New York Times Bestselling Author

Protecting Bree

Jan 6, 2026

It wasn’t easy to escape the first time. She might not be so lucky a second.

Bree Haynes never imagined herself a stalker. But how else could she know if the man who’d saved her in Vegas was someone she could truly trust? Now, after following him and his friends for months—and inadvertently getting involved in their lives not once, but twice—Bree is exhausted…and ready to ask for Smiley’s help. Because the man hunting for her, Mateo Castillo, the sex trafficker who’d bought her from her ex in Vegas, wants his “property.” And it seems he’ll stop at nothing to get it.

Jude “Smiley” Stark never imagined himself the obsessive type. But there’s no denying he’s been infatuated with Bree from the moment they met in Vegas, and the feeling’s only grown with every month he’s failed to find her. When he discovers she’s been right under his nose for months, he vows not to let the woman out of his sight again until she’s safe, once and for all. Problem is, even after he deals with Castillo, Smiley knows he’ll never want her to leave. He wants what his friends have…and he found it the first time he laid eyes on Bree.

But her enemy isn’t so easily dispatched. In fact, Smiley, his teammates, Tex…they’ll all be shocked to learn just how resilient the man’s turned out to be. Because Castillo hasn’t just come for Bree…

He’s also come to retrieve property stolen from him years ago…by another SEAL team.

CHAPTER ONE

 

Jude “Smiley” Stark stared at the woman sleeping on his couch. He couldn’t believe he’d found her…or rather, she’d found him. And for the second time, she’d played a huge part in saving the lives of his teammates’ loved ones.

Without Bree Haynes, Ellory and Yana might have ended up in a shipping container, sold for their organs. The two kids owed their lives to Bree for leading the bad guy away when they were hiding from him. Smiley hated that she’d taken a beating for her heroic actions. He could still see the almost-healed bruises on her face…and he was sure she had more all over her body, as well.

Then there was yesterday, when she’d snuck into the backseat of the car owned by the man who’d kidnapped Kelli, texting Smiley directions as to their location, thus allowing him and Flash to arrive in the nick of time to prevent the asshole from killing his teammate’s woman.

Bree was reckless. Impulsive. Didn’t think before she acted.

And he’d never been more in awe of anyone in his entire life.

Ever since he’d met her in Las Vegas—after Josie’s dead ex-boyfriend’s psycho mother sold her to a man who had connections in the sex slavery industry—he’d been hooked.

There was just something about Bree that had captured him and wouldn’t let go.

And now she was here.

In his living room.

Sleeping on his couch.

He’d actually demanded she take his bed, but in the end she’d proven more stubborn than he was.

Smiley had been looking for her ever since that fateful night in Vegas, when she’d been tied up in the back of a car, scared out of her mind. He freed her—and then she’d disappeared into the chaos of that night. And even though Smiley had been irritated and frustrated that he wasn’t able to find her after months of searching, he was also impressed. She’d done a very good job of staying under the radar. In fact, he’d venture to say that if she hadn’t come to Riverton, hadn’t gotten involved in the lives of his friends, he might never had found her at all.

Which led to the question…why had she done it?

Why come to Riverton? Why track him down? Why help his friends?

Why not run to the opposite side of the country?

And why was the man who’d “bought” her—Smiley hated that in today’s day and age, humans were still buying and selling other humans—so bound and determined to get his hands on her?

Smiley had so many questions, and the only person who might be able to answer them was Bree.

A part of him wanted to shake her. Make her sit up and talk to him again. But now wasn’t the time. She was exhausted. He’d seen it in her face and body language while questioning her earlier, even though she’d tried to hide it.

Smiley was tired too, but he was afraid that if he went to bed, he’d wake up in the morning and Bree would be gone. He’d lose his mind if that happened. So he was going to keep his ass right here in the living room and watch her sleep.

“Why are you called Smiley?”

He jerked in surprise, caught off guard. Bree was awake. And he’d had no clue. Her breathing hadn’t changed. She hadn’t shifted.

Making a mental note that this woman was more observant than he’d given her credit for—which was stupid, considering all the things she’d done recently—Smiley leaned back in the easy chair and shrugged. “Because of my outgoing personality?”

Bree’s eyes opened and even in the dim light of his apartment, Smiley saw her hazel gaze zero in on him with an accuracy that made him realize she’d probably been awake for much longer than he’d thought. “No offense…but no,” she said with a small smile.

Smiley blinked. Had he ever seen this woman smile before? Nope. She’d never had any reason to smile the few times they’d interacted.

And very suddenly, he wanted to see her happy, smiling, more than he wanted anything. More than he wanted information. More than he wanted to catch bad guys.

More than he wanted to be a Navy SEAL.

That was…disconcerting.

“It’s sarcasm,” he blurted, sounding more curt than he’d intended. “One of my drill sergeants commented on how I wasn’t exactly Mr. Smiley, and it stuck. How long?”

She frowned, and went to sit up on the couch.

“No, stay. Don’t get up,” Smiley ordered. He couldn’t stand seeing the small wince she made when she’d tried to move. To his relief, she settled back on the cushions and snuggled into the blanket he’d given her earlier.

“How long, what?” she asked.

“How long had you been visiting Kelli? Here at my place?”

Bree shrugged. “About a week. Not long.”

“Why now?”

“You know, you’re a big boy, you could use your words. More of them, I mean. It would prevent me from having to ask for clarification every time you ask me something,” Bree said with another small grin.

Even that little twitching of her lips made satisfaction swim through Smiley’s veins.

“Why reach out to me now? After all this time. And why didn’t you come directly to me when you found out I wasn’t staying here, that Kelli and Flash had moved into my place because of their situation? What changed?”

“Right, so…that was maybe too many words,” she joked.

But Smiley wasn’t amused. He felt itchy and unsettled. He needed to understand this woman, and right now he was so far from understanding it wasn’t even funny. “Bree,” he said, his tone communicating that he wanted answers.

She sighed. “I don’t know.”

Smiley scoffed.

“I’m being honest. I admit that I came to Riverton because you were here. That awful night in Vegas, I remember you telling me your name, Jude Stark, and that you were a Navy SEAL stationed in Riverton. When things got…intense back home, the first place I thought to go was here. Where you were. Except once I got here, I had no plan, and no idea how to find you. And I realized how ridiculous it was to come. You didn’t know me, and I didn’t know you. We’d met once for like five seconds. So I felt stupid. But that didn’t stop me from hanging out around the gates of the naval base in the hopes I’d get a glimpse of you…and I did.”

“So you followed me.”

Bree shrugged. “Yeah.”

Smiley was glad she wasn’t prevaricating. Wasn’t trying to lie about what she’d done.

“Honestly, it kept me sane. Living out of my car was boring. I didn’t have much money, so it wasn’t as if I could go out to eat or stay in hotels. I have money, I’m just afraid to use it because I have a pretty good idea that the guy who thinks he owns me can track me that way. So I watched you. Figured out who your friends were. Followed them as well. You can learn a lot about a person by watching them without their knowledge.”

Smiley should be upset. Pissed that she’d spied on him. But for some reason, he wasn’t. “What did you learn about me and my friends?”

“That you’re loyal. And kind. And that you work hard and play harder.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“So why’d you come to my place? Kelli said you came right up to the door and knocked.”

Bree snorted. “Not my finest moment. For all the watching I’d done, I hadn’t even realized you weren’t here anymore. Stupid. And I thought she was your girlfriend at first, so I was mortified.”

“Why?”

Bree stared at him with tired eyes. Then she took a deep breath and blurted, “Because in all the time I’d watched you, I hadn’t seen you with a woman. I had this little fantasy in my head that I’d knock on your door, you’d be thrilled to see me, would solve all my problems and find out you like me in the process and we’d live happily ever after.” She finished by rolling her eyes.

Her words were a little defensive and a lot sarcastic. But they still sent an electric buzz shooting through Smiley.

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, holding eye contact with Bree as he spoke. “There is something between us,” he said simply. “I wouldn’t have spent the last several months of my life doing everything in my power to find you if there wasn’t.”

She stared at him for a long moment, the air between them charged. Smiley had never felt anything like it before. The hair on his arms and legs felt as if every strand was standing straight up. Something was happening here. Something he didn’t understand. But he’d learned through his time as a SEAL that sometimes you just had to go with the flow. Even if what you were doing made no sense whatsoever…if it went against everything you’d been taught.

“I was going to leave, but Kelli was…persuasive. And she lured me inside with the promise of a shower and a meal,” Bree said a little quieter. “I used to take showers for granted. And when I was hungry, I ate. They weren’t even questions in my head. Just things I did. But when you get to a point where you can’t just go to a bathroom and turn on a shower, or go to the pantry and grab a snack, you realize how important those things really are.”

“Yeah. It’s not the same, not at all, but after a two-week mission, where we’ve been crawling through a jungle or walking through miles of sand, or even swimming hours in the ocean…there’s nothing better than that first shower or meal.”

Bree nodded. “Right. So, I came inside when Kelli invited me. Then I found myself coming back. I knew I shouldn’t. That I should just leave. Go east. Somewhere. Anywhere. But Kelli was so nice. And being in here, surrounded by your stuff…it made me feel normal again.”

“I’m going to figure this out,” Smiley told her.

Bree snorted.

“I am,” he insisted.

“I’ve been racking my brain trying to decide what to do. Figure out how my life came to this point. With no luck. I don’t know how you can possibly find the guy who’s looking for me.”

“I have connections,” he said simply, his mind spinning with the things he needed to do. The people he needed to contact. “You have family?”

“A sister in Washington. But I don’t want to involve her. And we aren’t close,” Bree told him.

“Parents?”

“Well, I wasn’t hatched, if that’s what you’re asking,” Bree told him with a slight grin.

There it was again. Smiley was already addicted to this woman’s smiles. Because he had a feeling that, like him, she didn’t smile often. Each one was a gift. A reward. And he craved them like he craved the adrenaline rush he got while on a mission.

“You close to them?” he asked, returning to their discussion.

“I was. But my mom got colon cancer a few years ago and passed. My dad was hit by a drunk driver just a couple months later.”

“Shit, Bree. I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, it wasn’t a good time in my life.”

Smiley figured that was a massive understatement.

“My dad used to beat the shit out of my mom while I hid under the bed in my room,” he blurted. “I should’ve done more to stop it. Stop him.” He wasn’t sure why he was telling her this, except that she was sharing painful memories, and he felt as if he needed to reciprocate.

“How old were you?”

“Six. Seven. Ten. It went on for quite a few years.”

“Smiley, you were a kid. What could you have done?”

But he shook his head. He’d never forget those mornings, finding his mom in the kitchen the next morning, making him breakfast, covered in bruises. Sometimes still bleeding…and smiling at him, pretending nothing was wrong. All while his dad was passed out on the couch, snoring loudly, still drunk from the night before.

He did his best to push the memories to the back of his mind. “I’ll make sure your sister is covered, that no one will go through her to get to you. I’m going to need as much information as you can give me. The name of your ex—that asshole who sold you—what he did, where you worked, friends…everything.”

Bree sighed and closed her eyes. Seeing the frown on her face made Smiley’s insides twist.

“Sometimes I can’t believe this is my life. I had a job that I didn’t love but was at least good at. A boyfriend. People I hung out with and considered friends. And now I’m homeless, on the run from a man who wants to use and abuse me in the worst ways, and wondering where I went wrong.”

“Most of the time it’s not you who went wrong, it’s just life. It has a way of shitting on you when you least expect it.”

Bree’s eyes opened, and Smiley could feel the weight of her stare as she asked, “Do you truly believe that?”

“Yes.”

“You need more fun in your life, Smiley.”

He snorted. “Fun? Killing terrorists is fun. Blowing up ships full of people who want nothing more than to kill innocent civilians is fun. Seeing evil people get what’s coming to them is fun.”

“Um, that’s not the kind of fun I was talking about,” she told him. “I meant…bowling nights. Picnics in the park. Lying on the sand at the beach, soaking up the sun.”

“That’s not fun. That’s torture. I hate sand,” Smiley said.

“Of course you do,” she said, laughing.

Fuck. He was doomed. Every time he made this woman smile, he felt a surge of pride and contentment coursing through him. He’d spend the rest of his life saying stupid things and making a fool of himself if it meant seeing the current look on her face.

And if having a job, a roof over her head, and friends to hang out with was all it took to make her happy, he could easily give her all those things. He wasn’t sure he was boyfriend material, he was too…hard. Too cynical. But if having a boyfriend was also something she wanted, he’d bend over backward to be the kind of man she could rely on.

Smiley wasn’t even freaking out that he was thinking long-term when it came to this woman. She’d been the center of his world for months now. He’d worried about her every minute of the day and night. And now she was here. Safe. On his couch. It was no wonder he didn’t have any concerns about giving her anything she needed to be happy.

“How about you get some more sleep,” he suggested grumpily.

“What about you?”

“What about me what?” Smiley asked.

“Are you going to sleep? You can’t sit in that chair all night, watching me. I promise not to leave, Smiley.”

The hell he couldn’t stay here all night. He’d slept in this chair more times than he could count. And damn straight she wasn’t leaving—he wouldn’t let her. She needed help. Help only he and his connections could give her.

Bree Haynes was about to find out that coming to Riverton was the best decision she’d ever made. She wanted friends? She was already close with Kelli; it wouldn’t take much for her to be integrated into the fold with the other women, especially Addison. She would want to meet the woman who’d saved her daughter and stepdaughter. And Caroline Steel and her crew would definitely take her under their wings too.

Bree had no idea how much her life was about to change.

“Smiley? Did you hear me? I promise not to sneak out in the middle of the night.”

“You think you could? I am a SEAL, after all,” he told her.

“Is that a challenge?” she asked, with a lift of her chin.

“No!” he barked, suddenly afraid she’d decide to prove that she could sneak out without him knowing.

“Relax,” she told him, laughing again, “I’m too tired to do anything more than sleep…tonight.”

“Fuck,” he swore, realizing the can of worms he’d inadvertently opened.

Bree giggled.

Honest-to-God giggled—and Smiley knew he was a goner.

He’d spent the first thirty years of his life being annoyed by giggling. And now he found himself getting hard by the sound of this woman doing that exact thing.

Settling into the chair, Smiley pulled a blanket hanging off the back over his lap. The last thing he wanted was to have Bree notice his erection. It was inappropriate, and given everything happening with her life, it would probably scare the shit out of her.

“Sleep, Bree,” he ordered gruffly.

“Smiley?”

“You aren’t sleeping,” he told her.

She smiled again. Each one burrowing further and further into his heart.

Then her smile disappeared. “I appreciate any help you can give me, but if things don’t work out, if he finds me…you aren’t allowed to feel guilty.”

Guilt was a part of Smiley’s life. He carried the mantle of guilt that he hadn’t done anything to help his mother, and it wasn’t about to disappear now.

As much as he wanted to tell Bree that whoever was after her wouldn’t find her, he couldn’t. He knew better than most people that bad shit happened in life. Hell, she did too, which was why she was bringing this up now. But he could make her a vow.

“If he finds you, I’ll come after you. I won’t stop until I’ve found you—and he’s got my bullet in his forehead.” It was a violent and depressing thing to say, but Smiley didn’t regret it.

“Promise?” Bree whispered.

“Promise.”