POTTER (The Trident Series Book 2)

by Jaime Lewis

  Chapter Six

  The team gathered around the small table in a tent centered in the middle of the camp.

  Their plane had landed in Ecuador about three hours ago. It was 11:00 a.m. local time. Technically this was an off-the-books mission as far as the US government was concerned, but they knew and approved of the team’s whereabouts. The only downside of missions such as this was, they didn’t have the government at their back should things go haywire. In this type of situation, going through the proper channels would have taken entirely too long to get everything in place for a mission to take place. Thanks to Tink, one of Derek’s former SEAL buddies and now owner and operator of a security firm, they were able to secure a private plane and a cache of weapons to make the trip within hours of Tenley’s reported abduction.

  Time was precious in dealing with a potential kidnapping. The sooner they arrived and started looking for her, the better their chances of finding her alive.

  Nick, one of the directors of the organization, had explained what he and the security team had found when they went to conduct a well check on Tenley at the medical tent when she hadn’t returned to camp by nightfall.

  Nick seemed like an intelligent man, but in Potter’s opinion, he lacked common sense. Nick kept rambling on about nothing of importance that would help locate Tenley. He wanted to yank Nick’s little ponytail tied at the nape of his neck and demand answers. The first being why in the hell was she working alone, and secondly, where was the fucking security team hired to protect the workers. Those were the answers he wanted.

  Thank god Ace was on the same train of thought, as he interrupted Nick before Potter could.

  “Where was the security detail assigned to Ms. Cortez?” Ace barked out, causing Nick to jump slightly.

  Potter smirked, knowing Nick was intimidated. He and the guys were all big men, some a little bulkier than others, but size didn’t matter as every man on the team could kill someone with their bare hands.

  Nick ran a hand down his reddened face and blew out a big breath; that was all it took for Potter to know he wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “We don’t have the funds to hire and post a security detail to each medical location. The system in place has worked for years. The details roam between the many clinics stationed around the city during working hours. Once everyone reports back for the evening, security is then placed around the perimeter of the camp for the night. Normally, all personnel are required to have a buddy.”

  Before Potter or anyone else could question the guy further, an older woman with greying hair walked into the tent, holding the hand of a little girl. Potter didn’t know much about kids, but if he had to guess, the little girl couldn’t be any older than ten. The woman gave off a motherly vibe, making Potter wonder if the little girl was her daughter or granddaughter though he didn’t see any resemblance between the two of them.

  When she looked up and met his eyes, her eyes widened as if she were surprised to see him. She must have realized what she did because she masked it quickly before turning to look at Nick.

  “Nick, maybe I can help since I was the last one to see Tenley.” All eyes shifted toward the woman with a soft-spoken voice. Potter glanced down at the little girl, noting how she seemed frightened by their presence as she hid behind the woman, only peeking her head around to look at them with her big brown eyes.

  Nick nodded his head and introduced Shelia to the team. He explained her role and how she and Tenley roomed together and had worked the same clinic since they arrived.

  Shelia stepped forward with no hesitation shaking each man’s hand, which earned her respect right away with Potter and the team.

  Derek stepped forward and introduced himself to Shelia.

  “Shelia, thank you for coming over. My name is Commander Derek Connors; any information you could provide to help locate Tenley would be greatly appreciated.”

  Potter stared at her as she smiled softly, then looked down at her feet before looking back up the team. When she sought out Potter again and looked him in the eye, he saw remorse, making him a little curious about the woman. She cleared her throat as her eyes drifted back to the commander.

  “It is my fault for Tenley being at the tent alone yesterday. I didn’t want to leave her, but she insisted that I take Alejandra,” she smiled and motioned to the little girl hiding behind her “and get her back to camp so she could get cleaned up and fed. She said she would take care of the last three patients waiting to be seen.”

  “What time was that? And would you be able to describe the three individuals? Maybe they saw something or someone.” Derek asked her.

  “It was between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. There was a young lady, if I had to guess, in her late teens or early twenties. She looked to be about six or so months pregnant from the size of her belly.” Potter felt a slight pang in his chest at the mention of the young girl’s pregnancy. She would’ve been a couple of months ahead of Tenley had Tenley not lost the baby. His baby, he reminded himself. His head started to cloud with visions of Tenley with a baby bump. Having kids had never been on his radar until he met her. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about a future with her. He never wanted a committed relationship until he met Tenley, and she stole his heart.

  He heard Shelia still talking and realized he had zoned out.

  “There were two other men. I don’t remember seeing any visible injuries. The one guy sitting closest to the tent was wearing a blue t-shirt, and I think jeans. I’m sorry, but that is all I can recall. I didn’t get a good look at the second man because he kept his distance.” She appeared saddened that she couldn’t offer additional information, and Potter wanted to reach out to comfort her, as she gave the impression that she and Tenley had become close while working together. However, the details she provided were a step in the right direction because her description of two men and the two men found murdered at the medical tent look to be one and the same. Potter peered over at Ace, and Ace raised one of his eyebrows as if telling him he was having similar thoughts.

  “Shelia, I hate to ask this, but it could be a huge help,” Derek stated as he reached out and grasped her hand in a friendly gesture.

  Her eyes widened, and she placed her hand over his. “Please, Commander, I’ll do anything if it helps bring Tenley home.”

  Derek smiled. “Would you be comfortable identifying the bodies of the two men that were found? To see if they were the men you saw at the tent yesterday?”

  “Yes. Let me just get someone to watch Alejandra while I go with you.”

  Potter watched as she bent down and spoke to the little girl. Instead of focusing on Shelia, the girl kept her focus on him. Her gaze was intense, making him uncomfortable. It was as if she was fixated on him and not the others. He almost chuckled. Here he was, a Navy SEAL intimidated by a child.

  The little girl whispered something to Shelia, and Shelia nodded her head. The girl slowly approached Potter until she stopped directly in front of him. Potter stood there with his feet shoulder-width apart. His arms were crossed in front of his chest as he stared down at her. In his peripheral vision, he could see the rest of the team as they looked on, wondering what was happening. Her height only reached his upper thigh, and she tilted her head back and looked way up at him.

  As he stared down at her, she didn’t seem the least bit frightened by his size. She lifted her hand and crooked her index finger at him, motioning for him to come down to her level. Something inside of him told him to entrust this little creature. Dropping his arms to his sides, he squatted down until he was eye level with her. That was when he took in her bold brown eyes and curly jet black hair. She took his breath away. She was a beautiful little thing.

  She surprised him when she reached out her tiny hand and touched his hand, then asked in the sweetest voice that warmed his heart, “Are you Ms. Tenley’s friend? Are you here to help find her?” Potter was shocked at how excellent her English was, but then if she was related to Shelia, it m
ade sense, although he did hear a slight accent and she looked to have the distinct features of a local.

  Potter gave an unusual smile to the girl, and her big doe eyes twinkled. All the guys had smiles on their faces. Yeah, they were all a bunch of hard-ass men, but throw in a child as sweet as this little girl was, and they were all a bunch of sappy ass motherfuckers.

  “Is your name Alejandra?” He asked her, and she nodded her head. “That is a very pretty name. How old are you, sweetheart?”

  “Seven. I’m a big girl, you know.”

  Potter chuckled. “Yes, I can see that you are. We are all Tenley’s friends, and we’re here to help find her and bring her home.” He gestured toward the rest of the guys surrounding them. He swore the smiles on their faces grew even more as they looked on. Yep, sappy asses they were. He would give them all ten minutes with this little girl, and he would guarantee she’d have them all eating out of the palm of her tiny hand.

  “You’re Potter,” She said matter-of-factly. “Ms. Tenley showed me a picture of you.” She looked back towards the guys standing behind Potter. They looked just as surprised as he did with her mention of his name. Her eyes were wide. “You and your friends are really big.”

  The guys all chuckled, and Potter smiled again. Something about this little girl made his heart beat a little bit faster. She grabbed hold of his hand. “Can you sit with me while Ms. Shelia goes with your friends? She said it was okay for me to ask you.”

  Damn, how could he say no to that? He looked over at his commander, and Derek nodded his head, giving the okay. “Sure, honey.”

  Her eyes lit up, and she smiled from ear-to-ear. “Yay! Since you are Ms. Tenley’s friend, will you be my friend too?” She asked, looking up at Potter and pulling him out of the tent into the sunlight. He had no idea where she was taking him, but he followed.

  He looked down at her. “Of course, I will be your friend. And you know all of the other guys back there?”

  “Yeah?”

  “They are all your friends now too.”

  “Really?!” She squealed, and he watched as her eyes lit up and widened, making those brown eyes of hers come alive.

  As fast as her smile appeared, it quickly disappeared, and Potter wondered why. “Hey, what’s with the sad face?” He asked, giving her little hand a gentle squeeze.

  “I never had any friends. I just have my mommy and daddy. But I haven’t seen them since the nice people like Ms. Tenley got me out of our house. Ms. Tenley and Ms. Shelia are my only friends.”

  Potter was curious about her comment, and he made a mental note to ask one of the aid workers about her family.

  As they walked across the camp, they made small talk. Potter was shocked at how relaxed he felt around her. “What is your favorite toy to play with?” He asked her and watched as she scrunched her nose up at him in an adorable way. It reminded him of Tenley when she would do that to her nose. Fuck, he missed her.

  “I don’t have any toys. But I do have Norman.” She sighed cutely. “Well, I mean, I used to have Norman.”

  Potter didn’t understand. She didn’t have any toys, but she had a person? Did she mean she had a friend? But she told him she didn’t have any friends. Christ, he was getting confused. To make sure he was on the same page, he asked, “Who is he?”

  She giggled, and the sweet sound was music to his ears. He could sit and listen to her giggle all damn day. She was so fucking adorable.

  “Norman isn’t a person. Norman is my stuffed animal, silly. He’s a turtle. I couldn’t find him, and the nice people who brought me here said I couldn’t go back home to look for him because it wasn’t safe. He was my only toy and my friend.” She shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal to lose her only toy and friend, and that just about broke his heart.

  Un-fucking-believable. He couldn’t believe that a damn stuffed turtle named Norman was the only toy this child had. He was going to make it a point that wherever she ended up, she was going to have all toys she wanted because he was going to see to it personally. Hell, the way he felt right now, he was half tempted to try and smuggle her back to the states with him.

  Whoa! Where the fuck did that thought come from? I can’t even hang on to the woman I love. How in the hell am I supposed to care for a seven-year-old?

  He shook his head as Alejandra led them into another tent. “Where are we?” He asked.

  “This is where I stay with Ms. Tenley and Ms. Shelia. Do you like puzzles? I love puzzles.” She was rambling on, and Potter could only smile as he watched her walk over to a table that held several boxes of puzzles. He chuckled at himself. It was funny how a little girl could put a smile on his face more times in one day than his friends could in a week.

  He looked around the tent. It wasn’t big, and it held a small table and three cots. When his eyes zeroed in on a picture of him and Tenley, his chest tightened. He walked over and picked it up. The photo was taken last October when the both of them went to a Music Festival with Ace and Alex. He had the same picture sitting on his nightstand next to his bed. Tenley was sitting on his lap with her arms around his shoulders. They were both smiling and happy. Her long brown hair was pulled to the side, draping over her shoulder. She was gorgeous.

  Knowing that Tenley had brought the picture with her to Ecuador jump-started his heart. She at least still thought of him enough to bring along a picture of the two of them. That had to mean something, and it gave him a boost of confidence that he hadn’t fucked up entirely.

  “Mr. Potter. Are you okay? You look sad.” Alejandra sat down on Tenley’s cot with a puzzle box in her hands.

  He snorted a laugh at her, calling him Mr. Potter. She was too damn cute. “I’m sad, sweetie. Ms. Tenley means a lot to me, and I miss her.” And, he was worried as heck about her. He took a seat next to Alejandra. She latched onto his hand again, sending some odd signals to his heart, feelings he has never experienced before. She brushed back some of her unruly curls that fell into her face.

  “Maybe if we ask God nicely, he’ll help Ms. Tenley come home,” she looked at the floor. “I miss her too. Ms. Shelia told me Ms. Tenley was leaving to go home in a few days.”

  Her pout nearly did him in, and Potter got the impression that she and Tenley had become very close. Right now, he wanted to turn her frown upside down and try and get her mind off of Tenley. But he knew that would be hard because Tenley was his sole focus as well. But for the sake of them both, he would do what he could, so he tapped the puzzle box she was holding with his finger. “How about if we try and put this together?”

  She smiled and slid off the bed and dumped all of the pieces onto the floor. He looked at the pile and again grinned. He hated puzzles, but if doing this put a smile on this little girl’s face, then that was what he was going to do. He lowered his large body to the floor next to her, and away they went, working like a team piece by piece.

  ◆◆◆

  Standing in the main medical clinic, Shelia studied the two dead bodies. She had positively identified they were the men she saw yesterday.

  She carefully examined the knife wounds on each of them. Whoever killed them was a professional. The SEALs and the doctor had agreed with her. They were each stabbed once directly into the heart.

  She’d been wracking her brain for the past half an hour, trying to think how Tenley’s abduction played out. Why didn’t the person or persons who had presumably taken Tenley just wait for these two guys to leave before making their move? Why kill them?

  She placed a hand on her head. She felt a headache coming on from all the thinking and stress. She felt a hand touch her shoulder and give it a gentle squeeze. Turning, she saw the commander. He was an attractive man. But then again, all of the men on the team were attractive and friendly. Not that she was interested in any of them. She was a happily married mother of three grown children.

  “How are you holding up, dear?” He asked her.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest. I’m trying to
get a handle on it, but all I keep thinking is I should’ve trusted my gut and stayed with her.”

  “You can’t blame yourself, Shelia. Think of it this way. If you would’ve stayed, we might be looking for three people instead of one.” He motioned for her to take a seat in one of the chairs in the room.

  She didn’t understand. “How is that?” She asked, taking the chair he offered.

  “Well, if you would’ve stayed, that means Alejandra would have stayed as well. And, whoever took Tenley, I’m sure would’ve taken you and Alejandra as well.”

  “Oh, goodness! That scenario never even crossed my mind. All this time and we haven’t had any problems with anyone. Something just doesn’t seem right.”

  “How so?” Derek asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

  “It almost seems as if whoever took Tenley may have been targeting her specifically. Think about it. There were thousands of dollars in medical equipment and supplies at the tent, and from what I saw, all of it looked to be there still.”

  He grinned. “The team and I had the same thought. We have another team of guys helping us out with the investigation. They just aren’t physically here. Most of them are very close friends of mine who I served with. When they were discharged from the military, they formed their own security company. As grave as this situation seems, I truly believe that we will find Tenley and bring her home.”

  She stared at him. There was something about this man that intrigued her. She had recognized Potter immediately when she had walked in the tent earlier. Tenley had shown her a picture of the two of them. But Derek and the rest of his team acted as if they were friends of hers as well.

  “I don’t mean to pry commander, but are you close to Tenley?” She asked.

  He nodded his head and softly smiled. “Call me Derek—and yeah, she and my daughter, Alex, grew up together. They’re best friends,” he chuckled. “In a way, you could probably say that she’s my daughter as well. She has her mom, who is a wonderful woman, but her dad left when her mom was pregnant with her, so I’ve kind of stepped in when she needed a fatherly figure. Two of the guys on the team you met earlier, Stitch and Frost, they too are childhood friends of hers. The other guys on the team are all friends of hers as well. My daughter Alex is engaged to Ace the team leader.”