SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series

by Lola Silverman

  Potter reached for her. “You little bitch!”

  She batted him away with her heels. The heel of her right shoe actually punctured the top of his hand just a little. Only enough to piss him off. With both hands outstretched like claws, he lunged at her.

  At the last second, Isabella dodged away. The Humvee guy lifted his weapon. “I don’t think so, ma’am.”

  “You really going to shoot a federal agent who was just doing her job?” Isabella challenged. She was still backing away. There was a cement pillar. She just had to get there and then find a door. There had to be a door. There was always a door, right?

  “She’s running!” someone else shouted.

  Their boots slapped the concrete just as Isabella turned and ran. She heard a shot. It went wild as if it was only meant to warn. The next would hit her in the back if she didn’t break their line of sight!

  Dodging behind a pillar, she looked at a line of black cookie cutter federal vehicles parked all over the garage. The only answer was go from car to car and try to use them for cover. Sucking in a deep breath, she prepared to sprint for the first scrap of cover.

  That was when she felt something grab her arm. Spinning around in her crouched position, she prepared to launch herself at her attacker. That was until she realized that Trapp was crouched beside her behind the pillar dressed in full field gear. There had never been a more welcome sight in her life.

  TRAPP HUNKERED DOWN next to Isabella and inhaled deeply of her familiar scent. For some reason, just being here with her right now gave him a feeling of security. There were bullets flying and things were a total mess, but just having her at his side was enough.

  “You okay?” he grunted, craning his neck to try and see how many guys they had to get around to make it to their ride.

  “Yeah.”

  “How many at the Humvee?”

  She chuffed a bit, seeming to square her shoulders with what he hoped was determination. “Four including the driver, and then Sergeant Potter.”

  “Potter,” Trapp tasted the name. It was strangely familiar, though he couldn’t place the man.

  “Pretty sure Potter is the one that jumped you earlier this afternoon.”

  Trapp’s brain zeroed in on Potter. He would be the one to have answers about the female assailant in the parking garage. There was no way they’d been working separately. It was too big of a coincidence otherwise. Surely not everyone wanted him dead.

  “There’s a helo waiting outside.” Trapp pointed to an exit about a hundred yards ahead of them. “See where the sunlight is coming through from the outside?”

  “Yeah.” She gave a terse nod.

  “I want you to start running. I’m going to create a diversion here.”

  “Meaning you’re going to pick a fight,” she guessed.

  He shrugged. “Best way to keep them busy, right?”

  “Whatever.” She looked both determined and disgusted. It was a strange combination.

  “Oh three.”

  “One,” she said.

  “Two,” he picked up. “Three.”

  Isabella sprinted toward the extraction point. He had to give her points for both staying low and trying to zig zag to make herself a more difficult target. She bounced from spot to spot as she used the cars for cover and ran as if the devil himself was on her tail.

  That left Trapp running in the opposite direction. He pivoted around the pillar and headed right for the driver of the Humvee. The man shouldn’t have gotten out of his vehicle. That wasn’t his function. So Trapp was about to teach him why. Coming in hard, Trapp clotheslined the soldier so hard that the guy flipped head over heels and went down hard. His flak jacket and helmet cracked against the ground, alerting everyone to Trapp’s approach.

  They all swung around, weapons up and aimed. Trapp pivoted again and grabbed the nearest barrel he could snag. He wrenched the AR-15 from the female soldier’s hands and used it to smack her in the head at the bottom lip of her helmet. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell. The others were fast approaching and they weren’t going to be so easy to take down.

  Two more soldiers and then Trapp would have to tackle Sergeant Potter. The soldiers came in together. They hit low and tried to take Trapp off his feet. He leaped up into the air and used his thighs to latch onto one of them around the neck. Leveraging his weight, Trapp brought the soldier down and then flat handed him in the throat. The guy choked and grabbed his neck as though he were dying.

  Rolling back to his feet, Trapp grabbed the fourth soldier and spun him around. He used him like a battering ram, smashing him into Potter until the Sergeant went down on one knee. The soldier collapsed, but Potter managed to stay upright.

  “I think you and I have some unfinished business,” Trapp snarled.

  He delivered a neat roundhouse kick and two swift uppercuts to the soldier. Potter staggered back and then drove forward unexpectedly. He put his shoulder in Trapp’s solar plexus and attempted to drive him into the pillar at his back. Trapp dug in with his boots and felt the thick soles scrape across the cement. Giving just a little helped to take some of the force from Potter’s charge. Then Trapp wrapped his arm around the man’s throat and held tight.

  “Who was the woman?” Trapp ground out.

  He actually felt Potter’s surprise. The sergeant attempted to throw him off, but Trapp held on. “You’re crazy.”

  “No. I’m not. She was going to shoot me, but changed her mind.”

  “You’re lying,” Potter snarled. “There was not woman. You’re crazy.”

  “No I’m not,” Trapp insisted. “Why won’t you tell me?”

  Potter started trying to break and run instead of attack. Trapp had a hell of a time hanging onto him. Potter was struggling with all of his strength, pulling and yanking to get away from Trapp. The man was like a cornered animal. He was kicking and shoving at Trapp, finally breaking free long enough to bolt like a coward.

  “Get back here!” Trapp shouted. “Who’s making you keep this secret? Who is it?”

  But there would be nothing more from the sergeant. The man was just gone. The Humvee remained idling there in front of the stairwell and the soldiers were moaning in heaps on the ground. Trapp pursed his lips and made a sound of frustration. There would be no more answers today. That was all he knew.

  Turning on his heel, he jogged away from the scene toward the extraction point. He could still hear the helo. The blades were going faster, gearing up to leave. Romero was piloting for the moment, and nobody was going to report the helo stolen. Nobody would want to admit that a team of what amounted to rogue SEALs could take pretty much what they wanted when they wanted it.

  Trapp emerged into the sunlight. The wind from the blades whipping through the air buffeted him as he reached for Yates’s arm. Trapp allowed himself to be levered into the belly of the helo just before Romero lifted off the ground and soared into the sky. They were gone and Isabella was safe. Now it was time to disappear for a while.

  Chapter Nine

  This was not Isabella’s first ride in a helicopter. Not by a long shot. Still, it was certainly the most interesting. She gazed at the SEALs crammed into the helo with her and wondered how so much testosterone could exist in such a confined space. They were packed with muscle, armed to the teeth, and so obviously dangerous that she couldn’t believe they walked about every single day among civilians.

  “Ten minutes,” the pilot shouted. He fiddled with the controls and the helo banked left. Trapp only nodded.

  Isabella could see great swatches of green on the ground below. The rolling hills were dotted with trees and a patchwork of farms. They’d obviously left the city behind. No more DC, no Capitol Hill or federal offices. They were out in the middle of nowhere, a sure sign that for the moment they were in hiding.

  That was pretty much when it hit. Isabella was a fugitive. A fugitive. It didn’t matter that the story was a load of horse hockey—as her father would have called it. She might not have don
e the crime, but she had still be charged with it. That meant her reputation was ruined, and for the time being her career was completely over.

  The thought sent her into a tailspin of emotional horror. She was no longer an agent with Homeland Security! She had worked her butt off for that! Now it was all nothing? In fact she was now wanted just as bad if not worse than the rest of the people on the wanted list that hung in the break room.

  “We’re on approach!” the pilot called again. Wait. She recognized him. It was Jase Romero, a member of Trapp’s usual SEAL team.

  In fact she recognized most of these guys, if not because she had met them in person, because she had seen their files while working Department of Justice cases overseas. Breckin Yates, Desmond Sparks, and Bones Jackson were all Navy SEALs with impeccable records of service. These guys had gladly become fugitives because they believed without a doubt that there was a cover up going on that needed to be exposed. American lives were being used and discarded like waste and these guys weren’t about to sit around and do nothing.

  The thought gave Isabella hope. Navy SEALs did not give up their careers lightly. So neither would she. This was real. American women were being abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered and she wasn’t going to look the other way just because someone up the chain of command was getting some kind of monetary payback.

  They were flying lower. The trees rushed up at her like a giant green wave of vegetation. A clearing appeared, and then a house, and then they were hovering over a gravel patch. The helicopter began to descend and Romero lightly set them down just outside the house. The dense vegetation surrounding the place bucked in the great gusts of air that came off the helicopter’s blades.

  Trapp grabbed Isabella’s hand and helped her down. What seemed like only moments later, the helo was taking off and Isabella was standing with Alexander Trapp in the front yard of an old Colonial house.

  TRAPP GAZED AT Isabella and wished he could read her mind. There was absolutely no expression on her face. Yet he couldn’t blame her for being more than a little out of it considering everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours.

  The helicopter banked low over the trees and then disappeared. Soon even the sound of the bird was completely gone. The only thing left was the soft sound of leaves rustling as the light breeze drifted through the trees. The house was quiet. The barn, which contained a few vehicles and a whole lot of firepower, was locked up tight and still.

  Isabella finally turned to look at him. Her brow was furrowed and she looked a bit skeptical. “What is this place?”

  “You wouldn’t expect a bunch of SEALs not to have a bolt hole or two hanging around, would you?” he teased.

  “A bolt hole?” She was staring at him as though she had left skeptical behind and moved on to incredulous. “As in someplace that you guys use to hide?”

  “Yes.”

  “From what?” There was a note of panic in her voice. She threw up her hands and pointed at him. “You’re insane! You know that? I’m telling you right now that you are straight up crazy!”

  “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” He was actually trying to lighten the mood, but when he headed toward the house he felt something hit his back. Considering all of the body armor he was wearing at the moment, it didn’t feel like much more than a tiny tap, but still. He turned and glared at her. “Did you just throw something at me?”

  “Yes!” she snarled. “I did. I threw a rock. That’s what they used to do with crazy people, you know? They stoned them!”

  “Stoning?” He ducked right quickly as another rock came sailing in his direction. They were small—pebbles really—but the fact that she was throwing rocks at him was a little surprising. “Now Isabella,” he began reasonably. “I know this has been a really stressful day, but you need to calm down.”

  “I need to calm down?” she shrieked.

  He realized that she was barefoot with dirt smudged on her face. Her clothes were torn and she looked as though she had been on the run for days instead of just hours. That was when he realized what would speak to her the most at the moment. She had already hefted a rock into her hand for the next assault when he spoke up.

  “Wait!” he told her. “There’s a shower inside. A nice hot shower actually. The bathroom is fully stocked. You can go in there and make yourself right at home. Total privacy, I promise.”

  She lowered her hand and the rock dropped to the ground. “A shower?”

  “Yes, Isabella,” he murmured gently. “A real, hot shower and some food. Promise.”

  “Okay. I’m in.”

  ISABELLA WAS LOSING her mind and she didn’t care. It wasn’t like she’d never taken a shower before. It was just that a shower had never felt so good! She closed her eyes and braced her hands flat against the tile wall. The cool tile was a startling contrast to the scorching hot water that poured over her head and back. Her hair stretched long, nearly to her waist. The water pulled all of the curl out and she could feel the dirt and grime of the day washing down the drain.

  Trapp hadn’t been lying. The bathroom really was fully stocked. She wouldn’t have thought a bunch of SEALs with their military high and tights would think of conditioner, but they had. Apparently they had even considered the possibility of one of their significant others having to stay here for a period of time. Whatever the case may have been, Isabella was just glad she was reaping the benefits.

  With a sigh she shut off the water and pulled back the shower curtain. A fluffy white towel sat folded neatly on top of the closet toilet lid. She hadn’t heard anyone come inside the bathroom, but the towel hadn’t been there before. It was tempting to be irritated at Trapp for invading her privacy, except he really hadn’t. There had been no words, no interruption, and no creepy peeking around or through the opaque shower curtain.

  Further inspection yielded the notice of a bathrobe hanging on a hook near the door. That hadn’t been there before either, but it looked very inviting. Isabella hurried out of the shower and dried off. She snuggled into the thick nap of the terrycloth robe and chose a comb from the medicine cabinet. It would take her forever and a day to untangle her blonde hair. At this point she’d rather do it sitting down someplace comfortable than standing in front of the mirror.

  Comb in hand, she opened the bathroom door and peeked out. The narrow old house had creaky wood floors and narrow hallways that seemed to twist around forever. She had no idea which way to go. Her bedroom was right across the hall, but she wasn’t ready to head there yet.

  She sniffed. “What’s that”—she sniffed again—“smell. Oh wow. It smells amazing.”

  Following her nose seemed to be the only viable option for the moment. Perhaps she hadn’t even realized how hungry she was until the moment she smelled what had to be pasta of some kind. Red sauce, garlic, onion, it didn’t really matter at this point. She would have eaten dog food. Well maybe she wasn’t that desperate.

  TRAPP WAS USED to taking fast showers. The fact that the water was hot had been more than he’d been able to count on when he was in the field. That meant he’d been down here in the kitchen for quite some time. He had puttered around boiling noodles and adding a few of his own ingredients to the bottled red sauce. There wasn’t all that much in the pantry, but he and his buddies kept the place stocked with at least the basics just in case.

  “Hi.”

  Trapp turned around and was suddenly glad that the tall countertop was between himself and Isabella. She was standing there in nothing but a white bathroom with her feet bare and his cock was already swelling as his brain painted images of what she would look like if she suddenly decided to open that bathrobe and let it fall to the floor. Even the idea was so totally consuming that Trapp momentarily forgot what he was doing, at least until the burning hot steam wafted over his hand.

  “Damn!” He snatched his hand back from the stove.

  Isabella was laughing, the sound soft and very feminine. “It’s good to know you’re not perf
ect at everything,” she told him.

  “Does my perfection intimidate you?” He raised one eyebrow and wondered if he was really flirting with her. He shouldn’t have been, and yet it would be very difficult not to. She looked so damned alluring like that. “You look like you feel better.” There. That should cool things off. There was nothing like a reminder of unpleasant things to bring the mood back to normal.

  “It smells amazing.” She stood on her tiptoes and looked over the countertop toward the stove. “What are you cooking?”

  “Its just spaghetti.” He shrugged, feeling strangely uncomfortable. “Nothing fancy.”

  “No, but greatly appreciated. I didn’t realize how famished I was until I smelled that.” She turned and meandered into the living room.

  The house had been remodeled to have a fairly open first floor. It was one way to keep a great view of the entire downstairs just in case of intruder issues. For a bunch of paranoid Navy SEALs, it was a necessity.

  When Trapp glanced back up, Isabella was standing in front of the fireplace. “A fire? Seriously? You built a fire?”

  “It can get colder out here in this old place at night, even in late summer.” He didn’t add that there had been a tiny notion in his very one track mind that maybe he could make out with her in front of that fire.

  She muttered something he couldn’t hear and then sat down on a thick rug in front of the crackling flames. Pulling a comb from the pocket of her robe, she began to untangle the long mass of hair hanging down her back. Trapp watched, mesmerized. There was something profoundly satisfying about this moment. He could not put his finger on it, but he knew deep down that he would have killed to preserve it.

  Chapter Ten

  The food was gone and the dishes were done. Trapp sat in front of the fire and wondered how he could be so content when everything outside of this little cocoon felt as if it were going to hell. Still, for now nothing mattered but the woman curled up in the corner of the sofa with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands.