“Yes. But there are some pressing issues we need to discuss as soon as possible.” Santo didn’t want to leave Evie, even for a few minutes to explain to the team everything that had happened.
A knock on the door drew Santo’s attention off Evie momentarily. He began to speak, found his throat tight with emotion, and tried again. “Come in.”
Stryker stepped in, his eyes falling to Evie who lay motionless on the bed. If it weren’t for the slow rise and fall of her chest with each breath, her extremely pale skin and dark circles under her eyes would have made anyone think things were far worse than they were. “How is she?”
“She’s going to be fine. She’s both incredibly strong and incredibly lucky. She needs to rest. My only concern is infection.” Phantom summarized for Stryker.
Santo’s attention honed in on Phantom with laser-focus. “You didn’t say anything about that to me. Why are you worried about infection?”
“Don’t worry. It probably won’t get infected as long as we keep the wound clean. I’ve already given her a precautionary antibiotic. Every open wound, especially when exposed to the elements like hers, has a chance of developing an infection. If it happens, we’re more than prepared to take care of her. She’s going to be fine, Santo. Don’t worry.”
“Good to hear.” Stryker looked over at Anya. “Do you think you and Elena can be with Evie while we meet with Santo?”
“Of course. I’m sure Elena is going crazy with worry.”
Santo turned back to Evie, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be back soon, cariña,” he whispered so softly no one else in the room could hear.
Stryker nodded to him firmly as he walked out with him. Elena stood in the hallway, wringing her hands anxiously. Phantom joined them in the hall and went to Elena, wrapping her in his arms and pressing a kiss to her neck. “She’s going to be okay. You’ve got an incredibly tough friend.”
Elena choked out a half laugh, half sob. “I know. Can I see her?”
“Yes. The team needs to talk, so we’ll be up in the conference room. Come get me if anything happens. She’s probably going to stay asleep, though, which is what she needs more than anything.”
Elena nodded and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, nodded to Santo and Stryker, and hurried into Santo’s room to be with Evie and Anya. Stryker looked at Santo as they headed for the stairs. “How are you holding up? A lot has happened in the last week.”
Santo flexed his hands into fists, then slowly relaxed them. “Haslett expected me to come through for him. And again I’ve failed to reach the mission objectives.”
“How many times have we gone into missions all around the world with poor intel? How many times have we lost a target or been too late to save someone because we didn’t have all the information needed to make things happen?”
“Too many to count. I’ve just never led the mission to experience that level of failure.”
“If you look at this as failure all the way around, you’re not going to get out of it what you need.” Stryker held open the conference room door for Santo to follow him.
“What am I supposed to get out of this?”
“Experience. Nothing is more valuable than gaining real-world experience, especially when you are learning how to become the top leader our SEALs need.”
Santo sat in a chair, grateful he had a few moments to speak with Stryker alone before the rest of the team joined them. “Do you think Haslett made a mistake asking me to step into this leadership capacity? Do I need more time out in the field? Am I not ready to be the leader a team like this needs?”
“You’ll never know you’re ready until you put yourself out there. My first missions as a leader were an absolute disaster. If my mentor hadn’t given me the guidance and support I needed, I would have stepped back. I wouldn’t be your team leader today if I hadn’t learned from the mistakes I made. And, just like you, a lot of the things that happened were outside of my control. What you have to learn is how to adapt quickly and adjust to the changes in the mission.”
Santo raised an eyebrow. “The parameters of this mission have shifted significantly. Not only do we need to find out what Francis discovered, but we also need to protect Evie.”
The conference room door swung open and the rest of the team followed Phantom into the room. “Good news about Evie, huh?” Snap asked, taking a seat next to Santo.
Santo let out his breath in a heavy sigh and nodded. “It’s incredible. We’ve been through some tough situations in the past, but I’ve never felt anything like I did when I realized she had been shot. The thought of losing her…” He couldn’t finish his thought and swallowed hard.
“Well, I think that answers my question,” Phantom said smugly.
“What question is that?” Snap asked.
“Leave it,” Santo growled, shaking his head at Phantom in warning. “I need to bring you all up to speed on what’s going on since this morning.” They knew about the letter he’d received, and he went into details about the man attacking Evie in the courthouse, the yet unidentified sniper, the two men he killed at the Mitchell’s home, as well as the final man who shot Evie and he didn’t know if his shots had been successful in bringing him down or not.
“Is this a case of someone trying to cover their tracks and take out anyone involved?” Buzz asked after Santo had told them everything.
“That’s where things get interesting. Evie thinks there may be two different groups involved. She found something in Judge Mitchell’s office, a file with Francis’s handwriting on it. She thinks someone may want that info any way they can get it, including killing her. But she also thinks there’s a chance someone needs her help with the file and wants to keep her alive until they get everything they need.”
“I’m sure they’ll kill her once they have it, whatever it is,” Buzz said.
Santo leaned forward, focusing intently on Buzz. “Seems we have a lead, and I’ll need you to look at it.”
“Does this have something to do with the site on the dark web?”
“Possibly. She found a file that she thinks holds all the information we need.”
“If that’s the case, let’s have at it.”
“I’ll get it to you. Have you had any luck digging further into that dark web game?”
“Tricky damn site. It almost seems like you have to play the game to get any information.”
“So? Are you getting good at the game?”
Buzz shook his head. “Slow. Very, very slow. But I was able to come across some data. There was an offhand comment posted by an anonymous user saying the ‘Puppet Master’ has long strings to play with.”
Santo’s shoulders tensed. They had first heard the term “Puppet Master” on their mission to bring down the human trafficking ring and had been told they would never be able to crack their system and take them down. The idea that they may have a lead on who had the power to issue some of the orders these criminal organizations followed could change the entire scope of their assignment in south Texas. “You think Evie can get us further in the game?”
“I know she can. To the average user, you can’t find the hidden lines of code. But I made it into one room at a point and I saw Evie’s name listed. To get her name branded into the game, you have to be able to read some exceptional code. Code I’ve only seen one other place.”
“David.” Snap growled the man’s name, though they were all thinking it. David served as the master coder, programmer, and overall technology genius that the drug cartel and the human trafficking ring utilized to secretly communicate their messages on the dark web. He essentially served as the illegal version of Buzz for all the criminal activity.
When Buzz noticed on their last mission that the coding and structure of data matched the same as their previous mission, and even matched communication he saw exchanged in private groups on the dark web within the United States, they knew they were facing something unusual. At first, they had all believed the communic
ation existed purely among the drug pushers and sex traffickers operating in the U.S.
Soon, though, Haslett informed them he had reason to believe significant corruption existed in many different levels of every branch of the government, and what Buzz had stumbled upon could be critical. Santo now knew Haslett’s source of information had been Francis. David could be the link to all of it.
“So things are moving along for Francis until someone gets suspicious and asks David to check out the game? Is that what you’re saying, Buzz?” Santo felt as if he sat on a razor edge. He wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to destroy the evil that had invaded his life and killed one of his closest friends and nearly killed the woman who stirred emotions he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Yes. I think a trap had to be set for Francis, but I don’t know how. We’re going to need Evie to show us way more about this game.” Buzz shook his head. “There’s only one way to get in, and that’s by playing. Whoever designed it created secret rooms, and we have to find a way in to get solid answers.”
Santo ran a hand down his face, a weariness settling into his bones. “Now we just need to understand what information Evie thinks she found.”
“We need to make sure we dig into everything so we can shut this down and whoever is hiring the assassins for either group can’t come back and hurt her down the road.”
“I’ll get on it right away. As soon as she can, we need her to get us into that game.”
“What if she doesn’t remember how to access secret rooms? It sounds like she’s been playing it much less heavily than before.” Would Evie have to go into protective hiding? Will she be taken from me and I’ll never see her again?
“She’s going to have to remember. Her life depends on it.”
Chapter 25
Evie felt heavy and weak at the same time. Opening her eyes seemed an impossible task, and she gave up the struggle after a few moments and let sleep claim her again. A slight movement on the bed woke her the next time, and the heaviness didn’t pull at her so strongly. With determination, she forced her eyes open a crack and peered at the room around her.
How did I get to Santo’s room? Why am I even here? As soon as the thoughts entered her mind, memories rushed at her, nearly overwhelming her as images piled on top of images. In her mind’s eye, she saw the man being shot by the sniper, the wind and rain of the hurricane moving inland, the entire Mitchell family dead in the living room of their home, and, finally, the man aiming Santo as they raced towards his truck.
He shot me. I got shot in the chest. Santo had to pull the bullet out. Her hands trembled as she reached for her chest, wondering what she would find. A warm hand caught both of hers, stopping her from examining the ache, and an electric camping lamp turned on, giving the room a faint glow.
Santo shifted on his side in bed next to her, guiding her hands back down to her waist. “How do you feel?” he asked as his hand moved up to press cool fingers against her forehead and her cheek.
She tried to reply, but her mouth felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton. “Thirsty,” she managed to rasp out. He turned to his nightstand and grabbed a cup of water, obviously expecting her need for something to drink. He lifted her head slightly and she took several long sips, enjoying the feel of the cool liquid sliding down her throat.
He set her back down gently and put the cup on the nightstand. “Are you in a lot of pain?”
She tried to take stock of her body, expecting to feel an unbelievable amount of pain, but only a persistent ache told her something wasn’t normal. “No. My body feels heavy, and I feel like I’ve been running for miles and miles without a moment to catch my breath. There’s a definite ache, but it isn’t anything I can’t handle.” She gave him a lopsided smile and ran her fingers through his sleep-mussed hair with her right hand. “I remember you pulling the bullet out. My hero.”
He leaned over her and pressed a sweet, chaste kiss to her lips. “If I were truly a hero,” he murmured against her mouth, “you never would have been shot in the first place.”
Her hand tightened in his hair and he pulled back so she could stare into his hazel eyes. She liked that they were no longer dark with anger or frustration. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t come to get me at the courthouse. No matter what happens, you’ll always be my hero.”
His eyes searched her face, and she could tell he wanted to say something from his expression, but he seemed to talk himself out of it. Finally, he drew a deep breath and smiled at her. “I’m just so relieved you’re okay. It could have been so much worse.”
Evie ran her finger down the scar along his temple. “What is it? What aren’t you saying?”
“Do you—right before you fell asleep, you said something to me. Do you remember what you said?”
Evie tried hard to concentrate on the moments after he had taken the bullet out. Everything seemed to be foggy. I think I’m falling for you. Her words entered her mind with the intensity of a lightning bolt, and she bit down on her lower lip, knowing her cheeks had turned bright red. “Yes. I remember what I said.”
He ran his fingers along her eyebrows, down her nose, and traced her lips. “Did you mean it, or were you just feeling very sentimental because of the morphine?”
She watched the expressions on his face closely, but he gave no indication of his thoughts about what she had said. “Does it matter to you? Wait, no, that didn’t come outright. What I mean is… How do you want me to answer?”
“I’m not going to tell you how to feel, Evie. If you genuinely are developing feelings for me, we need to talk about it. If the morphine made you say something you hadn’t thought about, I understand that, too.”
“Do you have feelings for me?”
He watched her for several long moments and she nearly retracted her question. “I wouldn’t have asked you to be my girlfriend if I didn’t.”
Her heartbeat so hard she knew he had to hear it. With her hand still in his hair, she tugged on his head and pulled him down to her, and he responded to her silent demand with a kiss that made her toes curl under the sheet. “I meant it,” she said breathlessly when he pulled back. “It had nothing to do with the morphine. I never thought I could feel so strongly for a man again after everything I went through. But with you—I don’t even know how to describe it. Everything just feels right.”
He let his breath out slowly and pressed his forehead to hers. “I really wish you weren’t injured right now, because you have no idea how bad I want you.”
Remembering the last time they were intimate together and the incredible pleasure they shared, her heart hammered even harder. “Um, so this may be a silly question to ask, but am I really that injured?”
He chuckled and pressed another kiss to her lips. “You’re still under the influence of the morphine, which is probably why you think we could be active. You’re going to be very sore for a few days at least.”
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
Santo groaned and shifted closer to her, allowing her to feel the extent of his desire pressing against her hip. “You’ve got to stop tempting me. I won’t do anything that could slow down your recovery or hurt you. So we both need to be on our best behavior for a little while.”
Evie slid her hands from his hair, down his bare torso and stomach and cupped him through his boxer-briefs. She wished he didn’t have any clothing on at all. He cursed softly under his breath when her fingers slid under the waistband and stroked the smooth skin of his erection. “What if it could help me recover faster? We should be open to all ideas, you know.”
His increased breathing rewarded her movements, and she slid her hand up and down his length, stroking firmly. “Evie—you’re torturing me.”
She was beginning to breathe rapidly as well. “How do you think I feel? Touching you like this…It reminds me of that night in my apartment.”
He groaned and she gasped when his work-roughened fingers ran across her hip bone and dipped inside her panties.
The moment his fingers dipped down to discover how excited she had become, she moaned and lifted her hips, trying to encourage him to press harder and deeper against her.
The movement put unexpected pressure on her wound and she let out a small whimper of pain, her hand faltering in its rapid movement. He instantly withdrew his hand, pulling back and sitting up in the bed, staring down at her with concern. His fingers moved to the bandage over her wound and carefully pulled back the tape and gauze.
He let out a soft sigh. “You didn’t pull any of your stitches.” His gaze jumped to her face. “How bad is it hurting? Do I need to get Phantom?”
“No, absolutely not. I would feel humiliated if he asked how I hurt myself!”
“I’ll explain that I’m just too irresistible and you couldn’t control yourself and tried to seduce me.” He flashed a crooked grin.
She closed her eyes and smiled. “I know you think you’re being cute right now, but that’s basically what just happened.”
“Really?” She felt him settle down alongside her again, though not pressed as intimately as before. “You were trying to seduce me?”
She opened her eyes to find his grinning face hovering over her. “Yes. You don’t have to sound so conceited about it.”
“I’m flattered. I knew I could be charming, but irresistible is a new achievement for me.”
She sighed with resignation. “So I guess you were right. We can’t thoroughly enjoy each other right now.”
“Evie, I don’t have to be having sex with you to thoroughly enjoy you. Just talking to you and being with you is amazing. Granted, sex with you is the best I’ve ever had, but—”
“Really?”
“What?”
“You just said sex with me is the best you’ve ever had. I find that hard to believe. You are such an incredibly handsome man and erotic lover and you could have any woman in the world. Now that I think about it, you’ve probably been with many women who make me seem like a joke.”
Protected in His Arms: An Elite SEAL Rescue (Texas Elite Seals Book 3) Page 24