Her Fierce SEAL: Midnight Delta Book 6 by Caitlyn O'Leary Page B

tone was kind and loving.
    “He does.  But he has some demons he has to work through.”
    “I’ve seen it before,” Pops agreed.  She looked into his dark knowing eyes.
    “What?  What have you seen?”
    “His kind of wounds.”  Then Finn was standing in front of her, and all of her attention was on him.  He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.  He gave a small tilt of his head, and she followed him away from the table.
    “Is everything okay?  Anything I need to know?” he asked.
    “I wanted to run something past you.  If my suspicions are correct, we need to question Dasha because something is wrong.”
    She could tell she had his full attention.  “Okay, what is it?”
    “I hate how this sounds.  But I hate even more that I’m probably right.  This particular auction house they had going on in British Columbia was high-end, wasn’t it?”
    Finn thought back to the mansion and the endless stream of exotic sports cars.  “Definitely.”
    “Then I think I might be right about what was going on up in Canada. I think the girls they used to breed weren’t as attractive as the ones they sold as sex slaves.  I went through the pictures, and there was a trend.  I feel like a vicious bitch for noticing it.  But I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
    Finn didn’t flinch, she could see him mulling over what she said.  “You’re right.”
    “Except for Dasha.  She’s the one fly in the ointment.” Angie said.
    Finn’s gaze flickered over to the girl sitting next to her uncle.
    “Albert would have sold her to a client, not used her to breed.”  His face looked like it was carved from granite.
    “Can you help me out a little?”  Angie stroked her hand down his arm. His flinch was barely perceptible, but then he relaxed.
    “What can I do?”
    “Rylie’s notes were really vague on how the girls were impregnated.”  She let her voice drift off.
    “They were artificially inseminated.  They were trying to produce specific types of babies, blue-eyed blondes, etc.”
    “So why would they have chosen to breed Dasha instead of selling her at the auction?” Angie asked.
    “Oh God, she must have been raped, and  gotten pregnant,” he answered quickly.  Angie could see how the whole conversation ate at him.  But it was important.  She smoothed her hand along his arm until she could twine her fingers with his and squeezed.  He looked into her eyes and she saw a moment of relief.
    “I read Rylie’s reports.  Every one of those girls who was getting ready to be sold was given a birth control injection.”  His shoulders sagged.  “Dasha must have been pregnant before the Liu’s ever got ahold of her.”
    “So what are you saying?” he asked in a whisper, again glancing over at the girl.
    “There is one more piece of information I got from Pops.  It’s not the US government Dasha is hiding from.  She’s trying to avoid anybody attached to the Ukrainian Embassy.”
    Finn tugged her hand.  “Walk with me.”
    Holding this man’s hand, and walking in one of her favorite places made this conversation easier.  He let go of her hand, and before she could quell her disappointment, he put his arm around her shoulders and brought her in close to his body.  She rested her head against his shoulder.
    “You always smell like strawberries.”
    “I love strawberries.  If there is a strawberry shampoo, lotion, or lip gloss, I use it.”  His fingers trailed along her shoulder.
    “I’m beginning to love strawberries, too.  I’m sorry I was M.I.A.  Sometimes, I need time to get my head together.”
    “I think I understand.”
    He looked up into the trees that provided a lacy silhouette against the blue sky.  “So Dasha was pregnant before she left the Ukraine.  She probably fell for one of those ‘Be a Model’ or ‘Be a Nanny’ scams.  She must be running from someone.  Someone with clout with the Ukrainian government.”
    “Probably the father of her baby,” Angie