Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
“Hey, is this a bachelor party or what?” Teller Osgood called out.
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked. “Of course, it is. We have beer and a groom. He’s still a bachelor; what more do we need?”
“Strippers!” Reid Bennett called out.
“That’s right,” Dev Mulhaney said. “Where are the strippers?”
“I promised the bride we’d keep it clean,” Hawk said.
“And I promised the wedding planner we’d keep the groom out of trouble,” Jacob reinforced.
Teller blinked. “Seriously? You can’t have a bachelor party without strippers.”
“I only came because I heard there’d be strippers.” Reid crossed his arms over his chest. “If there aren’t going to be any women, I might as well go find some fun for myself.” He ended the protest with a wink.
“Hey, Reid,” Hawk raised his mug, “speaking of fun…I got word from Hank Patterson that a film crew is looking for a security detail for the movie they’re shooting at the Kualoa Ranch. He put the word out that we’re for hire. It’ll require three members of the team to provide security during the filming of a new blockbuster movie.”
Reid leaned forward. “Count me in. I’ve been meaning to check out the ranch. I hear they filmed movies like Jurassic Park, King Kong and Jumanji there.”
“I’m free. Count me in,” Rex Johnson seconded.
Logan Atkins raised a hand. “It’ll be a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. I’m in.”
“That’s three,” Hawk said. “We should hear something soon.”
“From Special Operations, putting your lives on the line, to security guards for a movie set…” Jacob shook his head.
“It’s not all roses and cotton candy,” Dev Mulhaney said. “Hawk nearly died on his first assignment.”
Hawk tipped his head toward Angelo Cortez, another Navy SEAL Jacob had worked with in past operations. “Angel’s assignment almost bought it in a boat explosion.”
“A security job for a movie set sounds like heaven compared to what they had,” Reid said. “I could put up with diva actors any day, and I’ve always wanted to see a movie being made.”
Jacob was glad attention had been diverted from the lack of female entertainment. He was fine without that kind of distraction. Strippers could make his job as the best man even harder. Keeping these guys out of trouble would be an impossible task with alcohol involved. Add women to the mix, and it would make protecting the groom even more of a chore.
Logan elbowed Rex in the gut. “I hear Jason Momoa is in the area shooting a film. I wonder if that’s the one we’ll be guarding.”
Rex grinned. “That would be cool to meet the man.”
Teller clapped Reid on his back. “Put me on speed dial in case they have any hot actresses on the set.”
“You’ll be busy providing security for a Japanese client’s wedding next week,” Hawk said.
Teller frowned. “That’ll only tie up one day, right?”
Hawk shook his head. “The family has events scheduled throughout the week. They want you to provide security for the bride twenty-four seven.”
Teller’s brow furrowed. “Please tell me she’s not a bridezilla.”
Hawk shook his head. “I can’t guarantee that, but her mother might be another matter.” Hawk glanced toward Jacob. “Not all of our assignments are hard-core action. We have the occasional security gigs. More often than not, we get involved in dangerous missions. Are you sure you don’t want to cut loose early from the Navy and come to work for the Brotherhood Protectors?”
Jacob’s lips pressed together. “I have two more good years in me to finish my twenty. I’ll stick with the Navy.”
“Seriously, Rooster, the offer remains open should you make the break now or at retirement,” Hawk assured him.
“Thanks,” Jacob said. “I’ll consider it.”
“It really is great working with the Brotherhood,” Angel said. “We have missions, but they are usually shorter, and we can have a life outside the job.”
“Something we rarely got while in the Navy,” Hawk added.
“And you can choose which island you want to live on,” Angel said.
“The main office for the Brotherhood Protectors Hawaii is on the Big Island,” Hawk said.
Angel nodded. “Leilani and I are living on her home island of Maui. Other team members are scattered across Oahu, Kauai and Maui.”
Logan grinned. “Yeah, and we get to use all that training we attained in the military, fighting terrorists and drug cartels. You should hear some of the stories out of Montana and Wyoming. Hank Patterson has his hands full managing his folks there.”
“Meanwhile, back in Hawaii, you’re guarding bridezillas?” Jacob shook his head. “No thanks.”
“With the Brotherhood Protectors, you aren’t moving all over the world,” Angel said. “You can put down roots, have a family. Live a real life.”
Reid snorted. “Or not. It’s a job that can be interesting and uses our skills. I’m not looking to marry. Been there. Done that. I have the divorce decree to prove it.”
“Reid, now that you’re not being deployed all over the world, you might find the right woman for you,” Hawk patted his chest, “like I did.”
“Not in this lifetime.” Reid snorted. “I refuse to be pussy-whipped again and trade freedom for sex once a month… if she’s in the mood. As protectors, we’d still be drawn away from our homes long enough for the little woman to find another man.”
“Not if she’s the right woman,” Hawk said. “And it’s not all about sex,”
Reid’s lips twisted. “Ain’t that the truth?”
“What about respect, friendship and love?” Hawk asked.
Jacob shook his head. “A dog can serve those purposes and costs a lot less in the long run.” He tipped his head toward Reid. “Don’t listen to Hawk. He’s already well on his way to being pussy-whipped. Enjoy life as a bachelor. You don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself.”
“Thanks, Rooster.” Reid grinned. “I knew you’d understand.”
The men poured more beer and reminisced as much as they could without violating gag orders on their top-secret missions. They talked about some of the tight situations they’d found their way out of, both on operations and during their off time.
Several pitchers of beer into the party, Hawk stiffened and clamped a hand on Jacob’s arm. “No way.”
“What?” Instantly on alert, Jacob set aside the one mug of beer he’d been nursing since he’d arrived. “What’s wrong?”
Hawk shook his head. “I can’t believe it. This is not happening.”
Jacob glanced at his friend and then around the patio. “What’s not happening?”
“I thought by now she’d have given up. How the hell did she know I’d be here tonight?” Hawk scooted his chair backward, placing himself behind Jacob. “Inside. By the bar. It’s Camila…the crazy stalker.”
Jacob followed the direction of Hawk’s pointed finger toward the interior of the bar.
A beautiful woman with dark hair and brown eyes, wearing a short, tight dress and impossibly high heels, approached the bar. She leaned over the counter, exposing a vast amount of cleavage Jacob could see from yards away. After a few words with Ray, the bartender, she turned her attention to the party on the patio.
“Shit.” Hawk ducked his head behind Jacob. “She’s headed this way.”
Jacob rose as the woman made a beeline for the group on the patio. “Teller, block our groom. We’ve got incoming.”
Teller’s head spun toward the entrance, and the woman headed their way. “Have the strippers arrived?” He grinned and scooted his chair in front of Hawk. “She can give me a lap dance anytime. I haven’t got a woman keeping tabs on me.”
“She’s not the stripper,” Jacob said. “She’s the enemy and must be neutralized.” His lips twitched at his own joke.
“You aren’t going to shoot her, are you?” Dev asked, his words slurred. “Hell, we’re not in Iraq.”
Jacob shook his head. “No, but I’m going to head her off at the pass.” He nodded toward the bartender.
Based on the signal Jacob had set up with him an hour earlier, Ray left his duty station and ducked out the front door, going for the off-duty police officer.
All Jacob had to do was keep her away from Hawk until the cop arrived to escort her from the building. As Camila stepped out onto the patio, Jacob ducked in front of her. “Can I help you?”
She tried to look over his shoulder toward the group of men now gathered in front of Hawk, effectively blocking him from sight. “I’m looking for Jace Hawkins, my boyfriend. I understand he’s here tonight.” She tried to move around him.
Jacob sidestepped again, standing in her path. “This is a private party. I’m afraid you’ll have to leave.”
She lifted her chin and stared down her nose at him. “This is a public bar. I have just as much right to be here as you. Now, move aside.”
Jacob crossed his arms over his chest. “No can do. This is a private party. You weren’t invited. You’ll need to leave.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not leaving until I see my boyfriend. He’s scheduled to marry another woman on Saturday. I’ve come to tell him he doesn’t have to. She’s not the one for him.” She leaned up on her toes. “Do you hear me, Hawk? That bitch isn’t the one for you. You and I…we were meant to be together.”
Hawk pushed to his feet and stood over the heads of the men sitting in front of him. “Camila, I told you more than once, you’re not my girlfriend. We’re not together.”
“But we made love,” she said. “Surely, that means something.”
He shook his head. “It means I made a mistake,” he said. “I don’t love you. I’ll never marry you. I love my fiancée, and I’m marrying her on Saturday. Please, you deserve to find someone who loves you and wants to be with you.” He lifted his hands palms upward. “That’s not me.”
Her brows furrowed, and her lips pressed into a thin line. “That bitch must have held you hostage and brainwashed you. Do you know how long it’s taken me to track you down?”
“Not long enough,” Hawk muttered. “Face it, Camilla, we will never be together. I. Don’t Love. You. ”
Camila shook her head. “She’s bewitched you. Don’t you see? You and I are one. We belong together. I can’t let you go through with this wedding. You don’t belong to her. You’re mine.”
The cop showed up in his uniform. “Ma’am, you’ll have to leave the premises.”
“I’m not leaving without my man.” She scowled at the policeman and Jacob blocking her path.
Before he could guess what she’d do next, she punched Jacob in the gut and faked to the left.
Stunned, Jacob froze for a second and then moved left to keep her from getting past him.
Camila changed directions surprisingly fast for a woman in platform heels, and dove to the right, making it past Jacob and across the floor toward Hawk.
Jacob caught up with her and grabbed one of her arms. The policeman grabbed the other. They brought her to an abrupt halt before she could get her sharp-tipped fingernails into Hawk.
“Let go of me,” she yelled. “You have no right to keep me from my boyfriend.”
“I could haul you into the police station and have you explain why you attacked this man,” the police officer said.
Jacob rubbed his belly. The woman had a hard punch, but he hadn’t been genuinely harmed. Still, she didn’t have to know that. If he needed to press charges to keep her from going after Hawk, so be it. He had two jobs…keep Hawk safe through the bachelor party and get him to the church on time. If he had to take a punch for the team, so be it.
“I won’t press charges if you promise to leave the Big Wave and the surrounding parking lot immediately,” Jacob said. “If you don’t, I’ll go with this nice police officer and you to the station and file a complaint. That should keep you tied up through the rest of the evening and into tomorrow. For that matter, I might do that anyway to be sure you’ll miss the wedding on Saturday.”
Her forehead wrinkled, and her eyes narrowed to slits.
Jacob could practically see the cogs of her brain churning as she mulled over her options.
“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll leave.” She looked past Jacob to where Hawk stood with his friends. “But this isn’t over. I’ll never give up on you, Jace Hawkins. We have something. I know it. You couldn’t have made love like you did and just walked away.”
“That was months ago—before I met my fiancée. And I’d had too much alcohol. I don’t even remember it, other than the fact you followed me around for weeks.”
“I only followed you to tell you that I love you and want to be with you.” Her eyes filled with tears. “We had a connection.”
“No,” he said. “ We didn’t because I didn’t.” Hawk shook his head. “Give it up, Camila. I’m not the one for you.”
“Come on.” The cop gripped her arm and guided her toward the exit.
No sooner had she left through the front entrance than the rear gate burst open. A huge fake wedding cake rolled onto the patio to the lyrics of Pour Some Sugar on Me .
A roar of approval came from the guys, and they clapped in time to the music.
“All right,” Teller yelled. “Bring on the stripper!”
“Yeah, baby,” Reid shouted. “About time we got some action.”
“I call dibs on the first lap dance,” Logan sang out.
With Camila out of their hair, Jacob focused his attention on the entertainment, wary but ready to relax a little. He waited for the woman to pop out of the cake.
And waited…
Two minutes into the song, the stripper still hadn’t come through.
The men chanted, “Come out! Come out!”
Jacob frowned. When the stripper still hadn’t made it out, he started toward the cake, concerned that she had suffered a fall, suffocated or injured herself and bled out. About the time he reached the cake, the stripper punched a hole in the top with a tight fist and widened the hole before she stood, wearing a white hat similar to the one Navy SEALs wore when they were in their full dress whites. She had long blond hair, and her face was covered in a thick layer of makeup, her eyes surrounded by blue and pink eyeshadow and thick, fake lashes. Her lips were a bright red. Some of the lipstick had smeared on her rise through the top of the cake, and her blond hair was slightly cockeyed.
She pulled the hair back in place and smiled. “Hey, boys! I’m Candy.” Then she reached back inside the cake with one hand and fumbled with something. The other hand followed while the music blared on. Her smile morphed into a concentrated scowl as she worked on whatever was inside the cake that wasn’t working according to plan.
Finally, she looked up, caught his glance and gave him a crooked grin. Something about her face was familiar, even with all the makeup covering her cheeks and eyelids. “I can’t get out,” she said quietly, where only he could hear. “The door is jammed.”
“Can you get up to the top of the cake?” Jacob asked.
She frowned and braced her hands on the rim of the top layer. “I think so.” Pulling herself up, she sat her bottom on the edge. “Now, what?”
Jacob studied the contraption. “Climb down the layers like a staircase.”
“I don’t think that’s possible. It’s a wire frame covered in papier-maché.”
“Can you reach my shoulders?” Jacob asked.
Candy bit her bottom lip, smearing red lipstick across her teeth. “Maybe.”
Jacob leaned as close to the cake as he could.
The stripper laid her hands on his shoulder. “I’m losing balance,” she said, her body tipping toward him.
As she fell toward him, he caught her around her waist and swung her out of the cake. Her momentum sent him stumbling backward. Jacob struggled to keep his feet under him but couldn’t. Falling backward, he let go of her waist, but not in time to brace for impact. He crashed to the floor, landing flat on his back. If the impact with the floor hadn’t knocked the air from his lungs, the stripper landing on top of him finished the job.
He lay still for a moment, unable to draw in a breath.
The guys roared with laughter, not realizing he couldn’t breathe, and were absolutely no help. Their attention was riveted to the woman splayed across his body, pushing to a sitting position, straddling his waist, her bottom connecting with his groin.
The song ended, and the next one that played was Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy .
“Ride him, baby,” Teller called out.
“That’s right. Save a horse, ride a cowboy,” Reid said.
Levi Evans frowned. “Lucky bastard.”
“That should be me,” Logan said. “Move over, Rooster.”
The woman on top of Jacob struggled to keep upright. When she saw that the men were watching, she looked around, her eyes wide. A moment later, she rocked her hips and raised her hand like a bronc rider.
One of the men recovered her hat and slipped it into her hand. She held it high and rode Jacob to the beat of the music.
Finally able to catch his breath, Jacob started to sit up.
A firm hand on his chest pushed him back to the ground. “Take one for the team,” Candy said. “It’s you or the groom, and I have strict instructions not to touch the groom.”
Lying back on the floor, he played along. Since she was already in a position to entertain, it might as well be him. The others would get too rowdy and demand lap dances of their own.
As she rocked over his crotch, another problem arose, making him more aware and uncomfortable with each move. He gritted his teeth in an effort to keep from embarrassing himself in front of his buddies. He feared that would be an impossibility. When the stripper got up, it would be obvious to his friends how he felt about being ridden.
Candy clutched his shirt like the rope around a bronc and leaned back. “Am I hurting you, big boy?”
“No,” he said through clenched teeth when, in fact, she was hurting him a lot. The effort to contain his arousal was becoming more painful by the moment. At this rate, he’d go back to his hotel room blue-balled.
“Hey, save some of that for the rest of us,” Teller said, waving a five-dollar bill at the woman. “And I’ve got more where this came from.”
Reid yanked a twenty out of his wallet and held it up triumphantly. “Don’t go for the small stuff. Mine’s bigger.”
Logan snorted and pulled a one-hundred-dollar bill out of his pocket. “Skip the kids. What you need is a real man.”
The song ended, and the stripper rose to her feet and reached out a hand to Jacob.
He ignored it, rolled to his side and jumped up, afraid his reaction to the “ride” would set off a round of razzing from his friends.
Thankfully, their attention was fully glued to Candy. The next song started, and the men all clapped in time to I Kissed A Girl .
Candy swayed back and forth, snapping her fingers.
“Dance,” Teller encouraged.
“Show us what you’ve got,” Reid said.
“Whatcha hiding beneath that shirt?” Levi asked.
Logan gripped her around the waist and lifted her to the top of the table. “There. Now we can see you.”
Jacob started forward, ready to defend the stripper from the men getting too familiar with her.
Logan stepped back and smiled. “Go ahead. Dance.”
Candy swayed, got her balance and stepped side to side. Sadly, she wasn’t that good at dancing. Not like the usual strippers he’d seen.
Again, something about her niggled at the back of Jacob’s mind. He felt like he knew her. But the name Candy wasn’t ringing a bell. He studied her as she moved from side to side, rocking her hips back and forth. It wasn’t the hips or the dancing he remembered.
His gaze traveled up her body.
Nor was it the narrow waist and swell of her breasts.
He took in her hair and face.
The blond hair wasn’t right and kept slipping sideways a bit, like a wig. If she wasn’t a blonde, what color was her hair?
“You’re a stripper,” Reid said. “Take it off.”
“Yeah, take it off,” Teller echoed.
Candy’s hands went to the knot of her shirt at her midriff, fumbling to untie it. When she finally had it loose, she shrugged out of the shirt, swung it over her head and tossed it at Levi.
The men whooped and laughed when it landed on the man’s head.
Levi pulled it down to his nose and inhaled deeply. “Oh, yeah. One hundred percent female.” He stuffed the shirt in his pocket and clapped his hands. “More!”
“More!” the others repeated.
Candy’s moss-green eyes narrowed.
In that moment, it came to him. Candy was the little wedding planner he’d met earlier. Jacob straightened. What the hell was she doing working as a stripper?