by Leslie North
“You have an exaggerated opinion of yourself,” she said, sucking in a breath when he reached her, leaned over, and rested his hands on the arms of her chair. His position was both intimate and exciting.
“Do I? Maybe we should ask this guy about that. He can be an impartial judge.” Alex dropped to one knee in front of her. She knew it was to bring him eye level with their baby, but a moment of anticipation rolled through her. He was posed like a man offering a proposal. She’d say yes—she’d say yes in a heartbeat and work out the details later. She felt a flush creep up her cheeks that had nothing to do with the warm day. As much as she knew Alex wouldn’t ask her to marry him, the thought of it made her tingle everywhere.
“Luke, was your mama checking me out?” Alex’s attention focused on the baby. Luke smacked his little hands together and made a happy baby squeal. Alex chuckled. “That’s what I thought. Good man.”
“He’s just happy to see his daddy,” she pointed out. “Not a fair way to judge.”
“You could just admit it,” he said. “You think I’m sexy.”
Her lips twitched, part of her longing to tell him how much he meant to her, but that would end the easy flirtation. Soon she would tell him and wait for his reaction, no matter what it was, but not today. Today was about being happy.
“Go back to work,” she told him.
“While you lounge?” he teased, rocking back on his heels.
“While I care for our son,” she corrected.
His expression changed. It was almost tender and a little vulnerable. Should she say what she was feeling? Before she could speak, he rose, pivoted like a man in a Mr. Universe pageant, and strutted back to the shrub he was transplanting.
Had she lost an opportunity or inched her way one step closer to a future with him? She didn’t know. She stroked Luke’s silky hair and dropped a kiss on the top of his head. If, together, she and Alex could make something so perfect, couldn’t they be perfect together?
She sighed and settled back in her chair. Maybe they could.
Alex went back to work, transferring the plants he’d potted just weeks ago into the ground. He had a vision in his head of what the yard could be. He needed shade for Luke, a good place to put a playset, maybe an outdoor kitchen area to barbeque in when his family came over. He gently packed dirt around the roots of an azalea, admitting to himself that his plans for the yard all suggested one thing: he was staying. The decision to retire from the SEALs had been on his mind, but it was no longer the source of stress it had been. He knew what that meant. He was close to making a decision, close to leaving a life he’d loved that had presented him with the ultimate challenge—in favor of one that fulfilled him in another way.
He glanced toward Soledad. Her head was bent over Luke as she kissed him. This could be a good life, too. He wasn’t sure he was ready for it, but he couldn’t imagine being away from them for months at a time without any communication. What if something happened? What if Luke became ill? Kids did. He knew that. Soledad would have to manage everything herself. She could, of course. She was plenty tough and resilient. She’d proven that during her pregnancy.
She’d be okay without him. So would his garden. He could put in a modern irrigation system if he decided to reenlist. Everything would survive. Ultimately, nothing was contingent on him physically being there. He simply wanted to be. He wanted to see his plants flower almost as much as he wanted to be around when Luke cut his first teeth and took his first steps.
He had a little time left on his leave, hopefully enough to deal with Bruce and come to a final decision. He heaved another shrub into a hole he’d dug, letting himself enjoy the work, focusing all his energy on that and letting the rest drop away.
The day grew hotter, the sun becoming more intense on his shoulders. In the background, he could hear Soledad singing to Luke. Just as he placed the last shrub, he heard the distant chime of the front doorbell. His phone chirped simultaneously. He dug it out of his pocket, knowing that the motion-sensitive camera on the front door would have been triggered. Sure enough, his phone’s screen lit up with an image. He moved to the shade of the back porch to see it more clearly, his warning senses firing.
“Do you want me to get that?” Soledad asked, half rising from her chair.
“No.” His answer was terse as he studied the screen.
A man wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low was putting a package down on the step. The man turned quickly, razor sharp and precise, and strode off down the sidewalk. But Alex had seen enough. He’d lived with and worked alongside Bruce for months. He could recognize any of his teammates by the tiniest detail. A gesture, a whispered word, the shape of their faces even in near darkness. Alex had no doubt who’d left the package.
He considered sprinting around the house to confront Bruce, but the package had him nervous, had him staying with Soledad and Luke.
Soledad was on her feet, picking up on his tension. She leaned closer to see the image on his phone. “Were you expecting something?”
“No.”
“I haven’t ordered anything,” she volunteered. “It could be another baby gift?”
Alex knew it wasn’t. “Inside,” he commanded, yanking open the back door. “Stay here near the door, and be ready to dial 9-1-1.”
“Alex, what…” she began, but he cut her a look that stopped her question and had her gripping Luke tighter to her.
Alex took her under the arm, guiding her quickly into the house. “Phone?” He waited until it was in her hand.
“Be careful,” she whispered.
“Always,” he responded before heading to the front of the house. From his phone’s screen, he knew the package was three feet out from the door, but he wanted a direct view. He swung the door wide, revealing a package the size of a shoebox. It was wrapped in brown paper and was addressed with a red marker in bold strokes. No postmark or package label. No obvious ticking, no wires attached to it. Those were good signs, but caution ruled Alex’s world.
His head told him that Bruce was just screwing with him, playing psychological games, but Alex couldn’t take that chance with his family in the house. He had to get them to safety before dealing with the package. Closing and locking the door, he rapidly considered the best course of action. Get Soledad and Luke out, and call his brothers.
He called to Soledad to meet him upstairs before taking the steps two at a time. First he went into Luke’s room, where he stuffed diapers and extra clothes in a bag. When he returned to the hall, Soledad’s dark eyes were wide.
“Alex, what is going on?” She looked at the packed diaper bag. “Are we going somewhere?”
“I’ll explain it all to you later, but for now, I need you out of the house. Grab a few things—you might need to stay overnight—but be quick.” He took the baby, and in under two minutes they were on the move again. In the garage, he lifted Frankie onto the back seat and strapped Luke into his infant carrier.
“You’re not coming?” she asked as she climbed in and Alex handed her the truck keys.
He shook his head. “Go to Colin’s house, and stay there until I come for you. Don’t stop for anything. Don’t go outside once you’re there.” Colin lived less than ten minutes away. Alex mentally followed the route she would take. There were only three stops, three places where she’d be truly vulnerable.
“What the hell, Alex?” she muttered but started the truck. He opened the garage door, doing a visual sweep of the driveway and street before motioning her to move.
He watched as she drove out of sight, feeling greater fear than he ever had on even his most dangerous missions. He needed to gain control over the situation. His battle instincts told him that the only way to slay fear was to master it and be ready for anything. He’d already let this game with Bruce go on for too long.
First things first, though. He dialed Zach.
“Hey.” His brother answered on the first ring.
“I need your help.” Alex quickly explai
ned about the package and asked his brother to call the police department’s bomb squad. His brother had the connections to cut through the rigmarole and get to the right people quickly.
When he hung up with Zach, he called Colin. “Are you home?”
“Yeah. It’s Saturday.” Colin sounded relaxed. Alex was sorry to ruin that, but he needed his brothers’ help.
“Good. Soledad and Luke are on their way to your house. I need you to keep them safe.”
“Bruce?” Colin’s tone altered, becoming serious and efficient.
“Yeah, he left me a gift. Not the kind that anyone wants, I’m sure.” Alex heard the beep as Colin’s alarm system disarmed, followed by a door opening. He knew his brother was walking out of the house to wait for Soledad to arrive.
“They just turned onto my street,” Colin said after a ten-second silence. “I’ve got them.”
“Thanks. I owe you.”
“Doesn’t work that way, bro. I’ll be over as soon as they’re settled in the house.”
Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he disconnected. Now he could do nothing but wait.
11
Within thirty minutes, an explosives expert, the county’s bomb squad, and both Alex’s brothers waited on the street in front of his house. After a brief discussion among the officials, they decided on an unmanned approach, so the bomb squad’s robot rolled toward his door and the package that waited there. It stopped a foot away, and with its remote-controlled arms, the robot reached for the package and lifted it.
“No weight to it,” the bomb squad technician controlling the robot said into the tense atmosphere. Alex’s neighbors had been evacuated, making the street eerily quiet. Alex and the others stood behind a line of police cars, all their attention focused on the technician’s screen. “Total of eighteen ounces. Probably the weight of the box and something small. It wouldn’t be much of a bomb, but I’m detecting a slight ticking sound. Your call?” the tech turned to his supervisor.
“Let’s approach on foot,” the older man said, slipping protective gear over his head. The padded tunic covered him from his shoulders to past his knees. He donned a helmet and dropped a shield over his face before moving toward the house. The robot returned the package to the ground and retreated as the officer walked cautiously forward.
Alex wanted nothing more than to dash up there and handle the situation himself, but he didn’t need Zach’s restraining hand on his arm to tell him that would be a poor idea. Caution was the only approach, but he hated not being in charge, not taking action.
When the officer was a foot from the package, he knelt awkwardly, tucking the protective tunic around his legs in case of a blast. Wearing thick gloves, he slit the box open with a knife and slowly peeled back the flaps to look inside.
“Clock,” the man said after a tension-filled moment.
“Timer?” A police captain near Alex asked, his tone sharp.
“Maybe.” The man shone a flashlight into the box, turning the beam to exam it from every angle. Only the slight breeze made a noise on the street as they all waited. After what felt like forever, the officer shed the visor and helmet before yanking the gloves from his hands. “Just a clock and a note.”
Alex didn’t wait for him to reveal what it said. Instead, he rushed forward and peered into the box himself. A white index card had three words written on it in red.
Tick Tock Boom.
“Son of a bitch,” Alex cursed, instinctively reaching for the note.
“Don’t touch it,” the man cautioned. “We’ll check it for prints.”
They wouldn’t find any. Bruce was too clever for that. He would know they’d check, and he wouldn’t want to make this easy for the authorities.
“Could be a practical joker,” the bomb squad officer suggested as he rose. “We’ve heard about stuff similar to this in other cities. Random packages with threatening notes. Nothing ever comes of it.”
“No,” Alex said. This wasn’t random. He knew he’d recognized his former teammate, but it was going to be damned hard to prove based on nothing more than his word.
Ales was glad Luke and Soledad were safe at Colin’s, since his brother’s house was protected like a fortress after a stalker obsessed with Lily had come after her. Besides, Colin was monitoring his home security on his phone. Alex had seen him check several times, giving Alex a reassuring nod each time.
“You have an enemy that you think did this?” the officer asked, squinting at Alex.
“Yeah. One who knows plenty about weapons.” Alex filled the officers from the local PD in on Bruce and his threats. He couldn’t tell the entire story, because the mission they’d been on was classified, but he could say enough to make his point about Bruce and the credible threat he posed.
“Do you have any evidence? Anything we can use to issue a warrant or get a restraining order?” the officer questioned after listening in silence. “Without that, there’s nothing we can do.”
All Alex had was the video of Bruce at the door, and only he could verify who it was. There wouldn’t be enough of a facial image to convince the police of the package deliverer’s identity. Alex was shit out of luck, just as Bruce had no doubt planned, when it came to taking action through legal means. Alex was forced to concede his powerlessness, the corner he was in, as he watched the police pack up their equipment and drive off. He was left standing on his lawn, hands on hips, in disgust.
“Welcome to the civilian world,” Zach said grimly. “I know you want to just take care of this, but you can’t. That’s not how it works when you’re out of uniform.”
Everything in Alex wanted to take the fight to Bruce—locate him and eliminate the threat, as he’d been trained to do. And Zach was right: he couldn’t. “This sucks.”
“Yep,” Colin agreed, “but that’s the way it is. We have an advantage, though.”
“What?” Alex asked, reminding himself that Colin was the analyst, the thinker of the three of them.
“Bruce was willing to come out of hiding,” Colin said. “He’s ready to make his move, and he’s getting impatient.”
“Colin’s right. Bruce is sending a message that he’s ready to tangle with you,” Zach added.
His brothers were thinking more clearly than he was. His thoughts were tangled up with emotion, but he couldn’t let that continue. He needed to formulate a plan. And the first part of that plan was protecting his assets.
“You know what you’ve got to do,” Zach said as if reading Alex’s mind.
“Yeah,” Alex admitted. He should have followed his brother’s advice weeks ago and told Soledad about Bruce. She would have been worried, but now she was going to be pissed at him. Beyond pissed. And he had no excuse for his decisions other than wanting to shield her from the stress. He’d felt that she didn’t need that with a newborn to care for. She’d had enough stress throughout her pregnancy.
She would see the situation differently, though. She would think he hadn’t trusted her with the information, which wasn’t the case. Not at all. He trusted her—trusted her with their son’s life, which was huge for him. Somehow in the past few months, he’d added one person to the short list of those he felt he could rely on.
When he spoke to her about this, when he explained about Bruce and the threat, he was going to have to face her anger and be convincing at the same time. Convincing enough to get her to leave town for a while. That was going to be a challenge. She wasn’t the type to run and hide.
“I need to get them out of danger,” Alex said. “Somewhere out of town.”
“That would be best. Does she have someplace to go? Family?” Zach asked.
“She has an aunt and cousin just outside Philly.” Alex had never met them, but he’d seen Soledad FaceTime with them and exchange messages. As far as he knew, they were the only family she had.
“That’ll work, if she’ll go,” Colin said.
“She will.” He’d make it clear that she had no choice: there was no other way to guaran
tee Luke’s safety. He knew Soledad well enough to know she’d do anything for her son. Would she do the same for him? Alex wondered. Over the past weeks, he’d thought so. The connection between them had grown stronger, stronger than it had ever been. He’d begun to think they could make it work—he’d let himself hope that, despite his lousy excuses for parents, he and Soledad could parent Luke with love and responsibility.
They didn’t have to be in a relationship for that to happen, but it would help. And he found that he wanted it. He wanted the closeness, the easy intimacy and companionship… the love she’d so freely offered. Considering how angry she was going to be now, he was sure those things would be denied him. He should have known better from the beginning, since nothing in his life had come easily. Nothing had come without its share of disappointments and regrets.
She’d be yet another one after he revealed the situation with Bruce.
“All right. How do we draw Bruce out so we can end this?” Zach asked, pulling Alex from his thoughts.
“We pressure him,” Colin explained. “We make it look like Alex is leaving on a mission soon, so he’s forced to take action. If you returned to a base, he wouldn’t be able to get at you. He’ll know that.”
“That could work,” Alex agreed. It wouldn’t take much to give the appearance of leaving… but for it to work, Soledad would have to believe it, too. He hated doing that to her, hated forcing her and Luke away, but it was the only thing he could do.
12
Soledad paced restlessly from window to window at Lily and Colin’s house. It didn’t take a genius to know that something was terribly wrong. Tragically wrong, based on Alex’s reaction to a little package on the doorstep. Why had that flipped him out? Why had he sent her and Luke away?