SEALed Protection (Bone Frog Brotherhood Book 5) Read online

  SEALed Protection

  Bone Frog Brotherhood Book 5

  Sharon Hamilton

  Sharon Hamilton’s Book List

  SEAL Brotherhood Series

  Accidental SEAL (Book 1)

  Fallen SEAL Legacy (Book 2)

  SEAL Under Covers (Book 3)

  SEAL The Deal (Book 4)

  Cruisin’ For A SEAL (Book 5)

  SEAL My Destiny (Book 6)

  SEAL Of My Heart (Book 7)

  Fredo’s Dream (Book 8)

  SEAL My Love (Book 9)

  SEAL Encounter (Book 1 Prequel)

  SEAL Endeavor (Book 2 Prequel)

  SEAL Brotherhood Box Set 1 (Accidental SEAL & Prequel)

  SEAL Brotherhood Box Set 2 (Fallen SEAL & Prequel)

  Ultimate SEAL Collection Vol. 1 (Books 1-4 + 2 Prequels)

  Ultimate SEAL Collection Vol. 2 (Books 5-7)

  Bad Boys of SEAL Team 3 Series

  SEAL’s Promise (Book 1)

  SEAL My Home (Book 2)

  SEAL’s Code (Book 3)

  Big Bad Boys Book (Books 1-3 of Bad Boys)

  Band of Bachelors Series

  Lucas (Book 1)

  Alex (Book 2)

  Jake (Book 3)

  Jake 2 (Book 4)

  Big Band of Bachelors Bundle

  True Blue SEALs Series

  Zak (Includes prequel novella)

  Nashville SEAL Series

  Nashville SEAL: Jameson (Books 1 & 2 combined)

  Silver SEALs

  SEAL Love’s Legacy

  Sleeper SEALs

  Bachelor SEAL

  Stand Alone SEALs

  SEAL’s Goal: The Beautiful Game

  Love Me Tender, Love You Hard

  Bone Frog Brotherhood Series

  New Year’s SEAL Dream (Book 1)

  SEALed At The Altar (Book 2)

  SEALed Forever (Book 3)

  SEAL’s Rescue (Book 4)

  SEALed Protection (Book 5)

  Paradise Series

  Paradise: In Search of Love

  Novellas

  SEAL You In My Dreams (Magnolias and Moonshine)

  SEAL Of Time (Trident Legacy)

  Fall From Grace Series (Paranormal)

  Gideon: Heavenly Fall

  Golden Vampires of Tuscany Series (Paranormal)

  Honeymoon Bite (Book 1)

  Mortal Bite (Book 2)

  Christmas Bite (Book 3)

  Midnight Bite (Book 4) Coming Fall 2019

  The Guardians (Paranormal)

  Heavenly Lover (Book 1)

  Underworld Lover (Book 2)

  Underworld Queen (Book 3)

  Immortal Valentines A Paranormal Super Bundle

  Audiobooks

  Sharon Hamilton’s books are available as audiobooks narrated by J.D. Hart.

  About the Book

  Navy SEAL Tucker Hudson has made all the right choices the second time around: a retread, re-joining SEAL Team 3 after ten years of wandering, he has a new wife, and now a new baby on the way. He struggles to hold on to his precious hard-won happiness, living a life he barely thought possible beside a woman who is in many ways stronger than he is.

  Brandy has proven she has what it takes to be married to an elite warrior, including being left alone during his dangerous deployments. But as she welcomes their new addition, a dark cloud descends upon her family as evil shows up closer to home, making them all rethink their life plans.

  Is it going to take more than their strong love for each other to protect everything they hold dear?

  Begin Reading

  Dedication

  About the Author

  Table of Contents

  Copyright © 2019 by Sharon Hamilton

  Kindle Edition

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. In many cases, liberties and intentional inaccuracies have been taken with rank, description of duties, locations and aspects of the SEAL community.

  License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Author’s Note

  I always dedicate my SEAL Brotherhood books to the brave men and women who defend our shores and keep us safe. Without their sacrifice, and that of their families—because a warrior’s fight always includes his or her family—I wouldn’t have the freedom and opportunity to make a living writing these stories. They sometimes pay the ultimate price so we can debate, argue, go have coffee with friends, raise our children and see them have children of their own.

  One of my favorite tributes to warriors resides on many memorials, including one I saw honoring the fallen of WWII on an island in the Pacific:

  “When you go home

  Tell them of us, and say

  For your tomorrow,

  We gave our today.”

  These are my stories created out of my own imagination. Anything that is inaccurately portrayed is either my mistake, or done intentionally to disguise something I might have overheard over a beer or in the corner of one of the hangouts along the Coronado Strand.

  I support two main charities. Navy SEAL/UDT Museum operates in Ft. Pierce, Florida. Please learn about this wonderful museum, all run by active and former SEALs and their friends and families, and who rely on public support, not that of the U.S. Government.

  www.navysealmuseum.org

  I also support Wounded Warriors, who tirelessly bring together the warrior as well as the family members who are just learning to deal with their soldier’s condition and have nowhere to turn. It is a long path to becoming well, but I’ve seen first-hand what this organization does for its warriors and the families who love them. Please give what your heart tells you is right. If you cannot give, volunteer at one of the many service centers all over the United States. Get involved. Do something meaningful for someone who gave so much of themselves, to families who have paid the price for your freedom. You’ll find a family there unlike any other on the planet.

  www.woundedwarriorproject.org

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Sharon Hamilton’s Book List

  About the Book

  Copyright Page

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  About the Author
/>   Reviews

  SEAL Prayer

  Chapter 1

  Tucker Hudson, decorated Navy SEAL from legendary SEAL Team 3, spent the entire weekend in San Diego hacking and pulling up old vines and shrubs that had lost their shape from plantings more than thirty years ago, as well as obliterating escaping bamboo invading from neighboring properties. He’d started with hand clippers, then moved on to large tree nips, electric hedge trimmers and finally a small chainsaw to remove the stubborn foliage. It was Brandy’s vision that this area become a combination garden paradise and vegetable garden, even though it was technically the front yard of their new home.

  If it was what Brandy wanted, Tucker was going to make it so, regardless of how sunburned and sweaty he got, or how much noise and dust he created. It was vegitative warfare this willing warrior was fighting for the bride of all his dreams, mother of his soon-to-be born son.

  Well, that’s what he was counting on—a son.

  Of course, if Brandy wanted a girl, it would probably be a girl. He no longer marveled at how many of her dreams became reality. His job was to follow along the gilded path she created with her zest for life and her overall exuberance for living to the fullest.

  She’d keep him young, with their over fifteen-year difference in age. When he was hobbling around on a cane, he’d still be her knight, fixing things and balancing himself on dangerous ladders to hang pictures or change light fixtures or drapes, just because Brandy wanted it that way.

  Each time he stopped, gulping down half a quart of ice water, he’d glance over at the large boxes containing the gift palm trees they’d yet to plant in the ground. It was on his daily honey-do list, to water those plants, and every time he did so, he thought about the man who gifted them, Colin Riley – a man he met on his last mission.

  As I’ve said before, I can’t thank you enough for your wonderful gift of my daughter’s life. These trees should reach the height of thirty feet or more, so I hope you will plant them where you can enjoy watching them grow, as you grow your family and enjoy your new home. But don’t place them anywhere they will spoil that fantastic view.

  I’m glad our paths have crossed. I hope someday to be able to be more a part of your lives. While these trees grow, and hopefully before they get to be thirty feet, and I’m gone, I’d like to sit down and thank you in person and talk about a future that could be for all of us.

  He’d memorized nearly every word, having read the card over so many times—something he never would admit to Brandy. He noted the many-fingered branches fluttered in the breeze as if saying hello. If he put those roots in Brandy’s Secret Garden, they’d grow. That would mean the man who’d sent them would become more and more a fixture in their lives.

  He hadn’t decided whether or not that was a good thing.

  Tucker knew his next deployment was coming up in another thirty days. He’d promised Brandy that he’d be home for the baby’s birth, and he hoped he could keep that vow. But the short trip back to the Canary Islands required his leadership, since their normal team leader, Chief Kyle Lansdowne, was off on special assignment to the State Department. Although technically still a newer member of the squad, he’d done ten years previous before his re-enlistment and re-qualification. At forty-one years of age, he was one of the oldest members. Outranked by nearly everyone, the guys still looked upon him as the unofficial LPO in Kyle’s absence. And that’s why Kyle wanted him on this mission.

  The job would revisit some of the bad guys they’d encountered several months ago, when they rescued the daughter of the man who gave him the potted palm trees.

  He’d tried to get billionaire Colin Riley’s face and the squeak of his wheelchair out of his mind, but the man was a stubborn memory. He knew why. Riley had scratched an itch that was now inflamed. He’d dared to offer Tucker a job lining up a secret security force for good. But that would mean that Riley would own Tucker. He wasn’t going to even let the man give him a proper presentation. The answer was no before Riley could finish his first imaginary PowerPoint.

  No one, not even a billionaire offering a lifestyle he could only fantasize about, was ever going to own Tucker Hudson. He hadn’t become a SEAL for fame or fortune. He wasn’t about to change that all now.

  But on days like these, when he was working in the yard and trying to get the house into shape to prepare for the new baby, it would have been nice to rent some equipment to make it a little easier on his body. Unlike Colin Riley, Tucker and Brandy’s funds were precarious. They were living on one salary, and even as a SEAL, the pay wasn’t great.

  They’d just bought a major fixer on the island, overgrown, neglected and mercifully hidden from the other large homes in the neighborhood. Their furniture came from second-hand stores. The new refrigerator they bought had a six-inch dent in the door and was missing handles. The new stove had a cracked black glass door. These were all things that could be fixed, of course, but after they finished purchasing the new vanity and toilet for their bathroom. Everything they bought came from some Asian warehouse where not a word of English was spoken. The damned place smelled of fish, reminding him of some of the villages in Africa and South America. All the cabinets, appliances, and fixtures were cosmetically damaged but deeply discounted.

  It was a delicate balance, calculating where their next paycheck would be spent. With luck, it would all be complete before the new arrival.

  He was expecting some help from his childhood best friend, Brawley Hanks, as well as T.J. Talbot and several other guys from Team 3. Brandy was off getting things for a “thank you” barbeque after a few hours of work and drinking beers until the stars came out. He’d made a firepit, lined it with bricks, and found an old grate he could use as a spark catcher. He wanted to have a bonfire without setting the neighbors’ houses on fire.

  But damn, he heard that mechanical whine from Riley’s wheelchair again and wished he could wipe his memory, because now it was becoming really annoying. He turned up the music on his second-hand paint-spattered boombox, which successfully masked the noise by blaring country music from a local AM station.

  He dug out several deep roots of shrubs he’d castrated and tossed them to the side. He skimmed the top hardpan layer with a shovel and discovered a soft sandy soil underneath that could eventually be habitable for Brandy’s garden.

  His whole life had changed dramatically after that fateful New Years’ eve, two and a half years ago—the night of Brawley and Dorie’s wedding, where he watched Brandy walk down the aisle behind the other bridesmaids.

  He never was able to recover from that vision of her and that damned bustier, which accentuated the features he loved most in women: their bosoms and curvy hips.

  That brought a smile to his face. They’d both been running away from something that night, he remembered. He was running away from loneliness, not on a Team at that time but desperately needing the connection. Brandy was running away from the same thing but was the only one being honest with herself. She wanted one perfect night. Well, hell, he happened to be there and available, and the attraction was instantaneous, even when he had to hold her hair back as she threw up. She was dosing. Tucker was just fishing. And like two shooting stars in the night sky, they slammed into one another. And that was it.

  It was a simple case of undeniable chemistry. Not a damned thing he could do about it, either. Not that he wanted to.

  Now he was going to have a little “orbit” of his own. That’s what he and Brawley had called children when they were growing up. Little annoying things who got in the way. Except now he had a whole new appreciation for offspring. He’d been given a miracle, even though he was a poor, dumb frogman. He wondered why God had trusted him to become a father. But he had a fierce love for Brandy that loomed larger than a battleship. And that gave him hope for a bright future.

  Although he would never tell a soul this, he believed in the healing power of true love. He was a big, tough SEAL, but he was a hopeless romantic.

  Brandy drove u
p in the Hummer, following the driveway on the right side of the property. She stopped close to where he was standing, and he threw his shovel down to help her get out of the truck. Before he could get there, she’d slid out until her dangling feet touched the ground. Her belly must have been infringing on her lungs, because just as he arrived at her side, she paused, closed her eyes, and took several slow, deep breaths.

  “I could have helped you. Next time, don’t be so impatient, Brandy.”

  She gave him a sweet smile, her cheeks pink and plump, like the rest of her.

  “Oh, stop it, Tucker, I’m not an invalid.”

  “But I want to help you, sweetheart.”

  She patted her palm against his cheek. “Silly man. Women have been having babies for thousands of years and managed quite well.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and forced her to hug him back, as he whispered in her ear, “But they don’t drive Hummers that they have to HALO jump from. Don’t do that anymore, okay, sweetheart?”

  Brandy’s VW bug was in the shop until Monday. But she’d not been able to drive it the past couple of weeks because she couldn’t fit behind the steering wheel. He didn’t have to mention that at all.

  She relaxed and squeezed him back. “My protector.”

  “Always.” He meant it.

  He rounded the truck, retrieving the two grocery bags, and then walked beside her into the house.

  “Where’s your help?” she asked.

  “Delayed.” He set the bags on the countertop and sorted through the contents. Finding two five-pound packages of marked down hamburger meat, he quickly placed it in the refrigerator then examined her other purchases. He was delighted to find a half gallon of rocky road ice cream. “Nice!” He held the package up to her smiling face.

  “Not sure if we have any more of that chocolate syrup, but I bought whipped cream.”

  He shook the metal can and wiggled his eyebrows. “Dangerous!”

  “Uh-huh. I think that’s where the chocolate syrup went.” She blushed, grabbed the whipped cream, and slipped it next to the hamburger meat. Tucker put the ice cream in the freezer.