Page 1 of Stranded with the SEAL

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“Three minutes, Miss Barrons.”

Brooke nodded, holding the cell phone to her ear as she massaged her sore upper arm. “Come on, answer the damn phone.”

Hi, I’m busy. Leave me a message!

“Bella, it’s me. I need to see you. It’s really important,” she said, closing her eyes as she exhaled. “I’m…I’m scared. I need you to come out to Colorado. Please. I made you a reservation to fly into Denver Monday afternoon. I sent you an email with the details and…”

A knock at the door and it opened, a tall blonde woman with a clipboard standing there. “Miss Barrons, you need to come to the set now.”

Brooke held up a finger.

“Right now, Miss Barrons. We go live in two minutes.”

Brooke took the phone away from her ear. “I’ll be there in a second.”

The woman shook her head, walked in, and put one hand on her hip, leveling her stare at Brooke.

“Give me some privacy, please,” Brooke said.

The woman just stared at her and raised an eyebrow.

Brooke stood and turned her back to the woman. “I can’t go into details now, but it’s really important. I’ll pick you up at the airport.” She hung up the phone and forced the annoyed expression from her face, replacing it with a smile before she turned back around.

“Let’s go.”

“Don’t forget your veil.”

Her stomach pitched violently. “Right.” She picked it up from her dressing table and slid the comb into her hair.

It’s just a costume. It isn’t the real thing.

You’re not really marrying a monster.

The woman gestured for her to follow, and they began jogging through clusters of people who all seemed to be standing still.

Brooke’s head was throbbing, questions swarming like bees. Maybe none of it was true. Maybe this was a dream and she would wake up engaged to the man she’d thought she was marrying, instead of someone capable of hurting the people she loved.

Her arm ached, the injury to her limb nothing compared to the damage that had been done to her sense of trust. She was in danger. She knew that now, and she had to find a way to escape.

Spotlights came into view, violently bright and focused ahead of her. When the woman stopped in the wings, Brooke continued onto the stage. The band started to play and the title sequence began.

“We’ve got a great show for you tonight,” she yelled over the music. The bee-like buzzing in her head melded with the applause of the crowd, her head spinning. It was too much, every bit of it overwhelming, and she thought her brain might burst with the effort it took to comprehend what had just taken place.

What it meant for her, now that her safety net was gone.

The music stopped and she spun in a circle, the veil flowing around her on the air, gossamer and surreal. She felt nauseated. She would get through this by training and sheer force of will. She would smile and pretend everything was all right — even laugh — then she would run away deep into the night, back to where it all began.

She needed to go there, needed her memories around her now more than ever before, even if it meant going to the edge of hell to get them.

You’ll have to get by Gallant.

Sometimes, she didn’t know if he was her bodyguard or her babysitter. The man rarely let her out of his sight, and asking him to leave her alone would only rouse his suspicions.

She would do it, distract him with a woman, maybe the one with the clipboard. He would get laid, and she would get the head start she needed to survive.

The music crescendoed as her plans fell into place.