Page 51 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

Gone was the blue of a clear day. Today they were enrobed by shades of gray. The colors of a storm.

The ocean and the similarly colored sky melded together, making the line of the horizon nearly indiscernible.

White-capped waves crashed onto the rocks and the sand. Loud. Angry. Frightening.

She was a good swimmer, he reminded himself. Then called bull shit on that statement. He didn’t know that. Not for sure.

A summer swim team during middle school. That meant nothing. Was she nuts? Were the producers?

With a renewed sense of panic and doom he turned to survey those around him. He found the SEALs she’d told him were the stars of other network shows standing nearby.

“Keep going. I’ll be right back.”

She didn’t look happy at his announcement but he took the few steps across the sand to join the other SEALs anyway.

“I don’t like this,” he spat out when he arrived.

The younger one, Nick, shook his head. “Join the club.”

The blonde one, Zach, breathed in deeply. “Gabby will be okay. She’s a strong swimmer.”

“Well, I’ll bet you not all of them are.” Stefan swept an arm at the group of women standing by, waiting for the horn to blow. “And it doesn’t matter. There’s a storm coming in.”

Nick glanced up. “Yeah. Maybe. It does look like it. Feels like it too.”

“No maybe about it. They moved the swim to the morning instead of later today because of a storm.”

Zach’s gaze finally left Gabby and shifted to Stefan. “This is a fact?”

“Yes!” Stefan confirmed. “One of the assistants told me.”

“Shit.” Nick scowled and looked to his friend. “What do we do?”

Finally, they were listening to him. Thank God. He might not have any pull with this production company, but their show stars should.

Zach’s features hardened. “We grab Joanne and demand they postpone this.”

Nick shook his head. “I haven’t seen her today. I don’t think she’s here yet. It’s early. She usually gets here later in the day on the first boat.”

“Then we grab Clay. He’ll throw his weight around and make them cancel.” As Zach spun toward the group of production people, the horn blew.

ChapterTwenty

At the sound of the starting horn, Stefan pivoted toward the shore.

He saw Shelly was lined up along the water’s edge amid the other six swimmers. He hoped she had strapped her fins on tightly enough as she turned and backed into the water as a few of the other swimmers flopped their way there forward.

Stefan breathed out a curse. Giving up on the hope they’d cancel the event, he pivoted to plan B—making sure Shelly didn’t die.

He barely registered as the cold water hit his bare feet. He took another step forward and the force of a wave hitting his calves nearly cost him his balance.

It was impossible to stand where the waves broke. He retreated back to the shore and turned back to locate Shelly in the water.

She’d made it past the break. All the swimmers had. It was hard but he spotted her in the group, her stroke staggered at first as she fought against the waves until she got past them.

The first buoy was too far, in his opinion. He knew that one mile out the depth was nearly four hundred feet and he’d guess the first buoy was a good five hundred feet from shore.

The swimmers would still be in deep water out that far. And they’d remain in deep water while swimming between the first and the second buoy. That portion of the swim made up the bulk of the mile. Then they’d turned back to shore and their starting point, forming a triangle pattern when they were done.

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