Page 6 of SEAL's Tempest
“I’m going to need all my badassedness to find you and get through this mission.”
As her mug slowly filled with coffee from the Keurig, she glanced down at her hands.Südas!The ring twirling was out of hand.Showing her nerves, no matter the reason, would not instill confidence in her abilities with the team. As a female she had to be stronger, tougher, and definitely not emotional.
With a sigh, she grabbed her mug and pulled out a chair to sit at the table when her cell phone vibrated in her purse.
Checking the caller ID, a sliver of worry slid down her spine.
She took a deep breath before she answered. “Hi,Tètis.Everything okay?”
Tempest hoped her father hadn’t heard bad news about Grace and the UN aid workers.
Pavel had the highest top-secret clearance that she knew of and even had extra security installed in their home and the door to his home office. He’d never shared what he did for the US Government—not even that he worked for them until Tempest joined the Navy. Pavel never strayed from the cover story he’d used since they arrived in Virginia about fifteen years ago.
“Katyneli, I can hear the tension in your voice. You need to work on that,” Pavel Miller said.
The reprimand didn’t surprise her, her father was always harder on her than Grace. Tempest was the oldest and therefore had the responsibility to take over the family. He’d often treated her like the son he wished he had. Though she never doubted his love for her, she struggled to live up to his expectations.
“I’m fine, but please stop calling me ‘kitty.’ How am I supposed to be taken seriously when my father calls me that?”
“You are right; I will do better. I’m concerned about Grace, and I was not thinking.” Pavel gave a deep sigh.
The fact he admitted his worries filled Tempest with dread. He never showed weakness, especially to his daughters. He was the pillar of strength and never let that persona slip not even when he found his wife raped and tortured.
“Do you have news? Or I guess I should have said any updates that you are cleared to share with me?” Tempest asked, as she forced the memories back into the lockbox in her brain, and they needed to stay there until she returned from this mission.
“No, unfortunately I do not. I’m calling because I heard that you’re going to Marikistan. I know you can’t confirm or deny this—but please, bring your sister back home to us,katyneli,”Pavel pleaded.
Tempest swallowed past the lump in her throat. Her father never asked for anything “I don’t have anything to say, but I hope you know that I’ll never let you down,Tètis,no matter what.”
It was the most she could acknowledge about her mission without breaking her oath to the Navy.
“Of course, I know this. I would not expect anything less,” Pavel said.
The burden of those words weighed heavily on Tempest. “You raised me to go after what I want no matter the obstacles in my path; that will never change. But I do need to get some work done before tomorrow. Could you let me know if you hear any updates about Grace and her UN group?”
The pressure to accomplish both parts of this mission just amplified by about million. It would have been better if her dad didn’t know about her participation. If this went sideways, she didn’t know how she’d face him ever again.
“Of course,ka—errTempy. Don’t work too hard. Talk to you soon,” Pavel said. He disconnected the call before Tempest had a chance to say goodbye.
Typical.
The Marikistani people were not known for being touchy-feely. Tempest could count on one hand the number of times her father had told them he loved them or hugged them. But she and Grace had learned that most Americans were huggers and had even developed the habit with close friends.
A sip of her coffee made her grimace. Too cool for her to drink, she shoved it in the microwave, then took the hot mug back to the kitchen table.
She had a lot of details to memorize and not a lot of time to get it done. But with her go bag packed and stashed in the closet in the master bedroom, there was one less thing she needed to have to prepare. She’d give it a cursory check when she changed into her civvies for their transport flight. They wouldn’t be wearing uniforms for this mission unless they acquired whatever the UN aid workers were wearing.
Tempest pulled the laptop out of her backpack and signed into the computer and engaged the VPN—virtual private network—to access the top-secret mission files. After a long drink of coffee, she set the alarm on her watch for two and a half hours and buried herself in information.
ChapterFour
After making sure the coffee maker was turned off and rinsed out, Josh took one last look around his home to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Then he grabbed his go bag and set his alarm before stepping out the front door. It was about five minutes earlier than he’d asked Tempest to be ready, but he wanted to water the plants in front of his house since he wasn’t sure how long they’d be out of country. The mission shouldn’t take more than a few days, but things rarely went as planned. Complications were almost guaranteed.
“Trying to sneak away without me?” Tempest called from the end of his driveway as she approached.
“What?” Josh turned and caught her smirk. This was more like the Tempest he was used to, but at least she hadn’t called him an asshole this time. “No, of course not. What kind of a truce would that be?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
