Kitabı oku: «Navy Seal Spy»
“Protection is my job, and I know I blew it before, but I’m not going to make that mistake again.”
Her lashes fluttered against her smooth cheeks. “I wasn’t in any danger when you left me to do another tour.”
“You were in danger of erecting your hard shell again. I’d broken through. I’d made you feel safe and loved, and then I snatched all that away.” He skimmed the pad of his thumb along her jaw. “And I never even said I was sorry.”
“You did what you had to do.” She shrugged, and he put his hands on her raised shoulders.
“Don’t. Don’t pretend it didn’t hurt. Don’t pretend I didn’t betray your trust, your … love.”
Her chest rose and fell as she twisted her fingers in her lap. “Liam, I …”
He held his breath, waiting for the words he’d needed to hear from her two years ago.
Instead an explosion rocked the car and lit up the night sky.
Navy SEAL Spy
Carol Ericson
CAROL ERICSON lives with her husband and two sons in Southern California, home of state-of-the-art cosmetic surgery, wild freeway chases and a million amazing stories. These stories, along with hordes of virile men and feisty women, clamor for release from Carol’s head. It makes for some interesting headaches until she sets them free to fulfill their destinies and her readers’ fantasies. To learn more about Carol, please visit her website, www.carolericson.com, “Where romance flirts with danger.”
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For LRF, my future Navy SEAL
Contents
Cover
Introduction
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Extract
Copyright
Chapter One
A soft footfall outside the door raised the hair on the back of Katie’s neck. With her gaze riveted to the dull silver handle of the door, she watched it go down slowly and then click against the lock.
She spun around on the toes of her low-heeled shoes and launched toward the closet. Good thing she’d mapped out an escape route days ago after studying the layout of the offices. Of course, the closet would be more like a trap than an escape if someone decided to investigate.
Holding her breath, she slipped into the claustrophobic space and crouched behind some boxes. She had a sliced-up view of the office through the slats on the closet door.
The door to the office swung open, and the figure of a man filled the frame. “I didn’t expect to see you here this late.”
Her heart slammed against her chest, and she rocked back on her heels with her rehearsed excuse running through her head.
A woman answered from the hallway. “I forgot some papers in my office and wanted to do some work at home. What’s your excuse?”
The blood rushed to Katie’s head, and she planted her hand against a box to steady herself. She pressed her other hand against her mouth to stifle her panting breath. Of course, nobody could see her through the slats and behind the boxes—yet.
The man, Garrett Patterson, responded. “I thought I’d left my office door unlocked and came back to check it out. I had no intention of doing any more work, unlike some people. You work too hard, Ginger. Do you ever turn off that brain of yours?”
Ginger Spann’s tinkling laugh sounded close. She must’ve entered the room behind Garrett.
“Just like a man to think a woman has to turn off her brain to relax or...enjoy herself.”
The door to the office clicked shut, and the soft sounds of rustling material floated across the room.
Katie swallowed, poked her head out from behind a box and squinted through the slats on the closet door. She couldn’t see heads, only bodies, and those bodies were doing some naughty things to each other.
If she wasn’t in hiding, she could record this encounter and turn it over to Human Resources—if they had an HR department and if she was a snitch. Neither was the case.
As Garrett pushed Ginger against the desk, she groaned, and Katie almost groaned along with her. How long would she be trapped here while these two went at it?
Garrett murmured. “I never thought you were interested before, even though I tried my damnedest to entice you. I’ve been waiting a long time for this, Ginger.”
“Mmm, so have I, Garrett. So have I.”
Someone gasped. Garrett? Who knew cold, uptight Ginger Spann had the moves to bring a man like Garrett to his knees?
Garrett slumped across the desk, and Katie drew back from her peephole as his face appeared in her line of sight. His mouth gaped open, and his eyes bugged out of their sockets.
What was Ginger doing to him, and could she give lessons?
Then Ginger shifted from beneath Garrett’s body and pushed him to the floor, where he fell in a heap, his pale face still turned in Katie’s direction.
Katie drove her fist against her mouth. Garrett looked...dead.
Ginger straightened her pencil skirt and smoothed her hands over the fabric. She crouched next to Garrett’s body, but Katie couldn’t see her face.
Ginger must be in shock. Her movements, slow and deliberate, didn’t look like those of someone who’d just had a guy drop dead on top of her.
Katie watched, her mouth dry, as Ginger felt for his pulse. Then Ginger’s hand plunged into his pocket.
Katie froze, afraid to move one muscle, as Ginger searched Garrett’s body. What the hell was she doing? Why wasn’t she calling 911?
When Ginger rose to her feet, Katie gave a silent sigh of relief. Maybe Ginger was just trying to cover her backside—literally. As far as Katie knew, Garrett was a married man. She knew nothing about Ginger’s marital status, although rumors had been circulating about her and the big boss. The woman was as cold as an icicle.
Katie heard the tones of cell phone buttons, and her stomach dropped. Once the EMTs swarmed this place, what chance would she have of escaping? It could be hours. She could be discovered.
“We’ve got a problem.” Ginger’s sharp tone was a one-eighty from her breathy pillow talk with Garrett. “I got here all right, but Garrett Patterson was here before me.”
Ginger paused and then lashed back. “How the hell am I supposed to know? I couldn’t risk it. He’s dead.”
Katie swallowed.
“This is your problem. You’re the one who lost your badge in his office. Send one of your minions over here to help me out. Now.”
She must’ve ended the call because she’d stopped talking. Ginger moved toward the door and out of Katie’s sight, but Garrett’s dead eyes still stared at her in her hiding place.
Both she and Garrett had stumbled on more than they’d bargained for. Garrett had forgotten to lock his office door when he’d left for the day, and Katie had been careening down the hallway looking for an unlocked door.
Garrett’s action had gotten him killed, and hers had gotten her trapped—but had also confirmed her suspicions about her place of work. Now, if she could only get out of this situation alive.
A soft tap on the door had Katie’s heart hammering again.
The door opened and Ginger whispered. “Did anyone see you?”
“No. Besides, I have an excuse for wandering the halls at this hour.”
“You’re an idiot. How did you manage to lose your badge?”
A pair of legs encased in gray pants with a black stripe up the side came into Katie’s line of vision. Security.
“My plastic badge holder cracked on one side. It must’ve fallen out, but at least I figured out where.”
“Yeah, you’re a real genius. Get a new badge holder. Patterson was already suspicious. Finding your badge in his office would’ve amped up his suspicions even more.”
The security guy whistled and crouched beside Garrett’s lifeless body. A hand with a bird tattooed on the back reached for Garrett’s throat. “How’d you do him?”
“As far as you’re concerned, he had a heart attack.”
“With his fly down?” The security guard chuckled.
“That’s why you’re here. Set it up.”
“Fingerprints?”
“Don’t worry about fingerprints. I have every right to be in Garrett’s office, and nobody’s going to be doing a criminal investigation here if you stage it correctly.”
The guard hoisted Garrett’s body up and dragged him out of Katie’s view. Unfortunately, the two conspirators exchanged very few words as they positioned Garrett at his desk and straightened up the office.
Katie hadn’t noticed a security guard’s badge when she’d first entered Garrett’s office, which seemed like hours ago now, but she hadn’t known what to look for. It was the first time in two weeks of searching that she’d discovered an unlocked office, and she’d meant to take advantage of it.
If she’d found that badge first, there’s no telling what she could’ve discovered about her employer, Tempest...and Sebastian’s suicide.
“That should do it.” The security guard cleared his throat. “Should I close his eyes?”
“Why? People die with their eyes open all the time.”
“I don’t know. He looks kinda...surprised.”
“He was.”
Katie shivered. Why kill Garrett unless she suspected him of returning to his office to get the security guard’s badge? Why would he do that? Was it because he had his own doubts about Tempest?
The security guy’s shoes squeaked as he crossed the floor. “Should I discover him tonight?”
“Let someone else discover him tomorrow morning. Keep a low profile.”
“He’s a married guy. His wife might come looking for him or start calling around.”
“Garrett’s wife is out of town.” Ginger made a clicking noise. “He must’ve told me that ten times this week.”
“Then he’s someone else’s problem.”
Ginger brushed past the closet door, and Katie’s heart stuttered as she caught a whiff of Ginger’s light, citrus perfume.
“I’m leaving first. Wait at least a minute and then get lost.”
“Should I leave the door locked or unlocked?”
“Leave it unlocked—the easier for someone to find him tomorrow morning.”
“I hope this works.”
“Of course it’ll work. I didn’t slit his throat. The drug I gave him mimics a heart attack, and that’s all you need to know.”
The door clicked open and shut, and Katie eased out a short breath. Ginger terrified her—even more now.
The security guard hummed a tuneless song as Katie closed her eyes and counted the seconds until his departure. Her muscles ached with tension.
Just when she thought she’d be holed up in the closet all night, she heard the door open and close and blessed silence descended on the office. Leaning her forehead against the nearest box, she released a noisy sigh.
She shifted her stiff body and pressed her eye against the slat in the door. As far as she could see, the room looked empty, not that she expected Ginger or the security guard to pop out from behind the desk—but she wouldn’t put it past them.
Unlike Ginger, she had no reason to be in Garrett Patterson’s office, so she shrugged out of her sweater and wiped down the boxes and the inside of the closet door. Still using the sweater, she pushed against the door to open it and crawled out.
She straightened up and then immediately swayed to the side when she caught sight of Garrett slumped in his chair, his eyes still open. She crept toward the desk and reached across the body to shuffle through the contents on top of his blotter. The security guard must’ve found his badge.
Like most employees at Tempest, Garrett worked on a laptop that he must’ve already taken home for the evening.
Her fingers tripped across the edge of a notebook shoved beneath the blotter. She pulled it free and thumbed through the pages of what looked like an appointment book.
As she wiped the desk clean with the sweater, it caught on the arm of Garrett’s chair and she yanked it free. She didn’t want to get any closer to him than she had to.
She shoved her arms into the sleeves and tucked Garrett’s spiral notebook into the pocket. Grasping the door handle with the sleeve of the sweater pulled over her hand, she took one last glance at the room. If she’d had her cell phone with her, she could’ve caught the whole scene on video. Of course, if she’d had her phone with her and it’d buzzed, she could be dead right now.
She pushed down on the handle and inched open the door. The hallway stretched to her right toward the stairwell, and she slipped from the office and tiptoed down the hallway. She’d already checked these other doors earlier—all locked.
When she reached the metal door to the stairwell, she pulled the sleeve of the sweater over her hand again. She didn’t think the authorities would be checking for fingerprints out here, but she didn’t want to be connected to this floor in any way. She’d already tampered with the security camera, and she’d fix its footage later.
Anxious to put as much distance between herself and Garrett Patterson, she charged through the door. She took the stairs two at a time on her way down and then stumbled to a screeching halt as a man materialized in front of her.
A scream roared from her lungs and then ended in a squeak on her lips as she looked up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen—or at least the bluest eyes she’d ever seen since the last time she’d locked lips with the man who broke her heart.
Chapter Two
Adrenaline pumped through Liam’s body as he reached out to grab the woman barreling into him. She tipped back her head, her perfect lips forming a perfect O, and his adrenaline kicked up another notch.
He whispered the name of the woman who’d been haunting his dreams for two years. “Katie-O.”
“You!” Her dark eyebrows collided over her nose. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Me?” He didn’t know whether to give her a shake or a kiss, so he settled for smoothing the pads of his thumbs along her collarbone as he still held her by the shoulders. “What are you doing here?”
“Always answering a question with a question.” She shrugged him off. “I work here.”
His eyes narrowed, and his senses kicked into high alert. “You work for Tempest?”
“Shh. Don’t tell anyone. It’s top secret.” She held her finger to her lips, and her eyes sparkled in the dimness of the stairwell.
He’d never known when to take Katie seriously—that had been one of their many problems during their brief acquaintance. Her dramatic words and gestures were over the top, but they held an ultimate truth. If she did, indeed, work for Tempest, then her work was top secret.
“In what capacity, the recreation adviser?” Last he’d heard, Katie was designing video games.
She removed her finger from her lips and shook it under his nose. “Not so fast. I asked you what you were doing here first.”
He studied her face in the low light. She was angry with him about the way they’d ended things. He couldn’t trust her. Hell, he couldn’t trust anyone.
He lowered his voice and put his lips close to her ear. “What do you think I’m doing here?”
She twitched back from him. “The last time I saw you in San Diego, you had one more tour of duty as a navy SEAL. So, you’re either here as a consultant or you’re training to be an...agent.”
“Brilliant deduction.”
“Which is it?” She wedged her hands on her hips, as feisty as ever.
“It’s top secret.” He winked at her.
The door above them scraped open, and Liam pulled Katie into his arms, lunging for the recessed area between the two sets of stairs. A shaft of light from the hallway crept across the landing above them as the door widened.
A footstep landed on the cement floor, and heavy breathing echoed through the stairwell.
Liam held Katie tighter.
The silky strands of her black hair got caught on the scruff of his beard as he held her head against his chest with one hand. If she wondered why someone’s presence in the stairwell had sent him scrambling for cover, her curiosity didn’t lead her to break away from him or call out to the stranger.
The intruder shuffled onto the landing as if he was peering down the stairs. Then he backtracked and let the fire door slam shut.
Liam remained still for several more seconds, holding Katie, inhaling the sweet fragrance emanating from her skin.
Still in his arms, she tilted her head back, and he could see the pulse in her throat beating wildly. Had his actions frightened her? Aroused her?
Her voice was a low whisper. “Wh-why did you do that?”
“I’m not sure I’m allowed in this building, and I’m bucking for a perfect training score.”
“If you’re not supposed to be here, what are you doing in this stairwell?”
“Are you allowed in this building?”
“I work on the first floor.”
“What are you doing on the fourth floor?”
She pushed away from him and crossed her arms. “Uh, ladies’ room—they’re on the even-numbered floors only, and the one on the second floor is out of order.”
His gaze dropped to her arms crossed over her chest, her fingers biting into her upper arms. She was lying.
“Then maybe we didn’t have to hide. I could’ve said I was visiting you.”
“No!”
The word was out of her mouth before he finished his sentence.
He could almost feel the waves of heat coming from her cheeks as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I—I just think it’s better if Tempest doesn’t know that we were...acquaintances. Don’t you?”
The minute Katie-O had plowed into him, he’d had no intention of revealing his relationship with her to Tempest, and he never would’ve allowed her to do it, either. The fact that she’d come up with the deception first made his life a lot easier...and made him a lot more suspicious.
He raised his eyes to the ceiling and tapped his chin. “I suppose that’s probably for the best. Tempest is a covert agency that forbids you to tell anyone where you work. Is it that way for you, too?”
“Absolutely.” She puffed out a breath. “I had to sign all sorts of forms and agreements to keep my employment here under wraps—even from my closest family members.”
“Even from Sebastian? He’s like a brother to you. I can’t imagine you’d keep anything from him.”
Her pale skin blanched even more and her huge, dark eyes sparkled with tears. “Sebastian’s dead.”
Without thinking of anything but taking her hurt away, he gathered her in his arms again. “I’m so sorry, Katie. I hadn’t heard.”
He hadn’t heard much of anything in the past two years since he’d seen her. He’d been deployed for another year in Afghanistan and then immediately plucked from the navy for...another assignment.
She sniffled against his chest but didn’t offer up any details. If she didn’t want to talk about Sebastian, he didn’t want to ask her to elaborate on the death of the man who’d been the only person she’d called family.
“Is that why you took a job with Tempest in the middle of Idaho, to get away from everything?”
Stepping back, she grabbed both of his hands, her nails digging into his flesh. “Don’t tell anyone here that you know me.”
He’d be more than happy to keep her secret, since that meant she’d be keeping his. “You have my word, Katie.”
“And don’t—” she flung his hands away from her “—call me Katie.”
He opened his mouth to find out what she wanted him to call her, but she spun around and disappeared down the stairwell.
* * *
KATIE RAN HER TONGUE along the inside of her dry mouth as the announcement from the Giant Voice system blared from the speaker in the corner of the office where she shared cubicle space with other employees from various departments.
“All-hands meeting in the building S cafeteria. Report immediately to the building S cafeteria.”
Katie removed her access card from her computer and grabbed her purse from the desk drawer. Hooking it over her shoulder, she joined her coworker Samantha in the line of people heading for the office door.
Samantha cupped her hand over her mouth and dipped her head toward Katie. “What do you think this is all about?”
“I have no idea.” Katie’s gaze ping-ponged among the faces of her other coworkers filing out of the office into the hallway. Their expressions registered everything from boredom to curiosity to fear. The fearful ones, she’d come to realize, were either total newbies like her or long-termers, but she hadn’t yet figured out what they had to fear.
“Hey.” Samantha tugged on Katie’s purse strap. “Do you think all hands include all the hot guys who are over at the gym training every day?”
“I thought we weren’t allowed over at the gym.”
“Don’t be such a Goody Two-shoes, KC. I told you I’d heard there was hot man meat over there, and I was going to check it out.” Samantha smacked her lips. “And I’m here to tell you the reports didn’t lie.”
“You’re going to get yourself fired, Samantha.” If spying on the agents got Samantha fired, then she couldn’t even imagine her punishment for spying on a murder.
Samantha shrugged. “Whatever. This job sucks, anyway. Too many rules, regulations and restrictions, and not a damned thing to do out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“The pay’s good.”
“That’s about the only perk.” She dropped her voice and moved close to Katie again. “And you can’t tell me you think Mr. Romo is anyone who remotely resembles a normal boss.”
“Quiet.” Katie glanced around at the other Tempest employees streaming into the cafeteria. Maybe Samantha didn’t want to keep this job, but Katie had to keep it—even now that Liam had turned up. Maybe even more so.
How had Liam gotten involved with Tempest? She bit her lip and blinked the tears from her eyes. Probably the same way Sebastian had gotten involved, but she hadn’t come here to save Liam McCabe.
She came to get justice for Sebastian, and she wouldn’t allow anyone to stand in her way—not even Liam.
As she shuffled into the cafeteria, Katie noticed the security guards at each door. She studied their faces, impassive beneath their caps, and wondered which one had helped Ginger last night. If she could get a look at the backs of their hands, she’d know for sure.
“I feel like I should be mooing.” Samantha tossed her hair back and then nudged Katie’s shoulder. “The man parade is here. This must be important.”
Katie jerked her head to the left and watched a line of impressive men, with one woman in their midst, snake through the side door and line up against the wall. Facially, they weren’t all handsome, at least not like Liam, who possessed the classic good looks of a California surfer, but all of them had incredible builds with muscles that went on forever and an air of quiet competence. And these were just the new recruits.
Man meat, indeed.
Had Liam picked her out of the crowd as easily as she had him? As she studied his face across the room, he looked up and met her eyes as if he knew exactly where she’d been standing all along.
Closing her eyes, she allowed herself one delicious shiver as she relived their meeting in the stairwell last night and once again felt Liam’s arms around her. He’d smelled precisely as she remembered—fresh like an ocean breeze, manly and strong.
Her eyelids flew open. And now he was part of Tempest—the enemy.
Pradeep Singh tapped the microphone at the front of the room, and the other managers lined up behind him. Their boss, Mr. Romo, was absent as usual. Ginger took a position to Pradeep’s right, folding her hands loosely in front of her, the business suit, glasses and chignon sending a demure, professional vibe.
But Katie knew better.
“Hello, everyone.” Pradeep waved his hands. “There are some seats up front, but we won’t keep you too long.”
Not many in the crowd took him up on his offer, so he continued.
“I know some of you have been hearing rumors this morning, and some of you early risers heard sirens and may have even seen the ambulance.”
Katie swallowed and hung on to her purse strap. Here it comes.
Pradeep cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to report that one of our own, Garrett Patterson, died at the compound last night.”
A few gasps and oohs and aahs rippled through the room, and Ginger leaned toward Pradeep, covering the mic with her hand as she whispered something in his ear.
Pradeep nodded once. “Garrett had a heart attack in his office last night—in this very building on the fourth floor.”
A wave of sympathetic murmurs swirled through the cafeteria, but Katie felt the air brimming with tension. Was it just the fact that a coworker had died in the building, or did the Tempest employees sense something more? She glanced around the room at the concerned and sad faces—emotions totally in keeping with the announcement.
She continued to scan the crowd and like a magnet, her eyes locked on to Liam’s. Even from this distance she could feel the intensity of his gaze. He’d probably taken note that Garrett had keeled over on the fourth floor—the floor she’d been exiting when she bumped into him on the stairwell. Liam didn’t miss much—except when it came to emotion.
Ginger stepped up to the mic next. “We’ll be taking up a collection for flowers for Garrett’s wife. The memorial service will be back East, so please pay your respects with a little donation.”
Katie clenched her jaw at Ginger’s phony, saccharine tone. Pradeep droned on for a bit more, but she’d tuned out. They’d put the heart attack story out there, and apparently had no trouble selling it to the EMTs who’d responded this morning.
Would that be the end of it? Could she phone in an anonymous tip to the police to check for some sort of heart attack-inducing drug?
“Earth to KC.” Samantha snapped her fingers in front of Katie’s face.
Pradeep had stopped speaking, and the crowd had begun shuffling back to their work areas, talking in low voices.
“Psst.” Samantha pinched her arm. “Let’s exit the same way the agents are exiting.”
“A coworker just died and that’s all you can think about?”
“Between you and me—” Samantha looked both ways “—Garrett had a roving eye. The few times I talked to him, he couldn’t seem to keep his gaze at eye level, if you know what I mean.”
“So he deserves to drop dead at his desk for being a perv?”
“Was he at his desk?” Samantha cocked her head. “I didn’t hear them say where he was.”
Katie shrugged. “Pradeep said he was found in his office, so I just assumed he was at his desk.”
Samantha herded her across the room to the farthest exit door where Liam and the other agents were headed. Would Liam think she was trying to get close to him?
She and Samantha jostled for position, and someone bumped her purse from behind. Gripping the strap, she glanced over her shoulder.
“Sorry.” Liam dropped his eyes to her purse and then stared straight ahead as if she was just another Tempest office worker—not someone who’d shared his bed for eight delicious months two years ago.
As the workers fanned out into the hallway, Samantha poked her in the back. “You see? It worked. One of them actually said something to you.”
“Yeah, he said sorry for bumping into my purse after you pushed me in front of him.”
“Well, that’s a start.”
“Start of some trouble. We’re not supposed to be fraternizing with those guys.” Katie flashed her badge at the reader by the office door, and the red light turned to green.
“I’d like to fraternize one or two of them.” Samantha winked and then ducked into her cubicle.
Katie dropped into her chair and hunched forward to open her bottom desk drawer to put her purse away. As she wedged it into the drawer, she noticed the corner of a white card sticking out of the side pocket.
Pinching it between two fingers, she pulled it free. The words jumped out at her.
Behind the bleachers at noon.
She recognized the writing as Liam’s, and her heart skipped a beat. Should she risk it? She might be able to wheedle some information out of him. She had special ways of handling Liam McCabe—or at least she used to.
She had to find out what he knew. The notebook she’d snatched from Patterson’s office last night had been a bust—just a bunch of abbreviations, a series of numbers and meeting notes.
The rest of the morning crawled by. Samantha popped in to let her know she had to bail on lunch for a meeting with her boss in accounting, which saved Katie from bailing herself.
When the clock on her computer read ten minutes to twelve, Katie grabbed her purse and ducked into the lunchroom to get her sandwich from the fridge. She’d better have some cover for being out at the track on her lunch hour.
Glancing at the gray skies, she turned up the collar of her jacket and crossed the quad. If it started raining, she’d have to abandon the meeting with Liam, and he’d have to reschedule it—or not. What did he want with her, anyway?
She slipped behind the building on the north side of the quad, put her head down and marched toward the gym that had a track behind it. Tempest had taken over an old high school for its compound and had remodeled most of the buildings on campus, even adding dorm-type living quarters for the recruits, but the track and the indoor pool had been maintained.
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