A SEAL's Oath (SEALs of Chance Creek Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

spend a life with him. She’d been settling, and she was better than that.
    She’d started the adoption process.
    Now she’d have to start all over again.
    “It wasn’t as hard to leave him as you might think.” Avery took a sip of her tea. “It’s not just Dan. I feel like breaking up with my life. I had a heart once. I know I did. I used to feel—alive.”
    “Me, too,” Nora said softly.
    “I thought I’d be married by now,” Savannah said, “but I haven’t had a boyfriend in months. And I hate my job. I mean, I really hate it!” Riley couldn’t remember ever seeing calm, poised Savannah like this.
    “So do I,” Avery said, her words gushing forth as if a dam had broken. “Especially since I have two of them now. I got back in debt when my car broke down and I needed to buy a new one. Now I can’t seem to get ahead.”
    “I don’t have any job at all,” Riley confessed. “I’ve been downsized.” She closed her eyes. She hadn’t meant to say that.
    “Oh my goodness, Riley,” Avery said. “What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know. Paint?” She laughed dully. She couldn’t tell them the worst of it. She was afraid if she talked about her failed attempt to adopt she’d lose control of her emotions altogether. “Can you imagine a life in which we could actually pursue our dreams?”
    “No,” Avery said flatly. “After what happened last time, I’m so afraid if I try to act again, I’ll just make a fool of myself.”
    Savannah nodded vigorously, tears glinting in her eyes. “I’m afraid to play,” she confessed. “I sit down at my piano and then I get up again without touching the keys. What if my talent was all a dream? What if I was fooling myself and I was never anything special at all? My wrist healed years ago, but I can’t make myself go for it like I once did. I’m too scared.”
    “What about you, Nora? Do you ever write these days?” Riley asked gently when Nora remained quiet. When they were younger, Nora talked all the time about wanting to write a novel, but she hadn’t mentioned it in ages. Riley had assumed it was because she loved teaching, but she looked as burnt out as the rest of them. Riley knew she worked in an area of Baltimore that resembled a war zone.
    Her friend didn’t answer, but a tear traced down her cheek.
    “Nora, what is it?” Savannah dropped the book and came to crouch by her chair.
    “It’s one of my students.” Nora kept her voice steady even as another tear followed the tracks of the first. “At least I think it is.”
    “What do you mean?” Riley realized they’d all pulled closer to each other, leaning forward in mutual support and feeling. Dread crept into her throat at Nora’s words. She’d known instinctively something was wrong in her friend’s life for quite some time, but despite her questions, Nora’s e-mails and texts never revealed a thing.
    “I’ve been getting threats. On my phone,” Nora said, plucking at a piece of lint on her skirt.
    “Someone’s texting threats?” Savannah sounded aghast.
    “And calling. He has my home number, too.”
    “What did he say?” Avery asked.
    “Did he threaten to hurt you?” Riley demanded. After a moment, Nora nodded.
    “To kill you?” Avery whispered.
    Nora nodded again. “And more.”
    Savannah’s expression hardened. “More?”
    Nora looked up. “He threatened to rape me. He said I’d like it. He got… really graphic.”
    The four of them stared at each other in shocked silence.
    “You can’t go back,” Savannah said. “Nora, you can’t go back there. I don’t care how important your work is, that’s too much.”
    “What did the police say?” Riley’s hands were shaking again. Rage and shock battled inside of her, but anger won out. Who would dare threaten her friend?
    “What did the school’s administration say?” Avery demanded.
    “That threats happen all the time. That I should change my phone numbers. That the people who make the threats