Read Hot SEALs: Protecting Julie (Kindle Worlds) (SEAL of Protection Book 0) for Free Online Page B

would any of you have agreed?”
    “No. I liked her. That’s why we all went back today. We wanted to support her. It seemed like she was doing such a good thing with the store,” Summer said softly.
    “Exactly,” Caroline agreed. “If what she told us is true, she’s trying to help out the community. Jess, she’s giving some of the dresses in there to teenagers who can’t afford a prom dress.” Caroline knew her words would strike a chord with Jessyka because of her work with at-risk teens.
    “And you all know, because we talked about it before we went over there today, that she’s also donating clothes to women’s shelters to provide them with appropriate clothes to wear to interviews. I just can’t reconcile that woman with the one who was in the jungle with Fiona.” Caroline took a deep breath. “What do you think, Fiona?”
    “I have no idea. It doesn’t make sense. I was there, I heard what she said and saw what she did. She looks the same, but…not. She never met my eyes when we were in the jungle. She always looked above my head or at the ground when she spoke. She kept a tight grip on Hunter’s shirt the entire time we were fleeing.”
    “But she wanted to leave you there, Fiona,” Cheyenne said softly, having heard the entire story from Caroline one night.
    “Did she?” Fiona asked, almost rhetorically.
    “What do you mean?” Summer asked.
    “I’m trying to remember exactly what she said when she and Hunter were about to leave and something made him turn back around one last time.” Fiona paused and bit her lip, obviously trying to remember what was said back when she was being held captive.
    “She was scared, like I was. She’d just been brought in, and recently had been …uh…you know.” Fiona closed her eyes as if that would help her recall Julie’s exact words. “‘We have to go. I want to go’.”
    “See? She wanted to leave you there and get out.”
    Fiona shook her head slowly and raised wide eyes to her friends. “No, I don’t think so. Now that I think about it, I felt like she did in that hut at one point too. I would’ve done anything to get as far away from there as possible. But I’d become resigned. She wasn’t yet. She was scared and wanted out. If I had to guess, I’d say she was only thinking about getting away from the men who’d hurt her.”
    “You don’t think she meant to leave you, per se, but instead was focused on escaping?” Caroline tried to clarify.
    “Yeah,” Fiona whispered.
    “But what about the rest of it?” Alabama demanded, not harshly. “You’ve told us how she hated the food, complained about you suffering from the effects of the drugs, and even how she didn’t care if Hunter got hurt or not.”
    “I don’t know. I wasn’t in her head, so I just don’t know what she was thinking. But why do I suddenly feel horrible about that entire scene back there?”
    “She was crying,” Caroline mentioned in a soft voice. “We were all walking out of her store and I looked back. She was standing at the register, looking off into space, and tears were running down her face.”
    After a moment of silence, when none of the women said anything, struggling with their own thoughts about how they now felt a little sorry for Julie, but still were pissed off for Fiona about all that had happened to her down in Mexico, Caroline stood up from her chair and went behind Fiona. She wrapped her arms around her friend’s chest and put her chin on her shoulder as she hugged her. “You gonna be okay? Do we need to call Dr. Hancock so you can talk this through?”
    Fiona hugged Caroline back as well as she could in their awkward embrace. “No, I’m okay. It just makes me appreciate Hunter more for his eerie sixth sense he seems to have at times, and thank my lucky stars I got out as relatively normal as I did. Yes, I still have some flashbacks, but I have all of you guys, and Hunter, and everyone else on the team. Who does Julie have?”
    Everyone