Renegade: Healing With a SEAL, #6

By Heather Black

After a training accident forced him to take a medical discharge from the Navy, Renegade faced the daunting task of transitioning to the civilian world. Frustrated by employers who ignore the ADA, he turns to social media to find a job.
Kayla needed help, fast.
A series of events at her bed and breakfast left her convinced someone was stalking her. Reluctant to reveal this suspicion to her guests or local authorities, she hires Renegade to provide security.
When Renegade finds out the truth behind his job, he offers a unconventional solution. A fake marriage until the stalker is caught. Passion flares as the danger increases. Can they keep it 'just business' or will they fall for real?

*This is the sixth book in the Healing With a SEAL series.
*All books in the series can be read as standalones.
*This book is intended for audience 18+

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Black
• Release date: Dec 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201707545

Book preview

Chapter 1

Renegade stared out over the ocean for one last time.  Zeus and Athena sat at his heels obediently waiting for the command to get into their travel cages.  He had been lucky the first year of the pups lives, because his neighbor, Mercy, had been there to help raise the pups when he’d been called away on missions and she’d been there after his injury to help take care of them while he’d been on crutches and in walking casts after his surgeries.  Mercy had become the sister that he’d never had.  Now when he’d needed to talk to her the most she wasn’t here.  The Army had called her away overseas for a year and the Navy had just given him his medical discharge.  She had left while he was back home before he’d gotten the results of the medical board.

During his trip home he’d gone looking for a job and had come up empty handed.  Since he’d been a corpsman in the Navy, he’d have to go to school and get his nursing certificate or his EMT certificate.  Everyone that he’d interviewed with had seen his slight limp and questioned if he’d be able to do the job.  Ultimately, everyone had turned him down saying that they had found someone who was better qualified for the position.  Once he’d gotten back to San Diego he’d applied for just about every job he could find that he had qualifications to do, and again he’d come up with nothing.

Then he’d done as the career counselor at the pre-discharge lectures had told him to do and set up a social media account as well as posting his resume online.  To his relief a bed and breakfast in Montana hired him site unseen.  It wasn’t in Texas his home state though, but it was a job that gave him a roof over his head, a place to have a chance at proving he was still worthy, and it gave him meals.  He couldn’t turn it down, since the job was the only one he’d gotten an offer for with all the applications he’d filled out over the past few months.

Come Athena, Zeus, time for us to hit the road.  Renegade said tapping each of the pups cages for them to get in.  Each jumped into their travel cage and laid down with a bit of a whimper at the idea of being locked into the cage for hours on end.  Zeus, a black and white pit bull with a huge head was the more skittish of the two pups.  Athena, a beautiful red nosed, light chocolate brown pit, had taken her time in going any where.

The trip to Montana took longer than he’d planned since he had the dogs with him.  He had to stop periodically to feed, water, and let them out to use the bathroom.  The trip would have taken him two days at the most if he’d been alone, but it had wound up taking three days because of all the stops they had made along the way.  As Renegade was driving through the last town before he arrived at the bed and breakfast, heading into the darkness of night.  The sun was setting to the West and in the East it was already dark.  As he drove through the mountain town he saw what most tourists saw.  Snow capped mountains in the distance with a nice landscape.  The town was typical of any small town, a small diner, police station, doctor, dentist offices, as well as a few boutique shops lined the main road through the town.  He glanced at the GPS on his phone that he’d placed in the holder so he could navigate while driving without much of a distraction.

Ten more miles and we’ll be home guys.  I hope the new boss doesn’t mind us arriving at dinner time.  Renegade spoke to the two pups like they could understand every word that he’d said to them.

Zeus and Athena only whimpered at the idea they were almost to their destination as a response.  Then Athena gave one of her special woos just for him to know she was talking.

Renegade finally pulled into the Six Mile Ranch and B&B, it was a nice little house on which served as a bed and breakfast for the tourist that didn’t want to go to a ski resort just to enjoy a little mountain view.  The house that served as the bed and breakfast was a beautiful two story.  The lower floor was shaped like a U with several rooms for guests to stay in.  The second floor had some larger rooms, but had the same number of rooms, there were several bathrooms on each floor for the guests to share.  The place also had a corral of horses and a stable for them to live in.  As he got out of his lifted Suburban he slowly stretched to his arms to the sky before pulling the dogs out to take a pit stop he decided that they would have to wait a moment while he checked in with the boss.

Renegade entered the house where he was greeted by a beautiful auburn headed woman whose smile radiated from ear to ear.  She was wearing a light blue cami top underneath a blue plaid button up, which she had buttoned almost completely to the top, to round out the outfit she was wearing a pair of jeans and boots, he approved she was definitely his type of woman.  She was standing in the kitchen preparing the evening meal.  She looked up from cutting the head of cabbage and said, Hi.  How can I help you?

Name’s Gavin I’m looking for um...  He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket checking a hand written note with a name on it.  Kayla.  He finally says and the look on her face turns almost confused for a moment as she freezes.

After a moment of complete silence between the two of them she finally says, That’s me you must be my new security officer.  He nods in recognition.  Take a seat I’ll have dinner prepared in a few minutes.  We’ll discuss your position afterwards.  She finishes as she goes back to cutting the head of cabbage.

I hate to be rude ma’am, but I’ve got my dogs in the back of my truck.  Is there somewhere I can let them run around while we eat dinner?  Renegade asks.

"Oh, sorry I forgot.  Yes.  If you don’t mind bringing them to the gate, Samuel will let you in and they can run around there until I show you where you’ll be staying.

Renegade nods and turns around to walk out the door.  He goes and does as Kayla had instructed him to do.  Once Zeus and Athena are released into the gated area for dogs he heads back inside for the dinner that she’d promised.  He sits down just as Kayla is serving up plates for everyone.  Tonight is a slow night, only one set of guests are at the bed and breakfast and they decided to check out the diner food in town after a long day of shopping at the boutiques.

You’re not allergic to anything are you?  Kayla asks before serving up Renegades’ plate.

Nothing that I’ve found in my years.  Renegade answers as fried cabbage, onions, rice, and grilled chicken are served onto a plate and then handed to him.  He can’t help as his eyes linger on Kayla for a little bit too long as he takes in the site of her.  She is a good head and shoulders shorter than him with long auburn hair, and deep gray eyes.  If he had to guess she was in her late twenties to early thirties, just a few years younger than himself.  She has a fit body, probably from running around the b&b all the time, if he had to guess.

Renegade takes a seat next to Samuel and another young gentleman.  Kayla joins them and sits at the head of the table, the two extra seats remain empty as they eat in complete silence.  Renegade can’t help but think about how it reminds him of his days back when he was a young buck in boot camp.  No time for talking you had to hurry up and eat.

With dinner finished and cleaned up Samuel excused himself to his quarters and Kayla showed Renegade to the ‘office.’  It was a spare bedroom set up with some resistance weight equipment, a small desk by the window and an office chair.  On the desk sat a laptop and several stacks of papers, Renegade guessed these were the bills for operating this little place.

Renegade took a seat on the workout bench and Kayla sat in the office chair.  She turned in it to face him and started to explain the layout of the position that he’d been hired to do.  Up until this point Renegade had been mostly skeptical and somewhat confused as to why a bed and breakfast needed a security officer.

Once they had gone over the details of the job Renegade had been hired for Kayla showed him to his quarters.  It was a quaint little cottage not located very close to the main house, but within a decent walking distance.  The cottages that held the few staff members were not able to be seen by the guests at the bed and breakfast.  As they walked down the narrow path to the cottage, he watched as her hips swayed from side to side.  He was getting a good view of her backside, it was nice and rounded, not to big and not too flat.  His thoughts started drifting down that rabbit hole that one never wanted to go down concerning their boss.  Except if he didn’t think the thoughts of how she would look and feel bent over with him taking her from behind, he wouldn’t be a decent sailor.

As they approached the cottage that would be his for the duration of his employment.  She explained that the previous owner of the bed and breakfast had used the cottages for hunters shacks and allowed them to hunt on the land, during hunting season.

The cottage was a small shack of only a few rooms.  It had a little kitchenette with a small refrigerator, the kind you’d see in a college dorm room.  There was a small bedroom with a bathroom just off of it, a living area that took up most of the cabin and then there was a small laundry room that was fully furnished.  Kayla had done some improvements to the cottages by adding some creature comforts such as central air, Wi-Fi, and even some pictures to make the cottage feel a little more like a home than a hunting shack.

Renegade called and before long Zeus and Athena were running up the few porch stairs and into the main room.  One of the agreements that they had come to about the job before he’d accepted Kayla’s job offer was that the dogs would be allowed indoors.  His specific cabin had a fenced in back yard area, which he figured she’d had Samuel put up, for the dogs.  Each of the dogs having run inside jumped up onto a separate piece of furniture and plopped down.

They’re beautiful.  Kayla commented.

Full blooded pit bulls.  Their breed has been given a bad wrap, kinda why I chose them.  I wanted to do my part to prove to people that they’re not as bad as people like to make them out to be.  Its all in how one trains the dog, you treat them right they’ll put their lives down for you.  If you train them to be mean then they’ll be just that, mean.

Are they for breeding?  I mean you have a boy and a girl.  She asked as Athena allowed her to gently pet her between the ears.

Watch it, Zeus gets green over Athena getting all the attention.  And no they’re not for breeding they’re brother and sister, and she’s fixed so I don’t have to worry about puppies.  Renegade warned as Zeus came up and started jumping in front of Athena for the attention that his sister was getting.

Before she knew it Zeus had pinned her to the floor and both he and Athena were giving her back the love that she was showing them in the form of doggie kisses.  Renegade laughed at the site of the two dogs giving a total stranger kisses.  It started as a chuckle deep in his throat and before he knew it he was roaring with laughter.  After a couple of moments of laughter he called the dogs off of Kayla and apologized for the dogs and their unique way of saying hello.  Kayla laughed and dusted herself off from the assault by the two loving dogs.

They said their good nights and Kayla headed back toward the main house where she lived and ran the bed and breakfast from.  Renegade turned and headed into the house.  He would have to hike back up to the main house to grab his things so that he could unpack them, but that could wait till morning.  He had grabbed his overnight bag from his truck, when he’d let the dogs out earlier, before heading down here so that he could call it a night since he hadn’t really slept the whole time they’d been on the road. 

Come.  Renegade spoke to the dogs as he closed the front door and turned on his heel heading towards the bedroom.  He placed his overnight bag in the closet after grabbing his toiletries bag out.  He took the toiletries bag with him into the bathroom where he did his nightly routine of brushing his teeth before bed.  Once he was done in the bathroom he pulled the bathroom door closed and shuffled around the house for a few more minutes getting food and water bowls set up for the dogs before he called it a night.

He climbed into the full sized bed and pulled the sheets up before he dozed off he felt the two dogs jump up onto the bed finding their favorite spots and settling in for the night.  Tomorrow he would begin working as a security officer for the bed and breakfast, whatever that really was.  Even though she’d explained the position as just an extra set of eyes for insurance purposes, and that he’d be responsible for contacting the insurance company regarding any claims of lost or stolen property against the bed and breakfast as well as any workman compensation claims.  He felt deep in his gut that she wanted him there for another reason, just what he didn’t know, yet.

Chapter 2

Kayla arrived back at the bed and breakfast from showing Gavin to his new home.  She’d tried to gloss over the real reason that she needed a security officer.  She’d told him that is was because of insurance purposes, which wasn’t a total lie.  However it wasn’t the whole reason that she’d needed a security officer.  She’d moved here almost a year earlier from her home in Chicago, when she’d been sure someone was following her around town, getting her routine down, to do who knows what to her.  She’d survived one attack and she wasn’t going to put herself in the position of being attacked again.

Gavin had been even bigger in person than on his social media profile.  The picture on his profile had been with some of the guys from his unit, he’d looked average height since several of the men were almost as tall as him or a bit taller, according to the picture.  His name had popped up as someone who she may know because they both had Chicago somewhere in their profiles as well as members of the military.  When she’d looked him up he’d linked a resume to his account for potential employers to find him as well as see what he could do.  When she’d clicked on the resume she had been astonished by all the things it said that he could do.  He was a corpsman so he knew more than just basic first aid, and he was proficient in weapons, not just firearms, but knives and other martial arts techniques.  She’d printed out a copy of the resume and even called some of the references that he’d listed.  Everyone gave him glowing reviews, and they gave her the impression that he was one of the best people she could have do the job she really needed, protecting her from the potential stalker.

Damn he had been good looking when she’d looked up there had stood a man that was a good six-foot two.  He was wearing a set of cowboy boots and a pair of black jeans that hugged just a little tightly at his thighs, and even gave her an idea of what God had graced him with.  His pants were held on with a black leather belt and a big Texas belt buckle.  His shirt although slightly wrinkled was a nice white polo shirt that complimented his tan skin.  His hair was dark brown and was still cut in the military high and tight, however he’d allowed his mustache to start growing out and he was apparently grooming it to be a set of handlebars that framed his chin.  His eyes had been the fall in love with brown.  She had paused when he said that he was looking for her.  It had been because although she’d seen his picture on his social media page, she was amazed at the fact that he looked almost exactly like the photo.  No one is that close to their profile picture in person.

When she’d explained the details of his position she’d avoided the question of how exactly she’d found him.  Over the weeks since she’d finalized that he was accepting the job as security officer for her bed and breakfast she’d gone over the conversation that would come from the honest truth.  I’d been something like:

You hired me to protect you?

Yes. Because someone is stalking me that I thought I’d left in Chicago.

So, let me make sure I have this correct.  You found me on the internet and hired me to protect you because of my military background.  Are you crazy?  What if I’d been your stalker and you just hired me without even vetting me?

She’d finally decided it was better not to explain that he was actually there to protect her from a potential stalker.  Plus, she’d decided that it was best that she not have him escort her to her usual town runs since he’d probably pick up on the fact he’d been hired to protect her.  So, she’d told him that his job was to protect the property and the guests from thieves.  She figured he’d probably stay on for about six months just long enough to give her stalker time to get bored with her only being alone during her grocery store runs and bank runs.  Most everything else that she did was online, or ordered and delivered to her door.

The next morning Renegade had come to breakfast with a list of things he’d need for his job.  It shocked her that he was taking this job super seriously.  As Kayla looked over the items that he’d listed, semi-shocked that he’d been up as early as her working on his ‘job’.  He’d listed motion detectors, video cameras, as well as other security measures that he’d thought were