Free Cruisin' For A SEAL: SEAL Brotherhood #5 by Sharon Hamilton Page B

I think he fell in love every time he married one of his wives. He just lived in the wrong time, in the wrong culture, in the wrong set of circumstances. You understand?”
    “Yes. My mother said the same of him, often. Mark, I think she thought the same of herself.”
    “So you see, she let her heart do the calling. She probably defied all the advice of her elders, and lived her life with her heart. She knew some day she’d see him again. That you’d have a relationship with him, too.”
    “Yes, I believe that.”
    Mark saw the woman in the red costume, now changed into jeans and yellow cruise ship T-shirt, quietly enter the room from a door opposite where she had exited. At first he wasn’t sure, but the sultry look on her face as she turned in his direction to get a quick peek before she huddled in with the tourist crowd several tables over was unmistakable.
    Sophia
    It made for an interesting conversation with Sanouk, as the young Thai knew Mark had been distracted by something, someone. He waited patiently for answers to his questions, sometimes having to wait for Mark to even realize he’d asked something. Mark searched the crowd at her table. Most of the time she hid her face from him.
    They finished lunch and everyone was herded out according to their bus numbers. Mark was going to try to jump ship to hers, but couldn’t find it, or her.
    Kyle was beginning to catch on to what was happening.
    “Mark, I told you that was never going to work.”
    “What?”
    “The forgetting the night of great casual sex. You know, that one.”
    Kyle was right. Mark figured he had that hound dog look that probably gave him away.
    “I didn’t know she’d be here, Kyle.”
    “I’m guessing that you didn’t know she could dance like that, either.”
    “Has nothing to do with it.”
    “Um hum.” Kyle replied. “Look, Mark. Don’t go chasing rainbows. If she doesn’t want to be found, let her go, man.”
    “After that little dance back there?”
    “She’s making you pay. Big time.”
    “No, she wants to be followed. She wants to be caught. I intend to give her what she wants.”
    “Roger that, Mark. I’m glad one of you will get satisfied, then.”
    Busses headed in separate directions as the various tours splintered off. Mark figured she’d gone with an Italian-speaking group. Their tour guide told them they had a few minutes before their bus would arrive, so their group decided to wait at a coffee house instead of getting lost in the innards of the souk again. Mark was relieved the guys wouldn’t have to try to restrain their girls.
    He left their group to use the head. In a dark corner on the way, he saw an older couple kissing. He recognized the woman as the dark-haired lady with a cabin on their floor around the corner. The man she was with also looked familiar. When he returned to his group, the couple was gone.
    He walked in on a conversation Kyle was having with the other Team guys. Christy and the girls were going over their purchases.
    “See that building over there?” He pointed to a two-story coffee house with a balcony restaurant on the upper floor. A series of colorful lanterns and lights hung from the filigreed metal frame holding up shade tarps in green and blue. “That place blew up about two years ago. Terrorist bomb, right in the middle of the day.”
    “No shit?” Cooper asked. “The whole place?”
    “Well, nearly. About thirty people dead. Mostly native Moroccans, but it was and still is a place tourists hang out at. No one tells them this. They just keep coming back.”
    “How’d you find out?” Tyler asked.
    “Moshe. Kind of warned me where to go and what not to do.” Kyle leaned back and examined the ceiling of their the old stucco veranda. “This one is owned by the local Police Chief, and is probably the safest place on the square.”
    It was a subtle reminder to Mark that nowhere was safe. And that a part of him always felt deployed.

Chapter 9
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    T heir bus was the