When Jake meets a woman at the Hard Deck, the last thing he expects is for her to be a Navy Seal. And not just any Seal, the Commander of Seal Team 3. She's beautiful, smart, dangerous, and everything about her just makes him want to get close. Her...
Warnings: brief mention of blood, physical violence (someone gets punched), threats of violence, panic attack, BIG reveal, some sweet moments, Jake (the man's a warning okay?), the author's a dick again 🫣
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Bear stilled. Her task of making sure that Bob was okay was put on pause to face the man before her. "Lieutenant Commander Richards," she spoke in a voice edged in steel as she stared Hazard down. "Care to explain why he's loose like this?" She had turned to the men escorting him in a heartbeat, staring them down.
All it took for the men escorting Hazard to respond was the hard edge of a CO's voice, and they scrambled to ensure Hazard was tightly cuffed, that their uniforms were on straight, and making sure they saluted.
Safe to say, these midshipmen had no idea how important their jobs were.
Especially since they were under orders from Admiral Will Harris, passed down by Lieutenant Commander Priya 'Bug' Gill, both of which were names that echoed through ranks as being people not to mess with, and to make matters worse, Hazard was supposed to be kept away from Bear.
That was the order.
These men had just failed. Because here was Bear, standing face to face with the man who had been responsible for so much.
"Ma'am... we uh, we didn't think that uh. That people would be around at this time," one of the midshipmen tried to explain.
"Is that right?" Bear was beyond furious at the lack of care that was being demonstrated by the men before her. "Because I don't think that you're aware of exactly why he can't be anywhere near me."
"Uh... why's that? Ma'am."
Turning the flat look to Hazard, Bear gave him a once over. "Because the last time I was in a room with him, I had a loaded gun held to his head, daring him to give me a reason why I shouldn't drop him like the dead weight he is."
"Oh." The sheer obliviousness in his voice made Bear's jaw twitch, drawing twin death glares from the men behind her.
"Not to mention," she ground out. "The stitches on his face that have yet to come out? Those are from the last time he faced down Lieutenant Seresin. So you not only disobeyed direct orders by moving him in daylight, but also by failing to ensure that two of the people he is never to have contact with were not in the path you were taking."
"Yes ma'am."
"Sorry ma'am."
Jake's hand had come up to press against her lower back, offering his silent support. He knew she could feel it shaking in anger, but he didn't care. This was the man, no, the cowardly fuck that had nearly ripped them apart before they had even begun to build something real. "That's not good enough." Jake's voice, like his hands, shook in fury, but Hazard saw it differently.
"Is the big bad pilot scared?" He taunted, the depraved smirk on his face growing larger by the second. Bear hadn't said a word to him, choosing to stand in front of him looking thoroughly unimpressed. "I guess I'm just surprised that you need someone to fight your battles for you, Bear. But then again, you always did hide up on your perch while the rest of us did the grunt work."
