by Tawny Weber
The fact that the FBI was involved so quickly was a sure sign that they were erring on the side of deliberate.
Which would mean someone had tried to kill Keith. But why?
Given his history with the Navy SEALs and the nature of the operations she knew he’d been on, there could be any number of reasons and suspects, but the FBI wasn’t ready to rule out Trina as a potential target either. She was questioned extensively on her background and her high security clearance, and the fact that she worked for the attorney general’s wife definitely caused some concern.
Mara, Erica, and Cressida arrived at some point while she was being questioned inside an FBI van. She had no clue how much time had passed, considering she was still in a hazy blur as the reality of what had happened slowly penetrated.
Full dark set in, and lights were strung up so investigation of the scene could continue unabated. Thunderstorm warnings meant investigators needed to collect as much data as they could before trace evidence would be washed away.
A headquarters of sorts had been set up at the perimeter, and Trina saw Keith only in passing as he crossed from the ambulance to a larger mobile crime scene investigation vehicle.
Curt arrived not long after her coworkers had, and there was a flurry amongst the FBI investigators. Not surprising considering it had to be rare for the AG to personally visit a potential crime scene. He made it clear he’d come out of friendship—but that didn’t stop him from grilling her with the same intensity as the special agent in charge, who’d arrived only minutes before Curt.
A bomb going off in a former Navy SEAL’s town house on the outskirts of the nation’s capital brought out all the bigwigs.
She recounted her day to Curt and the SAC with the same degree of detail, including the fact that she’d borrowed Mara’s office to talk to Keith at the Navy Yard. Who knew what was important at this point?
Done answering questions, she waited outside with her coworkers while Curt questioned Keith. Too tired to pace but too freaked-out to sit still, she stood and rubbed her arms, chilled in spite of it being an eighty-degree muggy summer night.
Finally, Keith stepped out of the mobile unit. Cressida, Mara, and Erica all faded into the background as he made a beeline for her. His arms came around her, and she pressed against him, feeling like she could finally breathe again after having the wind knocked out of her hours ago.
He held her for a long time, stroking her back. She simply breathed and melted into him, holding him for all she was worth.
It had to end eventually, she supposed. Keith’s arms loosened, then he kissed her lightly on the lips. He stroked her hair. “You look exhausted.”
“I am. You, on the other hand, look fine. I find that unfair.”
“Training. This wasn’t my first unexpected explosion.” He frowned. “But it was the first in the US that threatened civilians.” He sighed. “Listen, Trina, I called Rav. Much as I want to be with you, I’m going to stay at one of the Raptor facilities while we get this sorted out.”
If there was one thing Trina needed right now, it was to be with Keith. Not for sex, but just to hold him and be held. They’d just been through something together, and maybe it wasn’t rational, but he was the only person she wanted to be with in the aftermath. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
“No. Until we know what’s going on, I’m a danger to you.”
“What if I’m the reason the bomb was set? For all we know, I’m endangering you.”
“What reason could anyone possibly have to try to kill you? The people you write about are all dead.”
“Not all of them. You’re still alive.”
“Yeah, but we’ve established that you aren’t studying me.” He frowned. “I’m a former SEAL. I’ve been on a lot of ops.” He hesitated for a moment, then added, “I’ve killed people. There are reasons certain people could want me dead. Until we know who, I refuse to endanger you—or anyone.” He swore and rubbed his hand across his face. “I still need to figure out how I’m going to tell Tyler I can’t play ball with him. I never should have promised. I didn’t know what else to say.”
It was clear Keith was resolute, and no amount of argument would convince him. And what if he was right? What if this had been a deliberate attack, revenge for the orders he’d carried out while in the Navy?
She, of all people, knew history. She knew what clandestine operations entailed. She didn’t know the details of his particular ops, but she had highly educated insight into the nature of his work. “Will you call me?”
He shook his head. “No. No contact until this is sorted out. Period.”
She crossed her arms. “You still owe me dinner.”
He laughed. “Babe, I promise, as soon as we know it’s safe, you can pick the restaurant. Hell, I’ll fly you to Paris if you want.”
“I prefer Italy.”
He hooked both index fingers in her belt loops and tugged her forward. His kiss was hard, fierce. A sexy, sweet, sad good-bye. “Just promise you’ll wait for me, and you’ve got a deal.”
Chapter 7
“You can’t even keep your nose clean for six hours,” Rav said when he arrived at the scene.
Keith grimaced. “You never said I had to keep my nose clean. You just said there’d be a proctology exam.”
“Well, I figured you knew you’d have to pass it.” Then Rav smiled and held out his hand. They clasped wrists, and Rav gave him a one-armed hug with a pat on the back. “Shit, Hatch. This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen at home.”
Keith nodded and rubbed his forehead. “The family next door lost their house. They all could have died. Trina could have died. All my years in the Navy, and I’ve never been so scared.”
Trina’s coworkers had taken her home. It was just Rav, Dominick, and Keith standing in the shadows—never stand in the light when you’re a target—on the edge of the makeshift HQ. It looked freakily like a field HQ in a war zone. Except this was two hundred yards from his home. Or rather, where his home used to be.
Thunder rent the air, and the storm finally made good on its promise. Fat drops came slowly at first, but within minutes, it became a downpour. Keith didn’t budge; he just stood letting the rain wash the blast dust from his clothes. He’d buttoned up his torn shirt after the medic had tweezed gravel and glass from his back and arms. For all the good it did him, the destroyed shirt and scuffed jeans were the only clothes he had. The only anything he had.
Absolutely everything he owned had been in the town house, including his Land Cruiser, which had been parked in the garage.
He turned to the two men. The pity party would happen later. “What security do you have for Trina?”
“She should be okay at work,” Curt said. “Marines provide security on the base, which is particularly tight these days, but I’ve already called and requested armed marines be stationed inside her building.”
Keith nodded. “Good. As soon as the press releases her name, she’ll be a target. The bomber will think she’s important to me.” And she was important to him, which was a little crazy when he considered that he’d only met her yesterday morning. He looked at Rav. “What can you do about security for her outside the Navy Yard?”
“One of my operatives is guarding her apartment already. He’ll be assigned to her whenever she’s not at work, but she’ll need to cooperate and call him to escort her when she leaves.”
“She’s smart. She’ll cooperate. Private security will be pricey; I’ll pay Raptor every cent of the cost.”
Rav shook his head. “I can afford it. Consider it an advance on your salary if it bothers you.”
Keith didn’t really give a crap about the details. He just wanted to know Trina was protected.
Two days after the explosion, Trina returned to work. The aches from the tumble on the pavement had only just started to ease, but she’d been ready to lose her mind pacing her apartment, her only company a Raptor operative named Sean Logan who was nice and funny, but who wasn’t Keith
.
And wasn’t it crazy that she longed to be with a man she barely knew?
Her laptop had been destroyed in the blast, so most of her first day back was spent dealing with getting a replacement, and the rest of the week was spent configuring it and uploading the backup files from the network server.
She worked through the weekend to get caught up due to the lost week, and now, a full week after the explosion she was back in her cubicle with first-person accounts of naval operations strewn across her desk and analysis of the successes and failures of SEAL Team 4 in Operation Just Cause—the 1989 invasion of Panama—to write.
She should feel normal again. After all, she’d only lost her wallet, cell phone, laptop, and a book in the blast. Nothing that couldn’t be replaced. Every time she considered how much Keith and the family next door had lost, she had to choke back tears.
Keith’s library. Tyler’s baby pictures. Everything gone in an instant.
“You should go home,” Mara said.
She startled and realized she’d been staring off into space. Mara leaned against the opening of her cubicle partition, and Trina had no idea how long she’d been there. “Maybe I should. But I feel like I’m going crazy there. All I can do is pace.”
“Let’s leave, then. It’s almost five anyway. We can go to the mall at Pentagon City. You really need to get a new cell phone. While we’re there, you can try on shoes.”
Trina’s jaw dropped. Mara hated shopping only slightly less than Erica did. Offering Trina one of her favorite pastimes—shoe shopping—was about the sweetest gesture she could imagine. But the crazy thing was, the idea of shoe shopping didn’t appeal.
What she wanted was to see Keith, which she figured was even nuttier than not wanting to find the right pair of stilettos to go with that little purple dress she had no reason to wear. “I don’t know. We’d have to drag the Raptor bodyguard with us.”
Mara frowned. “How long has he worked for the company?”
“He told me Alec hired him six months ago.”
“He’ll do, then.” Mara didn’t trust anyone who’d worked for the company under the previous owner, and Trina didn’t blame her for that. “Call him and tell him to pick us up.”
“Okay, but we’re not going shoe shopping. I have more shoes than any woman needs. But I know a boy who needs a football.”
The mall was located right on a Metro line and was a popular place during commuter hours. Trina picked up a new cell phone and replaced her laptop bag before they went to a toy store to buy a football for Tyler.
She’d learned more about the family’s situation in the week following the explosion. Tyler’s dad was in the army and serving a tour overseas, what they hoped would be his last as troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. With the family home destroyed, strings were being pulled to bring the father home, but it would be at least another week before that would be accomplished.
After finding a football suitable for small hands, Trina went a little overboard and bought the boy several other items, including a Razor scooter, a basketball, and Nerf dart shooters that might not be the most politically correct toy, but, according to her similarly aged nephews and nieces, were really fun. If Tyler’s mother didn’t approve, she’d donate them to Toys for Tots during the holidays.
Toy shopping done, they found themselves in a clothing store, where Mara bought a few blouses for work. Trina browsed skirts and sundresses, but her heart wasn’t in it.
“Wow. I’m buying clothes and you’re not? You sure you’re not feverish?” Mara was probably the only person who could tease her, considering she’d been through an ordeal much more nightmarish than the explosion. She’d faced a firing squad in North Korea, after all.
Trina shrugged. “I just blew my budget on a new cell phone and toys.”
“Good point. If you’re not interested in shopping, let’s get a drink.”
Trina mustered a smile. “It is margarita weather.”
“They have a nice lounge at the Ritz, and it’s quieter than the mall restaurants.”
She’d never been in the Ritz Carlton attached to the mall; both the hotel and restaurant were far too pricey for her budget, but she figured she’d earned a treat. As he’d done during their entire shopping venture, Sean the bodyguard followed them at a discreet distance. Inside, they were seated at a small table, while Sean sat at the bar.
Their drinks had barely been delivered when Mara stood and dropped money on the table. She leaned close to Trina, pressing one hand on the table, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Stay here until Sean and I leave, then cut through the lobby to the elevator.” She grabbed her shopping bag, hitched her purse over her shoulder, and said in a normal tone, “Ladies room. Be right back.”
Trina stared at her, feeling clueless, then reached for her drink. Her eyes fell on the card that must have been under Mara’s hand on the table. Trina lifted the plastic Ritz Carlton hotel room key card, noting the room number indicated on the sticky note, and tucked it in her purse. Minutes later, Mara reentered the lounge, now wearing one of her new blouses—which happened to be the same coral color as the blouse Trina wore. More significant, however, was the fact that Mara wore glasses and her hair was now dark and pulled back in a knot similar to the one at the nape of Trina’s neck.
A wig?
Sean’s gaze flicked to Trina, then he stood and followed Mara across the lounge, through the lobby and, Trina could only assume, into the mall.
Mara was slightly shorter and far curvier than Trina, but with the wig and wearing the right colored top in a loose fit, a casual observer could easily think Trina was leaving the mall with Sean.
She took a sip of her drink, utterly flummoxed. Mara must have been carrying the wig and glasses in her purse the whole time. And she’d ever so casually purchased the top, which really should have clued Trina in, considering how little Mara liked trying on clothes. Hell, she should have guessed something was up when the woman had offered to go clothes shopping in the first place.
She took one last swallow of margarita, then stood. With a rapidly beating heart, she gathered her shopping bags and headed to the lobby, where she went straight to the bank of elevators.
Time stretched in opposite proportion to the pounding in her chest. Surely it was the longest elevator ride of her life. Finally, a bell rang and the doors slid open. A moment later, she slid the card into the slot, and the lock light turned green.
She pushed open the door and came face-to-face with Keith.
Chapter 8
Keith’s breath caught to see beautiful, gorgeous, sexy Trina in the entry hall. Hands filled with bulging shopping bags, she stood with her hip cocked and uncertainty in her gaze. He wanted to step forward and take her into his arms, but this was Trina’s move. He’d arranged this without her knowledge. He wouldn’t touch her until he was certain she wanted him to.
“Damn you.” Her mouth was tight, her words clipped.
Shit. This had been a mistake. She was pissed. They were eternally out of sync. One of them was always waltzing while the other moved to a hip-hop beat. Their discordant notes would never mesh.
She dropped the bags, kicked the door closed, and stepped forward. “If I’d known I was going to see you, I’d have worn my purple dress. Or sexier underwear.”
The foolish panic evaporated. They were dancing to the same tune after all. “I don’t care what your underwear looks like, because I’m sort of hoping you won’t be wearing it long.”
“Works for me.” She untucked her blouse, then pulled it over her head without unbuttoning, tossing it to the side.
Keith figured that was a positive indication she wanted him to touch her. He stepped forward and cupped her cheeks—instead of going straight for her breasts like he really wanted to do. “I’ve missed you like crazy.” Then he tasted her. Strawberries. Sweet. Hot. Perfect.
She fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, managing to open the top two, then he followed her lead and lifted it over h
is head and tossed it aside. He pulled her against him, and at last they were skin to skin. Except for the bra, which had to go. But before he could remove it, she nudged him backward, deeper into the suite, then paused, taking in the surroundings. “You got a suite?”
He nodded. “More room for pacing while waiting.”
“How long have you been here? All week?”
“No. I’m staying in a safe house. I was pacing while waiting for you. Sean needed to be certain you hadn’t been followed before he’d give the go-ahead. Rav insisted on someone pretending to be you, just in case you were being watched from an undetected source.”
“I would imagine Curt wasn’t thrilled with Mara playing decoy.”
“She volunteered, but I have a feeling she didn’t tell him.”
Trina suppressed a smile with tight lips. “We’re asking for trouble in pissing off the head of the Justice Department like that.”
“Hopefully Mara will be able to defuse him before he comes after me. Cressida and Erica offered too, but they’re both too tall.”
“You mean every one of my coworkers knew I was going to see you today, while I was left in the dark?”
He dropped light kisses along her jaw. “If Sean had spotted a tail, this would have been called off. Mara was concerned you’d argue if that happened. Plus, I think she enjoyed springing this on you.”
Those beautiful lips curved into a sexy smile. “She really fooled me. She even asked about Sean, as if she had no idea who was guarding me. But I’m not complaining. It was a great surprise. Now, are you going to get naked or not?”
“Ladies first.”
She laughed, then glanced around. “Is it strange that I’m nervous? I mean, the last time we got to this point, the world went boom.”
“We can take this as slow as you want. We don’t have to make love. The room comes with HBO. Game of Thrones is on.”
Her laugh was sharp as she grabbed his belt and pulled him toward her. “Don’t think you’re getting off that easy—or rather, not getting off—I’m not leaving here until you’ve rocked my world.” She’d dispensed with the buckle before she finished speaking.