Navy SEAL Captive
Authors: Elle James
Saving the SEAL
Being abducted by a beautiful woman in Cancún wasn't part of Sawyer Houston's R & R mission. Jenna Broyles claims she's rescuing the vacationing navy SEAL from unknown assailants. Only it's her life on the line when the jilted bride becomes a target.
The high-end Mexico resort was supposed to be Jenna's honeymoon destination. But after a dangerous discovery forces her to play hero, she's the one in need of the gorgeous stranger's expertise. As Jenna and Sawyer flee across treacherous tropical jungles, the heat between them builds to a fever pitch. Can they make safe haven before Sawyer's secrets get them both killed?
Jenna swayed, bracing her hands on his chest. “You have to stop doing that.”
“Why?”
“I barely know you.”
“You knew enough about me to find me on the beach and save me from an assassin. I reckon that gives us a pass on convention.”
She rested her forehead against his chest. “I didn't come to Cancún to get involved with a man.” But, boy, had that backfired on her.
“And I have no business getting involved with you.” He gripped her shoulders and set her at arm's length. “As a SEAL, I'm gone more than I'm home. And with an assassin after me, I can't risk you becoming collateral damage.”
NAVY SEAL
CAPTIVE
New York Times
Bestselling Author
Elle James
Elle James
, a
New York Times
bestselling author, started writing when her sister challenged her to write a romance novel. She has managed a full-time job and raised three wonderful children, and she and her husband even tried ranching exotic birds (ostriches, emus and rheas). Ask her, and she'll tell you what it's like to go toe-to-toe with an angry 350-pound bird! Elle loves to hear from fans at
[email protected]
or
ellejames.com
.
Books by Elle James
Harlequin Intrigue
SEAL of My Own
Navy SEAL Captive
Covert Cowboys, Inc.
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
Sawyer Houstonâ
Highly trained, skilled gunner and navy SEAL from SEAL Boat Team 22 on vacation in Cancún. Secretly he is the son of a US senator.
Jenna Broylesâ
Jilted at the altar, she's determined to be anything but boring while on her “honeymoon” in Cancún.
Dutton “Duff” Callowayâ
Highly trained, skilled demolitions expert and navy SEAL from SEAL Boat Team 22 on vacation in Cancún.
Benjamin “Montana” Rainesâ
Expert sniper and navy SEAL from SEAL Boat Team 22 on vacation in Cancún.
Quentin Lovettâ
Highly trained, expertly skilled weapons specialist and navy SEAL from SEAL Boat Team 22 on vacation in Cancún.
Natalie Layneâ
Stealth Operations Specialists agent with special sniper skills, on vacation in Cancún after rescuing her sister from a human trafficking attempt.
Lance Johnsonâ
Stealth Operations Specialists agent with highly evolved computer and technical skills useful in field operations.
Carmelo Devitaâ
Mexican drug lord also involved in human trafficking and known to hire out mercenaries.
Jorge Ramirezâ
Thug working for Carmelo Devita.
Becca Smithâ
Vacationing beauty who befriends Jenna.
Trey Dannerâ
Former FBI special agent who's worked undercover with a stateside drug dealer.
Carly Samuelsâ
The friend Jenna brought along on her “honeymoon.”
Rand Houstonâ
US senator and self-made millionaire who clawed his way to a huge fortune in the oil and gas industry.
This book is dedicated to my sister, Delilah Devlin, who was an officer in the US army. She has inspired me to be the best I can be in my military career and in my journey to publication. She's my mentor, sounding board and critique partner. And she isn't afraid to tell me like it is. I love you, Sis!
Chapter One
“Seriously. I can't believe you talked me into this. And to go straight for the biggest first? Isn't that pushing it?” Sawyer Houston adjusted the web seat and waited his turn on the platform. Perched on the edge of a two-hundred-foot cliff, staring down into the vast jungle, Sawyer balked. Cancún Adventures boasted the longest, most exciting zip line in Mexico, guaranteed to make you scream. Not, in Sawyer's opinion, the most reassuring advertisement.
“It's not like you to turn away from a challenge, Houston,” Quentin Lovett ribbed. “You've fast-roped out of helicopters, entered buildings full of terrorists and been shot at by rifles, machine guns and mortars.” Quentin snorted. “What's a little ol' zip line gonna hurt?”
“I don't know who set it up, whether the cable is strong enough to withstand my weight or if there's a way to stop me at the other end. Hell, I can't see the other end, and plunging into a tree at the bottom isn't my idea of fun. Besides, how would that look on my tombstone? âSEAL ends his navy career on vacation, sliding to his death on a poorly rigged zip line.'”
“Step aside.” Quentin circled Sawyer. “Let me show you how it's done.”
“That's right. Test the line. I'll be sure to send your mother a letter telling of your bravery in the face of a zip line.”
A couple of women stood in front of Quentin. The curvy one in the khaki shorts and white Cancún T-shirt shook her head, her dark red curls bouncing with her nervous movements. “No. I've changed my mind.” She backed away from her friend with the short dark hair, running into Quentin.
“Whoa, darlin'.” Quentin steadied her, his brows rose and he winked at Sawyer.
“Sorry.” Her cheeks bloomed with color, and she hurriedly stepped away from him.
“Jenna, you have to do it,” the dark-haired, petite woman said. “It's part of your kick-the-boring therapy.”
“Yeah, but I was thinking more along the lines of riding a roller coaster, not speeding through the jungle at Mach ten on a cable probably salvaged from a shipyard by people who might have used office staples to nail it to some tree ready to fall over at any minute.”
Sawyer took a breath for Jenna. How one woman could say all that without inhaling was beyond him. But she was kind of cute, and he didn't blame her for her trepidation.
“Hey, I'll go first to test it out,” the other woman said.
“No way, Carly. If you die, I'm stranded in the jungle with no one to get me back to the hotel to find my lost luggage.”
Sawyer's lips quirked at the redhead's adamant refusal to participate in the death-defying feat of zip-lining. “I'll give you a ride.”
Jenna shot him a narrow-eyed glance before turning back to her friend. “Or you'll be leaving me at the mercy of strangers, possibly mass murderers.”
The brunette rolled her eyes, then gave Sawyer a considering look. “He's not a mass murderer, and he's really cute. You could do worse. Now, I'm going. I'll see you back at the parking lot.” She pulled on the gloves they'd been given and stepped up to the man in charge.
The man in the red Cancún Adventures T-shirt and black cotton shorts stubbed out his cigarette and hooked her belt to the cable. “If you want to slow, grab the cable with your glove. But don't do it too soon, or you will stop in the middle of the cable,” he said in heavily accented English.
“Here's to shaking it off and plotting a more adventurous course in your life.” The brunette leaned toward the cliff.
Jenna swayed toward her friend. “Carly, don'tâ” But she was too late. Carly leaped off the cliff and raced toward the jungle at breakneck speed, squealing in delight.
Quentin chuckled. “Damn, she beat me to it.” He turned toward Sawyer. “Are you going to let a girl shame you?”
Sawyer crossed his arms over his chest. “There's no shame in preferring to keep my bones intact.”
The redhead nodded, her gaze on her friend as she disappeared into the dark green jungle below. “That's what I told Carly.” She glanced back at Sawyer. “Don't get me wrong. I'm all for adventure.” Jenna bit her lip. “Or, at least, that was the point of this exercise.” Turning toward the cliff, she straightened her shoulders. “And, for the record, I'm not boring.”
“Didn't say you were. Actually, you're far from it,” Sawyer agreed, admiring her curvy figure and the shock of auburn hair that refused to be contained in the ponytail.
Quentin performed a sweeping bow in front of the woman. “Allow me.”
“Sure. I'm not in a hurry to plunge to my death.” She stepped back, this time bumping into Sawyer.
He wrapped an arm around her, absorbed the impact of her body and breathed in the flowery scent of her hair. Nope. Not boring at all. With her small body pressed close to his, he forgot all about the zip line and his argument with Quentin.
“Sorry,” she mumbled and stepped to his side and out of his embrace, her cheeks flushing a soft pink.
Everywhere she'd touched him still resonated with the warmth of her body. Sawyer's groin tightened.
“Nothing to it.” Quentin allowed the attendant to hook his D-ring to the pulley and held on to the cable with his gloved hand. “See you at the bottom, if you have the guts to do it.” He winked, lifted his legs and took off, sliding to his doom in the jungle, whooping and hollering as he went.
Jenna drew in a long breath and let it out on a sigh. “I did come to Cancún to start over and be more adventurous.”
Sawyer smiled. “You don't have to do the zip line to be adventurous.”
“No?” She glanced at him hopefully, her face brightening. Then her brows drew together, and she stiffened. “Yeah, but I don't ever want to be accused of being boring again.”
“I take it someone called you boring,” Sawyer said.
She lifted her chin. “My ex-fiancé.”
“He must have been blind.”
“And a cheating bastard.” She stepped up to the attendant. “I'm going.”
“You want me to go with you?” Sawyer offered.
She shook her head. “No. I'll be fine. If Carly can do it, so can I.” Jenna stared at the attendant, biting her lip. “I'm ready.”
The attendant gave her the same instructions he'd given to Quentin and Carly.
Jenna closed her eyes and said, “Could you give me a little push?” Her hands shook on the line hooked to the pulley as she drew in a ragged breath.
The attendant nodded, a smile teasing the corners of his mouth, and gave her a hefty shove. Her small body flew out over the cliff and raced to the bottom. A long, high-pitched scream ripped through the air, fading the farther away she went.
“Damn.” Sawyer checked his nylon web belt, which fit snugly around his legs, and stepped up to the attendant. “Guess I'm going, too.”
He turned to the man behind him, hoping that one last person would talk him out of taking the plunge.
The tall, muscular man with light brown hair and steely gray eyes stared right through him.
Nope. There'd be no help on that front.
When he stepped up to the edge, the attendant blocked him with his hand. “Wait until the senorita makes it to the bottom.”
The attendant waited a full minute before he snapped Sawyer's link onto the line, repeated the instructions and left Sawyer teetering on the edge of the cliff, praying the cable held and the glove would do its job and slow his descent. In the back of his mind, he hoped that he'd find the woman he'd held in his arms for that brief second to thank her for shaming him into jumping off a cliff when his gut told him he was crazy.
He jumped.
Sawyer fell into the jungle, his speed picking up as he swished past treetops, the wind clearing his head and sharpening his mind. As he dropped below the canopy of trees, he could make out the base and Quentin standing at the bottom.
But he wasn't slowing, and at the pace he was going, he'd crash into the pole at the bottom. How had he let his teammate talk him into sliding down a cable he hadn't personally inspected? If he lived through this, he'd have a word or two with Quentin.
He gripped the line with his gloved hand, slowing a little, enough to give him a slight amount of reassurance he could stop himself before he crashed into the pole at the other end. For the first time since he jumped off the upper platform, he glanced around at the jungle below. When he looked back at his destination, his heart leaped.
The distance closed faster than he expected and before he knew it, he was careening the last fifty feet into the base. Sawyer grabbed the cable with the gloved hand and squeezed. The wind no longer whipped past him, and his descent slowed the closer he came to the bottom. He couldn't remember being that terrified since his first fast-rope experience out of a fully operational helicopter hovering thirty feet from the ground.
Ten feet from his feet touching the ground, the cable jolted in his hand. Sawyer bounced in the harness and then dropped like a ton of bricks to the ground. He tucked and rolled, absorbing the impact, and then sprang to his feet. What the hell had just happened?
The attendant at the bottom yelled something in Spanish and threw himself into the jungle. Quentin followed suit.
Sawyer spun in time to see the cable springing back toward him, detached from the pole at the other end. He dived to the right and ducked behind a tree. The cable whipped through the treetops like an angry snake and finally lay still on the ground.
His heart pounding like a bass drum, Sawyer leaped to his feet and yelled, “Everyone okay?”
Quentin climbed out of the brush, pulling leaves out of his hair. “Holy crap. Did you see that?”
Sawyer's jaw tightened, and he forced himself to take a deep breath. “Saw and felt it.”
“If you'd been a couple seconds later on that cable...” Quentin shook his head and clapped Sawyer on the back. “Damn, buddy. I hate it when you're right.”
Sawyer brushed the dirt off his hands. “In this case, I wish I hadn't been right.”
While the zip-line attendant scrambled to his feet, swearing in Spanish, Sawyer unbuckled the nylon straps from around his legs and let the harness drop. “Next time you want me to slide down a zip line...”
Quentin held up his hands. “Don't worry. There won't be a next time.” He felt his pockets and cursed. Then he dived into the brush and came up with his cell phone. “The good news is I got it all on video. The guys are gonna die when they see this.”
Sawyer snorted. “I almost died living it.”
Quentin shoved the phone into his pocket and turned toward the exit. “I have to admit, I was surprised to see you coming. But even more surprised when the redhead came down first.”
Sawyer glanced around and didn't see the woman named Jenna anywhere. “I take it Jenna arrived safely at the bottom.”
“She did. She and her pretty friend left, claimed they needed to get back to find a piece of missing luggage. The redhead told me to tell you thanks for the encouragement.”
Disappointed he'd missed her, but glad she'd gone before him when the cable was still intact, Sawyer asked, “You didn't happen to catch her full name, did you?”
“She didn't offer a last name.” Quentin turned back to Sawyer. “Why? Are you interested?”
Again, Sawyer shrugged. “Just wondered.” Hell, yes, he was interested, but he'd be damned if he let Quentin know. He'd pick at him incessantly.
“I did get her roommate's name, though.” Quentin patted his smartphone. “Carly Samuels. We have a date tonight.”
Figured. Quentin didn't waste time when it came to women. He was a charmer, and women fell for him all the time. Perhaps the best-looking man on the team with his black hair and ice-blue eyes, he usually had his pick of the ladies.
Quentin had a date and Duff was with his lady friend, Natalie, leaving Sawyer and Montana fending for themselves for dinner and drinks. Which suited Sawyer just fine. Montana was a big, outdoorsy mountain man who didn't say much but was good company. They had a week and a half left of their two weeks in Cancún. Granted, he loved his SEAL teammates like brothers, but he could use a little quality time away from them, preferably in the company of someone of the opposite sex.
As they slid into the rented Jeep, Quentin turned to Sawyer. “You had a few minutes alone with her. Why didn't you get her name and number? We could have gone on a double date.”
“We weren't alone. The attendant was there. And who said I wanted to go out with her, anyway?” And he sure as hell wouldn't go on a double date with Quentin. No, if Sawyer had gotten Jenna's number, he'd have taken her out alone. Maybe for a walk along the beach in the moonlight. If she showed even the slightest interest, he might have stolen a kiss. Those pretty pink lips she'd chewed on prior to taking the big leap on the zip line were full and plump. Made for kissing.
“You've got to get out there, be more sociable, network and sell yourself.”
Sawyer's fingers tightened on the steering wheel at Quentin's comment. He'd heard the same words from his father's mouth on more than one occasion. Quentin was right. He hadn't dated in a while, and he was getting rusty at socializing with women.
What Quentin and his father never understood was that Sawyer didn't like being in the limelight. Especially in front of all of his father's peers. He'd rather be the best he could be at his job in the navy SEALs, the one place he'd proven he was good enough to make the cut. Besides, wearing the uniform was usually all he needed to find a date when he really wanted one. Too bad he was in civvies here.
“So do you have plans for tonight?” Quentin asked.
“Yeah. I plan on spending the afternoon on the beach. Maybe I'll rent a WaveRunner. Then I'm going to eat seafood and have a few beers with Montana. I don't have to live for excitement like you.”
Quentin shook his head. “Since excitement seems to follow us, you might need a little rest and relaxation.” He linked his hands behind his neck. “Missions always leave me wired, ready to expend some energy.”