SEAL's Sunshine - Lynne St Jame Read online

  SEAL's Sunshine (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

  Black Eagle Team 2

  Lynne St. James

  Copyright © 2019 by Lynne St. James

  Cover Art Copyright © 2019 by Lynne St. James

  Cover by Lori Jackson Designs

  Created in the United States

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  © 2019 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.

  Contents

  Foreword

  Note to Readers

  Acknowledgments

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Books by Lynne St. James

  More Special Forces: Operation Alpha World Books

  Books by Susan Stoker

  Dear Readers,

  Welcome to the Special Forces: Operation Alpha Fan-Fiction world!

  If you are new to this amazing world, in a nutshell the author wrote a story using one or more of my characters in it. Sometimes that character has a major role in the story, and other times they are only mentioned briefly. This is perfectly legal and allowable because they are going through Aces Press to publish the story.

  This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I might have assisted with brainstorming and other ideas about which of my characters to use, I didn’t have any part in the process or writing or editing the story.

  I’m proud and excited that so many authors loved my characters enough that they wanted to write them into their own story. Thank you for supporting them, and me!

  READ ON!

  Xoxo

  Susan Stoker

  Note to Readers

  I can’t thank Susan Stoker enough for letting me use her characters to help me tell my stories. I love her books and being able to include them in my books is like extra toppings on my ice cream. Even better, is the opportunity to share my books with you. Susan is an amazing author and her friendship and support mean so much.

  In SEAL’s Sunshine, I’ve included John “Tex” Keegan in my story. I have done my best to keep him true to Susan’s vision, but I may have taken certain allowances for my story.

  I hope you enjoy SEAL’s Sunshine. Remember, the best way to thank an author is to leave a review.

  Lynne

  Dedication

  For all the spouses and families who are patiently waiting for their soldiers to return home.

  As always, for T.S., my real life hero. I love you!

  Acknowledgments

  Writing this book was harder than usual for many reasons, but these women and their incredible support and encouragement kept me going. I can’t thank you enough Marcia Bucktin, Christine Evans, and Dawn Montgomery. You are the best!

  A huge thank you to Karen DiGaetano for being a kicka$$ beta reader and keeping me honest!

  About the Book

  Navy SEAL Cam Patterson can’t wait for the day that he returns to the woman he loves. But everything blows up when he finds out there is a plot to kill the President of the United States.

  Miranda Stanhope has been anxiously awaiting Cam’s return. Months ago, he and his Black Eagle SEAL Team wrenched her away from the Taliban who’d been torturing her. The terrifying nightmares still haunt her. Despite everything, she has fought back the darkness and is ready to move forward into Cam’s loving embrace.

  When Cam finally returns, he and Miranda work to forge a relationship they hope will last forever, but then the threats begin. When the danger escalates, and Miranda almost dies, Cam calls in Tex Keegan, a man he hopes can help him stop the madness. But when Miranda is taken, it’s a race against time, and even with Tex’s help will Cam be able to find her, or will he lose his Sunshine forever?

  SEAL’s Sunshine is book two in the new Black Eagle SEAL Team series and features John “Tex” Keegan from Susan Stoker’s SEALs of Protection.

  Chapter 1

  “I can’t wait to get out of this hell hole. This deployment has sucked,” Cameron “Cam” Patterson said as he packed his gear and fed Halo, his K-9 teammate. After a three-month deployment to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, he was more than ready to go home, especially since his Sunshine was waiting for him.

  “What? Are you’re tired of sand in every crevice of your body?” Rafe asked as he loaded his pack.

  “No shit. Every time we’re here it seems worse.”

  “You’re lucky, kid. Wait until you’re caught in a haboob. Then you can complain about it,” Rafe said. He was their second in command. “But I have to agree, this deployment was boring as fuck. Home sounds great right now.”

  “He’s just in a hurry to get back to see his woman for a little batter-dipping the corndog,” Drew “Murph” Murphy, sniper and overall pain in the ass, commented as he came in from the showers.

  Cam was the youngest and newest member of the Black Eagle team. He’d been lucky when Jake Warner, their master chief, had picked him from the group of frogmen that had gotten through BUD/S almost four years ago. Sure, he took a lot of shit from them, but he had no doubt they had his six, and he sure as hell had theirs. It’d been a bonus to be Halo’s K-9 handler too. The large German shepherd was an excellent soldier and made a great companion when they were home.

  Ignoring Murph’s comment about Miranda, he’d just finished packing his gear when the door opened and Jake entered with their CIA liaison, Bill Lynch following close behind.

  “Bad news, jokers, we’re not leaving quite yet.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Cam said before he could stop himself. It had been hard being away this time, but since Tex had given him a tracker to put on Miranda’s phone, at least he knew she was safe. It was the same type that Meghan, Rafe’s girlfriend, had on her phone. It had helped them find her when she’d been taken by the Taliban. John “Tex” Keegan was an ex-SEAL and now used his incredible computer skills to help them. Now he was like an extended member of the team.

  Jake gave him the ‘watch it’ look before continuing. “Red Falcon Team is delayed on another mission. We’re the only team available and this comes from the top of the food chain. Captain wants us in the TOC asap.”

  “Aww fuck. We were so close to a clean getaway,” Ryan McLaughlin, the team medic said. “I swear it’s a conspiracy.”

  “Conspiracy my ass,” Murph said. “It’s payback for going off-book when we rescued Rafe’s woman.”

  “Enough bitching. It’s like being with a group of old women. We have work to do,” Jake said in a “don’t fuck with me” tone. Hearing that meant
only one thing, shit was about to hit the fan.

  The team assembled in the TOC and waited for Captain Tony Knox to brief them on the mission that stood between them and a flight home. As happy as Cam was to do something other than training, the timing sucked. Even if he didn’t want to admit it to the guys, he was anxious to get home since Miranda flying in to stay with him for a week.

  She’d been recovering from her abduction when he’d had to deploy, but they had managed a few dates before he left, and lots of Skype calls since. There had been something that had clicked when he saw her. She’d gone through hell at the hands of the Taliban and had kept it together, been so strong. Even covered in bruises, she’d taken his breath away. Daydreaming about her was pretty much constant when he wasn’t on maneuvers and it got him into trouble a few times.

  The door opened admitting the captain and the colonel. If the colonel was part of the briefing, they were most likely walking into a shitshow of epic proportions. It took that kind of a mission for him to show up in the TOC.

  “I know you are ready to head home, but we get to keep you for a while longer,” the colonel said as he met each of their eyes. It was as if he was assessing their readiness. They were SEALs and always ready. “We have a delicate situation. The CIA has picked up chatter about an impending attack in Saudi Arabia and you’re the only spec ops team who is close enough to get there in time to neutralize the situation.”

  “We’ll do whatever it takes, Sir,” Jake responded. “What’s the mission?”

  “Protecting POTUS. He’s flying in for negotiations with the Saudis. It’s been kept under wraps, but the threat was deemed credible. No one was supposed to know about this trip and that opens up other issues, but they aren’t your problem. Your mission is to eliminate the threat. You are standing between evil and the leader of the free world. Don’t fuck up.”

  As per his usual, he dropped his intel bomb and departed, leaving the captain and Lynch to fill in the blanks. No wonder Jake looked pissed off when he’d come to get them.

  “I know you have a lot of questions, but we’ll have to address them on the plane. Get your gear. Wheels up in ten.”

  Cam caught Jake and Rafe as they exchanged glances and it made the hair on the back of his neck tingle. Even though it was POTUS, no one had explained the credible threat. When it involved the President of the United States, a Charlie Foxtrot aka cluster fuck was guaranteed.

  On the transport with time to spare, they stowed their gear. Then he put food and water dishes down for Halo and joined the team where they had gathered for the briefing. It wasn’t normal protocol, but there was a leak and until they knew where it was from, the plane was one of the more secure areas.

  “What’s up, boss?” Murph asked, his impatience evident. He was like an older brother and a black-sheep merged into one. If you asked who on the Black Eagle Team caused the most eye rolls, the answer was always Murph.

  “Is POTUS on site?” Rafe asked.

  “No, he’s landing at zero nine hundred. We’ll have three and a half hours once we land to verify, find, and eliminate the threat.”

  “Piece of cake,” Murph said, which earned him a side eye from the captain. Cam wondered if he’d ever learn to keep his fucking trap shut at times like this.

  “What do we know?” Cam asked. They needed the intel available to come up with their plan. Although knowing Jake, if he’d made a plan that would be close to perfect already.

  Captain Knox signaled Lynch to take over. “The chatter we picked up indicates a plan to blow up Air Force One as soon as it lands with POTUS on board. And before you ask, yes, it’s credible intel.”

  “Do you know who’s behind it? What else do we know?” Rafe asked, his expression grim, which mirrored everyone else’s on the team. As usual, they were short on intel and time to figure it out.

  “Not much. It appears to be an offshoot of ISIS that has joined up with Al-Qaeda.

  “Fuck, this is a thing now?” Murph asked.

  “Yeah, we’ve been picking up chatter about this partnership for the last few months. But this is the first intel we’ve got that is verified.”

  “Do we have any idea who’s involved? Names? Locations? Anything? You’re not giving us much to go on and we’re stuck on this plane for two and a half hours,” Jake asked, shooting questions one after another at Lynch.

  “I know it sucks. But we do know one name, and it’s familiar to you too. Azfaar.”

  “What the ever living fuck? How did he go from the Taliban to ISIS and Al-Qaeda?”

  “Apparently, he took the missionary group without approval from his superiors. When it turned into a shit show, he had the choice to disappear or die. He went running to the biggest rats for protection and now he has an ax to grind.”

  “Is that why he’s going after POTUS?”

  “It’s how he sold it to his new friends. But we think his real target is a smaller fish—Senator Stanhope. But Stanhope wouldn’t have made a big enough impact for them to agree. Taking out POTUS would put them in the upper echelon of all the terrorist groups. They’d be back in the game with no shortage of money and supporters.” Lynch spread out a map of the area around the airfield.

  “Any indication where they might be holed up?” Jake asked.

  “Not yet. I have my contacts working on it, but I may not hear anything else until we land.”

  “Okay, you heard him. Be prepared to hit the ground running. The clock is ticking gentlemen and the fate of the free world depends on us and we’ll have a little over three hours to pull it off,” Captain Knox said.

  It was way over the top even for the captain and sounded like a fucking recruitment commercial, but when Cam thought about it, he was right. If Azfaar pulled this off, it would set off a string of events that would change the world.

  “One other thing, other than the people you’re looking at, no one else has been briefed. We don’t know who can be trusted after the leak. Until this threat is diffused, we are on our own.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Get some rest. Wheels down in just over an hour,” the captain said as he and Lynch walked toward the front of the plane. It wouldn’t surprise Cam if there was information they’d held back. It wouldn’t be the first time and definitely not the last. But they would do whatever it took to complete their mission.

  “So it looks like Miranda’s father is the real target. Cam, can you keep your head in the game?”

  “Fuck, seriously, Jake? Would you ask Rafe or Murph? Rafe has just as much invested in taking out Azfaar as I do. I’m a SEAL, the job is first always.”

  “Just checking, and I’ve already asked Rafe. So get that chip off your shoulder. I need to make sure everyone’s head is where it needs to be.” It was his job. Cam understood but it still rubbed him the wrong way. Luckily, Jake didn’t ask for specifics, because he’d be lying if he didn’t admit to the desire to tear Azfaar’s head off with his bare hands.

  It was a beautiful sunny morning in Atlanta, and Miranda Stanhope was taking advantage of the peace and quiet by having her coffee in the backyard. The garden was filled with color, the azaleas were covered in pink and red blooms. The peonies and roses were also loaded with colorful flowers. The fountain in the corner gurgled and Miranda sighed with pleasure as she sipped from her mug. This was her favorite time of day. Her mother was still asleep, her father was away on a trip, and she had the little slice of heaven all to herself.

  Shifting in her chair to alleviate the residual pain in her side from her broken ribs at the hands of the Taliban, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. Inhaling the scents of the flowers helped push away the sudden fear she was being watched. The backyard was secluded and surrounded by a tall brick wall. It had to be her imagination, or PTSD if she listened to Cam, or Charlie, one of the other missionaries who’d been abducted. Either way, it didn’t make it any easier living with the pain. The angry scars that covered both of her legs from her thighs to her knees were another constan
t reminder of her time in captivity.

  Her father said it was common for not just the military but also those who’d been in traumatic situations. One thing they all suggested was for her to talk to a professional to help her work through her issues. She’d resisted. Unable to remember everything that happened, she’d still experienced nightmares and woke up drenched in sweat and shaking more times than not.

  Eventually, she and Charlie talked, and it had helped a bit. The nightmares didn’t come every night now, although they still popped up at least once a week. More when she was stressed.

  Charlie’s experience hadn’t been the same. She’d been separated from the main group and when they’d found out she was a senator’s daughter. But he’d almost lost his sister, Meghan when she’d tried to help rescue them and almost died in the process.

  The Deliver Hope Ministries had been working hard to gather the resources to send another group to finish what they’d started. Charlie volunteered to lead the group, but most of the others had bowed out. Not that she blamed them, it was a terrifying trip and not an experience she wanted to repeat either. But she felt obligated to help the women. Even though going back was the last thing Miranda wanted, she knew how much they needed the school built and teachers brought in. Charlie had been thrilled when she told him she’d go with him, but she’d held off telling Cam so far.