Page 2 of SEAL's Tempest
Quinn elbowed him in the side and grunted his name to get his attention. At this rate, Quinn would have him making sugar cookies for the next month, and the Atlantic Ocean was fucking cold. It was one of the many things about BUD/S that had sucked. Josh would never forget the first time the instructors had them roll around on the sandy beach after they completed the underwater breath testing. When they were fully covered with sand they were ordered to remain still for hours, freezing cold, and covered in salt water with sand in every orifice like freaking sugar cookies.
“Yesterday, JSOC was notified of a situation in Marikistan. A group of UN aid workers have been stranded in Zdolnihiv.” Knox shared a map of Marikistan from his laptop to the whiteboard behind him.
“They were last seen here.” Knox placed his index finger on the board to indicate the northwestern part of the country. “The UN sent two teams in to assess the conditions for the civilians and offer medical aid if possible. One team went to Resura while the other team went north to Zdolnihiv. No one has heard from them in two days, although it’s three by now.”
“Did they send anyone to check on the group in Zdolnihiv?” Quinn asked.
Josh wondered the same thing. Their team was used to missions like this, but usually the US was involved in the conflict. They had no dogs in this show.
“They made an attempt, but the fighting has escalated, and heavy shelling blocked off the route so they couldn’t get through.”
Knox hit a couple of keys on the laptop and brought up satellite images of the area. “This was their last verified location from two days ago.” He indicated a medium-sized city about twenty klicks from the mountainous area that extended across the Lithuanian border.
And after another click on the laptop the image changed to one of total destruction. “And these are the most recent satellite images from about six hours ago.”
Luca “Lucky” Rossi, the Red Falcon sniper, whistled long and low and shook his head.
Josh didn’t even try to hide his disbelief at the utter destruction displayed on the white board. Seriously? Two days ago, the city was standing, now it was leveled. How had they gotten their hands on the equipment necessary to do that damage? Over the years, he’d seen plenty of death and destruction but never understood the point in leveling cities during the conflicts. It left the area uninhabitable no matter who ended up victorious. They’d be walking into a city of death and destruction. How could they possibly only rescue the UN aid workers and leave the rest of the injured behind?
He glanced at Quinn. His clenched teeth and the tick in his jaw indicated his fury. None of them would come home from this mission unscathed even if it was considered mission success.
As Knox continued the briefing, Josh glanced at Tempest several times, trying to figure out what was going on inside her head. Her focus was on the screen and following Knox’s pointer, giving him a chance to study her openly.
She was beautiful—in civies or her uniform—even if he hated to admit it. And if he was being completely honest with himself, there had been nothing sexier than her in the tight pair of jeans she’d worn the day he met her. The smile she’d flashed him when she opened the door had melted his insides. But that changed the instant he’d told her he was in the Navy. From that moment, he’d become evil incarnate.
As Knox brought up the current satellite images, a flash of something that looked like fear cross her features, erasing her usual resting bitchface.. But it disappeared as quickly. Perhaps he’d imagined it.
It made no sense anyway. Did she have ties to the city or the country? Marikistan was a tiny country located between Poland and Lithuania with access to the Baltic Sea. Their civil war broke out decades ago. But it wasn’t until the last few years that the world discovered the heinous atrocities being inflicted on the people of both sides of the conflict.
Marikistan exported computer chips and mother boards, but for the last few years the “internal conflict,” as the government called it, had caused supply chain issues for electronics manufacturers worldwide.
Tempest turned toward Josh. As her icy blue gaze swept over him, she didn’t try to hide her disdain.
Josh sighed with frustration. If he could just figure out what the hell he’d done to elicit her contempt, maybe they could fix this. The couple of times he’d tried to talk to her, she’d slammed both the proverbial door and an actual door in his face.
Quinn elbowed Josh again and grunted—his boss’s way of telling him to pay attention.
Josh dipped his chin in acknowledgement and pulled his focus back to the briefing. Distraction could get someone killed. Since Tempest was part of the mission, she was a distraction that wasn’t going away. Now he had to figure out how to keep his focus, so he could work, instead of thinking about wringing her neck or worse, having her beneath him screaming his name, before they stepped onto the transport.
ChapterTwo
Tempest couldn’t believe her luck—or the lack of it—when she slipped into the back of the briefing room. Of course, Josh would be part ofthisSEAL team. What did her friend’s call things like this? Oh yeah, Murphy’s Law.
Prakeiktas.No,damn. Even after years of living in America, whenever she swore it came out in Marikistani.
It really shouldn’t have been a surprise that he was there. He’d told her he was in the Navy, which had been bad enough, but then she’d found out he was a SEAL a few days later.
Her CTI co-workers had taken her to the Ready Room Bar to welcome her to the office. By the time she’d finished her first vodka martini, she’d known all about the dating habits the legendary Heartbreaker Hartman. Her cubemate Morgan had actually saidlegendary.
It churned up all the memories she’d tried to bury from her relationship with her asshole ex, Bill, aka Sinbad. She’d been a fool to believe he was a SEAL especially with that call sign. It had taken months to find out that Bill was a wannabe who’d rung the bell in BUD/S on the first day and ended up assigned to procurement. It was because of him she’d asked for the reassignment to Virginia for a new start.
Tempest’s feelings toward Josh were irrational. No matter how hard she tried, the snarky comments slipped out when she was around him. His call sign alone would have triggered her, but hearing her new friends call him “legendary” was the icing on the cake.
She’d just have to say as far from his as possible. Josh Hartman was one hundred percent her type, from his clean-cut, superhero looks, to the muscles she’d seen from her kitchen window when he worked in his yard. Yeah, she needed to keep him at arm’s length for her own piece of mind.
A low whistle pulled Tempest out of her reverie, and she returned her focus to the briefing.
Knox pulled up the latest satellite images of Zdolnihiv and Tempest thanked God she was sitting down. Bile rose in her throat, and it took everything she had not to puke on the table. Not the impression she wanted to make on her first assignment since being transferred from Coronado.
