Rescued by the SEAL, Davenport, Fiona [classic children's novels .TXT] 📗

on the door while Deacon wrapped a hand around the knob and held up three fingers. When he dropped the last one, he yanked open the door, and I rushed inside, followed closely by the others. A man with greasy black hair and a face that had clearly been in one too many fistfights whirled around in shock. Brick house. I trained my eyes on him and didn’t look around, knowing that I needed to keep my focus on this piece of shit before Cora distracted me.

“Drop it,” I demanded, using the barrel of my gun to indicate his weapon. He looked like he might argue at first but seemed to quickly realize he was outmanned and outgunned. His gun fell from his hands and hit the floor with a clang.

“Where’s your partner?” Cash asked coolly.

“Dead.” His expression remained blank, his eyes devoid of emotion, obviously not regretting his actions for a second.

A small whimper reached my ears, and I whirled toward it to see Cora curled up in a corner, duct tape on her ankles, wrists, and mouth. I took one step toward her, and her eyes flicked over my right shoulder with fear. I flipped around, gun raised, and put two bullets in the brick house.

A hand came down on my shoulder, and I nearly took Stirling’s head off. “Relax, man. We’re going to do a sweep and make sure we’re all clear.” I nodded, knowing it needed to be done but loathing to leave Cora for even one second. I made a move toward the door, but he pulled me to a stop. “Take care of your girl.”

5 Cora

When Jack had shoved me into a corner, I’d started to worry that Huntley wouldn’t get the chance to rescue me. There had been no way for me to catch my fall. Not after he had wrapped so much duct tape around my wrists that you couldn’t see the rope underneath and followed that up with circling it around my ankles and slapping a strip over my mouth. And he hadn’t been careful with how much force he’d used, either—barely sparing me a glance when I cried out. He’d ignored me, pacing back and forth while muttering beneath his breath about how wrong his plan had gone. After warning his now-dead partner about Huntley’s threat earlier, he didn’t seem too worried about me getting hurt, and I figured that didn’t bode well for my safety.

I was starting to doubt that I’d make it out of this warehouse alive when Huntley showed up with a few other guys. And then I was afraid Jack would kill him instead when he’d turned to look at me, but in the end, everything turned out okay. I’d never have to worry about the hulking guy who would’ve been more than happy to kill me because Jack was the one who died instead.

Tears of relief streamed down my cheeks as Huntley prowled toward me. After dropping to his knees, he set his rifle on the floor to his left and carefully removed the duct tape from over my mouth. He was still gently tugging strands of my hair from the adhesive—since Jack had gone overboard and wrapped it all the way around my head—when I gasped, “You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”

“Probably about as fucking happy as I am to have found you relatively unharmed.” He freed the rest of my hair from the tape and tilted my head back to press his forehead against mine. “If I’d been even just a few minutes later, that bastard might’ve lost it and—”

I closed the gap between our mouths to stop whatever he’d been about to say. I only meant for it to be a quick brush of our lips, but Huntley took control and deepened the kiss. His tongue demanded entry to tangle with mine, stealing my breath until I forgot where we were. But when I tried to lift my hands to grip his shoulders, I let out a little disgruntled whimper because they were still tied and taped. “Fuck, sorry, gingersnap. You have the unique ability to make me lose my head.”

I was grinning like a loon while he went to work at releasing my ankles and wrists. If anyone had seen me, they probably would’ve wondered if being taken hostage and seeing three men die had made me lose touch with reality, but I couldn't help smiling at the realization of how much of an impact I had on Huntley. When I was finally free from all the tape, I heaved a deep sigh of relief. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“You don’t have to thank me, gingersnap.” He stood and helped me to my feet since my legs were a bit wobbly. “I’ll always come for you because you’re mine. Nobody will ever take you away from me.”

Although I understood how the robbery could’ve changed his mind about the reasons he’d been trying to stay away from me, I was worried about how quick he’d moved from telling me we couldn’t date to calling me his. “That’s not just the adrenaline talking, right?”

“Not even close.” His lips curved into a rueful grin as he shook his head. “I’ve been in combat situations with bullets flying all around me, and I’ve never once felt the need to claim a woman as my own when it was all over. Only you, Cora. You make me feel things I’ve never experienced before.”

I flashed him a watery grin, overwhelmed in the very best way over how he was finally opening up. “It’s the same for me.”

“I’m sorry it took nearly losing you for me to pull my head out of my ass.” He pulled me against his chest, burying his face into the crook of my shoulder. “I was so fucking worried about what could go wrong when I was deployed and what that would do to you, I didn’t stop to think about the fact that danger can