The house wasn’t big, it was tiny actually, but it was right on the beach, which was exactly what Phantom wanted. He hadn’t lied to his commander when he’d said he needed a break. He did. He and the rest of his team had been going nonstop, and the intense situations they’d all been in recently, along with the mental anguish of trying to remember what it was he’d missed in Timor-Leste—and then actually remembering that he’d seen Kalee’s foot move when she was in that pit—had been extremely draining.
He was actually looking forward to spending time in paradise…and with Kalee.
Pushing that thought to the back of his mind—he wasn’t there to convince her to date him; he needed to make sure she was mentally stable to go back to her life—Phantom greeted the rest of the SEAL team stationed in Hawaii.
Mustang was the oldest at thirty-six, and the team leader. He was six feet tall with dark brown hair. Midas was thirty-two, the tallest of the group at around Phantom’s height, with golden-blond hair. Aleck wasn’t quite thirty yet, but Phantom knew he was the smartest of the team. Mustang had told him plenty of stories about how Aleck had used his brains to get them out of sticky situations.
Pid was the youngest at twenty-eight, though it was obvious he had some demons lurking behind his eyes that belied his age. Jag was the quietest of the group, which didn’t mean he wasn’t smart or deadly. Phantom had heard about the stoic man’s ability to take out an entire platoon of tangos without hesitation.
The group was rounded out by Slate. He was surly, much like Phantom, and was currently standing off to the side with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.
Phantom usually didn’t think twice about Slate being cranky, simply because most of the time he wasn’t the best around company himself…but if the man said anything to scare Kalee, he’d regret it.
“All right, we’re all here,” Mustang said. “Go on, call your man and let’s do this.”
“I don’t understand why Rocco wouldn’t believe you,” Midas added. “Seems to me, unless you’ve fucked up royally, he should take your word for shit.”
“Right?” Aleck said. “What’d you do that made you so untrustworthy?”
Phantom ignored the questions and clicked on Rocco’s name. He wanted to get this over with so he could invite Kalee outside and get her settled. The evening was beautiful, and he wanted her to see the sunset and enjoy the sound of the waves on the shore.
“It’s me,” Phantom told Rocco when he answered.
“Right. So prove to me you’re in Hawaii,” Rocco said without missing a beat.
Phantom punched the video chat button and turned the phone around to face the other SEAL team. “I’m here on the beach. And I knew the beach alone wouldn’t convince you, so I brought some friends over as well.”
“Well, I’ll be dammed,” Rocco said when he saw the other men. “Mustang! How the hell are you guys?”
Mustang chuckled and raised a beer toward the phone. “We’re good, as you can see. Heard congratulations are in order. You found a woman who saved your worthless ass. Smart.”
“Fuck yeah, I did. Caite’s amazing. She can save my life any day of the week. How are the rest of you guys?”
The other men on the team greeted Rocco, and they exchanged niceties for a few minutes.
Then Pid asked, “So…what did Phantom do to earn your distrust?”
Phantom growled and turned the phone, but Slate stepped to his side and grabbed his wrist. “No. We need to hear it,” he said.
Phantom glared at Slate, but didn’t wrench himself out of his grip. He deserved this. He knew he did. He didn’t like it. But if one of these men came to California and asked him and his team to provide an alibi, he’d want to know why.
“We had a mission in Timor-Leste go sideways a while back,” Rocco explained. “Phantom decided he was responsible, and that he needed to make it right. We recently got intel that led back to Timor-Leste, and he was ordered to stand down. We all figured he’d ignore the orders and go back anyway.”
Phantom stood rigid in front of Mustang and the others. Any one of them could’ve told Rocco that all wasn’t as it seemed with Phantom here in Hawaii, but thank God, they didn’t say anything that would make his team leader suspicious.
“Well, your bud is obviously in the land of the hula and sunshine,” Midas said.
“Good. Make sure he stays there, would ya?” Rocco asked. “We need him on the team, and the last thing we want is for him to do something stupid.”
“You need to have more confidence in your teammate,” Slate commented.
“It’s not that we don’t have confidence in him,” Rocco argued. “It’s that we know he’s got too much integrity and would do anything to right a wrong.”
“Not a bad trait to have,” Jag said.
“If it makes him put his career in jeopardy, it is,” Rocco retorted.
“I’m not leaving Hawaii until I come back to California,” Phantom vowed, not lying.
“Good. Don’t forget to call Ace in about a week after Piper gets her C-section.”
Phantom had forgotten that Piper had made an appointment to have her baby. He’d been a little preoccupied. “Thanks. I’ll call.”
“Shit, babies?” Pid exclaimed. “No thanks.”
Rocco chuckled. “Mark my words…when you find a woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, you aren’t going to mind babies so much. Phantom, take me off video chat.”
Phantom clicked a button and brought the phone up to his ear. “You’ve got me and just me,” he told Rocco.
“Sorry about the proof thing,” he said. “We’re all just worried about you. The last thing we want is you going off by yourself to try to rescue Kalee. I promised you a while ago that we’d bring her home, and I’m not going to go back on that promise. We’ve been talking to the commander. It doesn’t sit well with any of us that she’s over there alone and probably scared to death. We’ll get her home if it’s the last thing we do.”
Phantom felt both guilty and overwhelmed with respect for his friend. “Thanks,” was all he could say without blurting out that Rocco’s worry wasn’t warranted. That Kalee was safe and sound less than twenty feet from where he was standing.
“I’m sure you’ll be getting calls from the others,” Rocco said. “Rex said Avery’s really worried about you, and of course Piper is too. I know you need the break, but please don’t be a stranger. Okay?”
“I won’t,” Phantom said. He wasn’t the most touchy-feely person ever, but he didn’t want his friends to worry about him.
“Have fun with Mustang. Don’t let him and the others talk you into going out and getting shitfaced and picking up a bar bunny.”
“Since when have you known me to take home chicks from a bar?” Phantom asked.
“Well, there was that one time at Aces, and if I remember right, you learned your lesson. But with you hanging out with Mustang and his team, you never know. Talk to you later.”
Phantom clicked off the phone after Rocco had hung up.