Point Blank SEAL Read online

  You can keep your protocol—he’ll go rogue to keep his family safe

  Tortured in captivity, navy SEAL Miguel Estrada owes his survival to his fiancée, the memory of her keeping him strong through his darkest moments. But when his escape is compromised by military protocol and he suspects the woman he loves is being targeted, he turns rogue.

  Jennifer Lynch has spent a year mourning Miguel and raising the baby he never met. But her reality is shaken once she finds him at her door and discovers they’re all at risk.

  Putting his life on the line for Jennifer and their child, Miguel is forced to face some hard truths—and confront the secrets that might separate them permanently.

  Red, White and Built

  Miguel eyed the bat still clutched in Jennifer’s hand.

  He spread his arms, palms up, and stated the obvious. “I’m not dead.”

  She dropped the bat. It bounced once before toppling over. Then she breathed his name. “Miguel.”

  In those two syllables, she expressed all the hope, longing and love that had kept him alive for a year and a half in captivity.

  He closed the space between them and swept her into his arms, holding her body so close he couldn’t tell where his ended and hers began. He pressed his lips against her soft hair, the blond strands almost glowing in the dark as if they had collected all of the moonlight.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist, tilting her head back, her cheeks wet. “My every prayer has been answered, but how… Why did they tell me you were dead?”

  The navy and the CIA had their reasons, but he didn’t need to tell her those reasons—right now.

  POINT BLANK SEAL

  Carol Ericson

  Carol Ericson is a bestselling, award-winning author of more than forty books. She has an eerie fascination for true-crime stories, a love of film noir and a weakness for reality TV, all of which fuel her imagination to create her own tales of murder, mayhem and mystery. To find out more about Carol and her current projects, please visit her website at www.carolericson.com, “where romance flirts with danger.”

  Books by Carol Ericson

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Red, White and Built

  Locked, Loaded and SEALed

  Alpha Bravo SEAL

  Bullseye: SEAL

  Point Blank SEAL

  Target: Timberline

  Single Father Sheriff

  Sudden Second Chance

  Army Ranger Redemption

  In the Arms of the Enemy

  Brothers in Arms: Retribution

  Under Fire

  The Pregnancy Plot

  Navy SEAL Spy

  Secret Agent Santa

  Harlequin Intrigue Noir

  Toxic

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

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  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Jennifer Lynch—When her fiancé and the love of her life is presumed dead, Jennifer carries on for the child who will never meet his father, but when her fiancé shows up on her doorstep very much alive but psychologically wounded, Jennifer must fight to bring him back from the brink.

  Miguel Estrada—This navy SEAL sniper was captured and tortured, only the love for his fiancée keeping him strong, so when he escapes he returns to his fiancée a broken man but determined to keep his family safe from the dark forces closing in on him.

  Mikey Estrada—The son born while Miguel was in captivity; now Miguel will do whatever it takes to keep his son safe, even if that means staying away.

  Rob Eastwood—Miguel’s brother is a “fixer” for Hollywood, but can he fix what’s wrong with Miguel?

  Maggie Procter—A nurse at the rehab facility where Miguel went for recovery pretended to be his friend when he was there, but her mysterious actions indicate she may be working with the enemy.

  Angela Woodruff—The director of the rehab center may only be following orders, but those orders could lead to Miguel’s capture and torture.

  Vlad—A sniper for the insurgents during the Gulf War has begun assembling an international terrorist network and has contacts within the US intelligence community willing to do his bidding—including neutralizing Miguel Estrada.

  Ariel—The mysterious head of the Vlad task force, Ariel is willing to reveal herself to help Miguel catch

  a traitor.

  For my two Wildcats

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Texas Showdown by Barb Han

  Prologue

  A light glimmered among the rocks to his right, and Miguel Estrada shifted his MK 15 in response, his heart thudding against his chest. He whispered into the mic clipped to his flak jacket. “Twenty degrees to your right, up another thirty yards.”

  Miguel couldn’t tell if the SEALs on the ground were following his directions or not. They’d moved out of his view behind some rocks, and they couldn’t answer him and risk giving away their position. He just had to trust they’d heard him and reacted accordingly, especially since this wasn’t his regular team and they were missing that natural rapport.

  His world became the area in his scope, and his eyeball tracked back and forth to scan that world, looking for any movement or more light.

  These caves tucked into the rugged interior of Afghanistan were a maze, deep and complex. The intelligence they’d received on the whereabouts of Vlad had led a team of SEALs, including him on sniper duty, to this godforsaken part of the world.

  The intel suggested Vlad would be lightly guarded and relaxed, not suspecting the hell about to be unleashed upon him. Miguel just hoped Vlad didn’t have any children with him. That made everything more complicated—like the two boys the team had run into on their trek up here.

  Thank God, it hadn’t been Miguel’s call to make on how to deal with the boys. Elias had decided to release them, and it looked like that had been a good call since they hadn’t seen them—or anyone else—since those boys had scampered across the rocks.

  A light flickered again in the same area, and Miguel held his breath, waiting for an opportunity. If he could take out Vlad or anyone with Vlad from this vantage point, he’d do it and save the SEALs clambering over those boulders a few bullets.

  The night scope on his sniper rifle cast a green glow on the rugged terrain, with every rock and every edge standing out in stark relief. If only he could see a person, other than the SEALs, he could help verify this location for them.

  The brush behind him rustled and he tensed his muscles. He could probably handle one of those little gerbils or moles, but if that was a bat flapping his wings behind him he just might lose it.

  Miguel tapped his fingernail against the trigger. Snipers generally had all the patience in the world, but those SEALs down there should’ve emerged from
that cluster of boulders by now. Maybe they’d discovered something out of his sight. Miguel’s own team would’ve found a way to signal that news.

  He licked the grit from his lips and shifted his rifle again, zeroing in on the area where the SEALs had disappeared earlier. If they’d gotten his message, they should’ve popped up twenty degrees to the right of the jagged outcropping that looked like a mouthful of bad teeth.

  He mumbled under his breath, “C’mon, guys.”

  A shift and a scrape behind his location had the hair on the back of his neck quivering. Before he had time to analyze this latest noise behind him, movement on the rocks below had him tightening his finger on the trigger. A light flashed behind the rocks and a pop echoed in the distance.

  What the hell just happened? Miguel hissed into his mic, “What was that? Send me a signal.”

  The only signal he received was another flash and bang. Had the SEALs come upon Vlad’s hideout? Were they taking him out now?

  The crack of a twig behind him didn’t sound like a nighttime rodent or even a bat, but his mission right now was to protect those men down there. Breathing heavily, Miguel swept the rocky hillside, looking for anything that hadn’t been there before.

  He hadn’t liked the look of those particular rocks from the get-go, but the team had to traverse them to get to Vlad’s cave—if that was Vlad’s cave.

  A head rose above the highest boulder and Miguel’s gut lurched. A man, a keffiyeh wrapped about his head, waved his arms in the air, a weapon clutched in one hand.

  Miguel swallowed hard as he recognized the weapon. Then he swore when he realized the man was gesturing—toward him...or someone behind him.

  In a split second, he took the shot and dropped the man while he was still waving. Then he rolled to his side, hauling his rifle with him, but it was too late. As he tried to reposition his weapon to the target behind him, he heard the click of a gun.

  A heavy boot crushed his arm holding the rifle and Miguel gritted his teeth. Someone else kicked him in the head, and the tinny taste of blood flooded his mouth.

  A man growled in English, “Drop your weapon and get on your knees. Your team members are all dead.”

  Instead of releasing his rifle, Miguel swung it behind him, making contact with someone’s leg. The target grunted and one of his cohorts kicked Miguel in the midsection.

  The cold metal of a gun pressed against Miguel’s temple.

  “I’m going to tell you one more time. Release your weapon and get on your knees.”

  They seemed to have given up on the idea of Miguel releasing anything because someone began to pry his fingers off the rifle, bending them back and breaking a few in the process. They weren’t about to wait for him to get on his knees either, as he was yanked up by his jacket.

  Miguel raised his eyes for the first look at his captors. Three men—one pointing a gun at his head, one rubbing his shin and the third assessing him through narrowed eyes.

  Miguel cleared his throat and spit some blood out of the side of his mouth. “Was this a trap?”

  His question earned him another kick to the gut, and he doubled over.

  There was no way anyone could’ve known their position, even if those two boys from earlier in the day had ratted them out, which they probably had. This had been a setup from the start, and in the off chance that he got out of this alive, he’d make it his life’s mission to root out the mole that had been responsible for the deaths of those SEALs down there.

  “We ask the questions, pig. How much do you know about the man you call Vlad?”

  Since Miguel had no intention of answering any of their questions—now or ever—it looked like he wouldn’t get that chance to track down the mole.

  He spit blood again, this time at his interrogator’s foot. “Go to hell.”

  As the butt of his own rifle came at his head, Miguel had one thought before the darkness engulfed him.

  Jennifer.

  Chapter One

  Two years later

  Jennifer herded her fifth-grade students into the park and yelled at two boys straggling behind. “Chase and Noah, you are not in middle school yet. I can still keep you from walking at promotion this week.”

  The two boys laughed and shoved at each other, but they caught up with the class.

  Jennifer pressed the smile from her lips. She couldn’t help it if she had a soft spot for rambunctious boys. Her own son kept her on her toes and he was only eighteen months old.

  When her class got to the picnic area with the other fifth-grade classes already there, she set them free and she joined the other teachers by the barbecue area, sipping sodas and drinking from water bottles.

  Jennifer pointed to the parents grilling the burgers and hot dogs and setting out bags of chips. “Are we helping or what?”

  Olivia Gutierrez, who had the classroom next to hers, shook her head and raised her can of soda. “Our wonderful parent volunteers are taking care of everything and told us to relax.”

  “We have the best parents.” Jennifer stooped next to a cooler and pulled a bottle of water from the ice. She cracked open the lid and then tipped it toward a man at the edge of the parking lot next to the park. “Is that one of ours?”

  Susan Burke, the other fifth-grade teacher at their school, shrugged. “I don’t recognize him, but it’s not like I’ve seen every parent in the fifth grade. Could be a parent from Stowe.”

  The man’s attention seemed to float from the kids to the teachers, and a whisper of fear brushed the back of Jennifer’s neck. She called to Mrs. Garrett, one of the teachers from Stowe. “Mrs. Garrett? Is that man in the blue shirt by the parking lot one of yours?”

  Mrs. Garrett adjusted her glasses and squinted. “I’ve never seen him before, and I don’t like the way he’s looking at the kids.”

  Olivia smirked and elbowed Jennifer in the ribs.

  “I’ll find out right now.” Mrs. Garrett, her gray, permed hair waving at the top of her head, marched toward the parking lot like an angry bird.

  One of the other Stowe teachers laughed. “Once Pilar gets done with him, he’s gonna wish he never set foot in this park.”

  Jennifer smiled, but her muscles tensed as she watched Mrs. Garrett confront the stranger.

  Mrs. Garrett gestured toward the kids, waved her arms and pointed toward the barbecue area. When she was done with him, the man hightailed it back to his car.

  Jennifer murmured, “Guess he wasn’t a parent.”

  “What?” Olivia had turned around from her conversation with a parent.

  Everyone else had lost interest in the confrontation. Nobody had watched Mrs. Garrett talk to the man...except Jennifer. She’d been very interested.

  “The man at the edge of the parking lot. He left.”

  Olivia snorted. “Even if he’d been a parent, Mrs. Garrett had probably scared him off. She scares me.”

  Jennifer wiped her clammy palms on the thighs of her slacks and intercepted Mrs. Garrett when she returned to the barbecue area, her low heels clicking on the cement.

  “Who was he?”

  “Just an office worker from the area on his lunch break. He didn’t realize the schools were having our end-of-the-school-year picnic today, but I set him straight.”

  Jennifer’s gaze shifted to the squat office buildings scattered across the street from the park. If he worked in one of those, why had he driven a car and come through the parking lot? He should’ve crossed at the crosswalk and come in the way the kids had entered.

  “Ms. Lynch, Ms. Lynch!” One of the girls from her class was waving her arms. “Do you want to do the Hula-Hoop with us?”

  “Duty calls.” She put her bottle of water on a picnic table and promptly forgot about the man in the parking lot as soon as she slipped that pink plastic c
ircle around her waist.

  After a few more games, a cheeseburger, a hot dog and enough candy to put her in a sugar coma, Jennifer clasped a clipboard to her chest and raised two fingers. “Anyone in my class leaving with a parent, check in with me before you take off.”

  Olivia bumped her shoulder. “With any luck, all of them will leave with a parent and we can stagger back to the school on our own.”

  “I doubt that’s going to happen.” Jennifer smiled at one of her free spirits, Chase, approaching with his mother. “Thanks for your help today, Mrs. Cannon.”

  “Thank you for a great school year and all your understanding for our son. We’re hoping Chase matures a little in middle school.”

  Jennifer’s smile broadened. She hoped Mom wasn’t counting too much on maturity in middle school, or she’d be heartily disappointed. “I’m sure Chase will do just fine in middle school. He won’t have any problems with math. Right, Chase?”

  “It’s my favorite subject.”

  “I know it is.”

  For the next fifteen minutes, Jennifer continued to check out her students. Then she and the other fifth-grade teachers from Richmond gathered their classes, took a head count and started the trek back to the school.

  When they reached the corner, Olivia shouted, “As soon as the light changes, cross the street, no dillydallying.”

  The kids, giggling at her word choice, surged into the street. Jennifer brought up the rear to make sure all the students made it into the crosswalk. As she glanced back toward the park, her heart stuttered when she spotted the so-called office worker Mrs. Garrett had set straight earlier.

  Leaning against a car in the parking lot, he watched the students crossing the street. Or was he?

  Jennifer couldn’t tell the precise focus of his gaze from this distance, but he seemed to be looking at the back of the line...at her.

  A horn beeped and she jumped. Everyone had made it across the street before the light changed, except her. She jogged to the curb as the kids laughed and called out, “C’mon, Ms. Lynch.”