Spring Unveiled (Seasoned SEALs #1)

Chapter 1

“Could that kid be old enough to be a sailor or am I just getting that fucking old?” Devlin Culver, better known as Slick, asked as he and the other five men in his squad trotted down the steps of their SEAL Team’s headquarters building.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re bitching about.

You’re the baby here.” At thirty-five, Alister Roosevelt a.k.a.

Teddy, was the oldest man in their whole platoon of sixteen.

Slick was only twenty-nine, but the ten years difference in chronological age between his teammate and the yeoman who just processed their leave requests was filled with classified experiences.

As SEALs, their up close and personal contact with bullets was at the opposite end of the spectrum than that of the administrative assistant who would never hold a weapon outside of qualifying on the range.

The places his team had gone, the things they’d done to accomplish the mission, were beyond the comprehension of the fresh-faced yeoman.

But Slick was right. It seemed new recruits got younger every day. It had been seventeen years since Teddy held up his hand and swore to support and defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. He’d done a hell of a lot of defending on foreign land that was for damn sure.

“Christ, he looked like he was twelve,” Eddie, the handle they used for Travis Pierce because of his uncanny resemblance to Eddie Munster, added as they headed down the sidewalk toward the parking lot.

“I’ll bet this is his first stop out of boot camp.” Bryce Magnum, known to them as Trojan, then corrected himself. “Okay, he had an A school somewhere, but this is his first permanent duty station.”

“Meridian, Mississippi,” Ox announced. His real name was Walter Smith, but his girlfriend, MariBeth, was the only one who dared call him that. “I’ll bet he went back to the bayou every weekend for his momma’s home cooking while he was there.”

Paul Huntley, who they called Shadow, chuckled. “You got that one right. His accent was so thick I had to keep asking him to repeat shit.”

“Petty officers. Chiefs.” A thick Cajun accent added several syllables to the two ranks.

Everyone stopped at once and slowly turned toward the young voice.

Fuck. Teddy knew his men had overwhelmed the young admin who seemed to take forever to submit their paperwork, but since they wanted it pushed through immediately so they could leave right away, they’d tolerated the snail’s pace.

If he’d forgotten to do something, it wouldn’t surprise anyone on the team.

While they waited for the young man to catch up, Teddy checked the bright April sun, which promised a gorgeous day in the California mountains. They needed to get on the road.

“I didn’t want to say anything inside…” The kid shuffled his feet before he tilted his head up at the tall men staring at him. The shortest at six feet, they towered over the skinny seamen apprentice. “See, I hate to ask this of you…but I don’t know anyone who…”

Teddy had enough of this slow speech. “Just spit it out.”

“Would any of you be needin’ a nanny?” The young man looked up at them, hope filling his eyes.

Well, that was the last thing Teddy had expected. His gaze swept over his teammates. Slick had kids but his wife, Rozelle, had them handled. Nobody else had children.

“Sorry, but no.” Teddy couldn’t help himself, so he asked, “Why? Does your wife or girlfriend need a job?”

“Kinda. Jasmine, she’s my…roommate…wants to get out of the party business.” He hurried on to say, “She’s real good with kids. She comes from a big family back in the Philippines, so she’s been taking care of babies and li’l ones all her life.”

“I thought the catering business paid pretty well. She’s not going to make that kind of money babysitting,” Slick pointed out.

“Oh, she makes good money, but the parties are long hours. She just wants to get out of… that business and away from her cousin.” He then added, “but I’m not sure Miss Nami is really her cousin.”

All the men froze at the well-known name of one of the most popular madams in San Diego.

What the fuck? The SEALs exchanged another glance.

“Well, let me get this straight. Your roommate works for Miss Nami?” Teddy clarified.

Seamen Apprentice Fontanelle smiled hugely.

“Yes. And if I can find her a different job, then I can move her out of my place and sponsor another girl. See, they come from a really bad place. Miss Nami showed me pictures. Their homes are dirt floors and wood from shipping pallets nailed together. We had poor back in Louisiana but nothin’ that bad. ”

“Sponsor?” Ox’s baffled eyes met Teddy’s.

“Yeah. The girls are like a foreign exchange student but instead of comin’ for just one year, we can sponsor to bring them over forever ‘cuz they’re adults.” He grinned as though they all shared a secret. “So, we get adult privileges for helping them out by bringin’em here.”

Whoa. Teddy didn’t like the sound of this. “Tell us how the sponsorship works.” He spread his feet and crossed his powerful arms over his large chest, settling in for the explanation.

Excitedly, the young man explained as if they were interested in obtaining a girl.

“There’s a bunch of other SEALs who are doing this so you wouldn’t be the only ones.

Actually, that’s how I got involved. When I first got here, a couple petty officers, not on your team,” he reassured, “on another SEAL team, found out that I was…” The kid actually blushed behind his acne scars as he lowered his voice just above a whisper.

“A virgin. I wasn’t real popular back in high school, and I never had a girlfriend.

Heck, I’d never even been on a real date until I got here.

Ma wanted me to take this girl from church to the prom, but her father wouldn’t let her go ‘cuz she was only in eighth grade.”

The slight shift in Shadow’s step spoke volumes to the men. They’d heard more than enough of this kid’s heartbreaking story.

“The sponsorship.” It was Eddie’s turn to redirect.

“Oh, yeah. The petty officers, they’re like you, real babe magnets.

And, well, look at me. I don’t have big muscles or a cool Trident.

Even though I work over here, women totally ignore me because they know I’m not a SEAL.

But those guys decided that no man who worked in Naval Special Warfare should hold a V card—that’s what they called it, but I don’t have any kind of card with a V on it.

Never did. My name is Boudreau Fontanelle. There’s no V nowhere in my name.”

“Back to the party,” Trojan interrupted the young man’s ramblings.

“Yeah, so, they took me with them to a party at Miss Nami’s house. They’re regulars and they vouched for me. Not just anybody can go to her parties, you know.”

Teddy was sure more than one sailor had gotten his proverbial cherry popped at one of the woman’s infamous parties.

According to rumor, she knew when every ship pulled into port, every military payday was marked on the calendar, and she didn’t mind collecting the fifty-dollar cover charge at the door. Alcohol was free but her girls weren’t.

“I’m really glad you now have a man card, but you were explaining how this sponsorship worked,” Shadow pressed. No one wanted to hear the details of the kid getting laid for the first time.

“Okay, Miss Nami has lots of cousins who want to come to the United States to get a better life. You pay her five thousand dollars?—”

“Where the hell did you get five thousand dollars on E-2 pay?” Ox interrupted.

The younger man grinned. “I had nearly five hundred saved up so I could fly home for Ma’s birthday and Miss Nami has a friend who lent me the rest of the money.”

All the men slowly shook their heads left to right and back.

“I’ll just bet she did,” Trojan grumbled. “I’m afraid to ask what the interest rate would be.”

“Jasmine helps me pay him back. She makes good tips,” Fontanelle explained.

“No pun intended,” Eddy said under his breath.

The yeoman’s face looked so confused it was somewhere between sad and comical.

Slick made his hand fly upward into the air. “Space shuttle.”

The subtext of the conversation was totally going over the young man’s head. Damn. This kid was so na?ve. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

“Getting back on task, you borrowed money from Miss Nami’s friend to pay her the five thousand dollars to bring her cousin to the United States.” Teddy raised an eyebrow. “And what do you get out of it?”

“I get my money back.” Fontanelle shifted.

“Once Jasmine got to the United States, she moved in with me. See, there’s not enough room in Miss Nami’s house, even though it’s really big and has lots of bedrooms, Jasmine can’t stay there.

Since I’m sponsoring her, she has to live with me, just like a foreign exchange student.

So, see, she’s my roommate, but she’s not my girlfriend.

I don’t really like her that way. She does my laundry, irons my uniforms, cleans the apartment, and cooks for me.

It’s not Cajun cookin’ but Filipino food isn’t all that bad.

At night she goes to her job at Miss Nami’s.

That is, if there’s a party. She, like the rest of the girls, works only for tips.

If they charged for what they do, it’d be considered prostitution and that’s illegal. ”

“Let me guess, Miss Nami explained that to you.” Everyone except the young man in front of them understood the sarcasm in Shadow’s voice.

“No. The SEALs who took me to the party told me how it works with the girls. Since I didn’t have any idea how much to tip them, they told me the going rate for the different things they offer.

” The kid looked at his spit-shined shoes.

“I’d never heard of some of that…stuff.” He raised his head smiling.

“Jasmine has taught me a lot since she moved in. She’s one of the more popular girls at the parties. ”

Before the kid could start talking about sexual acts, Teddy looped him back around. “I want to hear more about the money you get back for your sponsorship.”

“Sure. Part of Jasmine’s tips go to Miss Nami because she provides the parties, some of her money comes to me so I can pay back what I borrowed to get her here—but I’ve almost got that paid off because Jasmine makes lots of tips.

Then she gives me money for rent and food.

Well, Jasmine doesn’t actually give me the money because Miss Nami handles all the tips.

See, since these girls grew up so poor, they don’t know how to handle money, least of all American money.

” He grinned like they were all in on the same secret. “See, a roommate but with benefits.”

“And Jasmine gets to keep the rest, right?” Ox asked hopefully.

The young seamen apprentice looked away.

“Well, there really isn’t any money left.

You guys know how expensive apartments are in this area and my basic allowance for housing from the Navy isn’t very much.

I need the money from Jasmine to help pay the rent and improve the apartment.

My furniture was shit, but just last week I bought a new sixty-inch television…

so she could watch TV during the day. It helps improve her English and she says that helps get her better tips.

See, she’s a roommate, not my girlfriend. ”

Yeah, a roommate with benefits enslaved to Miss Nami and the na?ve idiot in front of them.

“Do you have a two-bedroom apartment? Is that why you want to get a new roommate?” Trojan asked the question before Teddy could.

“No. I have a studio.” The young man glanced away before he returned his attention back to the SEALs. “Jasmine is a really nice girl, but like I said, she’s not my girlfriend. She’s pressuring me to marry her so she can get a military ID card and American citizenship.”

“Is marrying her part of this sponsorship?” Slick asked.

“Heck no. If I marry her, I have to pay off Miss Nami ‘cuz Jasmine doesn’t want to keep on working for her. And I don’t love her.

I don’t want to marry her.” The young man sounded desperate.

“I was hoping to find her a job like a live-in nanny. She’d have a place to live and make money.

She could pay Miss Nami off herself…and I could sponsor another girl. ”

“Did you say other SEALs were doing this?” Incredulity laced Trojan’s voice.

The yeoman started rattling off names. Most of them were junior enlisted men on other teams although he mentioned a few petty officers and even a chief.

“So, are you guys interested in sponsoring one of the girls?” Seamen Apprentice Fontanelle sounded excited. “I can get you guys into the party on Friday night. The one on Thursday night is a special private deal.”

“No,” all six men said at the same time.

“Well, if you know of anyone who needs a good live-in nanny or you change your mind about sponsoring, you know where to contact me. I need to get back into work.” The young man stepped back and gave them a smart salute which they all returned.

He did a perfect about-face and strode into the building.

“What-the-fuck?” Shadow said the words they were all thinking.

“Debt bondage,” Teddy clarified.

“Call it whatever you want, but it’s human trafficking,” Ox added.

“Fuck that. It’s sex trafficking.” Shadow continued, “Those girls have no hope in hell of ever getting away from Miss Nami.”

“I don’t like that she’s got a bunch of SEALs involved.

I don’t care that they’re relatively fresh.

Most of them have been around long enough to know that shit just ain’t right.

Especially that fucking chief.” Trojan said.

“He’s a dirtbag. I’ve known him since BUD/S.

He was in the class ahead of mine. He enjoyed giving some of my classmates not just bad but terrible advice, then laughed when they got in trouble.

He told them that he was teaching them an important lesson… don’t trust anyone.”

“What a fuckhead.” Slick sneered.

“I’m shocked every time the asshole adds another chevron. I can’t believe they keep promoting him.” Trojan turned and spit on the grass as though he had a bad taste in his mouth.

“We need to go tell Commander Brenner about this.” Teddy glanced over his shoulder at the building they just left.

“If this fucks up our leave, the girls are never going to forgive us,” Slick pointed out. Their leave had been approved effective immediately. They had seven days to enjoy the cabins they’d rented in the mountains where the late-arriving spring hadn’t melted all the snow yet.

Teddy knew what he had to do. “You guys head on up to Big Bear Lake. Shannon and I will get there as soon as we can. Just make sure the beer is cold by the time I get there.” He turned and headed back into the headquarters. He had to tell his commanding officer.