Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Beauty (Kindle Worlds Novella) (The Bounty Hunters: The Marino Bros. Book 5) by MJ Nightingale

She pressed her cheek against his waiting lips enjoying the feel of his prickly stubble against her tender flesh. The man needed to shave every day. “But darling, I do remember this man. He took me to the van, and helped me to get inside as the SWAT team finished clearing the house. I remember his eyes. He did look like he felt bad. I saw sympathy in them. I was in too much shock then to remember much more than that. I couldn’t believe my long dark night was over.”
    It hadn’t been, he thought grimly. “It wasn’t,” he gently reminded her. One of the men from that time had hunted her down and tried to victimize her again. A man who had connections to both of them. Although he had brought them together, this man had nearly cost them both of their lives.
    Catarina couldn’t prevent the shudder that swept through her body. “I know. But that was no one’s fault but Spiro.” Thinking about Spiro always got that same reaction out of her. But she pushed thoughts of him back. She’d heard the worry in this Melody’s voice and that was a concern now. “Andreas, it was a nightmare. But it made me who I am. I learned to cope. I made my choices. I don’t regret my past because it brought me to you.”
    God, his woman was so strong. She was remarkable. Just beautiful. He was almost too afraid to ask, but could tell by the firmness of her tone, that this Melody had made a request of her. And though he didn’t want anything from her past to touch her again, he more than anyone, knew you couldn’t escape the past. “What do you want to do? What did Melody Keegan want?” he asked, wondering exactly where this conversation was going. He also knew his wife enough to know she had been leading him there all along.
    Catarina knew her husband would not allow her to do what she wanted to do without ensuring her safety first, so she started there. “Well, I want to make sure she is who she says she is. You can help me with that, and then I want to meet her. And I think I would like to thank John.”
    “You do! Why?” He was perplexed.
    “Of course I do. If he hadn’t rescued me, I wouldn’t be here. And if he has been feeling guilty all these years about his choices, I want him to know he needn’t feel that way any longer.”
    His wife. Incredible. Andreas cleared his throat. And as he suspected, she had it all mapped out already. “Okay, I can do that. I can find out if they are who she says they are. When do you want to meet with her? What else did the woman say?”
    “She wants to meet soon. Today if possible. They are in town only one more week. I was hoping you could do what you do quickly and then take me to see her today. She said John went out fishing with some friends, but she was available.”
    “Today?” he stated sharply. At her nod, he shook his head and knew no matter what he said she had made her decision. It wasn’t his wife being rash either; it was his wife being his wife. Caring about others. Clicking his tongue once, he gave her a measured look. She smiled. “Okay. I can do that. I will need about an hour to fact check this. Anything else?” he asked with a teasing tone, not expecting there would be more.
    His wife shocked him once again with her quick response. “Yes.”
    Andreas laughed heartily. “What is that, darling?”
    Catarina’s response was to squirm her bottom into her husband’s growing erection.
    Andreas’s voice broke with built up tension. “That, is most definitely something I can take care of. Something I can take care of right away.”

Chapter 9
    IT WAS NEARLY half past noon by the time Andreas and Cat reached the hotel on Clearwater Beach. It had taken Andreas no time at all to confirm the woman was who she said she was, and her husband as well. Andreas was able to ascertain within an hour that she and her husband had flown to Tampa five days earlier, had booked the hotel and flight two months earlier, and that they were who she claimed them to be. With his own FBI