SEAL for Her Protection (SEALs of Coronado Book 1) (13 page)

She had to admit. He looked extremely satisfied.

“Every time you come back,” she reminded him softly. “And don’t you forget it.”

Chasen moved so fast she barely realized what he was doing until he swept her off the floor into his strong arms and carried her to the bedroom.

“I won’t forget,” he promised as he gently set her down on the bed. “Now it’s my turn to make sure you have a good reason to always be waiting for me when I get back.”

Hayley wasn’t foolish enough to suggest he didn’t need to give her any reasons to wait for him. She wasn’t stupid. If he wanted to return the pleasure she’d given him, she’d sure as heck was going to let him. But she didn’t need a reason to be waiting for him when he got back. She always would be.

Chapter Eight

H
ayley fidgeted on the overstuffed chair on the set of
San Diego Today
, trying to get comfortable and doing her best to ignore the video cameras around her. She couldn’t believe she’d wanted to be a news anchor. She didn’t know how they put up with the hot lights and the dozens of people standing offstage staring at them on a daily basis. Why the heck had she agreed to this interview anyway?

Because her bosses at the paper thought it would be good publicity. Maybe so, but she’d much rather be back home with Chasen. If she had her way, she’d stay in that danged bed with him forever.

She took a deep breath and scanned the area beyond the lights and the cameras, looking for him. Since the interview was one of those pre-recorded things, there wasn’t an audience, only a lot of cameras and production people. She’d never realized it took so many people to film a news show.

Chasen was standing off to the side, a Styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand, and he smiled at her when she caught his eye. She returned his smile, immediately relaxing. She was pretty sure it wasn’t his ideal way to spend a Saturday morning, but she was glad he’d come with her.

Brad had been supposed to come too, but he’d texted earlier and said he wouldn’t be able to make it. Hopefully because he was with Jillian. Hayley couldn’t think of anything better than two of her best friends getting together. She could just imagine how cool it would be if those two got married.

The anchor of the
San Diego Today
stepped up onto the dais, interrupting her thoughts. Older than Hayley by a few years, Michelle Anderson was a petite, dark-haired woman with a friendly smile and an impressive résumé.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to the interview. I can’t tell you how thrilled we are to have you on the show,” Michelle said as she sat down in the matching chair.

Hayley smiled. “My pleasure.”

“Let’s get started.” Michelle nodded at the crew then waited for the producer to give her a cue before giving the camera her patented, I’m-friendly-and-approachable-but-serious look. “Welcome back to
San Diego Today
. I’m here with Hayley Garner, the journalist with the
San Diego Daily News
who was kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria last month and held captive for three days.”

Michelle started with the easy questions, like how Hayley had become a journalist, how she’d become an international correspondent, and ultimately how she’d ended up in Nigeria. Hayley almost laughed. This was all the same stuff she and Chasen had talked about on their first date. It was like he’d been helping her get ready for the interview. It wasn’t long before Michelle got to the more pointed questions, though.

“How did you get kidnapped?” Michelle asked. “I thought the Nigerian government was supposed to be providing some kind of security.”

Hayley sighed. Well, time to earn her money. “I was grabbed because I was stupid,” she conceded. “Truthfully, the Nigerian Army had provided a detail to watch over us, but I chafed at the rules they put in place to keep us safe. The way I saw it at the time, I was in Maiduguri to get a story and that wasn’t going to happen with me sitting in a heavily fortified area inside army held territory. So I left the city on my own, and it almost got me killed.”

“The terrorists shoved your vehicle off the road, right?” Michelle asked. “That must have been terrifying.”

“The part I remember about it, yeah.” Hayley realized she could talk better if she ignored the cameras and focused on Michelle. “But I passed out at some point during the crash, so I don’t remember much.”

“I bet you remember your rescue, don’t you?” Michelle added with a smile. “It’s not every day a girl gets saved by a Team of SEALs. Can you tell us about that?”

“Not very much,” Hayley said. “It was pitch black when they got me out of there and they asked me afterward to keep the details of my rescue to myself for security reasons. Suffice to say, the men who rescued me are truly amazing and heroic. I can’t thank them enough.”

Michelle nodded. “The rumors are the SEAL Team that rescued you is from right here at Coronado. Do you think there’s any chance you’ll ever get to thank your rescuers in person?”

Hayley shot a quick glance in Chasen’s direction. As much as she would have liked to give Chasen and his team all the credit right here on TV, she knew she couldn’t. While her close friends like Jillian and Brad—and her parents at some point, of course—might know who Chasen was, no one else ever would. That would make his job all but impossible.

When she turned back to Michelle, it was to see the news anchor eyeing Chasen thoughtfully. Could Michelle tell Chasen was a SEAL simply by looking at him? Not only was he tall and muscular, but he did have an air about him that said he knew his way around a dangerous situation.

“Unfortunately, I’ll probably never get to thank those men personally,” Hayley said before Michelle could ask one way or the other. “But I think they all know exactly how I feel about them.”

She didn’t dare risk looking at Chasen again as she said those words. After last night, he definitely knew how she felt about him.

The questions continued for a little while, bouncing back and forth between personal interest tidbits and little attempts to get her to physically describe the man or men who had rescued her. Hayley played along and made it interesting, but she wasn’t going to blow any covers or give up any operational secrets.

But then Michelle changed tack and the next question came from a completely new direction.

“You were held for three days, and I can only imagine it was horrible. Can you describe the room where you were kept captive?”

Hayley didn’t have to think too much about it. The dark place she’d been held was etched into her subconscious forever.

“It was a gray concrete block room…”

She stopped as her heart started pounding and her throat constricted so much it felt like she couldn’t breathe. All at once, she was right back in that damn room, the men kicking the door of her cell and laughing at her, looking at her and telling her what they were going to do to her before she they killed her.

Suddenly, the heat coming off the set lights seemed overwhelming and she was sure every camera there was closing in on her, crushing her. She knew she was having a panic attack and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it. She wanted to run, but her body was frozen.

Michelle frowned, her eyes clouding with concern. “Hayley? Are you okay?”

Hayley opened her mouth to say she was, but nothing came out.

Crap
. She was losing it on camera for all the world to see.

Michelle glanced at the cameramen and the producer, making a quick subtle gesture with her hand.

When the lights dimmed, she leaned forward and put her hand on Hayley’s knee. “It’s okay. We need to put in the commercial breaks, anyway. We can take five and pick back up whenever you’re ready. I’m going to talk to my producer. I’ll be right back.”

Hayley nodded as the other woman stood. “Thanks,” she said, finally able to get her voice working.

She reached for the glass of water on the table in front of her as Chasen came over. She prayed he didn’t see how badly her hand was shaking. He crouched beside her chair, resting one arm on his jean-clad thigh.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, completely full of crap.

But the funny this was, now that Chasen was there, she really
was
okay. She couldn’t believe the strength his mere presence gave her. It was crazy.

“Did that question pull you back to the room I got you out of?” he asked softly.

She wanted to tell him that wasn’t it at all, but she couldn’t lie to him. So she simply nodded and drank more water.

“Maybe you should forget about doing the rest of the interview,” he suggested.

She shook her head. “I can’t. If I bail, word will get back to the paper. My editor and everyone else will know I have a problem. I don’t want that. I can get through this. Really.”

He regarded her thoughtfully. “Okay. Then here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to stand right beside the main cameraman the whole time, okay? Right where you can see me when you look up. If you start to feel something coming on, focus on me and being in my arms. Concentrate on how warm and safe you feel when you’re there. If you have to skip a question, that’s fine. Think about me until you get it back together.”

Hayley nodded and gave him a smile. If they weren’t in a room full of people right then, she’d kiss him.

Chasen’s suggestion helped and Hayley was able to make it through the rest of the interview by focusing on him whenever she started to feel herself panic. Before they left, Michelle reminded her when the interview would air on television, saying she’d also sent a copy of it to Hayley’s email. Hayley thanked her, even though she didn’t think she’d watch it anytime soon. She’d relived the kidnapping enough, thank you very much.

“Want to grab a late lunch?” Chasen asked as they walked to his truck. “I know this really great Mexican place not far from here.”

She let out a big breath. “That would be great. I’d love to.”

Chasen hadn’t been kidding when he said the restaurant wasn’t far. It only took five minutes to get there. He hadn’t been lying about the food being great, either. The enchiladas she ordered were some of the best she’d ever tasted. And the corner booth in the back with its soft lighting was perfect for an intimate lunch date. Best of all, the damn walls weren’t gray.

“Was that the first time you’ve had flashbacks since getting home?” Chasen asked.

She stopped eating and sipped her iced tea. “I’ve had them before, but nothing that bad. Normally I get antsy being in a room with gray walls or have to get off an elevator a few floors early because it feels too small. Sometimes I even feel like someone is watching me when I’m in my apartment. But I’ve never had a full on panic attack with hyperventilating, the sweats, and the crazy heartbeat before.”

As they ate, Hayley ended up telling Chasen crap she hadn’t dreamed of telling anyone, even Jillian. She admitted she’d spent those three days hating the locked door, hating the way the men would laugh at her and kick her. She confessed she’d been terrified of being tortured and raped, and of the terrorists filming it while they beheaded her.

“That would have destroyed my family,” she said quietly, tears of relief coming to her eyes at how good it felt to finally be telling someone this.

That’s when it really hit her she needed help, needed a professional to talk to. She simply didn’t know how to go about it. It wasn’t something she could talk about with her primary care provider and it wasn’t something she felt she could find on the Internet. She admitted as much to Chasen.

“You know, our Teams here at Coronado have access to all kinds of hotlines and psychologists on call the guys can talk to after missions,” he said. “Almost all of them are civilians associated with local clinics. I can get you some names.”

She nodded, touched he’d do something like that for her. “That would be a big help. Thanks.”

They were almost done with their meal when Hayley realized Chasen hadn’t said anything in about the last ten minutes. She looked up from her plate and was surprised to see him staring off into the distance, a faraway look in his eyes.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

He smiled and shook his head. “No. There’s something I’ve been wanted to talk to you about all morning, but I’m a little worried about going there. I don’t want to upset you.”

That sounded more than a little scary. She wondered if he intended to tell her he was about to head out on a long-term deployment or something.

“Well, neither of us will know if it will upset me until you say it,” she said, bracing herself.

“You’re right.” He cleared his throat. “Thing is, I have a lot of leave time saved up, mostly because I never get a chance to take it and wouldn’t really have anywhere to go even if I did. But I’ve been thinking maybe we could go away somewhere together. There’s this B&B in San Francisco Kurt and Melissa went to a while back. It’s supposed to be really nice. I’d like to take you there.”

Able to breathe again, she nodded eagerly. “I’d love to go with you. When?”

He looked pretty relieved, too. “I’ll talk to my boss and the admin section and figure it out then let you know as soon as I can. But we could probably do it soon.”

Hayley was absolutely thrilled at the idea of running off with him somewhere. “I can’t wait. Why were you worried about asking me?”

He sipped his tea then went through the effort of adding more sweetener to it, clearly stalling. “I didn’t want to make you think I was trying move too fast. We’ve just started seeing each other. I didn’t want to scare you away.”

She laughed. “Well, that’s not going to happen. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve kind of fallen for you. It’s been a long time since I’ve even bothered getting involved with a guy because my job makes it difficult. But with you, it seems to work, and I realize I’m not scared to give us a shot. So stop worrying about whether we’re moving too fast. Whatever speed we move at is good for me.”