Protecting Tex (SEAL of Protection #12)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
“What do you want for dinner tonight?”
Tex looked over at Melody and today, like every day, he was amazed she was his wife. He was well aware he wasn’t the kind of guy many women would want for their partner. Mostly because he was obsessed with his job. Using his computer skills to help others. And by obsessed, he meant an entire basement filled with computers, along with electronics to build and perfect the trackers he was working to patent.
Not only that, but many people thought he was half a man because of his missing leg.
But he was also the kind of man who would drop everything to watch his daughter perform in a ballet recital. Who would adopt a girl from a war-torn country and give her a home when she had nowhere else to go. And he was a man who’d traveled across the country to meet the woman he’d only talked to online…and who’d desperately needed the kind of help he was an expert at delivering.
Tex had never imagined being as happy as he was today. He might be biased, but his wife was gorgeous. She was quite a bit older than when they’d first met, but her attractiveness hadn’t diminished. She’d only gotten more beautiful in his eyes. And it had nothing to do with her looks. It was because of her generous heart. The love she had for their daughters, Akilah and Hope. Because she never griped at him when he holed up in his basement, desperately working for days to find someone who’d disappeared. His life’s work had become finding those who’d gone missing—and making sure those who did the kidnapping were taken care of appropriately.
“John?”
Tex blinked. He’d been lost in his own head. “Sorry, Mel, what did you ask me?”
She shook her head in exasperation and repeated her question about what he wanted to eat later.
“I thought we’d decided on tacos,” he said, as he put the car in gear and backed out of the parking space at the grocery store they’d just visited.
“We did. But I was second-guessing that. Hope has volleyball practice tonight, and Akilah might come home from college for the weekend. We’ll be eating late, and while tacos are easy, I thought maybe I could do something in the Crock-Pot so it’ll be warm no matter when we eat.”
“What about chicken and rice?” Tex asked. “It’s easy to make and we have all the ingredients.”
“Perfect,” Melody told him with a huge smile.
Tex began driving out of the parking lot when his wife dropped a bomb on him.
“By the way, at Hope’s game tomorrow night, she wants us to meet her boyfriend.”
Tex slammed his foot on the brake and turned to stare at Melody incredulously. “What?”
“It’s not a big deal. They’re only in the seventh grade, so he’s not really a boyfriend. They just like to hang out together and I think they’ve held hands a couple of times, but that’s about it. She’s excited about this boy, and he seems nice.”
“No.”
Melody chuckled. “Now, John?—”
“She’s too young,” he said firmly. The thought of his baby having a boyfriend made him want to throw up.
“She is,” Melody agreed. “But again, she’s not going to dark movie theaters with him and smooching in the back row. When she does things with him outside of school, they’re in a group. Or he comes to watch her play. John, she’s at that age where boys are becoming interesting, and I’m thrilled she wants us to meet him. That she’s not sneaking around behind our backs about this.”
A horn blared behind them and Tex looked in the rearview mirror. An angry man was shaking his fist and gesturing for him to get the hell going or move out of the way. He took a deep breath and turned his attention back to the road in front of him. As nonchalantly as he could, he asked, “What’s his name?”
“Nope. Not happening,” Melody told him.
“What? What’s not happening?” he asked, trying to sound innocent.
“You know what I’m talking about. If I tell you this poor boy’s name before you meet him, the second we get home you’ll be in your basement, looking up him and his family. You’ll know his parents’ annual income, where they work, who their bosses are, any reprimands they’ve had at work, speeding tickets, and a hundred other things that are invasive as hell and completely unnecessary.”
“If Hope will be spending any time with this kid, I need to know everything there is to know about him,” Tex protested.
“No. You need to trust your daughter. Do you really think she’d get involved with anyone who doesn’t treat her right? Every day she has the best example of how a man should act with a woman he likes. You , John. You’ve taught her by example, with everything you do for me— and her. You’re respectful, you never raise your voice. When we disagree, we do so politely. You’re supportive, kind, and you respect boundaries.”
“I sound like a pussy,” Tex complained under his breath.
She chuckled softly. “You’re also tough, but fair. You expect Hope and Akilah to do their best at all times. You swear too much, work too hard, and both our daughters have no doubt whatsoever that if anyone dares lay a finger on them, you’ll take care of them in a way that they won’t ever make that mistake again. You’ve raised them to be smart, savvy, and strong. Trust your daughter, John.”
When she put it that way, how could he do anything but trust that Hope had chosen her potential boyfriend well. “Fine.”
Mel chuckled again. She reached for his hand and Tex gladly gave it to her. “I love you, John. I never would’ve thought this would be my life when I was huddled in that hotel room in LA all those years ago.”
Tex didn’t like to dwell on how Melody had been running from a psycho stalker. And how that stalker had almost succeeded in taking her life. If it hadn’t been for her opening up to him, letting him in and giving him the information he needed to find her—or for her coonhound, Baby—things could be much different today.
“I love you too. When we get home?—”
Tex didn’t get to finish his sentence. He’d just pulled onto their street when out of nowhere, a van came barreling around the bend in the road toward them. He had enough time to slam on the brakes so they didn’t have a head-on collision.
Before he could get his bearings, the door of the van opened and three men dressed all in black from head to toe raced out.
“Shit, Mel, lock the door!”
But it was too late. As soon as the last word left his mouth, his door was wrenched open and the fight was on.
Tex was hampered by the seat belt still holding him to his seat and even with adrenaline coursing through his veins, he was no match for the obviously trained men who’d ambushed him.
“Run, Mel!” he managed to say before a fist connected with his jaw and shut him up.
Before he knew what was happening, he was being dragged out of his vehicle, but he refused to give up. The fight was eerily silent, with the men who’d attacked him not saying a word.
It wasn’t until he heard Melody whimpering that Tex realized she hadn’t gotten away from the men who’d attacked them. “Please, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Just don’t hurt my wife.”
“She’ll be fine if you do what we say,” one of the men said in a deep voice Tex had never heard before in his life. He had a slight accent, but Tex couldn’t place it.
“Don’t hurt her,” he repeated. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but he could see just fine with the other one. He saw a second vehicle had pulled up behind his car while he was fighting, and as he was dragged toward the van, another man dressed all in black got behind the wheel of his vehicle.
“Hurry up, we need to get out of here,” the driver of the van said impatiently, as Tex was shoved inside. He wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not when Melody was pushed in next to him. He caught her eye for a split second before he watched one of their captors pull a dark pillowcase over her head.
Then his own eyesight was cut off when he assumed another hood was shoved over his own head. The door to the van slammed shut and the driver took off, as if abducting two innocent people was an everyday occurrence for him.
Tex had been in his fair share of bad situations, but this was a hundred times worse, because he wasn’t with a team of trained Navy SEALs. He was with Melody. The woman he loved more than life itself. Who he’d worked hard to keep safe since the moment they’d met. To keep evil from ever touching her again. He had no idea who the men were who’d taken them or what they wanted, but it wasn’t anything good, of that he had no doubt.
No one spoke as they drove out of their neighborhood, which didn’t make Tex feel all warm and fuzzy. This was planned. These guys were professionals. He tried to keep track of the turns the van took, but without sight, and thanks to what felt like frequent tight maneuvers around corners, he was quickly at a loss as to where they were going.
But he knew they’d only been driving for about ten minutes when the van slowed.
Tex tensed.
The door opened, but the van didn’t fully stop. He heard Melody cry out, then scream as she was obviously pushed out of the moving vehicle.
“Mel!” he yelled, but all he got for his trouble was a fist to the gut. And the three men who’d been in the back of the van with him and Melody began to beat Tex again.
They’d handcuffed his wrists behind him before shoving him into the vehicle, and without the use of his hands, he was helpless to defend himself. By the time they stopped their assault, Tex was barely conscious.
“Why?” he managed to mumble through bleeding lips. His nose was definitely broken and he had a feeling his cheekbone was at least cracked, along with a few ribs.
“Because we can,” someone said.
That was the last thing Tex remembered before he passed out.