Deadly Sins (Deadly SEALs Book 1) Read online

  DEADLY SINS

  ALANA ALBERTSON

  Deadly Sins

  Copyright © 2020 by Alana Albertson

  Cover Photo: Lindee Robinson

  Cover Model: Travis Bendall

  Cover Design: Aria Tan

  Copyright © 2020 by Alana Albertson

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is dedicated to my fans.

  Some will rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

  CONTENTS

  Author’s Note

  Also by Alana Albertson

  Acknowledgments

  Deadly Sins

  1. Mia

  2. Grant

  3. Mia

  4. Mia

  5. Mia

  6. Mia

  7. Ksenya

  8. Ksenya

  9. Grant

  10. Ksenya

  11. Grant

  12. Ksenya

  13. Grant

  14. Ksenya

  15. Ksenya

  16. Grant

  17. Grant

  18. Ksenya

  19. Ksenya

  20. Grant

  21. Ksenya

  22. Ksenya

  23. Ksenya

  24. Grant

  25. Ksenya

  26. Grant

  27. Ksenya

  28. Grant

  29. Ksenya

  30. Ksenya

  31. Grant

  32. Ksenya

  33. Grant

  34. Ksenya

  35. Grant

  36. Ksenya

  37. Ksenya

  38. Ksenya

  39. Mitch

  40. Mia

  41. Grant

  42. Ksenya

  About the Author

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Deadly Sins was originally published as the books Conceit, Chronic, and Crazed. These books were 1, 2, & 3, in the Se7en Deadly SEALs series.

  This edition has been re edited and is a full length book of 62,000 words. It ends on a cliff hanger.

  ALSO BY ALANA ALBERTSON

  Want more romantic reads?

  Try my other books!

  Heroes Ever After

  Military New Adult Fairy Tale Retellings

  The Beauty and The Beast

  Inspired by Beauty and The Beast

  Meet Grady! But without her love, I’m not a man—I’ll remain forever a beast.

  The Mermaid and The Triton

  Inspired by The Little Mermaid

  Meet Erik! I’m a Navy SEAL, a Triton, a god of the sea. And she will never be part of my world.

  The Princess and The SEAL

  Inspired by The Princess and The Frog

  Meet Ryan! She’s a Princess and I’m a Frogman. If I kiss her, I’ll turn into a Prince.

  The Swan and The Sergeant

  Inspired by The Ugly Duckling

  Meet Bret! Though the ugly duckling is now a beautiful swan, the girl I fell in love with is long gone.

  The Angel and The Rockstar

  Inspired by Rumpelstiltskin

  Meet Dax! All she has to do to destroy my life is to say my name.

  The Maid and The Marine

  Inspired by Cinderella

  Meet Trace! I will never be her Prince Charming.

  Rescue Me

  Romantic Comedy Series

  Doggy Style

  Meet Preston! When it comes to doggy style, he’s behind you 100%.

  Blue Devils

  Military Pilots Contemporary Series

  Blue Sky

  Meet Beckett! I’ll never let down my guard for this Devil in a Blue Angel’s disguise.

  Blue Moon

  Meet Sawyer: One Night with this Blue Devil will make you a sinner.

  Blue Thunder

  Meet Declan: Declan’s back in town. Homecoming hero―local boy turned Blue Angel.

  Deadly SEALs

  Navy SEAL Romantic Thriller

  Meet Grant! She wants to get wild? I will fulfill her every fantasy.

  Deadly Sins, Deadly Lust,

  Meet Mitch! I’ll always be your bad boy.

  Deadly Scandals, Deadly Lies

  The Trident Code

  Navy SEAL Romantic Suspense Series

  Invincible

  Meet Pat! I had one chance to put on the cape and be her hero.

  Invaluable

  Meet Kyle! I’ll never win MVP, never get a championship ring, but some heroes don’t play games.

  Rescue Ranch

  Navy SEAL Cowboys Series

  Wild Love

  Meet Chris! She shouldn’t fall for the Navy SEAL next door.

  Military Contemporary Stand Alone

  Badass

  Meet Shane! I’m America’s cockiest badass.

  (co-written with Linda Barlow)

  Father Figure

  Meet Gabriel! Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.

  (Co-written with Jane Harvey-Berrick)

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To Kelli for your flawless editing

  To Nicole Blanchard to listening to me whine about this series. Thanks for putting up with me.

  To Deb Nemeth for always fitting Grant and Mia in and reading me the riot act when I wanted to nix their HEA.

  To Ashley Williams. Thank you for helping out Mia and Grant in their hours of need.

  To my fabulous cover designer, Regina Wamba for these incredible covers.

  To Team Radish: SY Lee and Katherine Pelz for promoting Se7en Deadly SEALs and believing in me.

  Deb Rafique for your eagle eye proof.

  To my audio team at Brick Shop: Jason Clarke & Jennifer O’Donnell for bringing Grant and Mia to life. To Rob Granniss for doing an excellent job producing the book.

  To my husband Roger—for loving me in sickness and in health. Even when I’m writing all day in my fuzzy pajamas. For watching the boys while I write. For being my HEA.

  To my two beautiful sons, Connor and Caleb. You are my world. I love you more than anything. To my two unborn daughters who I lost while writing this series and will never meet, I love you both and wanted you so much.

  To my betas:

  Jen Negron—you are the bomb. I adore you. Thank you for believing in my writing. I can’t wait to read these books in Spanish.

  Storm Bayraktar—thank you for your kind words and reading Carnal. #teamjoaquín!

  To all the wonderful bloggers who review my books.

  To all the fans that have written me about this series.

  DEADLY SINS

  A sinfully seductive Navy SEAL hero meets his match in Deadly Sins, the first book of Se7en full length novels in the addictive Deadly SEALs series.

  I’m a killer. A fighter. A Navy SEAL.

  She was my woman—now she’s my mortal enemy.

  She has conned me, betrayed me, used me to save her brother.

  But she has no clue that I’m on to her.

  I should leave her, but a Navy SEAL never backs down from a fight.

  Especially when that fight is with the only woman I have ever loved.

  I would lay down my life to taste her one more time.

  Even if my last breath was taken protecting her, I would never regret loving her.

  1

  MIA

  THE PRISON GUARD LED ME down the hall to the waiting room. A pregnant girl cowered in the corner, an older couple embraced each other, and a pale, skinny woman bit her nails as a young boy fidgeted on her lap. The r
ancid smell of vomit loosely masked with bleach made me gag. This scene was so pathetic. We were all here to see our loved ones incarcerated in this hellhole.

  “Your boyfriend will be out in ten minutes,” the guard sneered, his eyes undressing me.

  “He’s not my boyfriend; he’s my brother. And he’s innocent.”

  The guard laughed and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. “Sure, he is, sweetheart. Never met a guilty one.”

  Jerk. That guard wasn’t fit to polish Joaquín’s boots.

  After an agonizing wait, the prisoners stumbled out into their partitioned section of the room. My brother came last.

  All my girlfriends were in love with Joaquín—who could blame them? Even in this pit of despair, he still looked like the ultimate alpha male. His muscles bulged in his orange prison jumpsuit, the elbow-length sleeves barely covering his tattoos.

  At least I didn’t have to worry about anyone screwing with him in jail; he could kill a man with his bare hands.

  Joaquín had everything going for him. Until he was charged with a crime he didn’t commit. I knew my brother, and he simply couldn’t be guilty of what he was accused of doing.

  Joaquín was an easy target—a poor Mexican American orphan with no trust fund, no senator endorsements, and no college education. But my brother had integrity, loyalty, and honor. He would never disgrace his Teammates, betray his country, or destroy his brotherhood. And he could never hurt a woman.

  He tapped on the glass, and we both reached for the phone. “Thanks for flying down, Mia. Are you okay?”

  I threw my free hand in the air. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m not the one in jail facing the death penalty for murder. I took the first flight I could get. What the hell happened?”

  The man on the other side of the glass wasn’t the brother I’d grown to respect and adore. He was still strong, still resolute, and seemingly impenetrable. But his eyes…I looked right into his eyes. Though his long dark lashes covered his pain, I knew him too well. To anyone else, he would seem formidable, but to his baby sister, he looked broken, torn.

  “I didn’t kill her. I can’t talk about what happened in here.” His eyebrows motioned toward the cameras in the corner of the room. “But you have to believe me.”

  I swallowed. I’d watched the incessant news coverage. It didn’t look good.

  Two weeks ago, one of Joaquín’s commanding officers, Paul Thompson, had thrown a huge party for his SEAL Teammates at his parents’ oceanfront home in Encinitas. Witnesses interviewed by the police said they heard loud music and saw women coming in and out of the place. Guess the neighbors weren’t exactly going to call the cops on a group of SEALs.

  In the early hours of the morning after the party, Joaquín had discovered a lifeless stripper named Tiffany in his bed. He called 911, and the paramedics determined that she’d been dead for hours. Joaquín told detectives that he’d slept with her the night before, but that she had been fine when he fell asleep. The police didn’t charge him immediately and waited for the autopsy results.

  Two days ago, the coroner ruled that she’d died from asphyxiation and had the date-rape drug Rohypnol in her system. Since Joaquín had admitted to having sex with her, he had been arrested and charged with her murder.

  He already said he didn’t kill her. He would never lie to me, and we kept no secrets from each other. Well…we never used to. I’ve held my own deep secret close, never wanting to add any burden to Joaquín’s intense life.

  “Can anyone clear you? Are the other guys on the Team trying to help, or did they desert you? What about Grant…” My voice trailed off.

  My ex-boyfriend, Grant Carrion, Joaquín’s swim buddy in BUD/S, had been there that night. And I knew the rest of the guys on their Team pretty well. After our parents had died, Joaquín had become my legal guardian, and I’d moved to San Diego to live with him and finish my senior year in high school. I met Grant right before I graduated, and we started dating at the beginning of my freshman year at San Diego State. I’d transferred to San Francisco State as a junior two years ago because it had the best drama department.

  Well, that was the official excuse for me fleeing—I could’ve finished school in San Diego. The reality was much more painful. Too painful for me to think about, let alone deal with.

  Joaquín pursed his lips; his eyes leveled me. “Leave Grant out of this. I will not ruin his career, too. I slept with Tiffany, but I didn’t drug her. None of the guys are talking to me right now, probably under orders from the command. Our Team doesn’t need this publicity, especially with all the rumors going around about Pat saving Annie from that brothel. My brothers don’t have a choice but to obey. My lawyer thinks I should take a plea. If it’s the best for the Team, and you, then I will.”

  I seethed. The public should still be happy that Joaquín’s Team had just saved a group of USO cheerleaders who had been taken as hostages in Afghanistan. I didn’t even know what to say about the Pat and Annie mess, except that I wasn’t buying the Team’s cover story.

  “Take a plea? Have you lost your mind? You’re gonna confess to murder because that’s best for your Team? Who cares about your damn Team! Can’t you be selfish for once in your life?” I knew the bonds of these SEALs ran deep; they’d kill for each other; they’d die for each other. I couldn’t fathom the pain Joaquín had to be going through, but pleading guilty to a murder he didn’t commit was insane.

  He blinked hard, too hard, as if he was trying to stop tears from escaping. “You don’t understand. You never could. I’m not going to ruin the rest of the guys’ lives and tarnish our Team’s reputation further. It’s complicated, and I really can’t talk about it.”

  I didn’t want to hear about his Team loyalty. “Who’s your lawyer? Is he any good?”

  “Daniel Reed. He’s a former Team guy.”

  Sure, he was—the world’s most exclusive fraternity. Even when these guys left the service, they only hired their own. “What did he say about bail? I’ll find a way to raise money.”

  “We won’t know until the arraignment, but he thinks the judge will probably make an example of me. No bail.”

  “But you’re a SEAL.”

  “Exactly. No playing favorites.”

  From his posture, the edge in his voice, I knew I was treading on his patience. I needed to garner any information I could before he cut me off. “What’s the last thing you remember? The girl, did she pass out?”

  His nostrils flared, and he bared his teeth. “Knock it off, Mia.”

  Whoa. He never raised his voice to me. There was no use arguing with him. Joaquín was a stubborn Taurus—I’d never win. I bit my lip and tried another approach. “You can’t tell me anything about that night? Who was the dead girl? Were you dating her?”

  “No. I’d never met her before.” Joaquín shrugged. He wasn’t really a relationship guy. A complete player, he claimed no one could ever be faithful to a SEAL, which was bullshit. I’d never even looked at another man when I was with Grant. I still hadn’t, even though we’d been broken up for what felt like forever.

  “Who invited her?”

  His tone became more agitated. “One of the Team guys invited a bunch of strippers.”

  Yeah, I’ll bet. Strippers and SEALs went together like rum and cola. At least Joaquín wasn’t a cheater. I couldn’t count the number of times wasted SEALs had called Grant to be picked up from Panthers, the local sleazy strip club. Grant would drag me along, and then his buddies would beg him to act as an alibi to give to their wives.

  We used to fight about him covering for the philanderers all the time. I had to make small talk with their wives at Team barbecues, knowing that their husbands had had their dicks sucked by strippers the night before. Grant always told me to stay out of it—it was their marriages and not our place to get involved. I argued that we were involved because covering for them made Grant an accessory to their infidelities.

  At least Grant never went to the strip clubs; he swore it wasn’
t his thing.

  I tried to stop myself, but I had to know. “Which guy asked the strippers to the party? Mitch?”

  He let out a growl. “One more word, and I’ll drop this phone and walk back to my cell.”

  My gaze darted around the room. I was grateful that this crime had been committed off the naval base, so at least he wasn’t stuck in the brig. Under a civilian justice system, I could find him the best lawyers. I’d do whatever it took. “I’ll get you out of here. I’ll find out the truth.”

  He laughed, and although it was nice to see him smile, I knew he didn’t have a shred of faith that I could help him. “How are you going to do that, Mia? You’re a theater student. We’re talking about a bunch of Team guys.”

  I preferred the term “highly trained actor,” but I wasn’t about to correct him. Plus, who was he trying to protect anyway? Did he suspect one of his Teammates? Did he know who killed the girl? “I know. I’m just trying to help.”

  But my mind started racing. Why not me? Joaquín was my brother—the same blood ran through our veins, the same dedication, the same stubbornness. Just because I lacked testosterone didn’t mean I was any less capable than he was.

  He studied me. “I know that look. Don’t get involved, Mia. That’s a fucking order. I didn’t drug or kill Tiffany, which means someone else did. I don’t have a clue who, and I can’t protect you from here.”

  I cringed when I noticed that his hands were shaking. This was real, not some fucked-up nightmare. “I can protect myself.”

  He’d always protected me, been my savior. It would kill him if he knew what had happened to me two years ago. But it wasn’t his fault. He and Grant had both been deployed, and there was nothing either of them could’ve done to save me that night. Telling them the truth would accomplish nothing.

  “No, I need you to trust me on this.” His voice firmed. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.” He was proud, pigheaded, and I knew he didn’t want me to see him defenseless. Just like Grant. These macho SEALs never allowed themselves to be truly vulnerable, not to their families, and most certainly not to their women. Though I completely understood—I was too proud to admit my own weaknesses.