When she looked at him through her lowered lashes, she caught her breath. His raised eyebrows told her he wasn’t buying her “poor pitiful me” act.
“You’d be perfectly safe in that hotel room, especially since you’re packing your own heat. You want to come along because you want to be in on the action—you want to be proactive in getting justice for Dr. Fazal. I get it.”
The waiter arrived with a stack of blueberry pancakes for Austin and some rye toast for her. “Anything else I can get you?”
They both declined, and Austin dumped a pile of whipped butter on top of his pancakes.
“You don’t have to use tricks with me, Sophia. You don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not—because I like you, as is.”
She watched him dig into his pancakes through narrowed eyes. He didn’t want to take care of the soft, helpless woman? She’d rarely been soft or helpless in her life, but she could’ve given it a try—for Austin.
Back at the hotel an hour later, Austin brought up the police report on Patel’s homicide on his laptop and scrolled through it. Patel had died, bled out, probably moments before Sophia discovered him. Thank God Patel’s killer hadn’t ambushed Sophia before Austin had him in his crosshairs.
There were no akas listed in Patel’s file, so as far as the Boston PD was concerned, the murder victim was Peter Patel, a visitor to Boston from California and staying at the Cambridge Arms Hotel—even his room number was listed in the report. Money and credit cards had been lifted from Patel’s wallet to make it look like a robbery. Of course, the cops had to be thinking, what street criminal would slit a man’s throat to get cash and credit cards?
“What did you find out? Where was he staying?” Sophia sat on the bed beside him, crossing her legs beneath her.
His gaze glanced across her creamy shoulder where her sweater dropped off and then meandered to her dark eyes, sparkling with interest and intelligence. He preferred this engaged presence to the scared female persona she felt she had to employ to convince him to take her with him when he went to Patel’s hotel room. Did she really believe he wanted a damsel in distress? Did he? Had he?
If he examined the truth head-on, most of the women he’d dated back home had been softer, more domesticated, more interested in a diamond on their left hand than one piercing the side of their nose.
“Hotel?” She cocked her head and her inky hair fanned across her exposed shoulder.
“The Cambridge Arms. Know it?”
“Nope. Sounds like one of those places thrown up to accommodate the parents of all those college students.” She tugged on her earlobe. “The cops think this is a robbery?”
“Uh–huh. His killer even stole money and credit cards from his wallet.”
“Oh, and just decided to slice him from ear to ear after they got their eighty bucks?”
“I’m sure that’s under their consideration.”
“When do we head over to the Cambridge Arms and what are we going to find? The cops have probably already been there, right?”
“I’m sure they have. They probably even removed some items from the room if they thought something had particular significance.”
“Will we find anything left that could help us?”
“We might. I’m not going to pass up the chance to find out.”
Her cell phone buzzed and she leaned forward to snatch it from the bedside table. Her fingers played across the display as she made a slight turn away from him.
Austin ground his back teeth, and he tapped his keyboard a little harder than he had to. When he’d had possession of her cell, he couldn’t help noticing a few more messages rolling in from that dating app. Was that what she was doing now? Answering her so-called dates?
He sniffed. Was that the kind of guy she wanted? Someone who spent time trolling for women online instead of meeting them face-to-face?
He rubbed his hand across his mouth. And how exactly was that any of his business?
She cupped her phone in her palm. “When are we going to Cambridge?”
“As soon as I finish going through this report.”
“You don’t think we should wait until nighttime?”
“Less conspicuous during the day, and we don’t have to worry about turning on any lights in his room—in case someone’s watching.”
Dragging her bottom lip between her teeth, she tossed her phone from hand to hand. “Do you think his killers know where he was staying?”
“They went through his pockets to take money from his wallet, so they saw his hotel key. They know.”
“So, they might be there?”
“Which is another reason why we’re going in the daylight. They know the police have been or will be in Cambridge. They’ll wait until they think it’s safe.”
“What if the police catch us?”
“You forget.” He thumped his chest once. “Even though I’m supposed to be under law enforcement’s radar, if worse comes to worse and they make me, I have an out.”
“It would cause some kind of...incident though, wouldn’t it? A US Navy SEAL involved in an operation in the homeland.”
“It would be a problem—but I don’t intend to get caught.”
“Oh, I won’t get caught either.” She flicked back her dark hair. “I got away with plenty back in the day.”
“I’ll bet you still do.”
A pretty pink tinged her cheeks, and then she rolled off the bed. “I’ll let you finish so we can get going. Something to drink from the vending machine?”
“I still have a water in the fridge.”
“I need...something.”
She banged out of the room, and Austin eased back against the stack of pillows. Despite the electricity between them, Sophia wasn’t comfortable with flirtation—and he needed to stop flirting with her and stop thinking about what she was and was not comfortable with. He needed to protect her against Fazal’s killers and that was it.
After the identification of Patel, he could be out of here and on the first plane back to Somalia. He and his team of snipers still had plenty of unfinished business with a nasty terrorist with the code name Vlad.
By the time Sophia had returned to the room, he’d gone through the rest of the police file and was stuffing his feet into his running shoes. “Did you get lost on the way to the soda machine across the hall?”
“I decided to take a quick look around the hotel. There’s an indoor pool and Jacuzzi on the first floor.”
“Yeah, this would be a great spot...if I was on vacation.” He grabbed his jacket. “Are you ready?”
“Do you have a plan?”
He winked at her. “I always have a plan.”
Except for a plan to deal with his attraction to a woman he’d just met and might have to leave just as quickly.
The drive over the bridge and into Cambridge didn’t take long, and Sophia seemed preoccupied with her own thoughts. She’d been through a helluva few days. Before this craziness she probably thought she’d seen her lifetime quota of dead bodies after her mother killed her father.
She’d needed to catch a break, and she’d gotten that break when Dr. Hamid Fazal came into her life. After losing his own wife and daughters, Fazal had probably taken Sophia under his wing without hesitation. Sophia would’ve trusted someone like Fazal immediately, given their shared losses.
Did she trust him? Most women did, but Sophia wasn’t most women.
He spotted the Cambridge Arms and then circled the block. “I don’t want to park in the hotel lot. We might need to be guests, anyway, and I don’t want to draw attention.”
“You’ll never find a parking place on the street, but there’s a public lot around the corner.”
“I know how much you object to paying for parking, so I’ll get it. All my expense
s are reimbursable.”
“The navy’s going to be wondering why you shelled out so much for parking.”
He rolled his eyes and made a U-turn into a public lot.
As they walked across the street, Sophia asked, “What’s the plan?”
“I’m sure most of the hotel employees are aware that one of their guests was murdered. Even if they aren’t, the police most likely left instructions to keep Patel’s room off-limits.”
“That’s not very encouraging.”
“But—” he held up his index finger “—most hotels have a master card key that opens all the rooms, and we’re going to snag one of those.”
“You’re going to snag one of those.” She poked his arm. “I promised Dr. Fazal my life of crime was over.”
“Don’t worry.”
Getting the master proved easier than he expected, and he didn’t even have to plan the disturbance down the hall that took the hotel maid’s attention away from her cart. With the card in his jacket pocket, he led Sophia to the stairwell and up two flights to Patel’s room.
The maids had already finished or hadn’t started on this floor yet, which made their break-in easier. With his gloves still on, he slid the key home and pushed open the door, giving Sophia a nudge in ahead of him.
He caught the door before it slammed and eased it closed as he scanned the room. He flipped the inside lock. “Cops already did a number in here.”
Sophia had pulled on her own gloves and circled the room, hands on her hips. “Where do we start and what are we looking for?”
“Any personal effects—pictures, postcards, letters. Examine every piece of paper you come across for names, addresses and places.”
“Would the cops have already taken that stuff?”
“I’m sure they did. It is a murder investigation, and they need to contact the next of kin.”
“Wherever they are.”
“Probably Pakistan.”
Sophia blew out a breath and rolled her shoulders. “Okay, I’ll start with his suitcases.”
Austin strode to the nightstand and opened the drawers, looking for papers and anything jotted down on the hotel menu or flyers. He even thumbed through the Bible.
“Nothing but clothes in here.” Sophia flipped down the cover of one suitcase. “I’ll check the side pockets.”
He moved to the bathroom, hoping to find a leftover prescription bottle.
Sophia called from the other room, “Patel sure read a lot of different newspapers.”
“Anything written on them?” He poked his head out of the bathroom when he heard a clicking noise at the hotel door. Never breaking contact with Sophia’s wide eyes, he held a finger to his lips.
He crept from the bathroom and flattened himself against the wall behind the door. It opened slowly and then halted against the inside lock he’d flipped into place earlier.
Someone on the other side of that door sucked in a sharp breath.
Austin glanced at Sophia, who was still crouched on the floor next to Patel’s suitcase, an armful of newspapers clutched to her chest.
Sidling along the wall, Austin made his way to Sophia and then grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. He pointed at the sliding glass door that led to a small balcony.
She shook her head and breathed into his ear, “We’re three floors up.”
She didn’t have to tell him that, but whoever was outside that door wasn’t leaving until they did, and soon there might be someone stationed outside, as well.
He took two steps toward the door and tugged at it. It opened on a whisper. When Sophia joined him on the balcony, he closed the door behind them and peered over the railing around the edge.
Turning toward him, Sophia grabbed his jacket. “I can’t do this.”
“Sure you can.” He chucked her under the chin. “There’s a balcony beneath this one. If we hang off the edge, we can reach it by swinging our legs and jumping onto it. We should be able to drop to those bushes below from the second floor.”
“I—I’m afraid of heights. I can’t.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “You do it, or we have some kind of gun battle with the people trying to get into this room. I’ll go first, and I’ll catch you. Do you trust me?”
If she didn’t want to do it, he’d go to battle for her, but he hoped she trusted him enough to take a chance.
Could she take a chance on him?
Chapter Eleven
Sophia swallowed. Her gaze drifted past Austin’s shoulder to the hotel door, which had closed—for now. Who was on the other side? If it were the cops, they would’ve said something.
She focused on Austin’s face, strong, confident. Did she trust him? More than anything else in her life right now.
She released a breath. “Tell me what to do.”
Smoothing his gloved thumbs across her cheeks, he said, “You got this, but we’re gonna have to hurry.”
To make his point, Austin gave her a little shove from behind toward the railing that separated her from thirty feet to sudden death.
“Watch me.”
Gripping the top of the railing he flung his body over the ledge. Sophia watched him slide his hands to the bottom rung of the railing and swing like he was competing in a gymnastics event.
She’d always been really, really bad at gymnastics.
When Austin disappeared below her, she clutched her suddenly tight throat. His voice floated up from beneath her. “Your turn. Hoist yourself over and scoot your hands as far down as you can.”
Licking her lips, she glanced over her shoulder into the room. Had the door opened again?
She curled her hands around the railing and swung one leg over. She perched there like a giant awkward bird for a few seconds before rolling her body into oblivion. She squeaked once as her legs dangled in midair.
Austin’s hand stroked her ankle. “Ready to swing?”
She began to work her shoulder muscles to propel her hips forward. She kicked her legs to increase her momentum just like when she was a kid on the swing set in the run-down park that was her refuge. She closed her eyes and swung harder. If she ever needed to escape, this was it.
“You’re doing great. I’m going to tell you when to release and you’re just going to let go.”
Let go? Right.
But when Austin gave his command, she released. His strong arms wrapped around her legs and yanked her into the balcony below.
Her body flew into his and he stumbled back, taking her with him.
They landed with a thump and a crash into the metal chair stationed on the balcony.
Her eyes flew open and she looked into his face, meeting his slightly amused green gaze.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
With her body stretched out on top of his, their faces inches away from each other’s, she’d never felt better. She rested her head against his shoulder. “That was crazy. Now you’re telling me we need to jump off this balcony two stories high into those bushes down there?”
“We’re in luck.” He tipped his head back. “The guests in this room left their slider unlocked.”
Raising her head, she squinted through the window. “They’re not in there, are they?”
“I’m pretty sure they would’ve come running out here if they were.” He shifted beneath her and grunted. “Are we going to stay out here all afternoon, or would you like to get going?”
She wouldn’t mind lying on top of him for the rest of the day, but they had a killer or killers waiting for them.
She rolled off his body and onto her knees. “We’d better hurry before the people in this room come back.”
Austin scrambled to his feet and pulled open the door, poking his head inside the room. “I think our l
uck is holding. Doesn’t look like anyone’s staying here.”
She squeezed past him into the room, taking a deep breath of his masculine scent. She’d never forget it. If the tinny smell of blood would always remind her of her father’s death, this woodsy scent would always bring Austin back into her thoughts.
They crossed the room and Austin tucked her behind him when they got to the door. “Hang on.”
He peeked out the peephole and then eased open the door. “Let’s head for the stairwell. I have my gun ready in my pocket. If I tell you to duck...duck.”
“You got me this far. I’ll be the best damned soldier you ever encountered.”
He squeezed the back of her neck. “You already are.”
When the fresh air hit her face and whipped her hair into tangles, Sophia almost collapsed from the relief.
Sensing her frailty, Austin took her arm and hustled her down the sidewalk. “Let’s keep moving. We’re almost to the car.”
He wasted no time once they were buckled in throwing the car into gear and peeling out of the parking lot. He smacked the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “All that risk for nothing. The police left nothing behind—if Patel even left any clues in the room.”
“I did take these.” Sophia tugged at the zipper on her jacket and pulled out a bunch of newspapers.
“What the hell? How did you manage that?”
“I had just found them when someone tried the door. You’d told me to check for writing, but I didn’t have time so I just zipped them up in my jacket. I thought I might lose them when I was swinging from the side of the hotel, but the bottom hem of my jacket is fitted and they stayed put. They may’ve even helped break my fall when I landed on top of you.”
“For you, maybe.”
“Did I hurt you?”
“You couldn’t hurt me if you tried, but I did get nailed with the chair leg.”
Could the same be said for her? Not that he would ever hurt her on purpose, but this flirtatious game he was playing with her could only end badly.
Locked, Loaded and SEALed Page 12