SEAL the Deal (17 page)

“About that.” Mick took a deep breath. “Can
we talk?” Mick shot a look over to Maeve and the nearby officer.

Maeve touched the ring-free officer
lightly on the arm and guided him into the next room. “I can’t tell you how
much I appreciate your thoroughness, Officer…” she began in her slightly
Southern drawl as she sent a wink to Lacey over her shoulder.

Lacey looked at Mick, the remnants of
anger in her eyes. “So why did you come here? Or are you just early for
Scrabble night?”

“I went to your office first. It was
closed, so I took a chance and came here. I couldn’t say this right over the
phone.” He took her hand. “I’m sorry, Lacey. You’d never take advantage of
someone you care so much about. And I was completely disrespectful coming to
your office and blowing up like that.”

At Lacey’s silence, Mick looked down at
their clasped hands, visibly struggling for the right words. “Your friendship—it
means more to me than I ever thought it would. Or could. I don’t know how to
explain it. I look forward to every moment I have with you.”

Suddenly, the stress of the day was
pouring down Lacey’s cheeks unchecked.

Mick swallowed a curse. “Oh, God, Lacey,
please don’t cry. I feel bad enough,” he said, putting his arm around her. “Look,
I’ve got real issues. I’m an asshole, actually.”

“We’ve all got issues.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have those great legs
to even things out,” he said, hoping to make her smile. “I think I’ve got—you
know—trust issues. God, I sound like Dr. Phil or Oprah or something. But
I’ve had a hard time trusting people lately. I’m always waiting for them to put
a knife in my back.”

“I don’t get it. Why?”

Mick let out an audible breath. “This last
mission I led with the SEALs. I can’t say much about it, but it was bloody. We
were under fire, made it to the extract point, but our transport left
prematurely because they were under fire. My CO was in the helo and ordered a
shift to a secondary extraction point even though he knew my team was on the
way.”

Lacey listened, bewildered by this glimpse
into his other life. Half of it she didn’t even understand—a litany of
acronyms and military jargon. But she felt the gravity of what he was
describing.

“He just left us,” he continued, “smack in
a valley stuck between two mountains with fire coming from both sides. Put my
guys in extreme danger. We had to fight our way to the other extraction point. We
made it out alive, but four of us were wounded. I took shrapnel in my shoulder
and one guy lost his leg to a mortar round. I had to carry him three miles
under heavy fire before we made it out.”

Stunned, Lacey sat in silence, imagining a
Mick she never knew existed. It was a world apart from sitting on Maeve’s back
porch playing Scrabble and drinking beer.

“I was pissed as hell. There was no reason
for him to have ordered the shift. When I demanded an explanation, he couldn’t
give me one. I told him what I thought of him to his face with the use of some
rather questionable language. Before I knew what hit me, he made a phone call
and my orders for San Diego were changed to the Naval Academy. Completely
stabbed me in the back.”

Cautiously, Lacey’s eyes met his. “Is it really
so bad to be sent here, Mick?”

“Career-wise, yeah, it’s a huge setback. I
am out of my community. It’s a dead end if I can’t work some miracle to turn it
around. And he knew it when he made the call. Since then, I’ve had a hard time
trusting anyone. Maybe I’m not such a great friend to have, Lacey. Guys like me
are good in a firefight. I’d never let you down. But in this world, I’m still
learning how to live with civilians.”

Lacey sighed, exhaustion draining from her
body. “Mick, about Edith’s house. I want you to know I didn’t recommend that
she sell it. In fact, I said the exact opposite.”

He held his hands up. “You don’t have to
tell me that. It’s not my business. You were right.”

“No, but there is something I need to tell
you.” The time to tell him the truth had come, and a knot formed in her stomach
at the thought.

“If it’s about your work, I don’t want to
hear it. You were right. You’re a real estate agent. You do what you have to do
to make a living. I have to trust your judgment. If Mrs. B decides to sell her
house, I hope you’re the person to list it, because I know that you’d make sure
she was treated right.”

 “But there is something you should
know. When I started out in this business, I really didn’t know too many local
people,” she began uneasily.

“Lacey, stop. Really. I of all people
should give you privacy where your business is concerned. Half of the things I
did in the SEALs I’ll never even be able to tell my children if I ever have
any.”

“But—”

“I have no right to expect that someone else’s
life is supposed to be an open book for me. Much less a friend. I hope that’s
what you still are, right? Friends?” He extended his hand.

Lacey smiled and shook it. “Friends.”

Grinning, he pulled her toward him and
lightly brushed a kiss to her cheek. He touched his forehead to hers. “Thank
God, because I’m still fully intending to get you naked one of these days.”

Lacey burst out laughing.

***

With the help of Mick and Jack, the three
women managed to get the house straightened up. Mick secured a piece of plywood
to the broken door and tried futilely to convince them to let him spend the
night on the couch near the door.

Taking an elongated sip of Merlot as she
stretched out on the couch, Lacey let the oakiness fill her senses. Now, with
Mick and Jack gone, Lacey couldn’t help the uneasiness welling up inside of
her. She savored the wine’s soothing effects, even if it only offered her a
false sense of calm. “I just don’t get it. Why would someone break into your
house just to mess it up? Is there someone who is mad at you?”

Kicking off her shoes, Maeve rested her
feet on the ottoman. A small fire in the fireplace crackled in front of her. “Phil
and I had to fire the receptionist a few months ago. But I can’t imagine it’s
her.”

“What about your ex-husband?”

Maeve’s eyes grew visibly cold. “Believe
me, if there was any reason to send the cops after him, I’d grab it. But he’s
very happy with his new life.”

Lacey regretted bringing it up. “Well, it
could be someone from any of our lives. Maybe the Sandovals aren’t happy with
the fixer-upper I found for them,” she said, hoping to lighten the tone.

Behind them, Bess’s voice was small and
hesitant. “I think I might have an idea who it was.”

Lacey sat up. “Bess, we thought you were
asleep.”

“I was for a while. But then I got
something in my head and I can’t go back to sleep. It’s about what you said—who
did this?”

“You think you know?” Maeve set her wine glass
down.

“I thought of one possibility.” Rubbing
her belly protectively, Bess sat next to Lacey. “You both have been great, you
know, about not prying about the father. But I need to tell you something.”

“Only if you want to, Bess.” Lacey took
her hand.

Bess took a deep breath, resolved. “In
college I dated a guy. He seemed great. Really too good for me, I thought. He
was smart and athletic. And I was, well, really pathetic then.”

“You’re not pathetic,” Maeve quickly
interrupted.

“No, I was. I look back on all this now,
and think ‘God, how did I let this happen?’” She shook her head. “One night he
had been drinking and he got mad at me about something. I don’t even remember
what, exactly. He hit me. Twice actually. That was the first time.”

Maeve drew a breath in sharply, her eyes
turning to daggers.

Lacey squeezed Bess’s hand. “Go on.”

“He was so apologetic the next day. He
swore it was the beer. And I really thought I loved him. I wanted to forgive
him. And he was great for about a month. But then it happened again. Much
worse. He hit me a couple times and kicked me in the stomach.” Bess shifted her
weight in the soft couch. “I look back now, and can’t believe I let there be
another time. But it wasn’t just when he hit me. It was his words. He always
made me question myself, manipulated me—I don’t know—into thinking
it was my own fault. He hated all my friends, so I distanced myself from them. By
the end, I really believed him about everything. I believed that I wasn’t good
enough for him. I believed that I had to answer to him for everything—even
things I hadn’t done. I was always so scared of doing the wrong thing.”

The birch logs popped in the fireplace and
Bess paused. “When I found out I was pregnant, something snapped in me. I
realized that even if I was the worthless person he had convinced me I was, I
would not live my life worrying about the day when his temper would turn on
this child. No one will ever strike this child.”

“You’re goddamn right about that,” Maeve
said through her teeth.

“So that’s why you told your parents you
were in Europe?” Lacey asked, the pieces finally falling into place. “You knew
he’d go to them first if he went looking for you.”

Bess nodded. “For the first time in my
life, I’m actually glad my parents cared so little that they believed me.”

“And the baby?” Maeve’s voice was so soft
that it didn’t even sound like her. “Have you given any thought to what you’ll
do with the baby when she’s born?”

“I thought about adoption for a while. But
I really want to keep her. And I think that if I can just stay in hiding for a
while, until the baby is born, maybe a bit after, then I can go on with my
life. I’ll let my parents think I got knocked up by some hot French guy I met
at a café in Paris or something.” She managed a half-hearted laugh.

Maeve shared a look with Lacey, who gave
her a slight nod back.

“We’ll get through this together, the three
of us,” Lacey said, now reaching her other hand over to Maeve so that they were
all three joined.

Maeve then leaned over and took Bess’
other hand so they formed a circle. “The four of us,” she corrected.

“So this is the guy?” Standing behind
Mick’s desk, Jack studied the photo Bess had provided.

“Yeah. They thought it would be good for
us to know the full story since we’re around the house so much. In case we see
the guy,” Mick explained, his voice hardening, “so we can kill the son-of-a-bitch.”
He stared at the photo, memorizing every line, every curve, and the smile he vowed
to wipe from the guy’s smug face.

“It doesn’t make sense, though.” Jack settled
behind his computer. “I don’t think he’s the one who broke in. Abusive boyfriends
don’t hunt down their ex-girlfriends just to throw around their clothes and
files and dump some boxes. If it was him, he’d be lurking in the bushes till
she got home, and then beat the crap out of her.”

The thought sent a chill down Mick’s spine.
He had become just as protective of Bess and the baby as Lacey and Maeve were.
“It’s one possibility and we shouldn’t overlook it.”

“Did they tell the police?”

“No. Bess is too afraid that if she
involved her ex’s name, he’d be notified. And there’s too good of a chance it
wasn’t him.”

“So she’s never going to tell him about
the baby?”

“Not if she can help it.”

Jack exhaled slowly.

As if reading his thoughts, Mick quickly
added, “He gave up the right to know he’s a dad the moment he beat his
girlfriend.”

“Agreed.” Jack nodded automatically.

Mick leaned forward in his chair. “He gave
up the right to live, as far as I’m concerned. I swear if anyone ever struck
Lacey, he’d never draw breath again.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “You mean, any
of them—Maeve or Bess, too—I’m sure.”

Mick shrugged, firing up his computer. “Of
course. Any of them.”

Jack leaned back in his chair looking smug.
“Man, you’ve got it bad.”

“What?”

“You’re in love with Lacey.”

Mick glanced up from his monitor. “In love
with her? I’m not even dating her. How could I be in love with her?”

“Are you kidding? Hell, it’s easier that
way.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with
your sisters, Jack. Those female hormones are rubbing off on you.”

“I’ll agree I have too much estrogen exposure.
But anyone can see it. You’ve got it bad.”

“Okay. You caught me. I want to fuck her
senseless, okay?” Mick tried to sound as vulgar as possible to restore the
balance of testosterone in the room.

“You want to do a lot more than that,”
Jack said grinning. “You’re in looooove.” He drew the last word out the way a
third grader might.

Mick glared, not amused. He was not in
love. “You watch too many chick flicks.” He snatched the photo of Bess’s ex and
taped it to the wall writing in all caps in a Sharpie: THE BAD GUY.

***

Pulling into Maeve’s driveway after a long
work day, Lacey ached to take off her heels and watch the sun set from the back
porch. She didn’t even notice the sound of the lawn mower as she stepped into
the house. Yet there were Maeve and Bess, all but drooling, perched at the
kitchen window gazing appreciatively into the backyard.