mum.” He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a blue velvet box.
He opened it and Anna’s breath stopped. “Oh, God,” she exhaled with a whoosh of air. “It’s gorgeous. Family ring?”
“My grandmother’s sixtieth anniversary ring from my grandfather.”
“Oh, that family story is just so beautiful. Sixty years of marriage. Wow.”
He took it out of the box and slipped it on her finger just as his phone rang, followed almost immediately by Anna’s.
“I love you so much, Dodger.”
He popped up from the floor and helped her up. “I love you, Anna Banana. This Artful Dodger is thoroughly caught by trouble itself.” Grabbing his phone, he said, “We’re being spun up.”
She looked at hers. “So am I. Guess who your new temporary liaison is?”
“Brilliant,” he murmured, stroking the hair from her forehead with his thumb. He gazed at her, a heart-stopping smile in his eyes. Then he lowered his head and kissed her. “We are dynamite together.”
She cupped his face in her hands, feeling such a rush of love for him that it made it hard to breathe. “I love you, Oliver,” she whispered. “So, so much.”
All their ghosts and insecurities had been laid to rest. Anna knew that what she and Dodger had would last a lifetime. There was enough love between them for two lifetimes.
She narrowed her eyes. “Let’s go get our people back.” Then she grabbed his arm and said, “Don’t test my patience, Dodger, or I’ll be a swan on your ass so fast, you won’t have time to cover it, let alone run.”
He chuckled all the way to the shower.
He was strapped into a dental chair, dehydrated, starved, beaten, but not out of the fight. SEALS were never out of the fight. They had tried everything to break him, make him renounce the US. The brotherhood.
He was resolute that whatever they threw at him, he would endure it. His chin rested on his chest, but when he heard the door open, he raised his head. He’d only caught glimpses of Chry, but he knew she was still alive. He held onto that hope.
His tormentors had been a rotation of different people and the whole time, Kelly…no that wasn’t her name now…Zasha. That’s right, Zasha. She wasn’t even an American. Zasha had watched.
He was so cold, shivering with it. An Asian man came in and stopped before a small cloth-draped table. He lifted the cloth and 2-Stroke saw the syringes. He closed his eyes. Drugs.
SERE—survival, evasion, resistance, and escape—hadn’t prepared him for this, but he had never stopped trying to figure out how to escape. The guys would be looking for them. They would come for them. He was certain. They just had to hold out.
Sweat ran into his eyes. His body stank with old sweat, mingling with the new. The white room was ice-cold, and he was sweating and freezing and shaking and wanting so badly to go away, somewhere else in his mind, like he’d done when his dad was beating him.
He heard the tray rattle and his eyes popped open. The man was walking toward him with the syringe. Zasha entered the room, stood there watching.
When he looked at her, she smiled.
The man wrapped a plastic hose around his upper arm, tapping the veins in the crook of his elbow. The needle went in and he felt the first sting of the liquid. Then he felt the pain.
He opened his mouth on a scream.
Minutes or hours later, as the pain still racked his body, he heard her footsteps, slow and measured. She was of course still watching.
She came around to the front of the chair. He was gasping and clenching his jaw against the pain.
“All you have to do is say that you renounce the United States and the SEAL brotherhood and all this stops.”
He looked her straight in the eyes and said, “I will never renounce the US or my brothers. You can do whatever you want to me, but I’ll die first.”
Her eyes narrowed and her head whipped toward the Asian man. “You said this would work.”
He shrugged. “Some minds are just too strong. His is one of them.”
She grabbed his chin and sneered, “I will break you.”
He said nothing as she screamed her disappointment, frustration, and anger in his face.
He smirked. “Who’s breaking who?” he asked.
She slapped him across the face. “We’ll see.” She turned to the Asian man. “Start over. Double the dose.”
“But—”
“Do it,” she said.
2-Stroke dug deep for courage and resolve as the needle went in again.
He clenched his jaw as a scream worked up his throat.
Don’t miss the next book in the SEAL Team Alpha series where Neo “2-Stroke” Teller and CIA officer Chrysanthe Steele fight for not only their very lives, but for their sanity. As they work together, old memories, old bonds, and a love that had never diminished bolsters them in their time of need. Trapped and imprisoned in this vicious and merciless place, they can only rely on each other before either of them breaks at the enemy’s hands.
Glossary
BO - Basic Orientation (BUD/S)
BUD/S - Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL training
Comm - The equipment that SEALs use to communicate with each other in the field.
CO - Commanding Officer
CTT - Combat Training Tank
DEVGRU - The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), formerly SEAL Team Six
DoD - Department of Defense
DOR - Drop on Request
DZ - Drop zone, the targeted area for parachutists.
HALO - High altitude, low opening jump from an aircraft.
HVT - High value target
IBS - Inflatable Boat, Small
IED - Improvised Explosive Device
Klicks - Shortened word for kilometers.
LRRP - Long-range reconnaissance patrol.
LT - Nickname for lieutenant.
LZ - Landing Zone where aircraft can land.
Merc - Mercenary - guns for hire.
MWD - Military Working Dog
MRE - Meals, Ready-to-Eat, portable in pouches and packed with calories, these packaged meals are used in the field.
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCIS - Naval Criminal Investigative Service
NWU - Navy Working Uniform
OIC - Officer in Charge
REACT - Regional Enforcement Action Capabilities Team
RIB - Rigid Inflatable Boat
RPG - Rocket Propelled Grenade
R&R - Rest and Relaxation
Tango -Hostile combatants.
SERE -Stands for survival, evasion, resistance, escape. The principles of avoiding the enemy in the field.
Six - Military speak for watching a man’s back.
SO - Special Operator
SPIES - Special Patrol Insertion & Extraction System
UDT - Underwater Demolitions Team
About the Author
Zoe Dawson lives in North Carolina, one of the friendliest states in the US. She discovered romance in her teens and has been spinning stories in her head ever since. Her heroes are sexy males with a disregard for danger and whether reluctant, gung-ho, or caught up in the action, show their hearts of gold.
Her imagination runs wild with romances from sensual to scorching including romantic comedy, new adult, romantic suspense, small town, and urban fantasy. Look below to explore the many avenues to her writing. She believes it’s all about the happily ever afters and always will.
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Thanks for reading and joining me on this wonderful journey!