Wed to a SEAL (Hot SEALs) (Volume 8) (21 page)
Read Wed to a SEAL (Hot SEALs) (Volume 8) Online
Authors: Cat Johnson
As a SEAL, Jon Rudnick dodged copper and lead without flinching, but just the thought of one tiny gold band around his ring finger sends him into a cold sweat. Love is one thing, but marriage is another. He’s not sure he’s ready for that just yet . . . until a near miss serves as a wake-up call he can’t ignore.
Now he’s ready, but his girlfriend Ali has gone from rushing him toward the altar, to running in the opposite direction at full speed.
Hell if Jon can figure out why, but he knows one thing. All’s fair in love and war and he’s not going to rest until he makes Ali his again. This time for good.
CHAPTER 1 EXCERPT
Dusk had already fallen when Jon parked his truck in the lot.
The early spring air was overly warm for this time of year, but having been to almost every hellhole on the planet, he’d take a balmy evening in Virginia any day.
He pushed through the scarred wooden door, exchanging the evening shadows outside for the perpetually dim interior of the dive bar.
It was a good time and a good place for the meet, though it had taken a bit of fancy talking on his part to get away from Ali just before dinner. But as things came to a head, this meet with his contact couldn’t wait.
When the man had sent the signal to set up the rendezvous, Jon had sucked it up and lied to his now live-in girlfriend.
What the hell else could he do?
He hadn’t known what he’d been about to get involved in when he and Ali had discussed her moving in with him a couple of months ago.
Hindsight alway was twenty-twenty.
So he’d made a bullshit excuse about why he had to leave the house on a night she’d come home from work and cooked him a homemade meal . . . and he’d seen the resulting look in her eyes. Part anger. Part disappointment. Then she’d delivered the blow. A single word in a tone so dismissive it was like a dull knife carving a hole in his gut.
“Fine.”
What was it about that word—
fine
—that got to him?
That single measured syllable seemed so much worse than if she’d yelled or cussed at him.
Hell, anything would have been better, because it was clear from the glare and her body language that things were not fine at all.
Spotting his contact in the back, half hidden in a dark corner lit only by a dusty neon beer sign, Jon made his way over.
The man watched him walk, not that anyone else there noticed or cared. That’s why they’d set this place for the meet. It always had a mix of drunks who couldn’t care less what went on around them.
It was definitely not a place Jon would have come to for fun . . . or unarmed.
“Rudnick.” The man barely raised his eyes before he lifted his beer bottle and downed a swallow.
“Hassan.” Jon nodded as he scanned past the few patrons in the establishment. “There a waitress?” he asked.
Hassan snorted out a laugh. “What do you think?”
“Yeah. I figured. Another one?”
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.” Hassan tipped his head as Jon turned toward the bar.
No surprise his contact was downing the beer. No one would want to be in this place sober, that’s for sure.
In fact, Jon might have to leave his shoes outside the door of the condo when he got home. The way each step stuck to the floor, God only knew what was on it.
“How’s it going?” The bartender looked like he doubled as a bouncer, judging by the thickness of his neck and the scar slicing his upper lip.
“Good. Two longnecks, please.”
“You got it.” The bartender opened the bottles and planted them on the dinged bar top.
Jon threw a bill on the counter and grabbed the two bottles. “Thanks. Keep the change.”
The man nodded his thanks and Jon headed back to the corner where they’d have privacy for their business. More than that, they’d avoid a conversation with the lone drunk seated on a barstool and talking back to the television hanging above the bar.
In Jon’s experience, there were good dive bars and bad ones. Arnold’s Tiki Bar, hidden away down the end of an alley in Waikiki, with its three dollar Longboards and five dollar Mai Tais was a good dive bar.
This shit hole—not so much. There was good reason he’d never been here and why he wouldn’t have to worry about seeing anyone he knew.
That served him well for their purposes tonight.
He set the bottles down with a plunk and pulled out a chair, eyeing it to make sure there was nothing disgusting on the seat that he could carry home with him on his pants.
No one knew he was here tonight. No one knew what he was involved in. Not his business partner Zane, not his friends, and not his girlfriend Ali—and it needed to stay that way.
Trey
Jack
Jimmy
Red Blooded (print compilation)
BB Dalton (bonus read)
Jared
Cole
Bobby
Smalltown Heat (print compilation)
A Few Good Men
A Prince Among Men
Bull
Matt
The Commander
USMC Military Romance Series
One Night with a Cowboy
Two Times as Hot
Three Weeks with a Bull Rider
Fish Out of Water (
He's the One
anthology)
Two for the Road (
In a Cowboy's Bed
anthology)
Midnight Ride
Midnight Wrangler
Midnight Heat
Maverick Ranch Series
Texas Two-Step Series
Texas Two-Step
Cowboy Shuffle
The Trilogy Collection
Sex, Lies & Wedding Cake
New Orleans
Private Lies
Gillian's Island
Bundles/Anthologies
Olympus
Standalone Titles
Game On (Kindle Worlds)
The Ex Files
Beneath the Surface
The Naughty Billionaire's Virgin Fiancée
Billionaire Bad Boys
ABOUT CAT JOHNSON
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WED TO A SEAL
Cat Johnson
Copyright © 2016 by CAT JOHNSON
All Rights Reserved
License Statement
This eBook is licennsed for your personal enjoymment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other pepople. Thank you for respectting the hard work of this author.