Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Betting on Benny (Kindle Worlds) (Mystic Nights Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Stoker Aces Production, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Special Forces: Operation Alpha remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Stoker Aces Production, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  BETTING ON BENNY

  A Mystic Nights Series Novella – Book 6

  by

  MJ Nightingale

  Dedication

  To the fans, Susan Stoker’s and mine. You make me keep writing. I had so much fun writing this book, and I really hope you enjoy it. Thank you for your support.

  MJ Nightingale

  Betting on Benny Synopsis

  Navy SEAL, Kason “Benny” Sawyer’s family has exploded. A wife and three kids in just three years has him hopping, especially when he can be called away at a moment’s notice to parts unknown. With the cost of his wife’s new business, and repairs on the farm house mounting, his debts have him scrambling to make ends meet in his crazy, busy life.

  And that life is about to get crazier when he finds out Jessyka has entered him as a contestant on The Cook Off, cable TV’s hottest new cooking show. The prize is 150,000 very tempting dollars. There’s just one problem—the rivalry for the grand prize seems to be getting heated outside of the kitchen as well. When strange accidents start happening at the casino in Mystic, CT where the show is being filmed, Benny’s protective instincts are “kicked” into high gear.

  Will Benny be able to take home the win to help his family? Will he be able to figure out who is sabotaging The Cook Off and causing these dangerous accidents? And will this SEAL survive the mayhem in Mystic, protect Jessyka, and his entire family, too?

  To find out, you’ll have to read Betting on Benny, a Mystic Nights and Special Forces: Operation Alpha novel, and a part of Susan Stoker’s Kindle World.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Betting on Benny Synopsis

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author’s Books

  Recipes Mentioned in the Book

  CHAPTER 1

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Kason dropped the papers his wife handed him ten minutes earlier. They fell onto the dining room table along with the envelope they came in. “A cooking show!” His chair scraped against the worn linoleum as his voice rose steadily. He was shocked that she’d even entered him into this competition. But then again, Jessyka was always full of surprises.

  Kason “Benny” Sawyer turned to face his wife as she entered the dining room carrying a wet rag to begin cleaning up the mess left from their breakfast. He watched as she maneuvered carefully around the ladder propped against the wall. He’d been up late last night putting in some crown molding. Their “fixer upper” was in a real state of fixing up. He did what he could when he was home and not exhausted from chasing after and playing with the kids. God, what he wouldn’t give for a real vacation. He rubbed the grit from his eyes and looked at his wife. She was ignoring his tirade, her lips curving into a pouty smile.

  “Jessyka?” he asked, eyes widening and waiting for an explanation.

  “Benny, my love,” she stated as she wiped at the crumbs on the table. “I saw an episode one night and thought you would be great. It was a spur of the moment thing. You were in Turkey, and I don’t know. I just got on the computer and submitted the application. Heck, I forgot all about it until the letter arrived yesterday. That was the day the water tank had to be replaced. I was thinking about how much that money could do, and how much it could help us.”

  Well, he could understand that. This home was what he had always dreamed about. But it was taking them a heck of a lot longer to fix up than they planned. They purchased the rambling farmhouse a year and a half ago, upgrading from their two bedroom apartment. They needed the room once the babies started arriving. Three in a row.

  They got a great deal on the place because it needed so much work, and he and Jessyka loved the idea of making it their own. All those do it yourself home improvement shows had spoken to them. Suckered them in. But they still had a ton of projects left. It was never ending, and there had been so many unexpected surprises along the way. There was the wiring, the plumbing, and a broken slab that had to be fixed before they could put in new floors. These unexpected fixes were costly too.

  Between the three children, his job as a Navy SEAL, her job at Aces Bar and Grill and her volunteer work, it seemed like the fixing up of their fixer upper was always last on their to do list.

  He racked up the bills and expenses he had paid already. They had done the kitchen first, and surprise—plumbing problems and then the children’s three rooms revealed the wiring problems when they put in the ceiling fans.

  When they remodeled the large hall bathroom, low and behold the upstairs plumbing was no longer up to code.

  Next had been that freak monsoon that hit Southern California and the roof leaked, so it needed to be replaced. So for now, they lived in the large farmhouse kitchen, and the small den that they used as a playroom. The dining room was only half completed; the living room, their bedroom, and the two other bathrooms were next on the list. But still other projects loomed as well. There was the back lanai and front porch to do, and they hadn’t even touched the barn, the driveway, or the landscaping.

  Jessyka smiled sheepishly as her husband glared at the half completed crown molding installation. “I don’t know, hon. I just saw the show and thought how cool would it be if we actually won. We could hire some people and get these projects done a whole heck of a lot faster.” The money situation was tight. They had the mortgage on this place and on Aces to pay, so they could only focus on one project at a time, and they tried doing as much of the work on their own to save on the expenses. She and a friend purchased the hang out she worked at where she met Benny. Aces Bar & Grill was one of their favorite places to go and unwind and she loved working there. She’d bought Aces when the previous owner decided to retire to Florida and offered her the place; it was an o
ffer she hadn’t been able to turn down. Owning the popular establishment would eventually pay off in the long run. It was something she and Benny could do together when he retired from the military.

  He ran his hand over his closely cropped hair, his nervous habit when he was agitated. He watched as she began to pile the breakfast dishes efficiently and turned to help her, his foot slamming into Sara’s dollhouse. With three kids under four, the space they did have was bursting at the seams with toys and children’s supplies. He knew he was weakening to this crazy scheme of hers. “Sweetheart, the guys will laugh their asses off at me. I’ll never hear the fu… end of it.” He caught himself just in time as his wide-eyed toddlers stared up at him from their crouched positions on the floor. Sara was nearly four, and John, one year younger, was almost three.

  Even the baby, little Suzie, sitting in her high chair, was staring at him though she was still too young to know what her father had been about to say. Sara giggled. She had heard him slip before, and saw her mom’s quick frown. John wagged his little chubby finger at his dad. “Bad daddy.”

  Benny cracked a smile and shrugged his shoulders helplessly while Jessyka swatted him with the wet towel. He was glad he caught himself though. Jessyka really would have had his hide if he cursed in front of them. His children were smart as whips, and picked up on everything. “Daddy’s sorry,” Benny apologized contritely.

  Jess gave him a quick nod before she continued cleaning up the breakfast mess. “And Benny, so what if the guys tease you. It’s 150,000 thousand dollars.” She enunciated each of those words. “And a free vacation.”

  “But it’ll be on TV…I just don’t know.” He was weakening. That money would most certainly come in handy.

  Jessyka pushed a stray lock of her long dark hair away from her sweat stained face. The swamp cooler was acting up. Both she and Benny knew it was running on its last leg too. They had repaired it twice already, but it really needed to be replaced.

  Benny wondered how much that would set them back. They were living hand to mouth as it was. That money sure would help. They could finish fixing up the house, and still have some left over for emergencies or just in case. It would be nice to have a rainy day fund. And they wouldn’t have to be worried constantly that the kids would get hurt during the construction projects. It would be done. He knew he was about to cave.

  Jessyka sensed she was gaining ground in this argument. When Benny said nothing, just appeared thoughtful, Jessyka continued, “I know it’s crazy, Benny. And I know I filled out the application on a whim, but it’s 150, 000 dollars. With that kind of money, well, we could finish the house, and have a nice little nest egg for emergencies. Will you think about it at least? We have a couple of days before we need to call in and confirm.”

  He heard the worry in her voice. She was running herself ragged though she’d never let on. He’d noticed her slight limp was more pronounced as of late. Having the house done would ease the stress. They had a nanny, Jodi Elrod, who came twenty hours a week to help out, and the thought of making Miss Jodi full time was something they both wanted, but the cost was too much for them with all the repairs that were still needed. The least he could do was think about it.

  He watched as she went round the table washing the gelatinous globs of cereal the kids had spilled onto the top of the roughhewn old farmhouse table the old owners left behind. Even the furnishings they had needed updating or needed to be restored.

  Sara was sitting on her haunches at his feet playing with her favorite doll, Fee. She’d named the doll Fee after Fiona, her favorite babysitter when Jodi wasn’t available. His kids. He looked at each of them. So adorable. His son, John, not quite three, and then Suzie, at just ten months. She was just learning to walk, and he really wanted to finish the massive living room the farmhouse sported, but the old wooden floors were rickety, with nails popping up everywhere. It was still off limits. Suzie sat in her high chair oblivious to the mess all around them, munching on her Cheerios with her eight baby teeth. Her chubby hands pushed more of the soggy mess onto the floor than she got into her mouth. She was covered in goo, but looked adorable.

  Kason pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the baby to send to the guys, and his three aunts who lived in Massachusetts.

  He looked around the space, and it looked packed with the play pen and toys. He’d love to give them the safe place they needed to play. That’s why he’d bought this house. He just hadn’t realized how much work it would take, and how much it would cost. But growing up on his aunts’ farm in Massachusetts, he’d loved the wide open spaces. When his parents had been killed in a car accident, he was just five, and he’d gone to live with them. Aunts Jenny, Suzie, and Sandra had all done their part in raising him. It was the three of them who’d inspired his love of cooking. They had inherited the farm when their brother, his father, didn’t want it. His Aunt Jenny never married. His other aunts had married but had come back to the old homestead when tragedy struck their lives. Suzie’s husband had been killed in an accident on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, so she’d come home to raise her boys, his cousins, Cord and Cam. And his Aunt Sandra had divorced her husband and she too had come home when he’d been a teenager. The three together had raised the three boys.

  Those were some of the best years of his life. He and his cousins loved it. They got into their fair share of trouble too. They remained close over the years, though each had gone to pursue their own dreams. Cameron was a fire fighter in Florida and Cord was a pilot in the Air Force.

  He hadn’t seen his cousins, Cord and Cameron, since he and Jessyka married, but he visited his aunts when he had the time or was in the area. And from time to time, one or more of them traveled out to see him. His life was here now, in California, but he’d always be an east coast boy at heart. The competition was near Massachusetts, being held at a new casino in Connecticut that had been built across from the famous Mohegan Sun. That, in itself, was tempting. He’d get to see his aunts, maybe even spend a day or two at the farm. They would love it, him being on the show, but even more they would love to have him home again. He’d wanted to be a cook, a chef when he was younger, and his aunts helped put him through culinary school, but when two of his high school friends were killed in Afghanistan serving their country, he’d been torn. Right after he got his culinary degree, he signed up with the Navy. His life had changed.

  But he didn’t regret a single choice. He’d found the best of friends in his Navy SEAL buddies, and now Jessyka and this family.

  “So?” Jessyka was tapping her foot, her arms crossed in front of her. She didn’t want to lose the edge she had gotten. She knew he was now seriously contemplating it. She smiled at him showing off her perfect lips in a sexy pout that pulled his attention back to her.

  He smirked. He knew what she was up to. The flirt. He narrowed his eyes looking at those lips.

  Jess grinned devilishly, her lips tipping up at the corners, making her dimples more pronounced. She saw his eyes alight with lust. The man was insatiable. She bit her bottom lip, knowing the effect that had on her man. She heard him groan.

  “Jess, you are not playing fair.” The rumble in his chest sent a familiar wave of excitement through her.

  “I know.” She intentionally dropped her voice to a seductive whisper.

  “You’re killing me.” Jodi wouldn’t be there for an hour, he thought.

  “So, will we? Will you?” she asked hoping he’d say yes. This money, if they won, would really help them. She pushed back yet another stray lock of hair. It must have slipped out of the messy bun she’d made on top of her head. Benny was staring at her. She knew he would say yes. She just had to wait him out. He was a sensible man. It was a one in eight chance of winning. Good odds. Great odds, she mused, because her husband was a fantastic cook.

  Benny knew she was waiting for an answer. And he knew she wanted him to say yes. But a week? Could he get that time off? What about the kids? Traveling with three kids under four was challen
ging. He gazed across the room at her, wanting to sweep her off her feet and carry his sexy wife upstairs. Her dark tresses were spilling out of her bun, framing her face, and God he just couldn’t resist her, but the nanny wouldn’t be there for an hour and then would be headed to work as would he.

  He gave her a small smile and took a step towards her. He paused and looked down at the table. Sighing, he picked up the papers he had dropped earlier. He heard her giggle like a school girl and out of the corner of his eye, saw her clap her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound while he continued to mull it over. She thought she had already won. “We’d have to be gone over a week. I don’t see how we can do it with the kids.”

  “Jodi and Caroline and Fiona would watch them, or better yet we take them, and leave them with your aunts. It won’t be too far from the casino, it’s just forty miles away. We can face time with them every night, and then on the days you are not scheduled to film we can drive over there. Heck, your aunts could meet us for dinner a night or two.”

  She had thought of everything. His minx. He had to admit it was a good idea. His aunts would love having three kids on the farm again, and the kids knew his aunts. Loved them. Since they’d been born, his aunts had all come several times a year. But three babies was a lot of work.

  “We are going to see Aunt Suzie!” John squealed from the floor, abandoning the Tonka truck he had been crashing repeatedly into the wall while his parents had been talking. He started jumping up and down. “I want to go to the farm. Old Aunt Suzie had a farm, e-i-e-i-o.”

  John skipped around the table repeating his aunt’s mantra though she was far from old, being just fifty-three. Jenny, the oldest, was fifty-six, and his Aunt Sandra, the baby of the family, was forty-six. He thought about Suzie though. She had been a big hit with his kids. They’d named their youngest daughter after her because she meant so much to him. She’d been there just three weeks ago. Surprised them, staying for a week. It had been nice to have the extra set of hands around. Plus, he and Jessyka got some precious alone time. She’d told the kids countless stories about their father growing up on the farm and the mischief he’d gotten into with her boys.