Bulletproof SEAL

by Carol Ericson

  When they escaped through the gate, Quinn let out a breathy whistle. “How the hell did he pick us up? And what the hell were you doing back there? Didn’t you see the gun in my waistband?”

  “I saw it, but I was attending to more important business.”

  “Really? There’s more important business than saving my life?”

  She plunged her hand into her purse and pulled out a folded envelope. “I got the stone loose and grabbed the envelope Jeff left for me.”

  He pinched her cheek. “Smart girl, but I guess you answered my question.”

  “Your question?” She took one skipping step next to him.

  “That envelope is more important than my life.”

  She gave him a shove from behind. “I knew you could handle that guy.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He pulled out his weapon. “Still didn’t answer the first question, though. How’d that guy make us? He walked up a little later, after we met the group out front.”

  Rikki took a step back and wrapped her fingers around the bars of the cemetery fence. “There are at least two of them. The drunk in the cemetery and the guy who beat up Jeff and tried to hustle me out of the bar last night.”

  “There could be more.” Quinn dangled his gun at his side as they started down the street. “The good news is that they don’t seem to have a clue who you are.”

  “And they might not be CIA. Sure didn’t sound like he worked for the Agency, did it? If they did, wouldn’t Jeff had already cleared himself through Ariel? The CIA must know by now that Jeff wasn’t involved in any counterespionage. So why would they still be after the flash drive?”

  He pulled her close to him. “Let’s get home right now. We’ll talk about this later. I’m worried that dude in the cemetery has a partner out here.”

  “We already know what his partner looks like. He tried to kidnap me last night.”

  “If it’s just the two of them.”

  “Who the hell are they if not CIA? Why were they following Jeff?”

  “I think we need to talk to Jeff again.”

  Quinn didn’t let out the breath he’d been holding until they reached his motorcycle. Once on board, Quinn gunned the engine and took a different route back to his place, keeping an eye on his mirror.

  They returned to his apartment unnoticed, and Quinn let Rikki off the bike before tucking it into his parking space next to his car.

  They walked inside his place, and he fired up his laptop. “Let’s see what’s on this flash drive, and it better be worth all the trouble.”

  Rikki dug into her purse, pulling out the envelope. She ripped it open and dumped the flash drive into her palm. “Okay. I’m ready.”

  She sat next to him on the sofa and scooted in close as she reached past him to insert the flash drive into the side of his computer.

  Quinn double-clicked on the device when it appeared on his display. He ran the cursor down the list of files. “Emails. Is that what you were expecting?”

  “I didn’t know what to expect. Ariel indicated she’d run across some files that might be useful to me.”

  Quinn opened the first email, and Rikki gasped beside him.

  “They’re David’s emails.”

  “To you?” Quinn hunched forward and squinted at the addresses at the top of the message. “No. Who’s Frederick Von?”

  “I have no clue.” Rikki grabbed the laptop with both hands and brought it close to her face, as if that would help her identify the recipient of David’s email.

  “It sounds like he’s discussing his trip to South Korea.”

  “It does, but that’s strange.” She placed the computer back on the coffee table. “I thought the two of us, David and I, were the only ones in on that trip.”

  “He probably had to get approval from someone.”

  “That someone was Ariel.” She tapped the keyboard. “Let’s see the next one.”

  After Rikki opened four emails in a row, Quinn whistled. “Looks like David was two-timing you. He sent all these messages to Freddy, and they all seem to be referencing the trip to South Korea that he took with you.”

  “Frederick Von.” Rikki drummed her fingers on the edge of the laptop. “That name sounds familiar to me.”

  “Another agent?”

  “Not sure.” Rikki clicked back through the emails, and then slumped against the sofa. “This doesn’t tell me anything. These are mundane messages about a trip I was on. They make no sense to me. Why would Ariel think these would be useful, and why would those men following Jeff go to such great lengths to get them?”

  Quinn squeezed Rikki’s thigh. “Maybe there’s something in the simplicity of the messages. Why would David be relaying insignificant details about his trip to someone—unless the details mean something else?”

  She shot up. “Like a code?”

  “That makes more sense to me than these emails.”

  She opened the first email again and read it aloud. “‘Frederick, the trip to South Korea is on. We have intel about our man. I’ll follow up with time and location.’”

  “Time and location for what? Did the two of you meet anyone in South Korea before you crossed over?”

  “Just our guide. I’m not sure what happened to him after David was murdered and I was captured.”

  “I’m assuming your guide wasn’t Frederick Von.”

  “No. His name was Buddy Song.”

  He bumped her knee with his. “Let me have a look.”

  Jabbing his finger at the next open email, he said, “This email, which is the next one in the sequence, doesn’t have any more information about the promised time and location. This one discusses car rental details.”

  “We didn’t rent a car.” She tilted her head to the side and caught her long hair with one hand. “Buddy picked us up and drove us around. This email doesn’t even make sense.”

  “None of them do.” He’d clicked open several more and bounced among the messages. “These are in order by date, but the subject matter isn’t sequential.”

  “A code.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “The emails are significant in another way, a way only Frederick understands.”

  “How’d you do in secret code class?”

  “Secret code class?” She snorted softly. “No such thing.”

  “Yeah, right. I know you agents learn stuff like that. Hell, we reviewed it ourselves. Were you an A student in deciphering like everything else?”

  She sucked in her bottom lip, clamping it between her teeth. “Something like this? It could be anything—position of letters, single words, and the entire message might be run across all the emails with different rules for different messages.”

  “But there are people at Langley who specialize in this, aren’t there?”

  Spreading her arms, Rikki kicked her feet up on the coffee table next to the computer. “Do I look like I’m in with Langley? They think I’m dead, and good riddance. Do you think Langley would appreciate learning that Ariel from a black ops organization got into one of their dead agents’ emails? That ain’t gonna happen, McBride.”

  He tapped one finger on the laptop. “That’s all right. I have my sources, and they’re not connected to the Agency.”

  “Like Jeff? No, thanks.”

  “I said my source is not with the Agency.” He put his feet up next to hers and tapped them with the ball of his foot. “Are you giving up? You went through a lot to get this flash drive. Ariel must’ve understood the significance of finding a set of David’s emails, and she went through a lot to get them to you.”

  “Who said I was giving up?” She draped her leg over his and wiggled her toes against his ankle. “I’ll give it a try. I just don’t understand why David was sending coded messages to someone about our trip.”

  “Maybe he had a differ
ent reason for taking that trip, one he didn’t reveal to you.”

  Closing her eyes, she tipped her head back against the sofa, but she was anything but relaxed. Her hands curled into fists in her lap, and her eyelids flickered and twitched.

  “What is it? He told you he had info about Vlad, right? Maybe that wasn’t it at all. Maybe he just said that to get Ariel’s support...and funds.”

  “Yes, he said we were on Vlad’s trail, but that’s not what I’m thinking of. David was...different on this trip. I thought about it after he died, and figured I was reading too much into his behavior because it was the last assignment we’d do together, but he was definitely in a different place.”

  “In what way? Do you think he was lying to you? Had he ever lied to you before?”

  “Once.” She opened one eye. “And it wasn’t about work.”

  “What then?”

  “Love.”

  Quinn raised his eyebrows. “He lied to you about love?”

  “Yesss.” The word came out like a hiss.

  Quinn waited. If Rikki wanted to tell him, she’d tell him. She’d found the perfect profession for her temperament. She kept secrets like nobody else he knew...had kept secrets from him.

  Rikki sighed and sat up, drilling him with her gaze so that he clenched the muscles in his stomach and prepared himself.

  “David was in love with me...or at least he thought he was.”

  A muscle flickered at the corner of Quinn’s jaw. What man in his right mind wouldn’t be in love with Rikki? “I thought David Dawson was a married man.”

  “He is...was. That was the problem, or at least one of them. I told him in no uncertain terms I didn’t fool around with married men, and of course I felt guilty that maybe I’d led him on.”

  “You didn’t. You’re no tease.” Quinn ran a hand over his mouth. “How’d he take it?”

  “Not well—at first. He gave me all the old excuses married guys trot out—Belinda didn’t understand him, the marriage was in name only, he thought she might be having an affair of her own, they were on the verge of divorce.” She squeezed the back of her neck. “Then I dropped the other shoe.”

  “Which was?”

  “Even if all those things were true, I wasn’t in love with him, and I apologized for suggesting otherwise.”

  “How’d he take that?” Quinn didn’t even have to imagine David’s despair at the news, as he’d felt it himself when he woke up in that empty hotel room in Dubai with a white sheet of paper on the pillow next to him.

  “Better than I expected. He didn’t rant or rave or protest or even try to convince me I felt differently. Although it pained me, I suggested we work apart for a while, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Insisted he could cope and keep our relationship on a purely business level—and that’s when he lied to me.”

  “He kept up his protestations of love?” He could almost feel sorry for the poor sap, but at least Quinn had taken it like a man and never had contact with Rikki again—until it came time to kill her.

  “David never mentioned it to me again, but I knew he still had feelings for me.” She ran her hand down Quinn’s arm and threaded her fingers through his. “I could tell he did when you came onto the scene.”

  “Me?”

  “David knew about us in Dubai, of course. David and I knew each other so well, he could tell. He got all fatherly on me and played the role of the mentor, which of course he was. He warned me about what having a fling while on assignment could do to my career.” She pulled his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles. “As if I could’ve stopped that wildfire between us even if I’d wanted to—and I didn’t.”

  “Until the end.” He disentangled his fingers from hers so that he could think straight. “Is that what happened? Is that why you left me high and dry? David’s sage advice?”

  Now he felt no sympathy for the man, but had an itching desire to punch him in the face—except he was dead.

  “No.” She brushed the hair from his forehead to torture him some more. “I realized our relationship belonged in the short and combustible category.”

  “You realized that without discussing it with me, then. I could’ve combusted like that forever.”

  A low chuckle vibrated in her throat, and he swallowed. The damnedest things about her could make him hard.

  “Anyway, David’s cautionary words didn’t have any influence on my leaving you and Dubai.”

  “Maybe his cautionary words didn’t, but his actions did.” Quinn sat up on the edge of the sofa, making a half turn toward Rikki. “If you don’t think he pulled you out of Dubai to go on this wild-goose chase in South Korea to separate us, you’re naive—and I’ve never considered you naive before.”

  “I suppose there was that element to it, but David was hot for this mission and wanted me along.” She shrugged.

  Quinn snorted. “David was hot for you. He never did leave his wife, did he? That horrible, half-baked, failing marriage.”

  “No.”

  “So, that was the one time David lied to you. Said he’d accepted you two would never be more than colleagues but all the while harboring that fire down below.”

  She held up her finger. “Careful, you’re talking about a dead man and a damned good agent who died for his country.”

  “You’re right.” He grabbed her finger and kissed the tip. “If he lied about that, how do you know he wasn’t lying to you about other things, like this trip to South Korea?”

  “Because he wasn’t a very good liar, was he? He couldn’t hide his feelings for me.”

  “A CIA agent who’s not a good liar? He should’ve found another career.”

  Rikki cocked her head. “I mean, he was a good liar. If you could’ve seen him in action with our contacts...masterful.”

  “Then he could’ve been masterfully lying to you about Korea.”

  “Not to me.” She shook her head, and her dark hair slipped over her shoulder.

  Quinn wrapped his finger around one silky lock, missing her red curls. “Overconfident much?”

  She bit her lip. “Pretty smug, huh? You’re right. He could’ve totally been playing me, but why?”

  “I can’t tell you, but it sounds like David used you as a cover and put both of you in danger. Stupid move.” Quinn stretched and then pointed to his laptop. “Are you going to look at these anymore?”

  “I’m calling it a night.” She pushed herself up from the sofa. “At least we have one thing to be grateful for.”

  He snapped the lid of his laptop closed and stood up next to her, resting a hand on her hip. He was just grateful Rikki was alive and back in his life—sort of. “I know what I’m grateful for.”

  Her lips formed an O, and a blush washed over her cheeks. “I-I meant that those people out there who were following Jeff don’t seem to know who I am or what they’re looking for.”

  “Yeah, of course.” He pinched her hip. He didn’t want to put Rikki on the spot. If she chose to fly away once she found whatever it was she was looking for, he’d let her go.

  She’d gutted him the first time she left him, but her supposed death and rebirth had given him perspective. As long as Rikki Taylor was living and breathing in this world, he’d take that as a win.

  Twisting his T-shirt between her fingers, Rikki leaned into him and kissed his chin. “Meet you in bed.”

  “You go ahead and get ready. I’ll lock up.”

  Quinn checked his doors and windows and stopped to stare down at the dark street. Rikki had been right. They hadn’t been on anyone’s radar until Jeff had been compromised. One of those two men or both had been following Jeff before they even accosted him. They’d tracked him to the cemetery but hadn’t been able to see what he’d done there.

  The one guy had already ID’d Rikki as Jeff’s contact, and the other man must’ve been keeping watc
h on that cemetery and spotted Rikki.

  But they didn’t know who she was, and if they weren’t working for the CIA, maybe they didn’t care. As far as the Agency knew, Rikki was dead. Did they want to keep her that way?

  Quinn twitched the curtains closed and secured his apartment before sailing through the master bedroom to Rikki snug in his bed. “I’m just gonna brush my teeth. Don’t steal all the covers before I can make it in there.”

  She looked up from some papers in her lap. “What is this Quinn, a book?”

  He took a detour from his beeline to the bathroom and snatched the papers out of her hand. “Nosy.”

  “You’re writing a book?”

  “Nothing definite, just telling some stories—with the names and places changed. Just a collection of ideas at this point. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

  “It is a big deal. You’ll have to run it by the navy, won’t you?”

  “Of course.” He waved the papers. “It’s in its infancy.”

  “Had me hooked right away.”

  He dumped the papers on his nightstand. “Definitely not bedtime reading, especially after the day we had.”

  Quinn went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and splash some water on his face. When he returned to the bedroom, Rikki had his notes clutched in her hands again, sitting cross-legged on top of the covers.

  “Oh, come on. It’s not that good.”

  “I think you’ve got something here, Quinn. I’d read this.”

  “Yeah, because you live it.” He snatched the papers from her hands again and tossed them on the floor. “I’m looking at something a lot more interesting.”

  On his knees, he straddled her and buried one hand in her hair, pulling her close.

  Her body, usually so pliant and willing beneath his touch, stiffened.

  He kissed her mouth, but her soft lips didn’t return the kiss. He opened his eyes and ran the pad of his thumb over the crease between her eyebrows. “Too wound up? I can fix that.”

  “Frederick Von.”

  “What? David’s email recipient? Did you remember who he is?”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember now.”