Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Hope (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Midnight Delta Book 7) Read online

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  Protecting Hope

  Seal of Protection / Midnight Delta Crossover Novel

  A Novella

  By Caitlyn O’Leary

  Dedication

  I’m dedicating this book to the bravest and kindest

  person I know, my sister Molly. You are amazing.

  I’d also like to thank Susan Stoker; I love her books,

  her sense of fun and her constant positive attitude!

  Synopsis

  Navy SEAL Griffin Porter has been flirting with the lovely Miranda Slade for the past two months as they have commuted on the same Amtrak train. Miranda is smart, funny, caring and, unbeknownst to him, one of the bravest people he’ll ever meet. Today is the day for him to finally seal the deal, and make sure they start actually dating.

  Wolf Steel gets on the train with his wife Caroline, along with many other passengers, as the train glides past the beaches of the Pacific Ocean. A thunderous crash leaves their rail car hanging over a cliff.

  The situation just got screwed up beyond belief, and even though Wolf is on board, Griff is going to need extra help to get out of this one. With the cliff edge faltering, and rough terrain between the road and train, it’s going to take more than just normal emergency responders to rescue those aboard. Will Wolf’s SEAL team and the Midnight Delta team, make it in time?

  Chapter One

  Griff ran across the station, barely making it on board. He grinned as soon as he stepped onto the train. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if he had arrived a couple of hours late to the Navy base at Coronado, but he sure as hell didn’t want to miss an opportunity to see Miranda Slade. This was their time together. And he’d made up his mind that this was the morning he’d be asking her out. Ms. Slade might not realize it, but she had been targeted by a SEAL, and that meant she belonged to him.

  He sauntered down the car and quickly spotted her raven hair. He’d been pretty sure she’d be on this car, since they’d been sitting together, on this one, for the last nine Mondays. As he came upon her, he saw that there was a newspaper lying in the seat beside her. When she saw him walking down the aisle towards her, she picked it up and motioned towards the empty seat. Score!

  She was on the phone. That was normal, too, the woman did a lot of work when she was on the train. That was fine, he could wait.

  Griff made himself as comfortable as he could in the seat. Even here in the business class section, the seats didn’t easily accommodate his shoulders, and he ended up overflowing into her space a little bit. Miranda didn’t seem to mind, as she flashed him a bright smile, then settled back to her phone call. Griff listened in shamelessly. She could have easily commanded forces in the Navy. Right now someone was getting their ass handed to them in D.C.

  “Doug, this is the third time you have missed something vital for Energys. We don’t have time to set up an entire new process to proofread behind you.”

  He watched in fascination as she took quick notes on a sheaf of papers.

  “I’m confused. I tracked the time you opened the e-mail. It was actually on Monday, not on Wednesday. So you had five days to go over the contracts. Are you telling me that wasn’t enough time?”

  She was pissed. Apparently Doug didn’t think she would tag her e-mail. Doug didn’t sound like the sharpest tool in the shed.

  “Is that really the tack you want to take, Doug?” She asked in a soft voice. “Your final answer is that you didn’t get enough time to review the documents?”

  Griff wouldn’t want to be in Doug’s shoes.

  “Thank you for your time, Doug.” She hung up the phone, even though he could still hear the man on the other end talking. Miranda was shaking her head in disgust as she dialed another number. It went to voicemail.

  “Bob, this is Miranda. Doug’s off the Energys project effective immediately. I’m not telling you how to handle your employees, but I’m going to send you all the information you’ll need to write him up if you’re so inclined. You’ll have it by the end of the day. In the meantime, I’m going to need someone else to support Energys. Someone who can perform.” She actually went to the trouble of powering off her cell phone.

  Griff raised an eyebrow. “You’re disconnecting?”

  “Doug’s going to bitch to Bob. Bob’s then going to call me and beg me to take Doug back. If I take the call, I won’t be professional. The little sh-” she cut herself off before she swore. “Doug lied to me. He out and out lied to me. Anyway, I won’t handle it well with Bob so it’s best that I don’t take his call.”

  “Why turn off the phone? Can’t you just let his call go to voicemail when you see his number come up?”

  Miranda patted out an imaginary wrinkle in her skirt, then back up at him. “I’m kind of OCD, the phone rings and I pick it up. I just can’t help myself.”

  “How many hours a week do you work?”

  Pretty blue eyes looked at him and she grinned. “Too many.”

  “How many is too many?” He watched as she once again brushed at imaginary wrinkles. This time he picked up her hand and held it in his. “Tell me.”

  “Right now, since taking on this new client, about fourteen to sixteen hours a day, when I’m in San Diego.”

  “And when you’re home in Anaheim on the weekends?” he asked.

  “I cut it back,” she said looking at their clasped hands.

  “Miranda, eighty-plus hours a week is more than just too many hours. Especially if you’ve been doing it for over two months.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Griff knew he was in trouble. He’d been accused of being too controlling in the past. Women didn’t like it.

  “Yeah, I know,” Miranda agreed. “You’re right.” She sighed.

  “That’s it? You’re going to actually agree with me?” he asked in surprise.

  She gave him a puzzled look. Then she laughed. “Oh yeah, you were pretty Neanderthal, weren’t you? But I can’t give you a hard time when you’re right.” Griff relaxed, feeling even better than when he had first boarded the train. He really, really liked this woman.

  “To tell you the truth, Griff, I’ve been doing this pace for almost five months and I’m close to the edge of burn-out. That’s the reason for turning off the phone. But the product will hit the market at the end of next month, and then I’m taking my six weeks accrued time-off in one big lump.” Miranda leaned her head back against the seat, and peeked over at him from beneath her lashes. “I need to just veg out.”

  Griff wasn’t surprised how hard that hit him. He had been enjoying their time together on the train for the last two months. It was definitely time to put this into high gear, because he damn well wanted some of her leave time to be spent with him!

  “That sounds like a good plan. Do you have any special place you want to go? Any special people you want to spend time with?” Great, really smooth Porter.

  “At least one week I want to spend on a beach sipping rum drinks, and nope, nobody special. I’ll have to see i
f I can scrounge up one of my girlfriends, but most of them fall under the workaholic category, too.” Miranda wrinkled her nose. “Seriously, this shit needs to start slowing down.” She shoved at her leather computer case with her attractive maroon heel. She always wore nice shoes. Not too high, but pretty. “How about you? How much time do you take off, Mr. SEAL?”

  “What about Wendy? I know she’s a big time director, but won’t she take off some time to go with you? Or Kenna?”

  He watched as Miranda stared at him in amazement.

  “What? You’re the only one who pays attention?” he chuckled. “Oh, I forgot, Kenna moved back to Ohio. Still, can’t she meet you?”

  “Her new job is keeping her hopping, plus she’s trying to get her second book published,” Miranda said with a proud smile. “Wendy’s on location. Nope, I’ll probably be alone on the beach. Anyway, we were talking about your life. How much time do you take off?”

  “I don’t work nearly as much as you do. When we’re not deployed it’s a regular forty- hour week, but you know that. I’m up in Anaheim every weekend to help Mom out with Dad.”

  The train lurched, and her case slid, she bent down to move it back in place. Griff wanted to grab back her hand in his.

  She tilted her head and asked, “How is your dad doing?”

  Griff thought about how he left things this morning. His dad was downstairs in the hospital bed. The home healthcare worker would be in later in the day. “He’s doing better. We got in a couple of games of Scrabble. There is no way he would have been up for that last week.”

  “And your mom?”

  “Amazing as always.” Griff thought about his petite mother, who was the glue that kept his family together.

  “When does your aunt arrive from Hawaii?”

  “I sure must talk a lot to you,” Griff shifted in his seat so he could look directly at Miranda. He was feeling kind of sheepish.

  “No, you don’t. I swear I have to play twenty questions each time. Like now.” This time, instead of kicking her bag, she pressed her foot against his calf. He gave her a wicked grin, and her eyes sparkled in return. “You’re aunt?” she prompted again.

  “Are you sure you were never in the military?”

  “Nope. But I did run a project for the Department of Defense. You learn a few things.”

  The train gave another lurch, nothing that really would have caused him to lose his equilibrium, but Griff shifted a little bit anyway, so that their upper arms were now brushing up against one another. Miranda relaxed against him.

  “My aunt is going to arrive on Friday. She’s my mom’s sister. She would have come sooner, but her youngest just graduated high school. She wanted to be there for the graduation ceremony. Now she intends to stay for a month and help Mom out.”

  “Oh.” She pulled back into her seat. “I guess I won’t be seeing you then.” She definitely sounded disappointed.

  He gave her a full-blown smile. “When is your assignment going to end? The end of next month?” he asked her.

  “Most likely. Yeah, six weeks.” She bit her lip. She had great lips.

  “Then, Miranda, you’re going to be seeing me for six more weeks.”

  “I am?”

  “Yep. Now that I know how much longer your assignment is, that’s how long I intend to keep seeing my parents. Or you could put me out of my misery and agree to go out to dinner with me now?” he said hopefully.

  She gave a slow smile. Then she frowned. “I’d really like that, but I don’t usually leave the office until eight or sometimes nine at night.”

  “Okay, then it’ll be a late dinner.”

  “You wouldn’t mind waiting?” He liked that she sounded as hopeful as he felt.

  “Hell, Miranda, I’ve been taking this train for two months even though my truck has been out of the shop for the last seven weeks. I’d say I wouldn’t mind waiting,” he laughed.

  “You’ve been really worried about your dad, haven’t you? That’s what’s been holding you back, hasn’t it?”

  He liked the fact that she understood why he hadn’t asked her out before this. It had been because of his dad. For some reason he hadn’t felt right about pursuing a social life with his dad so sick with the chemotherapy. But now that he was showing such a marked improvement, he felt like dating.

  “Yeah, I have been worried about him. But he’s turned a corner.”

  “I’m really happy for you and your family.”

  “So what kind of food do you like?” Griff asked.

  “It really doesn’t matter. Food’s food. It’s the company that matters.”

  He grinned.

  “Hi, you two.” He looked up to see Betty. They showed their tickets.

  “How are you this morning, beautiful?” he asked the middle-aged woman who scanned their tickets. She gave them a big smile.

  “I see you are still a big ‘ole flirt, Mr. Porter.”

  “I know better than to flirt with a happily married woman, Betty. How are the grandkids?” Betty looked around the car and saw that it was pretty empty, so she took a moment to answer.

  “Collin is starring in the school play, and Angela caught a fly ball in her first game.”

  “That’s fantastic.” Betty left to scan the next people’s tickets.

  “So, where were we?” Griff said looking at Miranda.

  “I was about to question you.” She said as she started to shrug out of her blazer. Griff helped her, admiring the pink silk blouse she was wearing. There was something about a woman in a business suit that got to him. Then there was the fact that she wore pearls. God, half the time he was ready to swallow his tongue.

  “Fire away.”

  “What made you decide to become a SEAL? After I met you, I looked it up. That BUD/S training is intense. What makes a person decide to put themselves through something like that?”

  Griff hesitated. He didn’t normally open up about that. But then again, no woman had ever thought to ask him such a direct question. He liked it.

  “My great-grandfather and two of his brothers were on the beach at Normandy. Papa John died when I was seventeen. I grew up hearing about the ‘Great War’. When I was sixteen, he and his brother Alfred were reminiscing and they talked to me about that day. It was horrific. But they were proud. Their brother Harold died on Omaha Beach.”

  Miranda reached out and put her hand on his. He turned his hand so their palms met and their fingers tangled. She was small and delicate compared to him. Light to his dark.

  “All three of them had enlisted right after Pearl Harbor.” Griff hesitated. “They were something else. I wanted to be just like them.”

  “I imagine you did.” Miranda smiled up at him. The loudspeaker called for the next stop as the train slowed.

  “I love the San Juan Capistrano station,” Miranda said as she pointed to the historic area. “Before my mom died, we visited the mission together,” she told him.

  “When did your mom pass?” he asked, as passengers began boarding the train.

  “Three years ago. It was always just the two of us. She died in a car accident on the Four-Oh-Five Freeway.”

  “I’m so sorry, Miranda,” he squeezed her hand. She gave him a small smile.

  “Ma’am let me help you with that,” a familiar voice said. Griff turned and saw Wolf Steel, he led one of the most decorated SEAL teams in the Navy. Wolf and his lieutenant, Gray Tyler, had gone through BUD/S together. Griff watched as Wolf helped an older woman store her luggage over the lip of the upper metal rack above the seat. Betty saw Griff looking and winked. Wolf saw the wink and turned to look at Griff.

  “Griff, is that you?”

  “Hey, Wolf,” Griff smiled easily. He watched as Wolf gently guided a beautiful blonde ahead of him towards a seat that was across the aisle from him and Miranda.

  “Honey, this is Griff Porter, he works for Gray’s team. Griff, meet my wife Caroline.” Caroline held out her hand. Another one that was slim and graceful, and oh so s
mall in his. He shook it carefully.

  “Hi, Griff, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I love meeting the men and women who serve with Matthew.” It took a moment for Griff to realize that Matthew was Wolf’s real name.

  “Wolf. Caroline. I’d like you to meet Miranda Slade. She is a contracts’ analyst who is on assignment in San Diego with Energys. I’ve finally convinced her to have dinner with me.” Wolf raised his eyebrow, and Caroline’s eyes twinkled.

  “Actually it wasn’t that hard to convince me,” Miranda said as she shook hands with the Steel’s. They all sat down in their seats, and soon the train was moving again.

  “So, is it a job prerequisite for all of you to be built like mack trucks and look like Greek god’s?” Miranda whispered.

  “He’s married.” Griff teased her. She hit him on his arm. He couldn’t help but preen a little bit that she found him attractive. But it wasn’t a sure thing, because Ms. Slade was pretty damned attractive, and he’d had to guard his seat pretty zealously over the last two months.

  When the train took a heavy lurch, and she bumped into him, he took the opportunity to put his arm around her. For just a moment she looked startled, but then she smiled and snuggled into his side.

  “I like this better than being on my phone,” she whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Griff said. “You’re pretty damn sexy when you’re dressing down your subordinates.”

  “Dressing down. I like that. It sounds so militaristic. I should be wearing a uniform, and carrying a riding crop like General Patton was in that movie.” Griff almost groaned. Suddenly he had a picture of her in a leather dress and high-heeled boots with a whip. Keep it together, Porter.

  “Are you okay Griff? You made a funny sound.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Thank God an announcement sounded for another stop. Soon more people were coming on board, including a young mother with a toddler and young child. She had all of the requisite child paraphernalia accompanying her.

  Griff and Wolf both got out of their seats to assist her, which seemed to overwhelm both the woman and the children. The little girl in her arms started to whimper and, then as Griff offered to take the woman’s suitcase, the child shrieked, “No!”