Rogue (SEAL Team: Disavowed Book 1) by Laura Marie Altom Read Free Book Online

friend fired a few rounds. “Damned snakes.”
    For now, Nash abandoned the dead man’s gear in favor of neutralizing his companion.
    Luckily, he was about as graceful as a wild hog and just as easy to pick off. As soon as Nash had a clean shot, he nailed him between his eyes.
    His gear was even better. Nice big knife and way better chow—a few Mountain House freeze-dried meals and even a jet boil with all sorts of nifty accessories. Nash took it all. The guy even had a hammock and working GPS. Relief shimmered through him. With the supplies he’d gained, he could stay out here months, but Maisey couldn’t. The sooner he returned her to civilization, the better.
    After dragging both corpses to watery graves, Nash erased all trackable signs of anyone’s presence, then slung both men’s packs and weapons over his shoulders for the short return trek to Maisey.
    A hot meal could do wonders for morale, so he planned to get her nice and full on gator steak and sweet and sour chicken, then settled into the hammock for a good night’s sleep. In the morning, the GPS would get them to a road that would lead to a cheeseburger and a nice, soft bed—not necessarily in that order.
    Nash couldn’t wait to safely deliver Maisey to her mother. The poor woman had been out of her mind with worry. He remembered Maisey as a feisty, determined girl who never failed to speak her mind or gladly accept any dare—no matter how outrageous. Case in point—when he’d stupidly dared her on a class zoo field trip to jump into a turtle pond, and she’d dragged him along with her. They’d spent a month in detention, but at least they’d been together. What had that bastard Vicente done to reduce her to this shadow of her former self?
    What would it take to bring back the sparkle to her blue eyes?
    Nash struggled with the notion that he wanted to be the one who not only saved her from her fake hubby, but from herself as well. He wanted to erase the self-doubt that had settled into her soul, making her believe she was anything less than the perfect girl he’d always known her to be.
    Picking his way over rotting logs and tangled vines, it occurred to Nash that for the first time since losing Hope and their baby, he felt not only alive, but filled with purpose. Funny how he’d set out to save Maisey, but in a sense, she was unwittingly returning the favor.
    In the time since Nash’s former teammate and friend, Harding, had temporarily booted him from the private security firm they’d founded, Nash had put a new roof on his mom’s house, and helped a half-dozen of her widowed or single neighbors with odds-and-end home repairs and in general pissed around feeling sorry for himself. But all that had to end.
    As soon as Vicente was either safely behind bars or eliminated, everything would change. Nash would make a run to Denver, where their team had set up shop. Tell Harding he was ready to be put back on the assignment list. Just because Hope was gone, didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of other folks needing help. If anything, in her memory, Nash figured he should work harder to assist others in need.
    Everyone in need ? Or only petite blonds you once had a thing for ?
    He ignored the snarky voice in his head to forge through more tangled vines.
    Any of the guys in Trident, Inc. would feel the same. Man, woman or child—if someone needed protection, they’d each be willing to fight. As for the fact that Nash’s first mission outside of Trident happened to be ensuring the safety of an old friend, that was nothing more than a coincidence. The fact that Maisey hadn’t only unwittingly awoken the long-slumbering warrior in him, but something else…
    He refused to go there.
    She was pregnant and in danger. Nash was her protector—nothing more.
    He quickened his pace to return to her, fighting forbidden flashes of time they’d shared. Okay, so yeah, a million years ago, he’d planned his entire life around her. They’d talked marriage and