Page 59 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

Jaw set, Nick nodded. “And Clay told me he and Tasha have been getting choppered in. If we have to, we’ll commandeer that bird for the search.”

Stefan liked how Nick thought. And liked even more how their search and rescue plan was coming together.

Hell, why wait for sunset. They should go now before it got dark.

He was ready to go tell Jonas they were taking things into their own hands when noise caught his attention.

The footsteps, accompanied by laughing and chatter got louder. He turned toward the sound in time to see three females come into view—Shelly and Nick and Zach’s wives.

He spotted Shelly, the tallest and the only blonde in the group, easily enough.

Zach and Nick ran to their wives and were greeted with hugs and kisses.

Stefan saw Shelly’s gaze sweep the beach. When her eyes landed on him, she lifted a hand in a wave. He lifted a hand in response. It was hard, but he held back and waited for Shelly to come to him.

“Hi,” he said when she finally arrived.

“Hi.” She smiled. “I made it.”

“I see. How’d that happen?” He tipped a chin toward the two women she’d appeared with.

“Gabby and Dani were already working together. I happened to meet up with them at one of the check points so I joined them.”

“And what if you three got back last? Who’d lose?” he asked.

“That wasn’t going to happen. We saw Backstabbing Barbie heading to the final checkpoint while we were heading back.” Shelly’s gaze dropped away before she brought it back to meet his. “We might have kind of told her to go the wrong direction.”

His eyes widened.

“That sounds horrible. I know.” She shook her head.

He smiled. “She’d have done the same to you.”

“Well, I didn’t tell you this, but during the run for the first challenge, when we were on the final leg, she pushed me out of her way to pass me on the path. Hard enough I fell into the brush.”

“You could have been hurt.” Stefan’s eyes narrowed. “And I helped her through the rip tides during the swim.”

“I know. It’s okay. You did the right thing helping her in the water. And I was fine on the run. I caught myself on my hands. I only got scraped up a little. But I am going to credit Karma for putting us at the right place at the right time on the course today to intercept her.” She smiled.

Noise announced the return of another contestant.

They all turned in time to see Model Walk Barbie emerge from the path, holding her side as if she’d run the last part of the course.

She’d earned her name for always strutting as if she was in front of a camera, which to be fair on this show she was. But she wasn’t walking like she was on a runway now as she stumbled to a stop.

Stefan grinned at Shelly. “That’s all of them,exceptfor one.”

More noise was punctuated by a female voice cursing up a storm.

He turned and saw Backstabbing Barbie having a hissy fit when she counted the females on the beach and realized she was the last to return.

Gabby and Dani each shot Shelly a thumbs up and a grin.

He watched Shelly visibly work to control her smile. He didn’t bother controlling his.

After learning what she’d done to Shelly on the run, for once he was going to enjoy the elimination ceremony. Immensely.

ChapterTwenty-Three

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