Code Word

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “The money?”

  She waved toward her apartment. “I may not have been astute enough when I was growing up to wonder how my mother was able to raise us in such a nice neighborhood or pay for my college tuition, but I know now that someone was supporting us. She never had a job, and I know my father didn’t know where we were.”

  Lou lifted his good hand to her cheek. “Leave it alone, cara mia. Just leave it alone.”

  * * *

  The scent of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill caught in the light breeze that brought with it a taste of the sea. Jay hadn’t expected to be invited to the commander’s house for the celebration following his daughter’s blessing. Yet somehow he had ended up on Kel’s back deck with the rest of his teammates, staring out at the water that edged Kel’s property.

  The inlet was calm; docks stretched out into it from the backyards of the various houses that bordered it. A sweet little speedboat was tethered to the long wooden dock at the edge of Kel’s yard, and Jay found himself wondering how often Kel got the opportunity to take it out.

  At the grill, Kel flipped the burgers and then turned his attention to the five men ranged behind him. “I talked to Admiral Mantiquez Friday afternoon. He’s a little concerned with the media attention that’s still following your last mission.”

  “It’s not like we can do anything about it,” Brent said with a shrug. “The attention will die down eventually.”

  Kel nodded. “I agree, but running training missions in Virginia Beach while the press is swarming could cause us some trouble. The last thing we need is to have them catch one of you on camera.”

  “What do you suggest?” Brent asked.

  “Two weeks off,” Kel said. “If we get lucky, this media frenzy will die down by the end of it. If not, I’ll look into scheduling some training at one of the other bases for a few weeks to keep you out of the spotlight.”

  “I could handle a couple of weeks off,” Tristan said with a lazy grin.

  “Well, you’ve got them.” Kel picked up a pair of tongs and started transferring hot dogs from the grill to a plate. “Starting tomorrow, you’re all on leave.”

  * * *

  “This is going to be more complicated than I thought,” Nick said warily into his cell phone. “Not only did Carina not want to come home to Chicago, but Lou is living right next door to her.”

  “He has been a thorn in my side for years,” Frank Tesan grumbled. “Does she know her father sent you?”

  “Yeah, but she said she hasn’t talked to him in years.” Nick nodded to his empty hotel room, considering for a moment that his temporary living space was probably twice the size of Carina’s dumpy apartment. “Any more news on the package you’re looking for?”

  “Nothing.”

  “What do you want me to do now?”

  “Keep an eye on things down there. See if you can intercept the package. If it doesn’t show up in the next couple of days, try again,” Frank told him. “Carina will listen to reason eventually.”

  * * *

  “What’s going on?” Bianca asked Carina as they walked across the pool parking lot under the early afternoon sun.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carina said and continued walking. She had considered herself beyond lucky that Bianca had already left to babysit before Nick had shown up, but she should have known Bianca would notice something was wrong. She always noticed everything.

  Bianca grabbed her sister’s arm, forcing her to stop and face her. Her blue eyes looked just like their mother’s, her red hair cascading past her shoulders. Carina was surprised that the boys hadn’t already started circling, but she supposed her sister’s single-mindedness about swimming probably kept most people at arm’s length.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Bianca demanded, shifting to block Carina’s path. “You’ve stayed through every one of my practices for the past two days, and you never drive straight here anymore from our apartment. When I’m not at school or at the Whitmores’ babysitting, Lou is at our apartment watching me like I’m still five years old.”

  Carina thought of the mysterious note left on her car last week and was now convinced Nick had placed it there. Playing down her concerns, she gave Bianca a condensed version of recent events. “I just had a visitor recently who I hadn’t expected to see. I don’t want you to be alone until I’m sure he’s really gone.”

  “Who is he?”

  “Just a guy.” Carina motioned to where Pete was standing, the other swimmers already stretching on the deck. “Go on. You’re going to be late.”

  “I think you worry too much about me.” Bianca shifted the swim bag hanging from her shoulder.

  “That’s my job.”

  A touch of sadness illuminated Bianca’s eyes. Her voice lowered slightly. “It shouldn’t be.”

  Before Carina could respond, Bianca had started toward the pool deck. That’s when Carina saw the flash of black, the sleek sports car cruising slowly past them. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the driver behind the tinted windows. Was it her imagination, or did the car slow down for a moment before continuing down the road?

  A sigh of relief escaped her when the car stopped a half block later and a man emerged from the adjoining building and climbed into the passenger side. Carina willed her heartbeat to slow back to its normal rhythm.

  She was losing it. There was no other explanation for this paranoia she’d been experiencing lately. The note on her windshield had kicked her fears into high gear, and Nick’s arrival certainly hadn’t helped things any. Even though she hadn’t seen him since he’d driven off Sunday afternoon, she was looking for him around every corner.

  For the past two days, she had taken the long way to the pool, afraid that he might be waiting somewhere nearby in an attempt to follow her. Obviously her excuses that she had to run random errands each day hadn’t fooled Bianca for a minute.

  Her cell phone buzzed, and she pulled it free of her laptop bag to see a text message from Gianna. Summer semester had barely started, and already she was asking for more money. Carina just shook her head, instantly calculating how she was going to come up with the two hundred dollars for the textbook Gianna apparently needed for her Italian class.

  Carina texted her back, telling her to charge it to her school account. As she was slipping the phone back into her bag, she heard the rumble of a car engine. Her heart jumped into her throat as she turned to see the car pulling into the parking lot. She relaxed slightly when she saw a beat-up coupe instead of Nick’s sleek Jaguar.

  Turning away from the new arrival, she started toward the pool and took a steadying breath. This was a new day, Nick was nowhere in sight, and she had work to do.

  8

  Jay strode toward the pool, a towel slung over his shoulders, a pair of goggles in his hand. When Commander Bennett had given his squad two weeks off, the decision to visit his parents in Miami had been instant, as had his plan to surprise them.

  He had driven as far as Jacksonville on Monday and had decided to spend the night at a local campground before continuing on. Not only had it made sense to break up the fifteen-hour drive, but he also knew that surprising his parents at two in the morning wouldn’t go over very well. His father was notorious for keeping a loaded gun in his bedside table.

  He had stopped by his parents’ house long enough to drop off his gear and change into a swimsuit. He had planned to visit with his mom for a while but discovered the house empty. He wasn’t sure why his mom wasn’t home, but he knew exactly where to find his dad. Just the thought of squaring off with his father lifted some of the weight Jay’d been carrying for the past nine days.

  Retired marine colonel Pete Wellman was gruff, impatient, and demanding. And his heart was pure gold. Those who took the time to see beyond the stern exterior knew he had a wicked sense of humor and a deep love for the three most important things in his life: his family, swimming, and the Corps.

  Swimming was his focus at the
moment. Jay caught a glimpse of his father, his graying hair cut military short, even though he had retired from the Marines several years earlier. He was still long and lean, no doubt from the five-mile runs he still imposed on himself every morning. And his voice still carried an edge when he was annoyed.

  “Danny, if I’d wanted you to do a two hundred for warm-up, I’d have told you to do a two hundred. Now get off the wall and finish. And no lazy flip turns either. You can be lazy on your own time.”

  The teenager Pete had clearly been yelling at shot him a dopey grin. “Okay, Coach.”

  Jay dropped his bag on a lounge chair, his attention caught briefly by the stunning brunette sitting at a nearby table. She was dressed in street clothes, if you could call the tailored button-up and flippy little skirt street clothes, but she was definitely too young to be one of the swimmers’ parents. If he had to guess, he figured she was a couple of years younger than him, maybe twenty-four or twenty-five. She was tapping away on her little laptop, only glancing up at him for a brief moment as he walked by.

  She was even prettier up close, dark eyes framed by even darker eyelashes. Her hair was cut short, styled to accent high cheekbones. Her wary expression made him wonder if she was leery of strangers in general or if it was just him. His dad’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and he shifted his attention back to his reason for coming.

  “Go,” Pete ordered Danny.

  Jay stepped up beside his father, his voice deceptively casual. “Still never satisfied, I see.”

  “Well, I’ll be.” Surprise and a faint smile lit Pete’s face. “When did you get into town?”

  “Just a little while ago.” Jay turned toward his father, who immediately encompassed him in a bear hug.

  Pete motioned to the clock on the wall. “You know practice started five minutes ago.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I heard.” Casually, Jay lifted his arms high above his head, slowly stretching the muscles through his back and shoulders. “But you know I need a few minutes to stretch.”

  Pete chuckled. “You’d stretch for an entire practice if I let you.” He waved toward the pool. “Well, go on. Get in.”

  “What lane do you want me in?”

  “How about getting in behind Danny? He could use someone reminding him that if he slows down, someone might just run him over.”

  Jay grinned. He pulled the towel that was still hanging around his neck and tossed it over his dad’s shoulder. After stretching for another minute, because he really did need to work the knots out of his shoulders, he slipped on his goggles and dove into the pool.

  The water closed around him, cool and refreshing. The sense of freedom contrasted with the images that still lurked in the corners of his mind. A few dolphin kicks, a breakout freestyle stroke as he surfaced, and he managed to find a name for this forgotten sensation flowing through him—home. He was finally home.

  * * *

  Carina was trying not to stare. The new arrival cut through the water gracefully, if the term graceful could be applied to a man like him. He was tall, a couple of inches taller than Pete, his dark hair cut short like several of the other swimmers in the water. He had a swimmer’s body: long, lean muscles, with broad shoulders that tapered down to a narrow waist.

  His stride when he walked by was confident, almost cocky. She could only assume he knew he looked a little too perfect to be real and probably had an inflated ego as a result.

  She only caught a brief glimpse of his face when he walked by. She wasn’t really interested in who he was as long as he wasn’t Nick. Then she had heard Pete laugh. Out loud.

  In the five months she had known Pete, she hadn’t ever heard that sound. Not once. Oh, sure, she caught him on the verge of smiling sometimes. In fact, she deliberately tried to put that expression on his face. Some kind of challenge, she supposed. But this guy showed up, and in fewer than thirty seconds, he had Pete grinning and laughing.

  Still curious, she continued to watch him as he finished his warm-up and came to a stop at the wall. Several of the swimmers greeted him with surprised enthusiasm, as though he were their long-lost best friend who had finally come home. Maybe he was, Carina considered. He looked too old to be a college student home for summer break, but she supposed he could have started a couple of years late.

  Pete broke up the reunion and started barking out orders for their next set. The newcomer looked up at Pete, an easy grin on his face. Then his gaze shifted, and his eyes met hers. The intensity she saw there was unexpected, a complete deviation from his otherwise easy manner. She felt her cheeks grow warm and quickly diverted her eyes back to her computer screen.

  She didn’t have time for silly distractions. She had work to do and tuition to pay. It didn’t matter to her who this guy was. Obviously, if Pete was that comfortable with him, he must be safe.

  Carina shook her head slightly, annoyed at the way she always summed up new people as though she were conducting some sort of threat assessment. Maybe someday she would stop looking over her shoulder. Maybe a day would come when life was all about the future instead of running from the past.

  * * *

  One practice with Jay Wellman was all it took for Bianca to decide he was perfect for her oldest sister. Carina was way too serious all the time, and she needed to start going out and having fun. Maybe then she would relax a little and remember there was more to life than working . . . and hovering over her younger sisters.

  “So, Jay,” Bianca began as she stepped out of the pool beside him. “How long are you visiting?”

  “About two weeks.”

  “Really?” Bianca’s lips curved into a smile. “Come on. I want you to meet someone.”

  Jay looked down at her skeptically, but he let her pull him the few steps to where Carina was packing up her laptop.

  “Hey, Carina, have you met Jay yet?” Bianca motioned to Jay. “He’s going to be practicing with us for a couple of weeks.”

  Carina looked up at Jay and gave him a reserved smile. “Nice to meet you, Jay.”

  “You too.” Jay nodded at her before looking back at Bianca suspiciously.

  “Bianca, we need to get going.” Carina slipped the strap of her briefcase onto her shoulder and then glanced back at Jay. “I guess we’ll see you later.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Jay nodded.

  Carina started toward the parking lot, and Bianca trotted after her. “You know, you could have at least talked to him for a minute before rushing off.”

  “What are you talking about?” Carina pulled the keys out of her briefcase and hit the unlock button before looking up at Bianca.

  “I’m talking about Jay.” Bianca leaned on the passenger side of the car but didn’t open the door. “I saw the way you were looking at him.”

  Carina’s eyebrows lifted, and their eyes met over the top of the car. “What are you talking about?” she repeated.

  Bianca waved a hand in the direction of the pool, where Jay was standing next to Pete. “The tall, good-looking swimmer you were staring at for half of my practice. You know, the one I just introduced you to.”

  “You’re trying to set me up?”

  “Trying.” Bianca nodded. “But not succeeding.”

  “I can take care of my own social life, thank you,” Carina said, not sure whether to be annoyed or amused. She slid into the driver’s seat as Bianca dropped her swim bag on the floor in the backseat and then took her place beside her.

  “Since when?” Bianca asked sarcastically. “You haven’t been out on a date for two years.”

  “I have too. I went out with Dennis Buckner just last month.”

  Bianca cocked her head to one side and gave her sister a knowing look. “You gave him a ride to a fireside because his car broke down, and I was with you. That’s not a date.”

  “He thought it was.”

  “That would explain why he’s been moping around ever since.”

  “I’m just not interested in dating right now, okay?” Carina shot Bianca
a meaningful look. “Just let it go.”

  “Fine, but it’s your loss.” Bianca wiggled her eyebrows and shot her sister a grin. “Jay is hot.”

  Carina just shook her head and laughed. “You know, eventually you’re going to figure out that looks aren’t everything.”

  “And eventually you’re going to find a guy who is going to melt away this ice queen thing you’ve got going.”

  “Tell you what. You drop this sudden, annoying obsession you have with improving my social life, and I won’t ask what you got on your chemistry test today.”

  Bianca debated for less than half a second. “Deal.”

  9

  “You never mentioned that you took on another swimmer,” Jay said casually as he carried his dinner plate to the sink. “I thought you said six was your max.”

  “It just kind of happened,” Pete muttered.

  “Those Channing girls didn’t give your dad much of a choice,” Sandra Wellman told her son. “Bianca is definitely persistent.”

  “At least she listens.” Pete shrugged. “Unlike Danny. I swear if he would put any effort into his practices, he could make the Olympic team with his eyes closed.”

  “He has to want it, Dad. You’ve said so a million times. You can’t help an athlete achieve something they don’t want for themselves.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “Why don’t you two go relax in the living room? I’ll finish up in here,” Sandra said.

  “No dish duty?” Jay looked at his mom, surprised. “I thought for sure you would take advantage of having me home.”

  “Oh, I will. Seems to me, the trim could stand to be painted.”

  “I get it. You’re being easy on me tonight so you can put me to work tomorrow.”

  “Maybe.” Sandra reached up and pulled Jay’s face down so she could kiss his cheek. “It’s good to have you home.”

  “Thanks, Mom. It’s good to be home.”

  “Come on and tell me how life has been treating you.” Pete led the way down the hall and into the living room then settled into his favorite recliner. “How are the teams?”