Protector: A Navy SEAL Romantic Suspense (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 15)

by Flora Ferrari

  “What vibe did you get from the questions?”

  “Something’s up with Harper. I think he might have reported my visit.”

  “You visited him? Already?”

  “Yeah, you know me. I like closure…and fast.”

  “Jeez, I guess so.”

  “Can you do a deeper scrub on his records?”

  “I can, but you’re asking me to enter some really gray areas now.”

  “I know, but this is serious. Something’s up and I need to know what. I’m not asking you to do anything illegal, but any deeper digging you can do would be really helpful.”

  “Okay. Luckily with the post 911 laws I can do just about anything I want. Just need to flag it under some keywords that basically cover us for anything that might happen.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “No prob. I’ll get back with you. You’re home all day?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And this is urgent, right?”

  “The Feds were at my doorstep less than thirty minutes ago. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m definitely looking at it that way.”

  “That qualifies as urgent to me. I’m on it. Will get back to you.”

  “Thanks, Laura.”

  “No prob. Talk to you.”

  I head the dial tone. When Laura said she was on it, she really meant she was on it.

  I went online and Googled John Harper. The name was too common to provide any leads, and I couldn’t find anything even remotely resembling him in Google Images. I did some push-ups and sit-ups to get the blood flowing. That often helps my brain get going. I made a pot of black coffee. Drank half of it. My mind was totally wired, focused, yet I still couldn’t figure out what was going on.

  I heard a vibration coming from the kitchen. I ran in and sure enough it was the top shelf of the cabinet. Behind jars of pickles I kept a separate, old phone that only a few people had the number to. Even at my height I had to stand on a step stool.

  I hit the green call button.

  “Jax.”

  “Yes, Laura?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. Where are you?”

  “At home, why?”

  “You might want to sit down. This is looking serious. Could get ugly.”

  “Walking to the couch now. Shoot.”

  “Your buddy John Harper…”

  “Yes?”

  “Real name Johannes Hrytsenko. Born in Ukraine. We think. Started out in Odessa doing petty theft. By age seventeen quickly advanced to trafficking Western Europe bound Afghan heroine arriving from the Caucasus. Caught the eye of the top Russian Mafia bosses and by nineteen was the right hand man for a top Russian Mafia boss. By twenty-two was calling a lot of shots. At twenty-four he killed the wrong guy, and the Russian Feds brought him in and offered him a deal. Use his people skills and knowledge of international smuggling routes to work undercover in the U.S.”

  “He’s a big fish.”

  “Yeah, and listen to this. He came to the States with a fake passport and fake credentials from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology which he used to land a job at Lockheed Martin, where he met Kate and integrated into American life.”

  “He’s a really big fish.”

  “And he didn’t stop there. He had a Cypriot bank account that went belly up in 2013 leaving him high and dry. Two days later a Singaporean account opened in his name to the tune of over seventeen million dollars. But then things got shaky. In February 2014 Russia entered Ukraine, which we believe to be his home country and to which he has a strong allegiance.”

  “Aren’t they pretty much the same?”

  “Jax, please. To Americans they are, but to former USSR countries they are anything but. Anyways, on March 18th, 2014 Russia annexed Crimea, an internationally recognized Ukrainian territory. The following day, Harper walked into an FBI office, told his entire story, and said he wanted to flip. Counterintelligence. He claimed his only motivation was his love of his motherland, as he stated, and his hatred of what Russia was trying to do. At first the Feds didn’t know what to believe. They did their due diligence gathering intel and found out he was legit. They were as equally shocked as they were excited to work with him, but they knew to tread lightly. They gave him little nuggets at first which he delivered flawlessly back to his Russian bosses. They were slowly ramping up his responsibilities and preparing to insert him deeper, but two nights ago he was found dead on his front lawn. Strangled. The GPS in your rental car places you at the scene at the approximate time of death.”

  I froze. GPS. The same technology that confirmed Kate was being watched was working against me. How did I forget to disable that?

  “Jax, are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just processing. Do we know anything else?”

  “Hrytsenko was an amateur boxing champ in Ukraine.”

  “That would explain why his punches hurt as much as they did.”

  “He got in some licks?”

  “Yeah, some really good ones. Hardest I’ve been hit in a long time. Any chance you took a look at Kate?”

  “His ex-wife?”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t but I saw her name in the file. What do you know about Koval?”

  “The person or the name?”

  “The name.”

  “I know Kate has it.”

  “True, and it’s Ukrainian origin. Probably why Hrytsenko thought she was perfect for him.”

  “You think she’s connected to all this?”

  “No links right now. Probably just wrong place wrong time, but too early to be sure. I can do some checking if you want.”

  My entire life I’ve been told I have trust issues, especially with women. After what my mother did to me…leaving me on the doorstep of an orphanage at three weeks, the number my first girlfriend pulled on me when I was deployed…emptying out and overdrawing my bank account, my wife’s double breach of trust…sleeping with my neighbor and telling him what I did for a living, and now possibly Kate. My issues with the women who are the close to me weren’t improving.

  “Jax, are you there?”

  I couldn’t speak. Finally, “Yes, I’m here.”

  “I can take a look if you want. It won’t hurt.”

  Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. I was already thinking Kate was the one. Everything was so fast, but so smooth. Maybe we were meant to be. Maybe this is how life is supposed to work. When everything makes sense it feels so right, but right now, suddenly, nothing was making sense.

  “Sure. Let’s take a look.”

  “Okay, I’ll call you back.”

  Click.

  What have I gotten myself into? Was I being set up? Worse yet, was I being set up by the Russian mafia? Who had I upset in that part of the world? My ops never took me there. Who did I upset that had a connection to that part of the world? Or maybe, this was all just a coincidence. Another way of life playing a nasty joke on me and driving my trust for others even deeper into the ground. I joined the SEAL Teams to make a difference. All the things that had happened to me up to point in my life before I joined felt negative. I wanted to fight that and bring positivity to the world. Serve others. Pay it forward in hopes that it might make a difference. I never said it out loud and tried not to think it, but I hoped maybe my luck would turn around. And it had. I now had brothers from the Teams, and spread peace all around the world. Somehow bad luck found me again.

  CHAPTER 10

  H ow well did you know your ex?”

  As we lay in bed the thought couldn’t escape me.

  “What do you mean? He was my ex-husband. I knew everything about him. I knew him better than he knew himself.”

  “How did you meet?”

  “Lockheed Martin Memorial Day company picnic. He came up and asked me if I was going to finish my watermelon.” Kate laughed.

  “And did you?”

  “No. His request was weird, but at that mome
nt it was kind of endearing.”

  “And you gave it to him?”

  “Yeah, I remember looking at him oddly and figuring he was one of our mechanics or something, which he was. Sometimes analytical guys don’t have the best social skills, but their lack of finesse can be charming. There’s no pretense to it. It’s kind of cute.”

  “You said he changed almost overnight. What happened?”

  “Are you sure you want to talk about my ex?”

  “Yeah, I just want to understand a little.”

  “Okay. Well, he started drinking heavily. He became really detached. Just spent time in front of my computer watching sports.”

  “Did he have a favorite team?”

  “Heavens, how would I know? I didn’t really pay attention to that. Just that he was watching sports.”

  “He watched them when he got home from work?”

  “He switched to second shift so he started getting home closer to midnight. I was taking care of Jerry so I was pretty tired when he arrived. He asked me to show him how to use the computer; so he could watch games.”

  “Watch games on the computer? Why not on TV?”

  “He said we didn’t get those channels.”

  “What channels?”

  “I don’t know. The ones with the games. What’s up with all the questions? This is starting to feel like an interrogation. He changed. I left. End of story.”

  “I know, but I’d like to gather a little intel just to put closure to this case.”

  Kate rolled over and looked at me, her head comfortably resting on the pillow.

  “Sorry.”

  “No problem.”

  “I don’t know what sports he watched, but we didn’t have them on our TV.”

  “And did he watch them every night?”

  “Saturday and Sunday mornings mostly, but sometimes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays afternoons. I remember because we ordered pizza a lot on those nights and for some reason he was really excited about those Tuesday and Wednesday games. He skipped work sometimes on those days. Made it up by working doubles on other days.”

  “Did he shout anything during the games?”

  “At me?”

  “No, like yelling at the computer or the players or anything?”

  “He would jump out of his seat sometimes, but not yell anything. Jerry and I were usually asleep. I do remember being woken up to that stupid word goal sometimes.”

  “Goal?”

  “Yeah, the announcer seemed to hold the o in the word forever. It would take him like ten seconds just to say goal.”

  “And you said he drank a lot?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did he have a favorite beer?”

  “He didn’t really drink beer. Mostly vodka.”

  “Vodka tonics?”

  “No, no, no. He never mixed it. I had some girlfriends over once and they mixed him a vodka cran and he wouldn’t drink it. Said mixing vodka is for sissies. We had a fight about it after my friends left.”

  I stared up at the ceiling, realizing exactly what this meant.

  “Everything okay? You look like you just realized something.”

  “Everything is okay. Just one other question and then I’ll stop.”

  “Okay.”

  “The computer he used was your personal computer or work computer?”

  “Work computer.”

  I truly believe Kate was telling me the truth, but wasn’t sure she was telling me everything. I wasn’t sure if I could trust her or if my mind was just overreacting.

  “Everything okay, officer?” Kate smiled and tapped my nose with her index finger as I stared at the ceiling.

  “Everything is okay, Miss,” I played along.

  “So I’m free to go?”

  “You’re free to go.”

  “What if I don’t want to go? What if I want to stay?”

  “Sorry ma’am, please clear the area,” I joked.

  “Well, officer, I’m afraid I can’t do that. You’re going to have to cite me for resisting arrest.” Kate jumped on top of me and playfully pinned my hands down to the bed. She was sitting on my abs, and slowly started grinding back and forth. Needless to say it was working.

  “Ma’am, you’re obstructing justice.”

  “Jax’s justice or the people’s pursuit of justice?”

  “Both!” We laughed and Kate rolled off of me.

  “I wanted to ask you about that actually. Is Jax Creed your real name? It sounds so superheroish?”

  “Maybe it’s both. Maybe I’m a real superhero.”

  “So your dad’s name is Apostles’ or something like that?” She tickled me under the arms. I squirmed.

  “It might have been.”

  Kate stopped tickling me. “You seem serious. What do you mean?”

  “Well, I never met my dad. Don’t know who he is.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to –”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s okay. It was a long, long time ago.”

  “And your mom?”

  “Don’t know much about her either.” I paused.

  Kate waited about twenty seconds. “Anything you do know?”

  Was I really going to go down this path? Right now? The Navy shrink said the first step in improving my relationship with women is to trust them. Give your trust first. Guess there’s no better time to try than now.

  “My mother left me on the doorstep of an orphanage at three weeks.”

  “Oh my! I can’t believe that. What’s wrong with her?”

  “She was young. She had no money, no husband, heck probably not even a boyfriend. I’m sure she was scared. At least she put me somewhere where I at least had a fighting chance. I’m not mad at her. I don’t hold any grudges…I think.”

  “Well, you have every right to if you do.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t. I’m trying to keep focused on positive things these days.”

  “Did you ever meet your mom?”

  “No.”

  “Did you go looking for her?”

  “No.”

  “Not even once?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want to be around anyone who doesn’t want to be around me.” There was silence for at least a full minute. “That’s the way I felt about my ex. I’m not going to give myself to someone who doesn’t appreciate it and who doesn’t give me everything they’ve got in return. When I’m in, I’m all in.”

  A tear rolled down Kate’s eye. She reached over and gave me a big hug. It only lasted a few seconds and then she pulled away, wiping the tear from her eye.

  “I’m sorry. What you said really resonated with me.”

  “It’s okay. I understand.”

  “As a SEAL I’m sure trust is a huge part of what you do and who you are. I’m sure you guys wouldn’t be able to do what you do without trust, and love.”

  “You’re right. We don’t use the love word so much, but trust, yes, it’s everything.”

  “Jax, I hope someday you can trust me. I know we’re still getting to know each other, but I feel really good about this. I want someone I can trust and someone who trusts me. Of course I want more than that, but that’s where it starts. Trust, respect, and love.”

  I stared deeply in her eyes. “I want the same thing.”

  We kissed and held it as the minutes went by. Eventually we both fell asleep, still together as one from that one kiss. One kiss is all it took.

  CHAPTER 11

  K ate dropped the kids off at school, which gave me time to think. Last night our conversation had really connected us. I felt it. She felt it. The reality was this morning I was still searching for the truth. How much does Kate know? What does Kate know? I just needed to hear from Laura and a lot of things would make sense.

  I exercised all morning to keep my mind off of the news I was going to receive. If the call went south then I’d have to come up with a way to distance myself from Kate immediately. I couldn�
�t put myself and my daughter in any kind of potentially dangerous situation, especially not in our own home. If the call went well I might still have lingering issues about Kate. Is she holding something back? Is there more to her than I know? Is there more to her that she doesn’t want me to know? The answer would come in the middle of my afternoon coffee.