Page 64 of Under Pressure

“It’d be weird to actually hug your face.” Knox squeezed his belly. “Been eating more donuts I see.”

Sean swung an elbow back, but missed as Knox wiggled away while somehow managing to hold on to him at the same time.

The sound of giggling came from behind them. “Are you the Marines?”

“Navy,” Gray said with vinegar in his tone, then under his breath, “I’m going to kill Titan Green.”

Sean and Knox turned, Sean still clasped in Knox’s embrace—because Sean allowed it, not because he couldn’t fight his way out of the hold.

Two beautiful women walked by slowly. One of them waved, while the other eyed Gray with a doe-caught-in-the-headlights look. Wolfe gave the girl a smile and a two-finger salute. Gray stared at the ground mumbling.

She shrugged like it was no big deal to mistake a SEAL for a Marine. For the record, it was averybig deal. “Thank you for your service.”

Sean bent an arm at the elbow and waved. Knox moved to let him go, but Sean threw his arms up, locking Knox in place. “No, hold me a little longer.”

The women burst into laughter and hurried off as Knox fought off Sean’s grasp on his arms. Once the women were gone, Sean released him.

“Dude.” Knox signaled after the girls with a flat palm.

Sean smirked and shrugged. “You started it.”

“See if I ever try to comfort you again.”

Gray shook his head and stepped forward. “If you ever try to comfort me like that, I’ll ram you into the building and kick dirt on you as I walk away from your crumpled body.”

Wolfe grinned. “You might change your mind once he does. The man knows how to hug.”

Gray scrunched up his face in disgust.

“See!” Knox said, indignantly. “I’m amazing at hugs.”

Sean let out a much-needed chuckle—though it did nothing to ease the tightness in his chest caused by the only woman who’d ever broken his heart. The one who’d apparently come back to stomp the pieces into dust with her stupid, hot, Australian YouTube star.

He shook off those thoughts and focused on his friends. He doubted Wolfe had ever let Knox hug him. While Wolfe was the quietest of the group, he also had a surprisingly wicked sense of humor—one almost no one ever got to see. And on top of it, he was also really dry and made Ron Swanson and Wednesday Adams seem like the life of any party by comparison. The first time he’d cracked a joke, it’d left all twenty-three men in their unit speechless, which was too bad because it’d been one of the funniest things Sean had ever heard. He’d been in stitches later that night in his sleeping bag thinking about it. He’d known he and Wolfe would get along great after that. And they did. Strangely, to this day, he couldn’t remember the joke . . .

“Where’s Ryker?” Sean asked.

“Ryker stayed behind to help Grace get Nancy taken care of,” Gray said.

Not a surprise. Ryker was a married man now, with other responsibilities, and was a Palms’ employee—even if he was just the barber. Heck, if Sean’s dad and brothers hadn’t stayed behind to help Grandpa, he’d be at The Palms too. And while Ryker had impressed the importance of getting these jewels andother valuable items back to Isola, over and over and over again, he had more than one family to think about now, and his wife’s family was in immediate danger.

But Sean and the guys weren’t married and didn’t have wives and pets to look after—like Aaron had Sweetie. And Ryker and Grace or Aaron and Cocoa were bound to start having babies soon.

He and Blue would make beautiful babies.

Gah! Again, Sean tried not to think about Blue and the children they’d never have. The mission! The mission was his focus. And that meant taking care of the treasure of Isola de la Famiglia on Ryker’s behalf.

The guys finished getting the outside of Bob’s Underwater Salvage locked down and headed inside and past Sean’s office to the large workbench where they’d laid out all their maps and supplies.

“How urgent is the situation?” Wolfe asked at the table where Sean had laid out the map of the dive sight, and the computer connected to the big screen on the far wall. Within a moment, he had the video pulled up too.

“If this hurricane hits a stage 4, it could completely relocate theRey Del Mar,” he said. All the guys breathed deep as they started thinking through the implications. Sean spelled it out for them anyway. “It could be months, years, or never before we find it again. Or someone else could find it before us. If we’re going to get this treasure, we have to do it before the hurricane hits.”

Sean put on the video.

“Did you happen to see a way in while you were down there?” Gray asked, running a hand through his slightly-longer-than-military-required blond locks. They’d all grown their hair out a little, all except Knox who liked to keep his hair short and tight, though none had grown their hair out as long as Liam’s nearly shoulder length. They had spent so many years with atight military cut, having hair that was longer than an inch had become something of a novelty to them.

Sean shook his head. “What you saw in the video is what I saw.”

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