Page 31 of Her Captivated Hero

Face it, you’re totally gone.

He’d snapped the photo on their third date. She hadn’t noticed because she was fighting with her cat. Gray loved Einstein, that cat was the only thing that put her off her game. Riya always knew where everything was, except when Einstein decided to hide things from her. Then she was up shit creek. So Gray had a picture of her trying to pull a business card out of Einstein’s mouth. Riya was torn between frustration and laughter as she fought, and Gray had a perfect pic for his phone.

Riya picked up on the second ring. “This must be special if I’m getting a call during office hours.”

“You’re just as bad,” Gray countered.

“Hey, I sent you a text yesterday,” Riya sputtered.

“Telling me that traffic’s bad on The Five and that I should take the Eight-Oh-Five instead, is not what I would consider real live communication.”

“It got you to call me back,” she snickered.

“It did at that.” Gray fell silent.

“Uh-oh. That silence is not sounding good. Well not that it’s making a sound, but you get my meaning.”

“Yes I do. Everything’s fine. It’s just that the team and I have to go wheels up in a half hour.”

This time the silence was on her end. Finally she said, “This is the scary stuff, isn’t it?”

“Not really, this is the stuff I’m trained to do.”

“That’s right. That’s exactly what I’ve read. For goodness sakes, you’re worth six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in Navy training aren’t you?”

“Nah, that’s Griff, I’m worth more,” Gray relaxed.

“I wasn’t sure. Yeah, you might have a longer period of time in the field, but there’s also depreciation because you’re old…”

“Woman, you are going to be in trouble the next time I see you,” Gray rumbled.

Riya’s laughter was a balm to his soul. “Promises. Promises.”

After her giggles stopped she said quietly into the phone. “You can’t promise when you’ll be back, can you?”

“No, Honey, I can’t.”

“Stay safe, Gray. I figured out why you like The Princess Bride, so I need you back home soon so I can tell you.”

“This I gotta hear.” He liked it that she was trying to end the call on a positive note. “I’ll miss you, and please for God’s sake stay out of trouble.”

“I’ll stay out of trouble, if you keep your head down, is it a deal?” she asked softly.

“As you wish.”

* * *

It was hotter than fuck.

Who in their right mind would give a briefing in the back of a truck when they could have done it in the comfort of a conference room back at CENTCOM? Oh yeah, this guy.

Gray hid his disgust as he looked at the acting commander.

Where in the hell had they dug up this dumble-dick, and why had they put him in charge of this op?

Acting Commander Harry Morris had decided to brief the five members of Black Dawn, the six enlisted men from the fifth fleet, and Command Master Chief Baker in the sweltering back of a tarp-covered truck. What kind of stupid-ass move was that? Fucker even had a laser pointer to highlight routes on the map of the King Fahd Causeway. Just how many men had the pompous asshole gotten killed over the years?

“Tyler, you and your men are going to hide in the refrigerated truck that Stark drove over here from Manama,” Morris said. “At one-fifty-five a.m., Paris and Slokovich will create a diversion by sideswiping one another on the causeway. At two-oh-five a.m. our man at customs will be expecting the refrigerated truck to be passing through, so they will turn off the x-ray machine, and you will be able to go through customs undetected.”