by Tawny Weber
“Um, Nic?”
“Yeah?” He yanked his gaze from her breasts. Blinked. Frowned and said, “Sorry, yes?”
Her laugh was soft and husky. Pushing one hand through her hair so the short ends spiked even higher, she shook her head. “You can’t be ready to go again.”
“Ready, willing and able.”
“Well, put it on the back burner,” she said, sidestepping when he reached for her. “Despite that bout of misguided sex, I did have a good reason for calling you.”
“Misguided?”
Shooting him an impatient look, Darby tilted her head to one side and asked, “Given the circumstances do you think that sex between the two of us is wise at this juncture in time?”
“Damn.” Nic couldn’t help but laugh. “You really do sound like a lawyer.”
“Probably because I am a lawyer.” She stepped around him and hurried into the tiny kitchen. “I’ll make us some coffee.”
“Coffee?”
“I need something to do with my hands,” she confessed with a shrug. “Making coffee, then drinking coffee, will keep them occupied while we get through this.”
“Well, that’s honest.”
“Don’t you think the law and honesty go hand in hand?” she asked, watching him over the bar as she pulled a bag of beans from the freezer.
“That’s like asking me if caution and the military go hand in hand.” He shook his head. “Given the number of jokes on either topic, I’d say we’re both the exception, not the rule.”
“Well, I don’t mind being exceptional,” she said, flashing him a quick smile as she measured water into a kettle. After putting on the stove to heat, she poured beans into a grinder. Nic used the noise as an excuse to just watch her.
He frowned when she poured the grounds into the bottom of a tall glass cylinder, then slipped what looked like a metal sieve in a stick on top of them.
“What are you doing?”
“Making coffee.” She turned to open a cabinet door. As she reached up to get two mugs she stood on tiptoe so the silky fabric of her robe cupped her butt in gorgeous definition, making him grateful for her petite stature. “What’s wrong?”
Since it probably wasn’t a good idea to mention that the only thing holding his slacks up right now was his hard-on, Nic went with his second thought.
“Where’s your coffee maker?”
“This is it. It’s a French press.” She tapped the cylinder. “Don’t worry, you’ll like it.”
“Okay.” Given the often questionable nature of the coffee he usually got on base, Nic didn’t consider himself a snob. “So now that you’ve educated me and kept your hands busy, how about filling me in.”
“Give me a minute.”
She poured the boiling water into the carafe. The mesh kept the grounds from floating as she slowly lowered it as if squishing every iota of caffeine from the beans. Nice.
She poured the rich black liquid into each mug and, apparently remembering he took his black, handed it to him just the way it was.
Then she met his eyes, hers as serious as he’d ever seen.
* * *
“YOU’RE MAKING ME NERVOUS,” Darby admitted, wishing he’d stop staring. “Why don’t you go in the other room and sit while I get my coffee.”
“I’m happy here.”
“Are you contrary on purpose?”
“No, but I am honest.”
Yeah. He was.
Her eyes met his again for a long moment before she turned away to get her own cup, adding a dollop of raw sugar before facing him again.
“Even though treason charges haven’t been filed. Yet. My talking with you could still be considered a conflict of interest. It could put my career in jeopardy,” she said quietly. “Just like you, I’m proud of what I do. I’ve worked hard my entire adult life, trying to be all I can be. To be the best.”
“That’s the Army.”
Darby blinked.
“What?”
“Be all you can be. That’s an Army slogan.”
“What’s your slogan?”
“Win.”
She almost asked where the rest of it was, then realized that “win” actually said it all.
“That’s a good slogan,” she replied, pausing to take a sip of her coffee. “I like to win. I’ve worked hard to make sure that I win as often as possible.”
Nic nodded his agreement.
“When I bring charges, I want to win this case.” Intent on making her point, she leaned forward to give him a determined look. “And I’m going to win this case.”
“Wait.” He lifted one palm. “So you didn’t call me to offer your help. You want mine.”
Well, yeah. But she didn’t admit that aloud. Instead, she waited for his reaction.
He took a deep breath. When that didn’t seem to calm him, he set his coffee cup aside to pace the room. Darby tried not to get distracted by his unsnapped, unzipped pants and the internal debate over how long it’d take before they simply slid down those slender hips.
“Darby, I care about you. A lot.” He ran his hand over his hair, the glossy black gleaming in the overhead light. She wasn’t sure if she should be amused or insulted that he stopped then to zip his pants.
“But we’re talking about my freedom, here. My reputation. My life.”
And there it went. The last of Darby’s tension. The few last concerns she’d had about her decision dissipated in the heat of his stare.
“Do you happen to recall the statement I made that first day in court?”
His frown said he didn’t.
“I submitted that the Justice Department would pursue treason charges as a whole against any and all individuals involved, whether already accused or yet to be named.” She waited a beat, then arched one brow. “That, my friend, is what they call covering the bases.”
She loved the way Nic’s smile spread over his face. Slow, sexy and even better, knowledgeable.
“You’re going to pull a fast one and nail the real traitor.”
“I’m going to pull a fast one and nail the real traitor,” she agreed.
He finally relaxed enough to sit on the couch and drink some coffee.
“How?”
“A number of your men came by my office the other night—”
“My team came to see you?” he interrupted before she could explain why. He faced her with serious eyes. “Look, I know it probably seems as if my men were out of line. Maybe you’d think a visit like that meant they were trying to influence the case or bring false evidence. But my men would have been acting out of loyalty to their commander.”
Her heart melted a little at the strength of his defense of his men. She’d never seen a stronger sense of loyalty in anyone as Nic carried.
“I know.”
“What?”
“I know. Their reasons for being there were very clear. And the evidence, as far as I could tell, was legit. I need to submit it to our forensics department. It has to be verified. But the information is strong enough that I’m reconsidering the charges. Which means I need more information from other sources.”
“Don’t look at me,” Nic said with a hint of bitterness in his laugh. “It’s not like I have some inside information tucked away that’ll tell you the name of whoever is lying to frame me.”
“Your men can help there, can’t they? They seem to have skills at ferreting out information.”
“I’ll go over what they brought you and see what I can suggest,” he said. “What did you think of them?”
The curiosity in his eyes was obvious, but she wasn’t sure what was beneath it. Whatever it was, this question felt like a test.
“I think they’re very loyal,” she said. Then she admitted, “At first
I thought their visit was simply an intimidation tactic.”
“Were you intimidated?” he asked with a laugh that made it clear that he was already sure the answer was a negative.
“Actually I was.” She shrugged in response to his shocked stare. “It was after hours, I was alone in the office and a half-dozen behemoths with attitudes trapped me in my office. You don’t lead small men, Nic. Those guys are big and, admit it, kinda scary.”
“That’s what the enemy says,” he joked.
“Exactly. So don’t look surprised that they intimidated me just a little.”
“And when you were through being intimidated?”
God, he had a high opinion of her. Darby tucked her feet under her hips and took a second to revel in the delight of someone thinking so highly of her. She considered her ego pretty damn strong, but even she didn’t believe she had as much moxie as he thought she did.
That notion made Darby sit a little straighter, unaware that the move put her nipples into sharp relief against her robe until she noticed his eyes widen.
“Once they were finished looming and hulking, they brought new evidence to my attention,” she said, pausing to sip her coffee. “Evidence I’d have thought you were already aware of.”
She lifted the file she’d set on the coffee table and handed it to him.
Nic held her eyes for a long moment—long enough to make her stomach flutter—then he flipped it open.
While he read, she drank more coffee. Probably crazy to drink this much caffeine so late at night. But she had reason to hope that she wouldn’t be getting sleep anytime soon.
From the expression on Nic’s face as he read through the summary, this was all new information. By the time he was finished reading, he wore a scowl etched so deep it probably scarred his skull.
“Your men accessed this information. Why did they bring it to me first?” she asked. “Why didn’t they bring this to your attention?”
“They’d want to keep the lines of access clean. By bringing it to you without my knowledge, they ensured it as pristine evidence.”
Darby frowned as she thought through that.
“But I’m not the prosecuting attorney. Why didn’t they bring it to one of your superiors? One not named in that file? Or to the JAG office?”
“Because they are operating under the assumption that every officer in our unit could be involved. Added to that, they are following a very specific chain of investigation that would mandate leaving Thomas out of the equation.”
Oh, please let that be for the reason she wanted it to be. But Darby didn’t voice that prayer aloud. Instead, she simply inclined her head and asked, “Why?”
“Why assume the unit’s involvement?” He lifted the file. “Because of this. Why leave Thomas out? Because they don’t trust him. He’s made no secret of his hatred of me or my team.”
“I’ll bet he wanted to join Poseidon and you turned him down,” Darby said. She’d heard Paul mention the team a time or two, always in bitter tones. And now she was sure she knew why.
“You think that because we wouldn’t let him on the team, he’s holding a grudge?” Nic shook his head. “I get your theory, but I can’t believe anyone would do all of this because they couldn’t play with us. The inception of the team wasn’t a secret.”
“Was Poseidon your idea?”
“In a vague way, sure. Cree knew my grandfather. He came around from time to time, so I’d mention ideas. You know, like that if a team of SEALs trained in other areas, became a complete unit in and of themselves. He thought it was a solid concept.”
“So he gave you the team?”
“He didn’t give me anything. Poseidon’s formation was based on scores. Only the top ten percent of BUD/S graduates were offered a spot on the team. If I hadn’t made the cut, I wouldn’t be on the team. Cree planned to lead the group, but he was reassigned to the war zone. I took his plan and ran with it until he was stateside again.”
But Cree never actually led the team at that point, Darby knew. He’d become a figurehead, the administrator who looked after the details while Poseidon fought for glory. What did that do to a man’s ego?
“Who handled the requests to join?” Darby asked. She shrugged when Nic frowned. “I know you had requests from men who wanted to join. Men you turned down.”
Like Danny. Darby shoved that thought away before it could settle in her heart. This wasn’t the time, she reminded herself.
“I don’t know. Cree, probably.” Nic shrugged. “He’s the real head of Poseidon.”
“No, Nic. He’s not. You’re the true leader of the team. Everyone knows it.”
It didn’t take him long to understand what she was thinking. As soon as he did, Nic shook his head. He all but knocked his coffee cup on the table before he stood.
“No. No way. Admiral Cree isn’t behind this. There is no way in hell I’ll believe he’d do this to me. To Poseidon. Or to his country.”
Darby took a careful breath and watched the emotions chasing their way across his face. And, with a heavy heart, she pointed out, “You don’t have to believe it, Nic. But for the good of yourself, your career and your team, you do have to look in to it.”
* * *
THREE DAYS LATER, Nic still hadn’t dodged the headache Darby’s words had sparked. Like a wildfire, the destructive idea had spread. Had his commander, the man who’d mentored him, taught him, inspired him, framed him for treason?
Cree was a brilliant man, one who’d not only made the military his career, but his life, his family.
The question was how was Nic was supposed to believe that this man had not only betrayed his country, but had also framed Nic to take the fall for it?
And how was he supposed to ignore the possibility?
He sat with his men in Diego Torres’s kitchen, a space that could only be called upscale homey. It wasn’t the usual space for a team briefing, but given the nature of the information they were sharing, he’d deemed it smarter to use the cover of a friendly barbecue.
“Okay, gentlemen, let’s review.” He outlined everything they knew so far, all the intel up to and including Darby’s belief that jealous resentment was the motive.
“We need to look closely at everyone involved in the front lines of this battle,” he told his men. “We know that this setup has been brewing a lot longer than a year. And it goes a lot higher than Naval Intelligence and some butt-hurt Lieutenant who couldn’t earn a trident.”
He turned to Louden, and with a slight nod indicated that the Lieutenant Commander take over the briefing.
“The butt-hurt Lieutenant in question is one Paul Thomas, Judge Advocate General’s office. After failing to graduate BUD/S, Thomas opted to avail himself of the Navy’s LEP. Law education program,” Louden explained, going into details of what the program entailed even though every man in the room knew what he meant.
But that’s one of the reasons Nic had cued the guy up to handle the briefing. Not only did Louden hold his own law degree, but the guy had also gone through Naval Justice School with Thomas and had a firsthand knowledge of the man.
After Louden had finished the briefing, Nic took the lead.
“That’s our pivot point,” he said. “Envy, covetousness, resentment. Thomas has it. Ramsey has it. Where do we go from there?”
“We’ve been operating on the assumption that we were a target of convenience. That we were framed because Ramsey’s attempt to steal the chemical formula went bad on one of our missions,” Prescott pointed out, his eyes on his sketch pad as he drew a target with caricatures of the men of Poseidon in the bull’s-eye. “If you look at the common denominator of everyone involved, what if we were the target all along?”
“That’s what we have to consider,” Nic agreed, pointing an approving finger at Prescott. “This isn’
t about convenience. This is target specific and we’re the target. Which means this just got damn easy, gentlemen.”
“Our rep is known worldwide. We inspire a lot of envy, Nic.”
Darby’s words echoed in his head, but Nic shook them off.
“Don’t look to jealousy. Look to rejection. Thomas wasn’t good enough to qualify when Poseidon was formed. Ramsey tried to pull strings to get onto the team. The unsub is going to be someone with a similar story.” Comfortable in Diego’s kitchen, Nic got up to help himself to more coffee.
“What about Cree?” Lansky asked quietly. “Are we looking at him? According to Jarrett, he’s claiming he didn’t green-light the Tahoe mission. Even if he can’t prove anything else, that’s the basis of Thomas’s case, that we operated a covert sting without approval.”
“We have to consider that the Admiral might be the one behind it. He has the connections and the authority to pull this off.” Nic clenched his teeth against the bitter taste those words left in his mouth. “And, as you said, he knew about the mission in Tahoe to trap Ramsey. I sent him the plan for approval, so his claiming he never saw it is definitely suspect.”
“But you sent it in an encrypted email. That doesn’t mean he actually got it. Especially since he broke tradition by green-lighting the mission without a face-to-face discussion first,” Danby pointed out. “He sent it in a coded message, ostensibly because he was out of town. He’s not the only one who knows our codes.”
“Jarrett knows them, too,” Louden said, carefully cutting an apple so the peel swirled to the table in a single, unbroken piece.
“That’s a big lie for Jarrett to make,” Diego argued. “One that would be easy to uncover once Cree’s back on base.”
“Not if the initial message was intercepted.”
“Have you had any contact with Cree?” Diego asked Nic.
“Nothing. Which isn’t unusual in and of itself.”