Locked, Loaded and SEALed

by Carol Ericson

  “Got me there.” He shoved the menu aside and finished his beer. “You’ll let me know if anything unusual happens, won’t you?”

  “Yes, but shouldn’t I tell the police, too?”

  “Of course, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention our meeting. I’m not supposed to be here, not supposed to be investigating this.”

  “My lips are sealed.” She dragged her fingertip across the seam of her mouth. “Where should I drop you off?”

  “I’m at a hotel downtown, but since you’re in the other direction I can catch the T back to the hotel—unless you want to head downtown to meet your Spark date.”

  “You know where I live?” She pushed her half-full glass away from her. “Forget the date. It was just our second. He probably figured I got cold feet.”

  “Does that happen a lot? I mean, with Spark dates.”

  “Quite common.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a wallet.

  “I’ll get this. I can call it a business meeting.”

  “Ah, but you’re not supposed to be here, remember?”

  “Somebody somewhere has to reimburse me.” He dropped a ten on the table. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

  “I really don’t mind dropping you off.” She scooted from the booth, hugging his coat to her chest.

  “That’s okay, as long as you keep a lookout when you drive home, just like you did on the way over here.”

  She jerked her head up. “Do you think I might still be in danger?”

  “Not if Dr. Fazal’s killers found what they were looking for tonight.”

  “And if they didn’t?”

  “They might be at his house right now. Hopefully, the police got there first, but Fazal’s killers will return. They might return to the office, too, if they got spooked the first time.”

  “They might’ve heard Norm—he’s the nighttime janitor.”

  “Are you going back to the office next week?” He held the door of the bar open for her as she huddled inside his coat.

  “Just to wrap up business. All of my patients were Dr. Fazal’s patients. We worked together and he referred his patients to me after their surgery, so I could rehabilitate them. I’m not sure what’s going to happen now, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen to Ginny our receptionist and the two nurses who worked with him.” A tear escaped from the corner of her eye and she dashed it away.

  “You’re going to miss him. He was a good man.”

  “The best.”

  Austin tipped his head toward the parking lot down the street. “I’ll walk you to your car, and you can drop me at the nearest T station.”

  The attendant manning the parking lot had called it quits for the night and the entrance was chained off. The exit had spikes to make sure nobody sneaked in that way.

  Austin put his hand on Sophia’s back as they made their way through the cars.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he sensed movement and his reflexes jumped into action. He spun around just in time to see the dull glint of a .45 in the moonlight.

  Chapter Three

  The mysterious stranger walking beside her shoved her to the ground. She thrust out her hands as she fell to her knees, her palms shredding against the asphalt.

  Her instincts had failed her. The guy was turning on her, attacking her. She coiled her body into a crouch. She whipped her head to the side, ready to launch herself at his legs—but which legs were his?

  Austin had one arm wrapped around another man as they staggered back and forth under a circle of light from the parking lot. Austin had his right arm thrust in the air at a weird angle, grasping the other man’s wrist.

  Sophia froze as her gaze focused on the gun clutched in the man’s hand, pointing at the sky. How long would it be pointing upward?

  As she scrambled toward the other side of the car, someone grunted. Gunfire ripped above her head. She flattened her body against the asphalt, the smell of oil invading her nose. The smell of gunpowder replaced it.

  “Hey, hey!”

  The male voice came from a distance but Sophia didn’t dare lift her head.

  A rough hand grabbed her arm, and Austin’s harsh whisper grated close to her ear. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. What...?”

  He practically yanked her to her feet. “Let’s go. Now.”

  “But...”

  He snatched the keys still clutched in her hand and herded her into the car from the driver’s side, coming in right behind her. She crawled over the console as Austin made it clear he was taking the wheel. He started the car, and she turned her head toward the passenger window.

  A dark figure limped away between the remaining cars as a cop came running up the sidewalk, shining his flashlight into the parking lot.

  Without turning on the headlights to the car, Austin pulled out of the lot on the other side of the officer’s probing flashlight. When he hit the street, he kept his speed slow and steady until he turned the corner. Then he accelerated until he reached the next major thoroughfare when he put on the lights and reduced his speed to the limit.

  That’s when Sophia realized she was breathing in short spurts. The whole attack had gone down in a manner of seconds and she still couldn’t quite believe it had happened—except for her stinging palms...and the gun in the cup holder.

  She rubbed her hands together, loosening bits of gravel into her lap. “What the hell just happened?”

  “Are you absolutely sure you weren’t followed when you left the medical building?”

  If she hadn’t fully absorbed the terror of the altercation in the parking lot before, it now hit her like a wall of water.

  She gripped the edge of the seat, digging her fingernails into the nubbed fabric. “D-do you think that man had something to do with Dr. Fazal’s murder?”

  “Of course. Could you have been followed?”

  “I don’t think so.” She pressed her fingertips to her temples. “I watched, just like you said.”

  He made a sharp right turn and her head bumped the glass of the window.

  “Sorry.” He pulled the car to a stop along a side street near the MIT campus and jumped out.

  With her head spinning, she tumbled out of the car after him. He was already on the ground, scooting backward beneath the car, propelling himself with the heels of his boots—cowboy boots. What kind of navy guy wore cowboy boots?

  “What are you doing?” She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging Austin’s jacket around her body, noticing for the first time the fresh, masculine scent in its folds.

  He swore and rolled out from beneath the car, clutching something in his fist. Hopping to his feet, he uncurled his hand. “They were tracking you already.”

  Her mouth dropped open as she stared at the black quarter-size device cupped in his palm. “Why? What do they want from me?”

  “I don’t know.” He tipped his hand and the object fell to the pavement, where he crushed it beneath the heel of his boot. “I don’t know what they wanted from Fazal. If it was just revenge they were after, they got that. They didn’t have to search his office. And why come after you?”

  “Come after?” She fell against the back door of the car.

  “I’m sorry, Sophia. Let’s get you home.”

  “Home?” She shuffled away from him. “If they already put a tracker on my car, won’t they know where I live?”

  “Not if they placed the bug at the office.” He kicked the pieces of the tracking device with his toe, scattering them into the gutter.

  “Was that man in the parking lot going to shoot me?”

  “I don’t think so.” He cocked his head to one side and scuffed the bristle on his chin with the pad of his thumb. “He could’ve taken the shot from farther away. When I saw the gun o
ut of the corner of my eye, the guy didn’t have it raised and ready to shoot.”

  “I suppose that’s something to be thankful for.”

  “He could’ve wanted info from you.”

  “But he wasn’t expecting you—or at least wasn’t expecting my date to be a trained...whatever you are.” She waved her hand up and down his body.

  “SEAL.” He rubbed his hands on the thighs of his jeans. “I’m a navy SEAL.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a long way from foreign soil where you usually do your thing, aren’t you?”

  “I thought I explained to you that’s why I can’t come in contact with the police. It’s—” he shrugged “—unorthodox for us to operate stateside.”

  “Unorthodox or illegal?”

  “Depends on who you’re asking.”

  She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “And that’s why we sneaked away under the cover of darkness and extinguished our headlights back there when the cop showed up?”

  “I don’t want to have to explain anything. That’s not my mission.”

  “This is a mission?”

  “Did you think I was just dropping in on my old friend Dr. Fazal?”

  Her nose stung with tears and she squeezed her eyes shut. “He was my friend...and so much more.”

  He dropped his hand where it lay like a weight on her shoulder. “Do you want me to take you home?”

  “Will I be safe there?”

  “I’m staying with you—for now.”

  She studied his strong, handsome face, and the question echoed in her head. Will I be safe there?

  He blinked. “I’ll keep watch over you.”

  Sighing, she hoisted herself off the car. “I suppose I don’t have much choice. I have to go home at some point, might as well be now.”

  When they got back into the car, Austin turned to her. “You can call the Boston PD right now and let them know you feel threatened—that you think you’re being followed. They might step up patrols around your house.”

  She chewed her bottom lip and traced the scratches on her palm. Have this navy SEAL, who’d already taken out a guy with a gun, watching over her or the Boston PD, who’d made her life a living hell when she was a teen—easy choice.

  “Let’s see how it goes before I call in the big guns.”

  Austin started the car. “Where to? I know you live in Jamaica Plain, but I don’t know how to get there without a GPS.”

  “Back across the bridge. I’ll be the GPS.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Should I look out for a tail?”

  “I think I solved the problem, but it’s not a bad idea.”

  She called out directions as she shifted her attention between the side mirror and the mirror on the visor, watching for headlights and suspicious cars.

  Her life growing up had hardly been rainbows and unicorns, but it had just shifted into a strange kind of nightmare that didn’t quite seem real. And the man next to her? The most unreal part of it all. He’d literally popped up in the backseat of her car, spouting crazy theories and scaring the spit out of her.

  She slid a gaze at his profile. Pretty much everything that had happened tonight, except for Dr. Fazal’s murder, had originated with this man.

  Yes, she’d seen the stranger with the gun, but had never seen that gun pointed at her. Maybe he was a cop trying to rescue her from Austin. Of course, he had run away, too.

  The tracking device on her car? That could’ve been anything. What did she know about tracking devices?

  If Austin had never appeared in her rearview mirror, would she be home snug in her bed, oblivious of gun-wielding assailants and bugged cars? She scooted closer to the door and leaned her head against the cool glass of the window.

  With or without Austin, she still couldn’t escape the reality of Dr. Fazal’s death. He’d seen so much in his life but had gotten to a place where he could appreciate the simple pleasures...and he’d been teaching her to do the same.

  A sob escaped her lips and fogged the glass of the window.

  Austin touched her knee. “Are you thinking about Dr. Fazal? He was a good man—honorable, courageous. We were both lucky to have known him.”

  The sincere tone of Austin’s voice washed over her like a soothing balm, and a tear welled up in one eye. Only Dr. Fazal had been able to make her cry. Now if she let herself go, she’d never stop—and she already knew tears did nothing but signal your weakness to the world.

  She clenched her teeth and dragged in a breath through her nose. Rubbing the condensation from the window with her fist, she said, “He was a great guy...and I’m going to have to find another job.”

  She could feel Austin’s gaze boring into her, and then he removed his hand from her knee.

  She tossed back her hair. Let him think she was a cold bitch. She’d opened herself to Dr. Fazal and he’d left her...just like everyone else had. Not that it was his fault. He never would’ve abandoned her.

  “Next?”

  “What?”

  “Right or left?”

  She jerked her head up. She hadn’t even been checking the mirrors. She bolted up and grabbed the visor.

  “It’s okay. I’ve been watching.”

  “Left.”

  She trapped her cold hands between her knees and took a deep breath. “Why are you here? You were responsible for getting Dr. Fazal out of Pakistan and, what? You kept tabs on him?”

  “Me personally? No.” He cranked up the heat in the car. “US intelligence? Yes.”

  “CIA?”

  “Sort of. There are intelligence organizations under the umbrella of the CIA that are deep undercover.”

  “You work for one of these organizations?”

  “I’m a United States Navy SEAL.”

  “But one of these organizations contacted you, right?”

  He nodded once.

  She hunched forward, stretching her fingers out toward the warm air seeping from the vent. “Are you revealing too much? You’re not going to have to kill me now, are you?”

  He raised one eyebrow without cracking a smile at her clichéd joke. “You’re in the middle of this. You deserve to know.”

  “Am I? In the middle of this?”

  “Fazal’s killers put a tracking device on your car and tried to pull a gun on you. What do you think?”

  The warm air blowing from the vent couldn’t melt the chill stealing across her body. She snuggled into Austin’s jacket and the comforting scent from its folds. “I think I’m in the middle of it. These intelligence agencies must’ve known Dr. Fazal was in danger since you showed up at the precise time he was murdered.”

  Austin’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I failed him.”

  “Had you been watching him?”

  “I just got to Boston this morning. I read the file on the plane. I read about you, your job, your car, even your address.”

  Checking the mirrors again, she slumped in her seat. “So much for privacy.”

  Her paranoia about authority hadn’t been misplaced all those years. They really were out to get her. Did Austin also know about her messed-up past?

  He snorted. “There is no privacy.”

  “You knew all that, but you hadn’t seen Dr. Fazal yet?”

  “I showed up at the office building minutes after the first responders did. Then I located your car in the parking structure and waited for you.”

  “You were supposed to protect Dr. Fazal?”

  “I was.” His jaw formed a hard line.

  “Those intelligence organizations don’t sound very intelligent. They should’ve called you in sooner. You could’ve done something then.”

  She didn’t know why she wanted to make this supremely confident man feel better. Mayb
e it was the clenched jaw showing that he was human after all. He clearly felt as if he’d failed Dr. Fazal—and she knew all too well what failure felt like.

  “Maybe. Or maybe his killers made their move today because they knew we were on to them.”

  “Who are they? Who killed Dr. Fazal?” She tapped on the window. “Turn right.”

  “It depends on the motive. If it was revenge for working with us to capture the terrorist we’d been tracking, then we know it’s that terrorist group, but if it’s something else...” He shrugged.

  “What else could it be?”

  “You tell me. Why’d his killers search his office? Why’d they come after you?”

  She turned to him, her mouth gaping open. “You expect me to know that?”

  “You worked with him. You were close to him. He treated you like a daughter. We know that.”

  Her throat felt heavy and she cleared it. “He told me very little about his life before. He always emphasized looking forward.”

  “You said you noticed something different about him in the past few weeks. Was he nervous? Jumpy?”

  “Yes.” They’d had a dinner planned and he’d cancelled it. He never canceled plans with her because he knew how much stability meant to her.

  “How so?”

  “He was secretive. He took a few phone calls behind closed doors. He also saw some mysterious patient. He gave me his file, but he never included the person’s information in the regular patient database.”

  “Is this your street?”

  “The apartment building at the end of the block on the right.”

  “That behavior was unusual for him?”

  “It was in retrospect. If he hadn’t been murdered today, I probably wouldn’t have thought much about it—except for the dinner.”

  “What dinner?” He pulled the car alongside the curb in front of her apartment building and left the engine running.

  Did he expect her to hop out and go up to her apartment by herself while he left her car at the curb and loped off into the night? Hadn’t he assured her he’d keep watch tonight? Of course, he owed her nothing.

  She coughed into the sleeve of his jacket. “We had dinner at least once a month, and he canceled this month.”