Page 25 of Stealthy Seduction (SEAL Team Blackout Charlie #5)

S teele came awake instantly, his body on alert in a way that his mind hadn’t caught up with yet.

He lay perfectly still in the darkness, throwing out his hearing to learn what woke him from a deep sleep.

Voices. Low but urgent, coming from somewhere in the mansion.

Izzy was curled against his side, her breathing rhythmic, one hand splayed on his chest where it landed after they crawled into bed following the movie marathon. Her chestnut hair spilled across the sheet, her face peaceful in a way that made his chest tighten.

With extreme care, he began the process of extricating himself without waking her.

Years of pre-dawn missions had taught him to move like a ghost. He slipped his arm out from under her head, replacing it with his warm pillow.

Next, he bunched the blanket under her hand where his chest had been, giving her something to hold on to.

Then, inch by inch, he eased his weight off the mattress.

Izzy shifted slightly but didn’t wake.

The voices were clearer now, starting to make sense. He picked out the words his teammates spoke as they passed his room on their way to the stairs.

Con’s voice, definitely. Dante’s too. In a tone all wrong for casual late-night conversation.

They were heading toward the war room.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, moving on autopilot. Whatever was happening, it was important enough to drag his teammates out of their beds in the middle of the night.

At the bedroom door, he paused to look back at Izzy. She looked so vulnerable lying there, trusting in his strength and skill to keep her safe from harm.

The urge to wake her, to take her in his arms, was almost overwhelming. But in the end, he silently closed the door and headed for the stairs.

As he passed Mason’s room, the door opened and his brother stepped out. He sliced his hand through his messy hair. “Any idea what’s going on?”

“About to find out,” he drawled in a low tone.

Together, they strode toward the war room. As they entered, Con met Steele’s gaze and gave him a nod. “Alert everyone. Gear up.”

“On it.” Steele was already swinging away with Mason on his six.

“I’ll take the second floor, you get the third,” Mason said.

He gave him a nod before taking the stairs two at a time. Within minutes, the entire Charlie team was assembled in the war room, locked and loaded and prepared for anything.

Thoughts of Izzy echoed along the back of his mind. For the first time since she came to stay on base, she would wake to find him gone. Would she worry for him? He didn’t know if that made him feel good or terrible, so he firmly pushed the notion away and focused on Con.

“Dante intercepted a message on a dark web board. One Cipher has used before for his criminal activities.”

A rustle ran around the room, but they zeroed in on what he was saying.

“Sophie deciphered the message. There’s a huge convention that starts tomorrow. Finance bigwigs from all the major corporations are going to be there. And Cipher was hired to blow up the venue and wipe them all out.”

Silence met his words. The enormity of the situation landed square on Charlie team’s shoulders. And they were more than prepared to face it.

“What do a bunch of financial nerds have to do with Cipher?” Steele asked.

Dante cleared his throat, shredding through the last vestiges of sleep. “He likes hurting people. There are a lot of people out there willing to pay for his expertise. He’s gotta get money to finance his own agenda.”

“Chopper arrives in five. We’ll be on it.” Con’s words sent everyone rushing to the kitchen to grab last-minute drinks or food.

But food was the furthest thing from Steele’s mind. He sprinted up the stairs to his room.

Being quiet in full battle gear in silence wasn’t easy. Part of him hoped that Izzy woke so he could look into her eyes before he walked out that door.

He edged close to the mattress and leaned over her. The scent of her shampoo filled his head, and he let his eyes slip shut, locking the aroma into his memory.

Not only would Izzy wake for the first time to find him gone…but he would be separated from her. The base was the safest place for her—no one could penetrate these walls. But that didn’t slow the wave of worry overtaking him.

He brushed his lips lightly over her brow, and she started awake.

“Hudson.” Her voice was raspy with sleep.

She opened her eyes and took in his appearance.

Body armor under his performance shirt and every strap of his vest pulled tight.

He didn’t have his weapons on him—not yet—and he was glad he had left his helmet rigged with night vision and his comms headset downstairs.

Alarm lit her eyes, dark with fear. “What’s going on?”

“We’re deploying.”

She jolted upright and grabbed him, clinging to the straps of his vest, her hair a wild tousle of curls. “For how long?”

“I can’t say. But I’ll be back as soon as possible. Just promise me you’ll stay here with the other women. Don’t leave the base.” He emphasized every word to impress the importance on her.

“Where are you going?”

He gave her a long look that told her he couldn’t share that information. She gulped with understanding.

“Oh, Hudson!” She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face against the plates on his chest. “Come back to me safe!”

His heart flexed at her words, each one slipping past the armor. He cupped her head and kissed the top of her head, then her forehead, her nose and her lips. “I’ll be home soon.”

With that, he released her, turning for the door. Before he crossed the threshold, she cried out.

“Wait!” She scrambled out of bed, all toned, honeyed legs in tiny sleep shorts and flashing a sliver of skin where her top rode up at her waist. She lunged for an object on the nightstand.

“Izzy, I have to go. I can hear the chopper.”

She let out a small cry and thrust something into his hand. “My crystal. I’ve been wearing it since Costa Rica. It’s a grounding thing, and they say it’s lucky. When I’m anxious, I touch it and it calms me.”

He closed his fingers around the small crystal on a leather cord that she only took off to sleep. Leaning in, he stamped her lips with his—hard, claiming.

Then he was gone, boots thumping down the stairs. From all over the base, more boots echoed in response—teammates emerging.

Answering a call to arms.

* * * * *

The spacious, airy kitchen felt smaller than usual when Izzy entered, the familiar warmth replaced by an undercurrent of anxiety that seemed to vibrate in the air itself.

The women were gathered around the island, but their usual morning chatter was absent, as if they were all moving with the careful precision of people trying not to break under pressure.

Kennedy stood at the coffeemaker, looking like she hardly slept, her complexion wan and her movements mechanical as she filled a mug and handed it to Alyssa. “Here. You need the caffeine.”

Alyssa accepted the cup with a grateful nod, but when she lifted it to her lips, her face went pale. She set it down quickly, pushing it away with a grimace.

“Can’t stomach it this morning,” she muttered.

Kennedy’s eyes sharpened with concern as she studied her friend’s face. “I’ll make you some tea instead. Chamomile might be better.”

Meanwhile, Sophie paced near the windows, her usual calm demeanor replaced by restless energy. Her hands twisted together as she walked back and forth, back and forth, like a caged animal sensing danger none of them could spot.

Izzy set up her laptop on the countertop, but any research she’d planned to do for her book was impossible. After several long minutes of watching Sophie, Izzy couldn’t take it anymore.

“Sophie, what’s wrong?”

Sophie paused midstride, head bowed as if she could find the answer in the marble veins on the floor. “It was too easy.”

May looked up from where she’d been staring at her untouched breakfast. “What was too easy?”

She brought her fist to her lips, pressing it against them as if she could stop the words that wanted to flow out. “The cipher. The code. It was too easy to break.” Sophie’s voice carried an edge that Izzy hadn’t heard before.

“You got intel that sent the men on the op,” Alyssa breathed out.

Sophie nodded.

May shifted uncomfortably. “You’re getting better at knowing his moves. You’ve been dialed into his patterns for months now.”

“Could be,” Sophie said, but her expression remained troubled. “But something feels off. He’s too quiet, too…patient. That’s not his style.”

Silence hovered between the women, but soon Sophie poured herself a mug of coffee and settled with it cradled between both hands, staring at the creamy depths. The teapot bubbled, and Kennedy fixed some chamomile tea for Alyssa. May nibbled on a scone.

And Izzy tried to find some balance in all of this, which right now meant working on her research.

The light conversation the women forced out faded to background noise as Izzy logged in using the private browser that Dante had set her up with.

So when an email from her newsroom account landed in her private inbox, she blinked at the screen.

What in the world was that? She always kept her work and personal emails separate.

Maybe it was a message from her director or one of her colleagues, asking about her after the Times Square incident?

But the subject line made her blood run cold.

Tip About Anonymous Donor

She shouldn’t open it. She should tell Sophie. Or any of them.

With a nervous glance at her friends sitting around the island, each looking worried and drawn, she couldn’t bear to add to their anxiety level.

She would do anything to help them capture Cipher; to end this nightmare so she could go back to some semblance of a normal life. If someone had information about the anonymous donor funding Dr. Webb’s clinic…

She didn’t make it as a journalist by not pursuing things even when it wasn’t one hundred percent safe.

Her heart hammered against her ribs as she opened the email.