Her Secret Pirate by Gennita Low

HER SECRET PIRATE
     
    By
     
    Gennita Low
     
    “ The captain has determined the Ambassador is in imminent danger of being discovered and that we must act now before dawn. The President has given the go-ahead orders. The four of you are tasked to take down the pirates and secure the ship . Zone, you’ve been cleared to go.”
    Zodenk o “ Zone ” Zonovich swallowed his relief, retaining his calm demeanor as much as possible. “Thank you, sir!”
    He’d downplayed his relationship with the Ambassador’s daughter although he didn’t think his commander believed him. Just a few dates, he’d assured, which was technically true. Rebecca Powers wasn’t someone he could take out on a regular date, not when she was the personal aid to the Honorable Paul Powers, the U.S. ambassador to India , as well as his daughter. No, their secret meetings couldn’t be called dates. And they’d agreed to…cool it…he guessed that would be the term because . . . damn, he didn’t know why he’d agreed to it now. It was over an argument about, of all stupid things, war. He was a SEAL. Participating in warfare was his job.
    He’ d better push all that out of his mind right now. The first order of the day was to follow instructions, go with his team to get the pirates before they turned on the news and found out Rebecca Powers was the Ambassador’s daughter. That was what initiated the “imminent danger” decision; the media was naming names and in t his day and age, it seemed even pirates checked their Twitter accounts while terrorizing the seas.
    At the same time, the Navy had to exercise caution. The whole world would be watching, whether through the lenses of camera crews flying over the ship or social media, where everyone who thought they knew everything would spout opinions and escalate the drama. Hawk had been in deep conference, coordinating with naval Intel and Special Operations Combined Joint Task Force higher-ups on the best course to effectively terminate the danger before the stakes became higher. Zone already had instinctively known they would be sending in a small squad of men and so had privately requested to be on the team. His commander had given him a hard s tare and a non-committal reply.
    He’ d expected to be given another assignment. If Hawk knew how chummy he and Rebecca Powers really were, there was no way he’d be sent with the others to the ship. So he’d played it cool, mentioning he was her instructor and that was how they knew each other. All true. But he was glad his commander didn’t ask more personal questions because then he’d have to face the d ilemma of actually telling the real truth .
    Not that he would lie to his commander or team. One just didn’t do that when one was a SEAL. But the temptation had certainly crossed his mind. Where Rebecca was concerned, the woman had him by the head and heart, it seemed.
    His squad of four, including h im, were his closest friends— Cucumber, Mink, and Joker. Joker and he were snipers and their specialty would be needed once they’d snuck on board the taken vessel. The element of surprise had to be quick and deadly. Their target—the men guarding the captur ed crew. They needed to take out all four . Cucumber and Mink’s job was to take down the rest as quickly as possible while he located those who were still in hiding in the ship, Rebecca being one of them.
    While they silently prepared for the mission, his commander, Hawk McMillan, finished his conversation on the satellite phone and turned to them, his expression revealing bad news ahead. Hawk and the rest of Zone’s SEAL team were heading for another target, the “mother” ship coming this way.
    “Listen up,” he said. “These are well-prepared hostiles, armed with grenades, launchers, you name it, they probably have it. Their goal, presumably, had been the food aid on board. Everything was still fine at that point un til the pirates found out VIPs were on board. The fucking media has