Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Duke

Lloyd Benson, the man who’d ruined my future years ago, hadn’t recognized me. Perhaps not surprising. I’d been the poor kid, the camp counselor from the wrong family, back then. Why would he remember someone so lowly?

I looked down at Serena. As soon as her father mentioned Harvey Fox, she’d trembled and wobbled, about to faint. I grabbed her before she could fall and continued to hold her.

Talk of Harvey Fox, whoever the fuck he was, had knocked the wind out of my strong, confident woman. And a threat to her was unfuckingacceptable. “Nobody is getting to her,” I practically yelled.

My declaration seemed to have stunned Serena’s father. She clung to me for a few more seconds but then regained her balance and composure and straightened. “Duke, I’m okay.”

I nodded and let her go, save a protective arm around her waist. She was mine to protect, regardless of where the threat originated, and everybody needed to know that.

“Munchkin, you remember Lucas from before,” Benson continued.

What was with him calling her Munchkin like she was a seven-year-old? He had to realize she found it demeaning.

Surprisingly, Lucas nodded at Serena.

That floored me. He’d kept from me—from all of us—that they knew each other. And Serena hadn’t told me either.

“Dad, stop.” Her words were firm.

Her arrogant father ignored her. “Listen to me, Serena. I want Lucas to put a team on you to keep you safe. Just in case.”

“I’ll keep her safe.” Had what I said before not registered with her father? I tightened my arm around her.

Ignoring me, Lloyd Benson repeated himself. “I’m hiring Lucas to put a team on you.” The man lacked the ability to deal with any challenge to his plans.

Serena shivered. Her steadfast rule was that her father not learn about the accident, about the psycho Spinelli hunting her, about her hiring us.

This conversation threatened to uncover all of that, so I improvised. “She hired us last week.” It was the perfect way to hide the current assignment, by attributing it to whatever threat Harvey Fox presented.

Lucas gave me his version of a knowing smile.

I took the leap, hoping Lucas would cover for me. “When we learned of the parole?—”

“I informed Serena,” he filled in smoothly. “And she hired us.”

Benson’s eye twitched. “Why didn’t you mention this?”

Lucas snarled. “I don’t discuss clients with anybody, including family members.” Lucas wouldn’t intentionally antagonize a man as powerful as Lloyd Benson, but it didn’t pay to question Lucas’s ethics. He wouldn’t back down against any opponent.

To defuse the tension, I added, “So you don’t need to worry. We’re on the case.” We had successfully spun a tale to keep Serena’s secret safe.

Benson looked at me like I’d sprouted a second head. “Who is we ?”

“Duke works for me,” Lucas explained. “He’s heading her team. He’s also my brother.”

Her father looked at me and then Serena. “I thought he was your boyfriend.”

It was decision time. “I’m that too.” I pulled her close. “For real,” I said for both Serena and Lucas’s benefit.

“You’re dating…” Benson pointed at me. “The brother of the man who?—”

“Enough, Dad,” she said forcefully. “Yes. No question about it.”

“But I don’t know anything about him,” Benson complained. “I don’t think?—”

“It’s not your decision to make,” I interrupted, stepping forward. He needed to back off. “I’m dating your daughter. Get used to it.”

Benson’s eyes narrowed. He was clearly not used to being contradicted.

Lucas moved forward. “I’ll vouch for my brother’s character. That should be sufficient.”

Benson turned to Lucas. “And you’re okay with this, er, dating arrangement?”

“I married a woman I was protecting.”

We all knew the story, which was why I knew Lucas would support me dating Serena.

“Is he any good?” Benson asked, not even bothering with my name.

I stiffened. The question was common, but it usually came with a heap more tact.

“Duke is a former SEAL, and there’s nobody better.”

“A SEAL?” Benson still had questions written all over his face. “Really?”

“Yes, sir,” I answered. “DEVGRU, you probably know them as?—”

“Yeah, SEAL Team Six.” He straightened a little. “I was in the Navy myself, a Seabee.”

“A proud branch of the Navy, sir.”

Benson’s grin said our Navy connection had cemented his approval. “Son, you’re all right by me. But, Lucas, I want to personally approve all the other members of the team.”

Serena shook her head.

Lucas got the hint. “No, Lloyd. Serena hired us, not you.”

“Then you’re fired from that job, and I’ll hire you back.”

“No, sir,” I said firmly, remembering Lucas’s lecture on the subject. “You didn’t hire us. You can’t fire us. Isn’t that right, boss?”

He nodded. “That’s the way it works, Lloyd. We took on a job for your daughter, and we intend to see it through.”

“Serena,” he pleaded.

She stiffened. “No, Dad, I’m handling this.”

“I don’t like it,” Benson complained. “You’re my daughter. I need to know what precautions are being taken.”

Tough shit , I wanted to say, but I didn’t. This man was clearly used to getting his way, and his daughter had just provided the hard lesson that there were things and people he couldn’t buy or push around.

Serena pulled away from me and hugged her father. “I’m in good hands, Dad. The best.”

He nodded.

Serena returned to my side and interlaced her fingers with mine.

God, that felt good—scary, but good. I’d claimed her, and there was no turning back now. It wasn’t just that I wanted some fun with her. I really did want her as my girlfriend. Before now, I hadn’t thought that possible.

“Well, then,” Benson said. “I hope that burger is still warm. Lucas, care to join us?”

My brother declined, and as he turned to go, Serena held me back so we followed her father and Lucas from a distance.

“Is what you said for real?” she asked.

I didn’t hesitate. “I meant it, Princess. You’re mine now.”

She slowed us further and whispered, “And you’re mine, Studly.” She rubbed her tit up against me. “As soon as we get a minute alone, I’m going to show you just what that means.”

I adjusted myself. In front of her brothers was not the ideal place to be sporting a boner. Just before we reached the group, I remembered the question that had been left hanging. “Who is Harvey Fox?”

She trembled under my arm. “Not now.”

A few minutes later, I sat next to Serena as the meal was served at the shaded table. Now everyone was focused on their food.

I tried to keep my eyes on my plate, but George Butthead Kittleman sat across the table from me. I didn’t like being this close to the guy, but the investigation demanded I get a read on him as a suspect.

He laughed at something Vincent said.

I suppressed a scoff. The jerk didn’t deserve another shot with Serena. He had to be the dullest tool in the shed to dump her for a job opportunity out of town, and his bravado rubbed me the wrong way. SEALs were about teamwork, and none of his stories about his time in the field had included the word team .

After Marcia went into the house to get more chips, I gave Serena the signal we’d discussed when I needed her to try to trigger him again.

“Next week, I’m auditing Yaroslavsky,” Serena said matter-of-factly, aiming her words at me. She had already woven in several of the keywords I’d requested of her.

I watched Butthead. I didn’t see any reaction, so I followed up by asking her, “Do you have to travel for that?”

“Only to West Hollywood,” she said. “No biggie.”

Again, no reaction from the guy, which made it zero for four and meant he was not likely involved. He was just her ex, a total dickhead, and now a pain in my ass.

I finished chewing my burger.

“It was just me and this tango,” Butthead said, weaving some tale for Vincent. “It could have been close, but I gave it to him, full-auto, the whole clip.”

The itch I’d had about this guy came back. He knew a lot of the lingo, and I’d been focused on reading his tells for deception regarding Yaroslavsky and the notes. But now it became clear. He’d made two huge mistakes in that last sentence that proved he was no frogman, and that burned me.

As SEALs, our ammo load-out was a treasure, our lifeline, which we conserved, since we could never count on resupply. We were taught to almost always select single-round semi-auto, occasionally three-round-burst mode. Very rarely would we use full-auto, because once you were out of ammo, you were helpless. We never put more rounds into a man than it took to put him down. Those were rounds you might need for the next surprise.

Second, a clip went into a handgun, a rifle like an M4 took a mag.

It was time to find out for sure. I pushed my plate aside and leaned forward, putting my elbow on the table. “George, it’s arm-wrestling time.”

“No thanks.”

“A SEAL is not permitted to turn down an arm-wrestle challenge from another SEAL. It’s in the code. You and I both know that.”

Serena’s father looked on from the other end of the table with a cocked brow.

“Duke was a SEAL too,” Serena mentioned, so I didn’t have to.

George’s eyes widened. “Uh, I’m kind of out of practice.”

Yeah, dirtbag, now you’re up against the real deal. “Me too.” I wiggled my fingers. “Let’s go. We both know there’s no dishonor in losing to a fellow SEAL. Refusing a challenge? Now that’s a different thing.” I gave him the glare.

Left without an out, his sweaty hand grasped mine. Vincent counted to three, and we started.

I let him bend me back a little as he grunted and groaned, but this was going to be no contest. The guy was clearly a desk jockey.

“So you fired all our weapons in training?” I asked. “Even the fifty-cal, right?”

“Yeah,” he grunted out. “That one was a beast.”

Her father nodded. He’d probably actually handled the weapon.

I let Butthead gain a little, then took back a little more, prolonging the contest. “How’d you like firing the Draeger? Any trouble aiming it?”

He grunted again and shook his head. “Got the bullseye every time.”

I put all I had into it and slammed his hand over and down.

He cried out in pain. “Fuck, you broke my arm.”

I released my grip. “It’s not broken,” I scoffed. But I might have torn a ligament . “I should do a lot more than that to a fucking fraud like you,” I yelled. “You never wore the trident. Every SEAL knows a Draeger is an underwater breathing device, not a weapon.”

He cradled his elbow and stood, moving back from the table. “I… I?—”

“If you ever call Serena again, I will gut you. You hear me?”

Amazingly, Lloyd Benson stayed out of it.

Butthead hightailed it away so fast I never heard a response.

The elder Benson eyed me a moment and then went back to his conversation.

Vincent chuckled. “That was entertaining.”

“I never liked that guy,” Zach added.

What had Serena ever seen in that twat?

“Can I feel those arm muscles?” Kelly asked.

Serena swatted her hand. “No way. He’s mine.”

I couldn’t figure it out, so this being a day for direct questions, I asked, “What did you ever see in that guy?”

“Dad approved of him,” Vincent said softly.

Lloyd didn’t seem to hear.

Serena set her jaw but didn’t argue. Her father had run her life in more ways than I’d imagined.

“Deny it,” Zach challenged her.

“Of course, Dad approved,” she whispered. “He’s nice.”

“And from a good family.” Kelly added air quotes.

I nailed George’s coffin shut. “If you go for liars.”

Kelly saved Serena from that fork in the conversation. “Do you have a brother?”

Serena answered for me. “Three, but none of them are East Coast.”

“Pity.” Kelly shook her head.

After the meal, most people stood around with beers or wine glasses in hand to chat. Following my lead, Serena chose soft drinks instead of alcohol. And she slowly munched through almost an entire bag of chips.

Her brothers were great. But this was a crowd, and I was itching to get my woman alone.

After a time, Serena gave my hand a gentle tug. “Can I—I mean we —go home?”

Hearing that invitation, my cock surged. Home meant bed, and bed meant naked with this gorgeous woman. “I think that’s a capital idea, Princess.”

“I thought we were done with the Princess crap.”

“Sure thing. If you don’t like being my princess, how about Sweet Cheeks?”

“That’s worse.”

“Snuggles?”

“I give up. Take me home, Studly.”

Snuggles it is.

She leaned close. “You have no idea how hot it was seeing you put George in his place.” She fanned herself and walked over to her father. “Dad, I need to get going.”

Her father’s face fell. “But the afternoon is still young.”

“I warned you I couldn’t stay long,” she chided.

“True.” He opened his arms, and I let go of Serena so he could give her a goodbye hug. “See you again soon, Munchkin.”

“Sure, Dad.”

After shaking hands goodbye, with an arm around her waist, I led my woman away. “I can’t wait to get back to your house.”

With a devilish grin, she hurried me along.