Page 23 of Rescued By the SEAL

“Right, Max.” I fold my arms defiantly across me. “If you aren’t going to let me out there, then what’s your plan?”

“I already know what I’m going to do.” Max sags with relief, as if he thinks I’m sitting back in the box and being a good girl. “I’ve no doubts who I’ll send out there. Troy and Clay, I want you to go to this location and to retrieve Heather Buchan.”

“Are you letting the officer know about this?” Troy asks warily. “Because he will make this worse.”

“You don’t need to worry about the officer for the moment,” Max reassures Troy. “You don’t need to worry about anything other than getting out there and rescuing Heather, okay? Do you understand me on that one? Because I want you gone now.”

As Troy and Clay make their way out of the building, I make the snap decision to follow them. I don’t need Max’s say so to follow where they’re going, and that way, I don’t even need to know the address. Max doesn’t have to put himself up for it.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Max grabs onto my arm as I try to move, only this time, I can’t just shake him off. “Landon, no.”

“Max, I know what you’re saying here,” I reply through gritted teeth. “And I get it. I understand that you’re only trying to do the right thing, but this for me is what I need to do. You’re right, I do have emotions in this. I do have an investment, and it is because I love Heather. There, I’ll lay it on the line.” I throw my hands in the air in frustration. “I’ll put it out there for you. I love her, and because of that, I need to get her back. I know that Troy and Clay are good, but I’m the only one who can save her.”

“But that isn’t what your job requires of you right now,” he warns me, a little irately, to be honest. “I need you here.”

“My job isn’t worth this. I’m sorry.” I shake my head sadly. “I never want to get out of this work because I love it, but sometimes, there are more important things in life, and this is one of them. This is what I need to do.”

Max and I lock eyes for a couple of moments, and finally, I can see him coming to an understanding. He knows that I’m not going to budge on this, so the best thing that he can do is support me. “Okay, fine. Here we go. Here is the address.”

“Really?” I take the paper from him, stunned to the core. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want to complicate things.”

“It’s already messy, Landon, and you know that. If you have to do this, then you go and do it. Just be safe. I would much rather you keep yourself safe in all of this, okay? And I also can’tpromise, just like I didn’t to Troy, that Officer Buchan won’t turn up.”

“I already know that. I’m sure he will.” I smile at Max gratefully. “Thank you, I won’t let you down here. I won’t.”

I’ve already let him down, I know that much, but for now, he’s allowing me to do what I need to do. If there is any beef between us later on, we can deal with it once this situation is over. That can take a backseat to the drama ahead.

I’m no longer worried about ending up with nothing because it hardly matters right now. I’m just glad that I have a chance to make this right again. No one in the whole world can possibly understand how frustrated I am and how much anger I have coursing through my veins because I was there in front of her and she was ripped from me. She was snatched away right in front of my eyes and I was powerless. There isn’t any feeling in the universe worse than that.

“I’m coming for you, Heather,” I whisper as I start driving at the speed of light. Much faster than Troy and Clay, I’m sure. They’ll be eager to save Heather too, but only because they’re good guys and it’s their job. But my need is so much more intense. My need is drowning in love and that means everything. “I’m coming and I won’t let you down. I refuse to.”

My cellphone has connected itself to the car via Bluetooth as it does automatically, which leaves me wondering what I can do next, what would be the best action for me. Well, I really know what I need to do. I’m no fool. Iknowwhat I need to do. I’m just putting it off. But I can’t anymore. I have to do the one thing that I’m absolutely terrified of. I need to call Mom.

I’ve put it off for long enough, I’ve given myself enough excuses. I can’t do it any longer.

I suck in a deep breath before I put in the call. My nerves zig-zag through me as I go, but luckily, it isn’t enough for me to get distracted from driving. I can keep on the road, focused on going forward, while the ringing sound bursts through the car. Eventually, the call connects and I speak to the relevant people, explaining the extenuating circumstances which allows me to connect with the woman I’ve avoided since I was a teenager. I know this won’t go well, like seeing my dad.

“Landon,” she barks through a thick and raspy voice, as if I’m still a teenager and I just walked through the door a little late. It hits me now that she never even fought for me when I walked away. She just let me go. Maybe she didn’t have much power over me because I was eighteen years old at the time and legally an adult, but she didn’t even try. “What the fuck is this about?”

She doesn’t even ask me about the last decade-plus. It’s almost like she doesn’t even care. Wow, was she always so heartless or has that come over time? Maybe the way that she and my father lived their lives has taken it out of her.

“Mom, I don’t know if anyone has told you about Dad yet,” I start softly, trying to be calm and considerate of her feelings, even if she isn’t exactly being great to me. This isn’t some tit for tat shit. It’s a real emotional upheaval.

“What has that silly fucker got himself into now?” she snaps with no clue. “Is he back spending time with that Sticks bastard? Because I have told him over and over again not to spend time with him because he isn’t as harmless as he looks.”

“No, Mom, this isn’t that.” I can’t really remember the names of anyone he mentioned now. “This is… well…” I try to take in a few breaths to calm myself down, but it isn’t really working. There’s no way to deal with this well. “He was shot.”

“He’s in the hospital? Oh, for fuck’s sake. Heknowsthat I can’t come and visit him while I’m stuck in this hellhole. He knows that I’m screwed at the moment because I can’t get out. No fucker will give me a chance at the moment. Are you with him?”

“Mom.” I need to be even more direct. “Mom, he was shot in the head by some guys he was involved with. He’s dead.”

There is a thick silence on the other end of the line. A silence so heavy it gets to me a little bit. I can almost feel her grief pouring through the phone and it hurts. I’m feeling another wave of my own. But I won’t let it beat me. Not now.

“What do you mean, he’s dead?” she finally whispers. “Who killed him? What guys was he involved with?”

“I don’t know, Mom. I haven’t exactly been around enough to know what’s going on. However, I was hoping that you might have an idea so I can get him some justice. Clearly, he didn’t deserve to be killed in that brutal way.”

She doesn’t give me anything, no answers, just an intense howl of grief that comes from so deep within her it’s guttural, it’s animalistic and primal. My mother is letting loose because her pain is too much. She can’t handle this. I feel awful now that I didn’t think to go and see her in person with this information. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be any good to her even if I were with her. We don’t have that sort of bond anymore, we don’t understand one another. I’m sure my mother wouldn’t evenwant to see me. It’s my father that she always loved, and now he’s gone. Whether they were toxic or not, there was love.

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