Married to the SEAL (HERO Force Book 4) Read online

  Married to the SEAL

  HERO Force book four

  Amy Gamet

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Logan’s having an affair with the woman in charge of HERO Force’s future

  1

  The only thing Mason Petrovich liked better than setting a bomb had been fucking the president’s daughter. And that had been setting a bomb, too, if you thought about it. A political one.

  Except she took nine months to detonate.

  She gave birth already, but they were keeping the explosion under wraps as best they could. He chuckled. You couldn’t keep explosions under wraps for long.

  He smiled, looking forward to the culmination of his work. He spliced the ignition wires, twisting in the detonator. They were attacking the president from all sides, and Petrovich couldn’t wait to see the flames.

  Voices approached in the distance, echoing off the bridge surface, and he froze, his eyes darting from the unfinished circuit to his planned escape route — a large bush some hundred yards off the walkway. He was deep enough in shadow that he couldn’t be seen, but he had only moments to finish his work and escape before the people walking toward him reached him and the clearly exposed bomb.

  It was a race, and he liked races.

  Damn, he loved this shit.

  He finished the wiring and started the timer on its countdown. “Let’s see you hide this one, Vasile.”

  He turned and jogged quickly to the safety of the dark shrubbery, only stopping to turn back when he reached relative safety.

  From his vantage point, he could clearly see the presidential mansion illuminated in the distance. Grace was there. Grace and his child.

  Bomb number two.

  It was time for him to show them he knew they were there. Time to leverage the power that had taken so long to create.

  He pulled out his cell phone. “The bridge is all set. I’m going up on the hill next.”

  The man’s voice on the other end was firm. “We talked about this. We wait until after the bridge.”

  “It’s my kid, and I want to do it now.” He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket. He pulled out his weapon, the black metal gleaming in the last light of dusk.

  Damn, it was good to be back.

  The Swiss Alps were beautiful, but nothing to compare to this.

  2

  President Vasile walked to his study window and looked out over the city, unseeing.

  Evil had been in his house.

  It had walked through the door and into the bedrooms of those he loved most.

  He’d spent the whole night awake, like a ghost of himself, ambling from room to room as if he could stop it from happening again.

  He could see the note in his mind’s eye as clearly as when he held it in his hands.

  BASTARD. DROP OUT.

  He knew who was responsible without knowing the perpetrator. Victor Trane would stop at nothing to win the presidential election, even threatening the family of his opponent.

  You could drop out.

  You don’t have to do this.

  But he did have to do it. Someone had to keep Trane from power, or the citizens of the country he loved would be the ones to suffer.

  Lightning flashed and the view from his window came into focus. It was raining, and people scurried along crowded sidewalks rushing to work or perhaps home after a long day.

  He imagined they were hardworking people, their families warm and just a touch shy of financially stable. He knew what that was like. They deserved the best he could do for them. They needed a president who could turn things around.

  He frowned. He’d been that man for twenty-six years, taking his country from a fledgling baby to the industrious teenager it was now. Six months ago he was certain he was still that man.

  His chest tightened painfully and he reached in his pocket, withdrawing a metal pill vial and putting one of the tiny pills under his tongue.

  You won’t do anyone any good if you’re dead. Not Grace, not Nico, not the people of this country.

  Nobody.

  His eyes caught on his reflection in the glass, and he felt as if he were staring at his own mortality. The time he had left on this earth was limited. He knew that. He needed to save his people from Trane before the reaper came and ended his own days.

  “Please,” he whispered, staring at himself. “Just a few months more.”

  The ticking of the clock on the wall became louder, its sound almost comically pronounced. He let his eyes close.

  The pain began to subside, and he sighed with some relief. Too bad the pain of his opponent’s offenses would not be so easily diminished.

  Someone knocked on the door of his office before pushing it open wide. Only Grace would do that. He stood up straighter as he turned to face her, the babe bundled tightly in her arms surprising him yet again. Would he never get used to seeing his daughter with a child?

  Her brows pinched together in the panicked look she inherited from her mother. “Have you found out who did it?” she asked.

  He would do anything to protect her, but this time he was powerless to do so. “No.”

  “What about the surveillance tapes from the security gate?”

  “They’re missing.”

  Her eyes opened wide. “The guards were in on it.”

  “Yes.”

  “You need to fire them.”

  “I already have.”

  She began to pace. “Nico isn’t safe here. I’ll take him back to Switzerland with me—”

  “Then there will be no one to protect you.”

  “No one is protecting us here!”

  “I have a plan to change that.”

  “Your men can’t be trusted. Those tapes disappearing proves it.”

  “This isn’t one of my men.” It had pained him to bring in an outsider, but he knew it was necessary. “He’s American. A Navy SEAL. He arrives tomorrow afternoon.”

  “How did you get him here so quickly?”

  He lifted his chin. “I made this plan before the intruder got into Nico’s room. I hired him to be your husband until the election is through.”

  She rounded on him, her nostrils flaring. “You did what?”

  “You’ve created quite a mess. A baby out of wedlock is still scandalous here.”

  “No, Father. It isn’t. Only in your mind.” She gestured to the tall windows and the people beyond. “No one out there cares whether or not I have a ring on my finger.”

  He shook his head. “They care more than you think.”

  “Well then, I guess they’ll just have to accept it.”r />
  “You know as well as I do, they will do no such thing. The election will be a close race, closer than any before in our history. When the people find out you have a bastard, many will vote for Trane instead.”

  Her gaze was steely. “Don’t call him that.”

  “That’s what they’re going to call him. That’s why the intruder chose that word. To show us that he knows about Nico and the effect he will have on the campaign.”

  “The campaign! That’s all you care about. When is it going to be enough for you? How many years must you lead this country?”

  “If Trane is elected, he will back Russia’s bid to take over the country once more. My sources say he’s already accepted their deal. He has a majority stake in Parliament, and two of those who disagreed with him have died tragic, unexpected deaths.”

  He could see the impact of his words registering on her features. She knew what that would mean for the citizens. She had a fine political mind, could have been a politician herself if she had the inclination.

  “We have to stop him…”

  “Yes, Grace. We have to stop him from obtaining absolute power. We have to stop him from winning this election.”

  “And you think Nico is going to make that more difficult.”

  “Nico is going to make that impossible. You’ve spent too much time abroad. Conservativism is alive and well here. I had the pollsters add a question to last week’s phone survey. Sixty-eight percent of those over fifty would not vote for a candidate whose immediate family had children out of wedlock. They consider it to be a sign of moral weakness.”

  He gestured for her to sit down, noting the high color in her cheeks and how she hesitated before settling in the chair. It was as if they were separated by a thick brick wall, and it struck him they had built it together, piece by piece, since Lenore died.

  That wall would not be coming down today.

  “You will marry the American. He will keep you and the baby safe and provide you with the husband I need you to have.” He glanced at the baby in her arms. “Do we have a deal?”

  He watched her face. She was a smart woman who understood her actions had consequences outside of herself.

  She would do the right thing, he was nearly sure of it. Only one thing could stand in the way. “Unless you’d rather marry the real father?”

  Her head snapped up.

  What he wouldn’t give to find out who that was.

  “We have a deal,” she said.

  3

  Marry the father of her child?

  She would’ve jumped at the chance to marry her baby’s father, would have fallen over her own feet in her haste to the altar, but she didn’t know where he was or even if he was alive.

  Grace instinctively pulled the baby more tightly to her chest, the pressure on her overly full breasts making her aware she needed to nurse. As if on cue, Nico stirred in her arms, searching for her nipple with his mouth.

  She didn’t want to nurse the baby here in front of her father. The thought made her feel so alone. The last few days had been difficult.

  No, the last few weeks.

  In the days since Nico’s birth, she had missed her mother more than she would have thought possible. Every time she had a question about how to do something, how to handle a rash or her son’s nighttime fussiness, she longed for her mother’s sound advice and warm sense of humor.

  But her mother wasn’t here, hadn’t been here in more than a dozen years, and it hurt to no end that her sweet son would never know his grandmother.

  Her hands clutched at her son’s little body. She never knew until he was born just how much she could love another person, the purity and intensity of a mother’s love. She would do anything for this child, to protect him or make him happy. Anything at all.

  She narrowed her eyes. “And this man you hired, he is willing to pretend to be my husband? Or did you fail to mention that little tidbit?”

  “Technically, he wouldn’t be pretending. We would need the marriage to be legally binding in case the media suspects anything. You will get a divorce after the election is over.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “That’s three months from now.”

  “Yes. Three months of inconvenience for you to give those people out there a better life.”

  She laughed without humor. “Inconvenience. Marrying someone I don’t even know is an inconvenience.”

  What does it matter now, anyway?

  Her heart was already broken, her hopes for the future shattered. Nico’s father would never be part of her life again.

  “Getting married now won’t change the fact I wasn’t married when he was born.”

  “A minor matter of the date. I’ll take care of it.”

  She nodded and stood. “Does he have a name?”

  “Matteo Cruz.”

  “He must be a real winner if he’s willing to marry a stranger for a paycheck.”

  “Or else he’s willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good, just like you are.”

  A pounding on the study door made her jump, and her eyes met her father’s, seeing the matching concern there.

  “Come in,” said her father.

  His security advisor walked in. “There’s been an explosion on the pedestrian bridge downtown. It’s collapsed, sir.”

  “Any casualties?”

  The man’s face was gaunt, haunted. “There appear to be hundreds.”

  4

  Matteo had been following the news out of the Republic of Lutsia closely. The election was hotly contested, a tight race between the long-term incumbent, Anton Vasile, and his opponent, Victor Trane. Each was laying the blame for the terrorist attack at his opponent’s feet.

  When Matteo got in this car at the airport, he’d been surprised to find Vasile’s security advisor, General Talia, waiting inside—ostensibly to brief him on the leader’s security concerns for his daughter. But it was clear to Matteo the other man was really here to assess him.

  “We have no definitive evidence on who blew up the pedestrian bridge,” said the advisor.

  “I saw the coverage. It was horrible.”

  “Yes. One hundred forty-five people gone in the blink of an eye, with twenty-two still unaccounted for.”

  “Have any terror groups taken responsibility?”

  The older man fingered the brim of his hat in his lap. “Only one. A group claiming to be in support of Vasile.”

  “They’re trying to make you look bad.”

  “Yes.”

  “Or they are telling the truth.”

  “Are you insinuating President Vasile would plan a deliberate attack on his own people?”

  “Someone did.”

  “Trane’s team is the one that did this. They are attempting to stir up unrest among the citizens as a way to show Vasile is incompetent.”

  “Is he?”

  “How dare you suggest such a thing?”

  “He’s a legend, and one of the most influential leaders of this century. But he’s also old. You know as well as I do there is open speculation about his health.”

  “From the opposition, yes. But not from within his own camp.”

  “You resent them bringing in an outsider.”

  “Yes.”

  Matteo was failing the security advisor’s test, and he knew it. The other man’s disdain permeated the car like a bad smell.

  “Your only responsibility is to protect the president’s daughter. You would be wise to keep your political ideations to yourself.”

  “Why does she need protecting?”

  “That’s not important.”

  Matteo leaned forward in his seat. “I need to be in the loop. I need to know what you know.”

  “These matters are of the highest security clearance.”

  “And I’ve been brought in by the highest-ranking security official in this country, who’s trusting me with his daughter. Don’t you think that warrants some consideration on your part?”

  The men face
d off. After a beat, the security advisor looked down at his hat. “Someone broke into the presidential mansion. They gained access to Grace’s son’s room and left a threatening note.”

  “What did it say?”

  “Bastard.”

  “You’ve kept the birth out of the news?”

  “Completely.”

  “Someone knows. How did they compromise the existing security?”

  “We don’t know. Anyone who could have been responsible for the breach has been let go.”

  “Which means you have all new people working there. That’s dangerous in and of itself. Who’s the father?”

  “Grace has chosen to keep that information to herself. We can only speculate. Before leaving for Switzerland, she was known to have been dating Mason Petrovich. On the surface he is an upstanding businessman, but our intelligence agency believes he works for Ten Komanda.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It loosely translates to shadow team. They’re a covert organization. Little is known about them, except they work for the highest bidder doing the unimaginable. We believe they are responsible for the explosion that brought on the pedestrian bridge collapse, but we can’t prove it.”

  “You said you didn’t know who did it.”

  “I have been working for the first family my entire career. I’ve watched Grace grow up from a baby herself.” He took a deep breath. “You were right when you said you needed full disclosure to take care of the presidential family. I have decided to give it to you.”

  “Why?”

  The slightest shine on the other man’s eyes told Matteo there was real emotion there. He knew General Talia had a long history with the Vasile family. Clearly they were close.

  “Because I can’t save them myself,” said Talia.

  “Is Grace aware of Petrovich’s associations?”

  “No one is privy to Grace’s mind except Grace herself.”

  Matteo looked out the window and tapped his fingers on his knee, his eyes scanning the lush grounds of the Vasile mansion as his mind worked to frame the situation.

  He was a kid from the projects, and he’d only seen places like this on TV. Now he was marrying the president of Lutsia’s daughter, even though it would be a marriage in name only.