Page 4 of Lacey's Fight

What was she thinking?

The storm was a bad one, and unless you were the world’s best swimmer there was no way you were making it out of the water alive.

Not that he thought he was the world’s best swimmer, but Ben was a SEAL, and even he would think twice about throwing himself into the rolling waves that were big enough to crush a boat, let alone a single human.

Suicide.

Whatever she’d been thinking was irrelevant. She had pretty much just committed suicide.

“One overboard,” he announced to his team.

“Two.”

He turned to face whoever had shouted the word and found a pretty raven-haired beauty with green eyes. Since he had been briefed on who they were coming to assist he recognized the woman as Pearl Masters. One of the four members of Prey Security’s Artemis team she had recently married a former Delta, former DEA Agent, turned owner of the Imogen Masters’ Hope Center. The charity helped women and children who had been trafficked recover in a safe environment as they learned to readjust to life again. While formed only within the last couple of months, the center had already provided care, support, and counseling to dozens of victims.

“Two?” he asked, watching the woman warily. While she was no threat to him—she was already married—he made it a point to always keep his distance from the opposite sex. Victims he could handle, they also weren’t a threat to him, but any other woman had the potential to destroy him.

“There were three women we were sent in to rescue, we only have two. All six targets are secured,” Pearl informed him.

So, the woman had jumped in after one of the victims Artemis Team had been sent in to rescue.

Perfect.

Suicidal he could work with, but a woman with a hero complex who was overly confident in her abilities would be much harder to cope with when he went in after them.

“She shouldn’t have done that,” Ben said flatly.

Pearl bristled. “What should she have done then? Just let the poor girl drown? She’s only nineteen, and she’s just been through hell. What would you have done?”

The question was pointless as well as rhetorical.

He was a SEAL. This woman while highly trained, was much smaller than him, which meant she had less strength and less stamina. She would also succumb to the cold much quicker than he would have.

“You knew we were minutes away, she should have waited,” Ben said.

Even through the power of the storm, the woman’s anger resonated clearly. Pearl turned her back on him and stalked away. He was sure she was muttering insults, but he cared little for what people thought about him.

This was a job.

A mission.

In and out.

Assist Artemis Team in transporting their three victims and six prisoners back to shore. It was pure luck his team had been close by, close enough to be of use once the storm blew in. Luckier now that there were two women in need of rescuing.

Since seconds counted in these conditions, Ben took a moment to watch the waves and the direction the water was flowing so he knew where the two women were likely to have been dragged off. He then dived into the raging ocean.

Storms were his passion for the last few years. He studied them and followed them when he got a chance. Not a storm chaser per se, he was an enthusiast, and he felt the power of the thunderstorm flow through his body as he hit the water.

Between the waves, the wind, and the rain it was hard going, but he worked with the ocean instead of against it, and a minute or two later he spotted them up ahead.

Surprise hit him when he saw that the woman had somehow managed to reach the victim, had an arm around her, and was even towing her in the direction of the yacht.

Respect followed.

He’d made a mistake in underestimating her. Ben didn’t know which of the other three Artemis team members she was, but it was obvious she was a whole lot stronger and more capable than he had given her credit for.

With smooth strokes, he closed the distance between them. When he touched a hand on her shoulder the woman startled, looking up at him in shock for a second before her face broke into a grin he only caught because of a well-timed flash of lightning.

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