A SEAL’s Desire Read online

  Outside, it was cold, clear and crisp. So quiet that Greg relaxed for the first time in ages.

  “Much better,” he said.

  “I agree.”

  It was cold in the truck, but they were warmly dressed, and Greg knew they wouldn’t be out here long. Like Renata had said, everyone was heading to bed. They wouldn’t want to wake them again coming back inside.

  “I want to ask you something serious,” Greg said, reaching out and taking her hand. He felt Renata tense and knew it was best to simply get it over with. “Do you have a gambling problem?”

  “A gambling… No!” Renata snapped. “I do not have a gambling problem.” She tried to pull her hand away, but Greg kept hold of it.

  “I’ll help you, if you do. Go to counseling with you—whatever it takes.”

  “I do not have a gambling problem.”

  “Then what’s going on between you and Clem?”

  “Nothing!” She must have sensed her too-quick reply only made her seem guiltier. “He drives me crazy. Someone needs to put him in his place.”

  “By risking a lot of money?” He was sure Fulsom paid her well, but he doubted it was so much that she could afford to gamble large sums.

  “It isn’t a risk. I can beat almost anyone at nickels, and I’ve seen Clem trip over his own feet on flat ground. I knew he wasn’t going to be able to cross a creek on slippery stones.”

  “Sooner or later you’ll overestimate your abilities.”

  “You’re forgetting I’ve been watching out for myself since I was six. I know exactly what my abilities are.”

  He was angering her, and that was the last thing he meant to do. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m on your side and I want to help you, no matter what you need. Look, Renata.” He turned to face her and covered her hand in both of his. “I want to marry you. Provide for you. Give you a home. Babies.”

  “Babies?”

  “I’ve watched you every time one of the other women announces she’s pregnant. You want a family. I want one, too.”

  Renata stared up at the sky through the truck’s windshield. “I don’t know how you can know what I want when I don’t even know it,” she said.

  “I think you do know it. You just don’t want to admit it. Something’s holding you back. What is it?” He held his breath, hoping she would trust him.

  When she shrugged, he knew she didn’t.

  That was a problem he needed to fix.

  Renata woke to the same question she’d gone to sleep pondering. Did Greg know her better than she knew herself? Did she want a baby? Or more than one?

  He was right that each time one of the other women announced her pregnancy, a longing overcame her. She wanted life to feel easy. Not that a baby simplified things, but she would be able to care for and protect her own child in a way she hadn’t been able to do with all the girls from Peru.

  Knowing Greg wanted a family, too, made the situation even more difficult. Every time she pictured him cradling their baby in his arms, she couldn’t help imagine the act that would make that possible.

  What would it be like to wake up in a tiny house with Greg each morning for the rest of her life? Could she stay here long term? Become true friends with the people she used to boss around all day?

  She was already on her way with Avery and Eve.

  What would she do if she wasn’t directing films? Greg had suggested opening a film studio, but that hardly seemed likely.

  The truth was she didn’t have any idea what she wanted to do next. She wanted life to be far less complicated than it had been so far, though. Was that possible?

  Not until she paid the rest of what she’d promised.

  She’d never bet ten thousand dollars before, but that was a drop in the bucket of what she still needed to give to Mayra and Gabriela to finish providing for the girls’ care. Where could she get more cash?

  The door opened quietly, and to Renata’s surprise Savannah slipped in. Walker sat up in his sleeping bag across the room. Greg, who’d had second-shift guard duty, wasn’t back yet. Avery stirred but turned over. Angus was still snoring.

  Savannah tiptoed to the kitchen, a bundle in her arms Renata realized was Jacob. Renata slipped out of her sleeping bag and crossed the floor after her, joining her in the kitchen a moment later.

  “Shouldn’t you be resting?” she whispered.

  “I’m sick of resting,” Savannah whispered back. “I’m fine. Just starving. Think Kai has something I can eat?”

  “Let’s look.”

  Renata rummaged around until she found some eggs. She showed them to Savannah, who nodded. “That will work.”

  It had been ages since Renata had done any cooking, but it was hard to mess up eggs, and soon she had several frying merrily in a pan on the big stove.

  When the food was ready, she served up a plateful for Savannah and held her hands out for the baby. “I can hold him if you like.”

  “Thank you.” Savannah handed him over, and Renata took the little bundle in her arms, her whole body softening at the sweetness of his tiny face and hands.

  “He’s so delicious,” she crooned.

  “He is,” Savannah agreed. “Best baby ever.”

  “Of course you are,” Renata cooed at the little boy. She couldn’t help herself. She bent down and kissed Jacob’s forehead.

  “What did I tell you?” Greg said, entering the kitchen. He came to stand close to Renata and get a good look at Jacob. “Renata wants babies,” he informed Savannah.

  “Of course she does. Everyone wants babies.” Savannah scooped a forkful of eggs into her mouth.

  “Not yet,” Renata managed to say.

  “I don’t see why not,” Greg said.

  “Neither do I,” Savannah said.

  “I have… things to do.” Heck, she’d almost come out and spilled the beans about the girls in Peru. Jacob was too darn cute. He was distracting her.

  “Anything you can do without a baby you can do with a baby, too,” Savannah pointed out.

  “I want my children to have all of my attention,” Renata said. She felt Greg’s gaze on her.

  “Like I said, when we have kids, you don’t have to do anything else if you don’t want to. We’ve got everything we need here. I’ve got money in the bank. We’d be fine.”

  “I think you should take Greg up on that.” Savannah finished her eggs, put the plate in the sink and came back for Jacob. Renata hated to let him go, but of course she did. “Don’t overcomplicate things,” she advised. “Greg’s a keeper, and you seem like you’re at a crossroads with your career. Would a break be so bad?”

  “Hear that?” Greg said when she was gone, taking Jacob with her. “I’m a keeper.”

  “Let’s get some sleep.”

  Back in the main room, Walker had lain back down again. Avery was still sleeping. So was Byron apparently.

  Greg left her with a kiss to return to his sleeping bag. She climbed into hers. It took a long time for the thoughts racing through her mind to settle down enough for her to drift off again, though. She had barely woken up a few hours later, when people began to pile into the bunkhouse.

  “What’s going on?” she asked Avery, who was sitting in her sleeping bag, yawning and looking as perplexed as she felt.

  Hope and Curtis came in last, urging the stragglers in before them. “Gather round, everyone,” Curtis said.

  “Now what?” Renata sighed. She hoped there hadn’t been more mischief committed around the community.

  “What’s all the commotion?” Clem burst in, cameramen in tow. Renata caught Hope giving Curtis an amused look.

  “We almost pulled it off,” she told her husband.

  “Almost but not quite. Some people took too long to get in here.” His gaze singled out Angus, who, unlike most of the others who had dressed before arriving at the bunkhouse, still wore sweatpants and a ragged T-shirt, his feet jammed into his boots.

  “Well? What’s happening? Why is everyone standin
g around? Where’s breakfast?” Clem demanded.

  “I haven’t even made it into the kitchen yet,” Kai said.

  “We have an announcement,” Curtis said. “Hope? Take it away.”

  “I’m pregnant!” Hope cried.

  Congratulations, clapping and laughter filled the room. The camera crews documented it all. Renata felt rather than saw Greg move to her side and put an arm around her waist. “You all right?”

  “Of course I am.” But she wasn’t. A feeling she could hardly name filled her, a sense of being left behind. All the women of Base Camp were getting pregnant.

  “We can slip away right now and give it a go.”

  The offer was more tempting than she wanted to admit. Marrying Greg, having a child, taking a break from her career, such as it was—belonging here—

  It sounded like heaven.

  She wanted a family. Wanted to settle down. Wanted to try something new.

  Remember the money, she told herself. Remember your promise. She wouldn’t walk away from those girls.

  If only she’d worked harder. Saved more. Taken a second job or something—

  “What do you say?”

  Renata shook off his arm and walked away, grabbing her clothes and heading for the bathroom, where she locked herself in. She couldn’t be with Greg.

  But, oh, she wanted him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ‡

  Several days later it was time for another episode. Gathering in the bunkhouse with the others, Greg noticed more than one person turning to look at him. He knew why. He was running out of time to get Renata to the altar, and there wasn’t a backup bride in sight. He needed to fix things.

  It hadn’t helped that he’d come across Renata and Clem betting again, this time pitching snowballs at a low-hanging branch of an apple tree. He wondered where it would all end.

  The episode started normally enough, but he braced himself all the same, knowing what was to come. There was plenty of footage of the billboard on the way to town in all its incarnations. Local kids apparently were having a field day with the thing, adding a mustache, horns, steam coming out of his ears.

  There were several interviews with angry backup brides, who now were calling for a boycott of the show’s advertisers. Beside him, Renata groaned.

  “That’s going to get Fulsom’s panties in a twist,” she said. “I’m surprised he hasn’t put a stop to this.”

  Greg didn’t think things could get worse, but Clem was grinning in a particularly gleeful way. When someone gasped, he turned his gaze back to the screen and saw why everyone else in the room was riveted to it.

  This footage was different from the rest. Grainier. He realized it must come from one of the old surveillance cameras they’d found and removed. One that had been set up somewhere inside the bunkhouse with a view of the main room they all sat in. The footage showed Avery slipping in, looking around, then slipping across the room to rummage in one of the big duffel bags where the men who stayed in the bunkhouse stored their stuff. The footage must have been taken earlier in the year when there were more unmarried people in Base Camp. Avery pulled out a pair of men’s dress shoes.

  “Hey, those are mine,” Clay protested. “I’ve been looking for them for ages.”

  Avery slid down in her seat a little, as if that could hide her.

  The footage continued. This time the camera was outside. The pasture fence was in the foreground, the bison and several riders far away. As they watched, Avery stole into the scene, took hold of the jacket that was hanging from the nearest fence post and slipped away with it.

  “My coat,” Boone said, turning to look at her.

  On screen, the camera angle changed. Now it showed the kitchen. Kai leaned forward. There were the neat shelves lined with dishes and the tools he and Addison used to make their meals. And there was Avery again, slipping into the room, looking around, crossing to the counter by the sink where Kai always left his recipe book. When she picked it up, slipped it under her jacket and left, Riley gasped. Everyone knew how much Kai prized that book.

  Greg frowned. He was pretty sure they would have heard if the book was still missing. In fact, he seemed to remember Kai had a second copy of it now. He wondered what that meant.

  He had no time to think about it. On screen the grainy footage showed the bunkhouse room again. This time when Avery stole inside, she made a beeline for the ragged old duffel bag where Walker stored his things. Greg glanced over to where Walker sat near her. The large man had his arms crossed, and his face was as impassive as a block of granite. Beside him, Avery’s was twisted with worry. As well it might be.

  None of this looked good.

  When the Avery on screen pulled out an old, ceremonial flat feather fan, Greg could swear every person in the room held his breath. The camera cut to her zipping up the bag and slipping out of the bunkhouse again.

  Riley put a hand over her mouth. Savannah looked like she might cry. Everyone knew Walker had been looking all over for that fan.

  But the show wasn’t over yet.

  Next came scene after scene of the damage that had been done around the place over the months since they all moved in. The broken equipment. The greenhouse door left open and the dead plants inside. The pasture fence cut. The solar array packed with snow.

  The implication was clear; Avery had done that, too. The show ended with a close-up of Clem, just like Tracking the Stars used to do at the end of its episodes. “That’s what happens when you let a fox into the henhouse, folks,” he intoned. “It doesn’t end well for the chickens.”

  And the episode was over.

  “It’s not like that.” Avery got to her feet unsteadily, gripping the back of her folding chair for support. “I swear there’s a good reason—”

  “I don’t want to hear about reasons.” Riley stood up and faced her. “I invited you here because I thought you were my friend. I trusted you. I loved you like a sister! You know what will happen if we don’t win this—I’ll lose my home! The property that’s been in my family for over a hundred years! All this time you were working against us?”

  Avery’s face crumpled. “Just listen—”

  Boone stepped in between them.

  “Avery, I think you’d better spend the night at the manor. We’ll figure out what to do with you tomorrow.”

  “But—I swear—it wasn’t like that at all! Walker!” Avery turned to him, but he remained impassive, studying her as if he’d never quite seen her clearly before. Avery blinked back tears. “You know I wouldn’t—”

  “Avery—manor. Now,” Boone snapped. “And maybe when you come to breakfast tomorrow, think about bringing Walker’s fan with you. The rest of you get to bed. We’ll deal with all this in the morning.”

  Base Camp had never been so quiet, Renata thought when she took her things to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

  “Need help?” Greg asked her. “Avery’s not here,” he explained.

  She nodded, and he followed her into the bathroom.

  “I can’t believe Avery stole all that stuff,” he said.

  “I can,” Renata said. She met his gaze in the mirror as he worked on the fastenings of her gown.

  “What do you mean?” His hands stilled on her back.

  “I mean I saw her stealing things before. I can’t believe the rest of you didn’t. But I guess I was keeping a pretty close eye on things.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Greg demanded.

  “It wasn’t my job to say anything. It was my job to document what happened, not to take part. You see how well that went.”

  “But—”

  “It was harmless. Petty theft.”

  Greg stopped again. He turned her around, his hands on her waist. “Petty theft? What about major destruction? She was trying to shut down Base Camp.”

  “No, she wasn’t,” Renata said. “Come on, Greg, think. There was no footage of her messing with any equipment, or cutting the pasture fence, or leaving
the greenhouse door open. If there was, Clem would’ve used it. So what does that say to you?”

  “Someone else did that,” Greg said finally. “And he used Avery as a scapegoat. Sorry. I Let my temper get the best of me.”

  “I’d say everyone did. Clem put the footage together in exactly the right way to make things look as bad as possible.” She shrugged. “Which is how we’ve put together all the episodes.”

  Greg chuckled. “Yep. One thing I don’t get is how Clem installed all those security cameras back at the beginning of the show when he’s only been here a couple of months.”

  Renata stiffened. Bit her lip. Shook her head at her own stupidity. “Those weren’t Clem’s cameras—those were Avery’s.”

  “That doesn’t make sense—why would Avery film herself stealing stuff?”

  “Because she’s an actress. She’s always working away on short films.” She waited for him to get it. “When Clem went to install his cameras, he must have found hers. Then gone looking for the footage she’d gotten.”

  “How would he have found her footage?” Greg challenged her. “I bet it’s Fulsom who’s been filming us all this time. He probably gave the footage to Clem.”

  “I know Avery, and I’m pretty sure I’m right. All Clem had to do was wait for a chance to get a hold of her laptop. She leaves it lying around all the time at the manor when she’s working up there.”

  “How would he know her password?”

  “He wouldn’t need to.” She searched for a way to explain. “She goes there with the other women almost every day. Sets up at the kitchen table to work, but she’s up and down all the time. She’ll clean a bathroom, run back to make notes about an idea, get back to cleaning and so on. It’s just sitting there. She trusts her friends; she doesn’t shut it down every time.”

  “He’d have to have been sneaky.”

  “Clem’s whole career is about being sneaky.”

  “I guess it doesn’t matter,” he said. “What can we do about it, either way, if Clem is the one who’s got the footage?”

  Renata smiled. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a card key.

  “This is for the motel room where we do all the editing. Fulsom took away my personal room there, but he didn’t take my key to the common one. Bet your bottom dollar the footage is on a laptop there, both Avery’s and his.”