His mind went back to senior English class. They’d been assigned to work together, and while at first he’d been disappointed he hadn’t gotten to work with the girl he’d been crushing on at the time, he’d found that Lexie had great ideas about their project and was a pleasure to work with. Usually he put off group projects until right before they were due, but she did a lot of the legwork, and they’d finished well ahead of the deadline. He had no idea why her grades weren’t good, because he’d found her to be smart, funny, and engaging.
He hadn’t thought of her since graduation, but now he couldn’t help but compare the woman in the picture in front of him to the teenager he’d known in his youth.
Why was she in Somalia? How had she gotten kidnapped? Was she all right? Was she scared?
Of course she was scared.
Midas clenched his teeth together. This was one mission they wouldn’t fail. It was rare their missions became personal, but there was no way he was going to leave Africa without her. She might not remember him, but he remembered her. And Midas was going to do whatever it took to get her home safe and sound.
Elizabeth Lexie Greene lay on the pallet her captors had given her months ago and did her best to try to blank her mind. She stared up at the stars winking in the night sky overhead, trying to remember which one was the North Star. It was hopeless; she had no clue which star was which.
She’d never been a good student, much to her dad’s chagrin. She’d tried, she really had, but when she tried to read, the letters got all jumbled up. She knew now that she was dyslexic, but growing up, she’d just thought she was stupid. Even her dad had lost patience with her so many times and told her she was a “retard.” She hated that word to this day. It was so repulsive and discriminatory.
Her mind buried unpleasant thoughts of her past, and she gazed at her desolate surroundings. How had she even ended up here?
Oh, yeah, she’d been volunteering at a food bank back in Portland, Oregon. Years ago. Had overheard two of her coworkers talking about an aid organization Food For All, that did what it could to get help those less fortunate. So after researching the company, and liking the mission statement and all that they were doing to try to help others, she’d signed up.
Fast forward a decade, and she was still doing it. She’d been in Somalia when she and one of the head honchos of the organization, a Danish man named Dagmar, had been grabbed off the street right outside the organization’s building. They’d been driven into the desert…and had been here ever since. They’d been beaten and practically starved. And living in the desert wasn’t exactly fun, but at least she and Dagmar were mostly ignored now, as long as they didn’t step out of line.
The fact that the kidnappers were asking for ten million dollars was a joke. They’d at first asked for five million, and when Dagmar’s twin brother had come up with the money, they’d upped the ransom to ten million instead. Five for each of them.
Lexie wished they’d accepted the five million for Dagmar and let him go while trying to get more money for her. He wasn’t doing well. At all.
She suspected he might’ve had a mild stroke last month, and he hadn’t been the same since. His speech was slurred, and he kept forgetting where they were and what was going on. The captors were getting impatient with him, and she’d overheard them talking about handing them both over to another guy in the area, someone who hated foreigners.
If that happened, she was as good as dead.
She didn’t want to die. Life hadn’t exactly gone the way she’d hoped, but she still had visions of settling down, starting a family, and living the American dream.
Hopping from one country to another wasn’t conducive to finding someone to spend the rest of her life with. But she’d finally gotten to a place where she wasn’t ashamed of her disability, or herself. She wasn’t the smartest person in the world, but she was kind and loyal.
Sighing, she closed her eyes once more. Of course, then she’d been kidnapped. She might not get to enjoy her newfound self-acceptance for long.
The hardest thing about being a captive, other than not eating and constantly praying someone wouldn’t decide it would be more fun to beat and rape her than ignore her, was the boredom. There was absolutely nothing to do day after day, hour after hour, beyond watching the sand blow by.
She prayed their aid organization was doing all they could to free them. She didn’t think she and Dagmar were important enough for the military to get involved, but a girl could dream.
Lexie fell asleep thinking about the day when commandos would storm their little camp, kill all their captors, and free them. It wasn’t likely, but then again, being kidnapped in the first place wasn’t very likely either, and it had happened.
Lexie needed her very own hero. And she needed him now.
Will Lexie get out of the desert? Of course she will! But what comes after remains to be seen! Find out what happens between Lexie and Midas in the second book in the SEAL Team Hawaii Series— Finding Lexie.
Also, if you’re wondering about Kai and what happened to him after he went to the hospital after being shot, you can read his story in A Hero for Summer. This is written by Reina Torres and is in my fan-fiction world.
A Hero for Summer
Kai Akina had his share of bumps and scrapes during his life. You didn’t swim in Hawaiian waters and not have a few bad moments with coral or the tides. Being shot wasn’t something he ever expected to happen and certainly didn’t want to try it again. But when he meets Summer Maitland thanks to his good friend Elodie, he quickly realizes that she’s everything to him. He’ll do anything and everything it takes to protect her and their growing love.
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Also by Susan Stoker
SEAL Team Hawaii Series
Finding Elodie
Finding Lexie (Aug 2021)
Finding Kenna (Oct 2021)
Finding Monica (May 2022)
Finding Carly (TBA)
Finding Ashlyn (TBA)
Finding Jodelle (TBA)
Eagle Point Search & Rescue
Searching for Lilly (Mar 2022)
Searching for Bristol (Jun 2022)
Searching for Elsie (Nov 2022)
Searching for Caryn (TBA)
Searching for Finley (TBA)
Searching for Heather (TBA)
Searching for Khloe (TBA)
SEAL of Protection Series
Protecting Caroline
Protecting Alabama
Protecting Fiona
Marrying Caroline (novella)
Protecting Summer
Protecting Cheyenne
Protecting Jessyka
Protecting Julie (novella)
Protecting Melody
Protecting the Future
Protecting Kiera (novella)
Protecting Alabama’s Kids (novella)
Protecting Dakota
SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series
Securing Caite
Securing Brenae (novella)
Securing Sidney
Securing Piper
Securing Zoey
Securing Avery
Securing Kalee