Read Hot SEALs: SEALed Fate (Kindle Worlds) (Deep Six Security #0) for Free Online Page A

now that he was out, but the effects remained.  Fallon, however, was not used to it and she’d been through a lot of it today.  He reached over to squeeze her knee. 
    “You doing okay?” he asked, and she whimpered.
    She looked at him, her lip quivered and the damned tears started again.  Right then, Jax realized that sympathy, or empathy, was not the right approach with her.  He put his hands back on the wheel.  “If you’re not doing okay, you need to get okay,” he said gruffly.  “We’ve got a long road to travel before this is over.  If you fall apart now when it’s just started, it’s not going to be a smooth ride for either of us.”
    Still no response from her. 
    Fallon had been stewing in her grief, wallowing in it, the entire drive from Washington to Virginia and Jax had let her.  It was time for her to buck up and toughen up.  Jax needed her strong in case something else did go down.  The only way to accomplish that was with a little distraction and diversion.
    “I didn’t take advantage of your sister, or invite her out into the woods that night in Cancun.”  That should do it, he thought, fighting to keep his expression and words neutral, even though the old anger curled in his gut. 
    Fallon’s gasp told Jax he’d struck a nerve and that pleased him.  At least she wasn’t sniveling anymore.  He imagined her outrage had evaporated the tears, and that was good too.  Her outrage couldn’t be any hotter than his, but he was using this as a tool to distract her, not start an argument, he reminded himself, as he saw her spin in the seat to pin him with an angry glare.
    “You bring that up now ?” she asked angrily.
    “Why not now?” Jax replied with a shrug.  “It’s a huge elephant we need to shoot, so we can work as a team to keep you alive.  Until it’s gone, you won’t trust me any more than I trust you.  Let’s just get it out of the way before we get to the condo.”
    With a huffed breath, Fallon leaned back against the seat and folded her arms across her middle.  “I know you didn’t.”  Jax’s hands jerked on the wheel, and the car swerved as the words rang loudly inside his skull. 
    “Why the fuck did you tell your father I did then?” he asked, his voice constricted by the rage building at his vocal chords.
    “It was too late when Hannah finally fessed up.  You had been discharged, and my father swore us to secrecy since he’d made such a big deal of it and he’d have been embarrassed.”
    “ He would have been embarrassed ?!?” Jax screeched, barely able to keep the car on the road.  He could barely breathe, he was so mad.  “Holy shit , lady—do you have any clue how fucking mortified I was?  I had an honorable service record—no a distinguished record.  I planned to be a lifer in the teams—eventually an instructor!  That was my career !  Do you know how hard I worked to become a SEAL?  How fucking much money the U.S. government spent to train me to be a SEAL?”  Jax’s eyes were on fire, as he fought to keep the emotion dammed in his throat from rushing upward.  When he finally succeeded, he finished, “Your father’s mission to drum me from the teams cost me every scrap of dignity I had, every ounce of respect I’d earned from the men I served with and my commanders.  I hope saving your father a little embarrassment was worth that to you, Ms. Morality .”
    “I deserve that and a lot more,” Fallon replied, her arms tightening even more.  “I’m sorry just doesn’t seem adequate.”
    Jax’s whole body vibrated with anger, as he looked back to the road.  How could the explanation and apology he’d waited five years to hear make him angrier, make him hate the woman beside him more?  Hate her father ten times worse?
    “ Adequate ?  Hell no, that’s not adequate .  If you said those words to me every day for the rest of my life it wouldn’t be adequate to fix the damage you’ve done.”
    “I never thought I’d