poked a finger into the middle of his chest. The little digit kind of hurt.

  “I hope all the males in Jasper Creek knew better than to mess with my little sisters.”

  P iper turned her head away. “The pixie dust eventually wore off.”

  This time when she pushed to get out of his arms, Drake let her down. “Piper, is there somebody I need to kill?”

  “No, it isn’t me. I’m still in junior high, remember?” she attempted to tease. Suddenly, he was looking into the brown eyes of the five-year-old girl that he had left. Shit, she had been such a vivacious little girl...until that night.

  “Drake, don’t think about it.” She put her hand to his chest.

  “Piper, it’s the reason I’m here. It’s the reason I had to leave in the first place.” He took the hand that was touching his chest in both of his and stepped back. He gently pulled her arm straight. “Is your arm giving you pain?”

  She looked down at the ground to avoid his gaze.

  “Piper?”

  He knew the break had been bad and that they had done surgeries on it. Trenda kept him up to date on everything.

  “It’s fine.”

  He tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes.

  “Tell me.”

  “It hurts a little today, it’s just the cold.”

  “That fucking bastard.” Even as he said the words, he smoothed the flyaway strands of black silk back from her flushed face. “Come on, let’s get you out of the cold.” Drake really wanted to pick her up and cuddle her, but something told him if he did, she’d be uncomfortable, so he tucked her in close under his arm, and ushered her toward his rental car.

  “Wait, I need my backpack.” She tugged at his arm.

  They went where she had left it, then made their way to his vehicle.

  “I still can’t believe you’re actually here,” she said as he bundled her into the passenger seat. He put her backpack in the backseat and tugged the seatbelt around her slight frame and blanket. It had a musty smell to it, but at least it had kept her warm, and for that, he would be forever grateful to the trucker.

  “You better believe I’m here,” he said as he closed the door. He rounded the car, still looking around the campground to see if anyone was watching them. Satisfied that they weren’t being observed, he got into the driver’s seat, started the car and blasted the heat.