Page 13 of SEAL’s Paradise (Alpha SEALs Hawaii #6)

––––––––

R ILEY WAS GROWING FRUSTRATED as she neared the end of her shift.

None of the men who’d come into Coconuts tonight fit the description of the cocky sailor turned traitor, and there sure as hell weren’t any stripes or whiskers that she’d noticed.

The restaurant and bar closed at one a.m., which was several hours away.

She supposed she could stick around after she was off the clock, watching and waiting.

But what if she’d already missed him?

“Damn it,” she muttered quietly to herself, once again looking around the crowded space.

A tall guy with a ball cap on glanced her way, and her eyes widened, but she realized that the team logo had a picture of a lion on it, not a tiger.

He looked more like a tourist than military servicemember anyway. Another dead end.

Sawyer snagged her wrist as she walked by, and she hesitated, trying to ignore the sudden arcs of electricity coursing through her at his touch.

Sawyer’s thumb skimmed over her tender skin as she turned toward him, making her briefly shudder as she glanced down.

His hands were big, with veins trailing across the backs of them, his fingers slightly calloused.

For the briefest flash, she imagined those hands dragging over her skin.

Undressing her.

Exploring every inch of her body.

Pleasuring her.

Riley nearly gasped as she looked into his eyes. He felt it, too. The connection. The chemistry between them. Sure, they were only pretending to be together, to be a real couple, but their attraction to one another was very real, and it scared the hell out of her.

Still, she couldn’t bring herself to pull away.

“You see anything?” Sawyer asked in a low voice, drawing her closer.

He’d slid around on his barstool and positioned Riley so she was standing between his legs, their faces mere inches apart.

Now that the entire place thought they were engaged, no one questioned it.

There’d been a few smiles from her other waitress friends over the course of the evening.

Several whispered congratulations as the staff hustled through their busy evening shifts.

The bartender had looked surprised, but that was probably because Riley’s waitress persona was the exact opposite of Sawyer’s usual type of woman.

And yet Sawyer was looking at her now like he wanted to eat her right up.

“No, I haven’t seen anything,” she admitted. “I’m worried we missed him. My shift is over soon, too.”

“You’re tired,” Sawyer noted.

“Well sure. I’ve been running tables all night. Waitressing isn’t for the faint of heart,” she joked. “I’ve got a job to do though. I need answers. There weren’t too many other options for hanging around the restaurant day in and day out, so waitressing it was.”

“We can pull the surveillance,” Sawyer said confidently.

He hadn’t dropped her wrist, and as his thumb slid over her skin, licks of heat coursed through her.

Ironic how his touch could be somewhat soothing yet electrifying at the same time.

The man was dangerous, but he was being so gentle with her at the moment, it made her heart clench.

“If they won’t grant us access to the footage,” Sawyer continued, “then we’ll have to find another way to obtain it.

There’s got to be a camera on the front door.

We can see everyone who came in and out of the place the entire night.

We could run the image through facial recognition software and get the name of our first guy. ”

“We could, yes, but I wanted to follow him or at least check out the address they’re delivering in the message tonight. I’m worried we missed our chance to find out who he is.”

Sawyer nodded his head toward a man across the bar who’d just arrived.

He had on a striped tee shirt and did in fact have a short-cropped beard.

“I don’t think it’s him,” Riley said as she followed Sawyer’s gaze.

“I’ve never seen him in here before, and the traitor from base is supposedly a regular, but I’ll go check it out. ”

Sawyer released her hand but gave her waist a quick, possessive squeeze as she turned. Warmth washed over her. “Be careful,” he ordered.

Feeling flushed and slightly off-kilter, she met his gaze and nodded, then moved through the groups of people at the bar tonight. Sawyer had been around for plenty of her shifts in the past, hanging out with his buddies. It was slightly unnerving to have his complete attention and focus on her.

She was usually in the background, and now it felt like she was center stage. At least in the eyes of Sawyer.

Two other guys had appeared at the bar by the time Riley worked her way through the crowd, all of them on the opposite side from where Sawyer had been sitting. One of them was already flirting with a female bartender, ordering drinks, but the second guy gave her pause.

The man’s eyes raked over her, lingering a moment too long on her breasts.

She was wearing her Coconuts tee shirt, not flashing even a hint of cleavage, but that didn’t seem to bother this creep.

It almost felt like he was undressing her mentally, imagining exactly what she looked like beneath her clothes.

He looked military, with short-cropped hair and an athletic build.

He’d been in here before, she noted, but not nearly as often as the regulars.

As her gaze slanted to the right, she realized the guy in the striped tee shirt had already disappeared. “Shit,” she breathed, looking around as a wave of concern washed over her. He’d vanished, and she hoped Sawyer had kept tabs on him while she’d been distracted.

The creepy man’s eyes were still on her as she looked back, and Riley began to grow slightly uneasy.

She was in a crowded restaurant, fully capable of handling herself, and Sawyer would no doubt come to her aid if necessary.

That didn’t mean she felt comfortable though.

Something seemed off about this guy, and she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.

Plenty of men lasciviously looked at her and every other woman in the place.

The bar had always been somewhat of a meet market for tourists and locals alike.

Frowning, she moved back toward Sawyer to ask if he knew where the man in stripes had gone.

She still had thirty minutes on the clock, and while word had spread that she was engaged, she didn’t want to get in trouble and draw attention to herself for hanging out in the bar area for too long while she was supposed to be working.

“Hey there, waitress!” a drunk guy said as she passed, grabbing her arm. She yanked it free, and he reached toward her again and nearly smacked her on the ass before she darted away.

“Hands off!” a deep voice ordered, and Riley spun in surprise, nearly crashing into Sawyer’s muscled chest as he moved closer.

A wave of relief washed over her. Not that she couldn’t handle herself, but she was supposed to be a quiet waitress.

Giving this drunk asshole a swift roundhouse kick to the balls would’ve surprised her coworkers and customers alike.

Possibly gotten her fired.

And Riley needed answers, not more problems.

“Sorry, sorry,” the guy said, raising his hands to indicate he didn’t want any trouble. “I didn’t realize she was taken.”

“Yeah, yeah. Move it along,” Sawyer ground out, shooting him an icy glare.

As the man sheepishly moved away, the creep from earlier walked over in their direction. His eyes were still on Riley, but seeing that she was with Sawyer, he ignored them both and headed toward the empty barstool the handsy guy had just vacated.

He glanced at his smart watch and shrugged out of the jacket he wore, tossing it onto the empty stool. The man gestured to the bartender to order a drink and turned so quickly, Riley almost missed it.

Her heart thudded wildly as she blinked in surprise.

It almost seemed too obvious now that she was staring right at it.

The noise and commotion from the bar seemed to fade into the background as she honed in on her target. It was unmistakable. It was him. Right there on his bicep was a tattoo—a tiger’s head, complete with stripes and whiskers.