A SEAL's Struggle Read online

  A SEAL’s Struggle

  By Cora Seton

  Copyright © 2019 Cora Seton

  Nook Edition

  Published by One Acre Press

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Excerpt from A SEAL’s Triumph

  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  A SEAL’s Struggle is the ninth volume in the SEALs of Chance Creek series, set in the fictional town of Chance Creek, Montana. To find out more about Greg, Renata, Boone, Clay, Jericho, Walker and the other inhabitants of Base Camp, look for the rest of the books in the series, including:

  A SEAL’s Oath

  A SEAL’s Vow

  A SEAL’s Pledge

  A SEAL’s Consent

  A SEAL’s Purpose

  A SEAL’s Resolve

  A SEAL’s Devotion

  A SEAL’s Desire

  A SEAL’s Triumph

  Also, don’t miss Cora Seton’s other Chance Creek series, the Cowboys of Chance Creek, the Heroes of Chance Creek, and the Brides of Chance Creek

  The Cowboys of Chance Creek Series:

  The Cowboy Inherits a Bride (Volume 0)

  The Cowboy’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 1)

  The Cowboy Wins a Bride (Volume 2)

  The Cowboy Imports a Bride (Volume 3)

  The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire (Volume 4)

  The Sheriff Catches a Bride (Volume 5)

  The Cowboy Lassos a Bride (Volume 6)

  The Cowboy Rescues a Bride (Volume 7)

  The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Volume 8)

  The Cowboy’s Christmas Bride (Volume 9)

  The Heroes of Chance Creek Series:

  The Navy SEAL’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 1)

  The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 2)

  The Marine’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 3)

  The Navy SEAL’s Christmas Bride (Volume 4)

  The Airman’s E-Mail Order Bride (Volume 5)

  The Brides of Chance Creek Series:

  Issued to the Bride One Navy SEAL

  Issued to the Bride One Airman

  Issued to the Bride One Sniper

  Issued to the Bride One Marine

  Issued to the Bride One Soldier

  The Turners v. Coopers Series:

  The Cowboy’s Secret Bride (Volume 1)

  The Cowboy’s Outlaw Bride (Volume 2)

  The Cowboy’s Hidden Bride (Volume 3)

  The Cowboy’s Stolen Bride (Volume 4)

  The Cowboy’s Forbidden Bride (Volume 5)

  Visit Cora’s website at www.coraseton.com

  Find Cora on Facebook at facebook.com/CoraSeton

  Sign up for my newsletter HERE.

  Chapter One

  ‡

  Last September

  Win Lisle stared at the white-and-pink plastic wand she held in her hand, her heart thumping wildly.

  Pregnant. She was pregnant.

  She was going to have Angus’s child.

  She leaned against the metal partition of the bathroom stall in Linda’s Diner, a small restaurant in the heart of Chance Creek, Montana, and counted backward to the beginning of the month, when she must have conceived—then she quickly straightened, remembering where she was. Who knew if the partition was clean? Besides, even if she wanted to scream the news from the rooftops, she had to be vigilant. Had to stay aware of her surroundings. This was a public place, after all, and she’d been a target all her life.

  Win did a quick check of the ladies’ room through the gap between the stall door and the frame and assured herself she was alone, a new experience in itself. Back in San Mateo, California, she hadn’t ventured from her home without several bodyguards since she was a teenager. Her entourage, her friend Andrea used to joke, keeping it light to mask the darkness in Win’s life. Those men had kept her safe, and for years she’d appreciated having them around—could hardly breathe when they weren’t, if she was honest—but as she’d grown older, she’d chafed under their constant presence. Her security detail kept her separate from everyone else. Made it almost impossible to act on a whim or have any adventures. When Andrea got engaged in the spring and decided to host a bridesmaids’ weekend at a sweet little bed-and-breakfast in Montana, of all places, Win had decided to take control of her life.

  She’d confronted her parents, told them she was leaving her detail behind and was ready to face the world as a normal grown-up. She hadn’t won that fight easily, but in the end she’d boarded her plane alone.

  She hadn’t expected the pure terror that welled up in her as she left her bodyguards at the entrance to the San Francisco airport and strode alone into a building full of strangers. Nor had she anticipated how that terror would immobilize her as she stood in line to drop off her luggage or how close she’d be to tears when she finally met Andrea and her other friends at the gate.

  She cringed now to think how badly she’d behaved that weekend. Trying desperately to mask her fear, she’d feigned boredom, made cutting remarks about every aspect of the bed-and-breakfast and their hosts—the same people she now lived among. She’d hated herself for it but couldn’t seem to stop—

  Until she’d met Angus McBride.

  It turned out the bed-and-breakfast Andrea had chosen was situated on a large ranch named Westfield. Also staying on the ranch were ten men who’d served in the military and were now building a sustainable community there. Base Camp was to be a model the world could emulate. Win had been prepared to find it all ridiculous.

  When those men had invited the women down to share breakfast with them one morning, however, her life had changed forever.

  She’d appreciated the quaint three-story stone bed-and-breakfast dubbed “the manor” by the women who ran it, but that morning she’d eaten in the open air, sitting on a log near a campfire. She’d toured the community—what there was of it so far, which wasn’t much—with Angus, then walked to Pittance Creek along a rutted path through the woods.

  Win hadn’t been able to remember the last time she’d walked through a forest, or dipped her bare feet in a little stream like they did when they reached the creek, or sat on a stone and chatted with a stranger who could conjure up a Scottish accent at will, make her laugh with funny stories about his adventures in Montana so far and make her heart beat hard with his far more serious stories about his experiences in the military.

  By the time they headed back, and Angus took her hand, Win was ready to let him hold it. Ready to do anything to spend more time with him.

  She’d stood up to her parents once again, refused to come home, refused to accept the presence of any bodyguards in Montana, either. After all, there were ten military men at Base Camp. No one could get to her here.

  Still, Win had to admit as she checked the bathroom through the gap in the stall again, sometimes she was afraid, especially after Martin Fulsom, the billionaire funding the sustainable community and the man who owned the ranch upon which Base Camp and the manor were situated,
decided to create a reality television show about their lives.

  For the past nine months, he’d turned the men’s ambitions into a kind of contest. In order to secure the land and community they were building, they had one year in which to build ten houses that used one-tenth of the energy a normal American house consumed, build a renewable energy grid to power them, raise all the food they’d need to last through the winter, and—to show that their community could outlive them—each of them had to marry before the year was up, and three of their wives needed to be pregnant.

  Win thought the whole thing was crazy, but by that time she already knew she wanted to marry Angus, and she’d broken off her engagement to Leif Dunlevy, the fiancé she’d left back home. Being on television, broadcasting her whereabouts all over the world, terrified her, though. So did the makeshift accommodations at Base Camp.

  Fulsom had decreed that all the women needed to live the same way the men were doing, which meant Win and the others had to join the men sleeping in tents outside the bunkhouse that formed the headquarters for their new community. Win, who’d never been camping in her life, had lain awake night after night, paralyzed with fear, listening for footsteps outside, the sound of a man coming to get her—

  She had no idea how she made it through those months on so little sleep, but she’d have done anything to stay close to Angus, and she was aware that her newfound freedom had a price. She decided she was willing to pay it.

  When Nora Pickett, another of the women who lived at Base Camp, was pursued by a stalker and nearly killed last summer, Win’s faith in herself and her circumstances had been shaken to the core, and all of her worst fears came to the surface, kicking off another round of sleepless nights, panic attacks and longing for the safety of her parents’ home.

  She was proud to say she’d stuck it out, keeping as close as possible to the others for weeks before daring to venture forth on her own again.

  And now here she was. Pregnant. She was going to have a baby—Angus’s baby. Thank goodness she hadn’t succumbed to her fear. Angus and the other men had kept her safe. She didn’t need her parents’ legion of paid bodyguards—

  Win quickly checked through the gap again, the same way she’d checked a thousand rooms a thousand times before; people could get past your guard in an instant if you weren’t vigilant.

  Catching herself, she closed her eyes. Counted to five. She wasn’t in danger here. This was Chance Creek. In a minute she’d walk out the door, drive back to Base Camp. As soon as she reached the property, she’d be surrounded by ten men who’d served in the Navy SEALs. If she wasn’t safe there, she’d never be safe anywhere.

  She needed to calm down.

  But when Win looked at the test stick again, another wave of anxiety crashed over her as she realized from now on, she wouldn’t be responsible for just her own safety; she’d have a child to look after. A child who could be stolen—

  Reaching out a hand, she braced herself against the side of the stall, suddenly dizzy. She’d have to stay vigilant every moment. Explain to the others why her family’s position could make her child a target for mayhem. She understood the danger to her core. Would they?

  What if they didn’t? What if Angus didn’t take her seriously? Sometimes he joked about everything—

  Was it reckless of her to bring a child into the world?

  She hadn’t planned to—yet.

  Her heart thumped loudly as she forced herself to straighten. She should be celebrating, not panicking. Other women didn’t act this way when they got pregnant. They were overjoyed.

  She was overjoyed.

  It was just—

  Win swallowed and braced herself against memories that threatened to breach the defenses she’d erected against them. She never allowed them to intrude, even when they pushed hard. She wasn’t thirteen. She wasn’t back in that nightmare. She was here, and she was fine.

  Everything was going to be fine.

  Name five colors you see, she told herself. Four sounds you hear. Three things you can feel.

  She’d practiced the calming technique countless times since a counselor had taught it to her as a teenager. She forced her breathing to slow, knowing if she let the panic catch up to her, she’d be fighting it the rest of the day.

  Pregnant.

  She knew she’d forgotten a pill or two over the last month, but she’d caught up again as soon as she’d noticed. Could those small mistakes really add up to a pregnancy? It was true she and Angus McBride had been together almost every night since they’d met. She had to smile a little at the number of inventive ways they’d found to be together, despite the close quarters and how difficult it was to be alone at Base Camp. They’d never actually done it in a bed. Their moments together were short and stolen, so they’d made use of sheds, barns, even the pantry at the manor once. Trucks tucked away in turnouts by the side of the road. The woods down by Pittance Creek.

  Angus was insatiable, and with him, so was she. She’d never experienced anything like it before.

  There was no denying the results of this test stick, either. It was one of the modern ones that clearly stated “pregnant” or “not pregnant” in its little plastic-coated window. And it said “pregnant” clear as day.

  As her breathing slowed, Win imagined taking Angus somewhere private and telling him about the baby. Imagined the way he’d kiss her. The way he’d slowly undress her. The way he’d make love to her tenderly, careful because of her pregnancy, until she urged him to take her the way she liked. Angus’s passion—his pure enjoyment of the sexual act—was one of the things she loved about him. Soon they would start their lives together. Move into the tiny home that was almost completed. Build this community they’d both committed themselves to and raise their family here.

  It would all be okay—

  A crash of dishes from the restaurant made her shriek and claw at the stall door before she recognized the sound and nearly laughed in relief. She peered through the crack around the door again. She was still alone. Still safe. No one had come for her.

  Yet.

  Win looked at the test stick again.

  Was she going to be able to do this?

  One, two, three…

  Win started counting, another calming technique. She closed her eyes, placed a hand on her belly and tried to send her consciousness inside. “I will protect you,” she whispered. “I will do anything and everything to keep you safe.”

  She meant it. That’s what her parents had taught her when they’d saved her life all those years ago. You did anything it took.

  Spent any sum necessary to save your own.

  And because she was a Lisle, daughter of Vienna and Julian Lisle, she had any sum necessary at her disposal if push came to shove.

  Win lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. That’s what would get her through in the end. The family fortune. She might live simply here in Montana at Base Camp, but she held a secret weapon in reserve against all the evil in the world.

  Money.

  It might be weapons and muscle that saved you, but it was money that paid for them. Paid for everything that protected you from the things that went bump in the night.

  And she had money to spare. Would always have it.

  Which meant she could have this baby—and Angus—and Base Camp.

  And stop worrying once and for all.

  When her phone shrilled, Win nearly dropped the test stick into the toilet, but she caught it, hurried to collect her purse, exited the stall, rushed to wash her hands—and the stick—at the sink, quickly dried them, wrapped the stick in paper towel, tucked it away and answered just before the call went to voice mail.

  “Hello?” She hadn’t even checked to see who it was.

  “Win? It’s Dad.”

  “Dad?” Her stomach tightened, and she turned to the mirror over the sink automatically, checking to make sure she was upholding the Lisle family image. Her reflection stared back at her. Dark hair. A patrician nose. Full lips
. Her Regency-style gown was a little jarring, but she was used to it by now. All the women of Base Camp dressed this way.

  “You need to come home. Now.”

  His voice was strained. Not the well-modulated, hearty baritone he usually cultivated.

  Something had happened.

  Win’s grip on the phone tightened. “What’s wrong?” She half expected him to take her to task again for ditching Leif. Julian Lisle meant to go far in life, and Leif’s father was one of his oldest friends and biggest financial backers, which meant her father had been trying to get her to change her mind ever since she’d broken off her engagement. “If this is about Leif, I’m not going to marry him.”

  She didn’t love Leif. Never had. They’d been good friends once upon a time and had slipped into dating for lack of any better choices, but she realized they were both sleepwalking through life back then. Now she was awake.

  “This isn’t about Leif; it’s about your mother.”

  Her breath left her lungs in a whoosh of air. “What’s wrong with Mom?” Something had been off with Vienna for weeks. There’d been talk of doctor’s appointments. Vienna never went to doctors.

  “You know she’s been getting tests. Well, we got the results.”

  “What results?” Win’s panic was back. Her mother was the backbone of the family. A pillar of strength—

  “She has cancer. It’s serious, princess. You need to come home right now.”

  “Cancer?”

  “She’ll need a course of chemotherapy, and a lot of rest, and…” He hesitated, a very unusual thing for her father to do. Win swallowed in a dry throat, fear reaching up from some primal place to overwhelm all rational thought until she thought she’d pass out. Her vision was blurring at the edges. She grabbed on to the counter to steady herself.

  “Is she going to die?” Win had no idea how she’d made herself ask the words. It was her mother who had saved her all those years ago. Her mother who had wielded the family’s fortune like a saber, cutting through all the rules and red tape that prevented the police from finding her.