Free Warrior (Navy SEALs Romance Book 5) by Rachel Hanna

dozen little kids. Can you think of their parents for a second?” Tanner jerked his head behind him slightly, trying not to call attention to them.
    Angel looked over Tanner’s shoulder and his face softened. At least twenty people stood clustered together in a taped off area, some of them clinging to each other, some of them obviously praying.
    “Shit, dude. What do we need to do?”
    “Well, it would have been helpful if you’d stayed back at command and issued orders, but I see that ship has sailed,” Tanner said with a light laugh. “But don’t worry, they’re clearing us to take off again soon, they think within the hour. You really didn’t have to race over here like this.”
    “Yeah, I did. I can’t talk about it… but yeah.” Angel hung his head and grabbed the back of his neck.
    “You mean because Madison’s pregnant and you’re scared to death about it?”
    Angel jerked his head up and glared fiercely at Tanner. “What are you talking about? Who told you?”
    “Nobody! You just did, I was only kidding! Holy shit, you’re gonna be a dad!” Tanner punched Angel in the shoulder over and over, laughing and grinning until Angel couldn’t help but smile. “But hey, congratulations. Just remember, Tanner’s an awesome name for a boy or a girl!”
    “Yeah, I’ll try to remember that,” Angel answered sarcastically before turning serious. “I guess I have some apologies to make, huh?”
    “You might. But I’m sure the guys are gonna understand where you were coming from if you just told them the truth.”
    “I can’t. I want to, I mean it. But Madison made me swear I wouldn’t say anything. She’s just got it in her head that something’s gonna go wrong, and she doesn’t want me to tell anyone yet.”
    “I get it. But she didn’t say I couldn’t tell them, right?” Tanner grinned wickedly, then took off running. Angel caught up to him and grabbed him by the sleeve, turning him back around.
    “Hey, there’s something you gotta know… I’m sending Mike back. Knox will take over as pilot and you’ll fill in as co-pilot. It’s gonna leave us without someone at command, since Mike won’t be going back to headquarters.”
    “You’re the boss this week, so it’s your call. But what’s up?” Tanner wrinkled his brow and waited.
    “If there’s really a God, then it’s nothing. But if not, I think his new girl’s in trouble. There was a call about a man overboard on a research vessel, and the intel said it was a young marine biologist out of the university who headed out this morning on a project.”
    “Oh god, so who’s handling the search?”
    “Well, that’s kind of our job, isn’t it?” he asked bitterly. “Instead, we’re here, and we’re grounded. We get to sit here on our butts waiting for clearance to finish up this mission while a young woman is hopefully bobbing in the ocean miles out to sea. But it actually gets worse. There’s no official search yet. All they got was a tip that a guy went out to sea with two passengers and only came back with one. Some old lady on a fishing pier called the cops, she said they looked shifty, like they were up to something. It’s not even an official missing person ‘til the authorities go looking around some more.”
    Tanner looked over his shoulder at the group leaning against the chopper, already suited up and waiting for their permission to take off. Michael looked focused but still relaxed, and that was about to change.
    “So what do we do?”
    “I’m sending him back. I can’t order him to do anything, we don’t have the clearance to conduct a search without official word, and without everybody present. Insurance, city regulations, all that crap,” Angel answered, his expression telling exactly what he thought about bureaucracy. “But Mike’s smart… he’ll read between the lines and do what has to be done.”

    * * *
    M ichael rode the entire way in silence, partly lost in his thoughts about Emily and partly