Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 9) by Kat Cantrell Page B

hand toward the beach, heads bent together as they murmured to each other. Evan laughed, and a crappy wave of jealousy tugged at Charlie’s gut. He didn’t begrudge them their happiness. Evan certainly deserved something good in his life. But knowing that didn’t stop Charlie from wishing for things that he had no business wishing.
    When the beach came into view, he started to run. Some days he could run fast enough to leave the nightmares behind. Today wasn’t looking like one of those days. Heart pounding in his chest, he ate up the sand, churning it out behind him as he took off in the other direction from Evan and Rachel, who clearly hoped to have some privacy for their walk.
    The island wasn’t big enough to avoid running into tourists. Town was on the opposite side of the resort, but guests wandered past the large boulders that marked the end of the resort beach all the time. Thankfully, none of the beachgoers hassled him as he pounded out the seemingly endless supply of energy and aggression that wouldn’t dwindle.
    As an antidote for Audra, the run was a complete failure. But he did managed to generate enough endorphins to feel like he might not rip off the head of the next person who said hello.
    When he got back to the bungalow, he threw himself into the shower and then tugged on a clean Aqueous Adventures T-shirt and cargo shorts. He emerged feeling almost human. As human as a saint dancing around the edge of hell could, anyway.
    Jace and Miles both glanced up as he walked into the all-purpose room that held a couch and their TV. They’d been binge watching The Blacklist for two days, but Charlie had ignored them, opting to keep from killing either one of them by staying in his room.
    Normally, Jace was good for a laugh and never ran out of juicy gossip, conquests to brag about, or inventive methods to make lemonade out of lemons, limes, hell, whatever you had lying around. Charlie hadn’t appreciated it so much lately. And probably owed Jace an apology for acting like a wounded bear.
    “You know that’s not really what terrorists are like, right?” Charlie commented without an ounce of irony. Together they’d taken out their share of the real thing, which made it all the more baffling that these two meatheads would pick something to watch that was so clearly a fictionalized version of reality.
    Jace held out a hand to Miles. “Pay up.”
    Glaring at Charlie, Miles pulled a twenty out of his pocket and slapped it into Jace’s hand without looking. “Thanks, man. Can’t let a guy watch TV in peace?”
    “You had money on whether I was going to make fun of you for watching crap shows?” Charlie shook his head. “That was a sucker’s bet.”
    “Nah. The bet was on whether my mom could talk enough sense into you to get you out of your funk.” With a chortle, Jace smoothed out the bill and held it to the light as if he’d never seen money before. “This will come in handy later tonight.”
    “Paying for your dates now?” Miles snickered. “I get mine for free.”
    “You wish.”
    Charlie left the guys to their binge fest and ate a sandwich, his mind finally clear for the first time in four days. He’d taken a lot of hits in life and had never failed to get back up in the past. This was no different, provided he held on to his temper and remembered that he’d done the right thing when he split up with Audra, no matter what the fallout had been.
    After securing an appointment with Dr. Reed that he’d had to seriously sweet-talk the receptionist into making, Charlie headed into Freeport again. Funny how he’d managed to stay away from the city pretty easily for the last year, but it was his most common destination lately.
    This time would be different though. He was an adult who had a business to run. To save. Dr. Reed could help with that, and he’d maintain a professional distance in order to secure it.
    Since he had an appointment, the receptionist waved him right to the elevator with a