Shooting the SEAL (Saving the SEALs Series Book 1) (11 page)

Gage tried to duck out twice. Once when he’d gone to the bedroom to get some clothes on—he was thinking of trying the balcony for an exit, but Anna came in and pushed him out to deal with her mother while she dressed—and once when room service came. Eloise ruined that plan by dismissing the server and telling him to bring up a decent meal—whatever the hell that was.

Now Gage hung back. Hell, the SEALs should have Eloise on their side. She pushed Anna into changing her clothes and her story. “The idea that a Middleton would be shocked into running from anything by a mere robbery is absurd! We’ll go with a kidnapping—you escaped, assisted by Mr…” She turned to Gage. “What is your name?”

“I’d like my name left out of it.”

Eloise’s eyes narrowed. She glanced from Gage to Anna, but she nodded. “Even better. Anna, you escaped by your own abilities.”

“Mother…Eloise, there was a fire at the house where I was held. I don’t think you want the police involved in this. Just…let’s just stick with the break-in gone wrong. I simply went to stay with friends—a wise move for anyone who has had their home violated.”

Eloise’s mouth tightened, but she merely lifted one shoulder. “Very well. You always were a difficult child. You went to stay with friends. And you are moving. Again. Today, in fact.”

Anna opened her mouth. Gage watched her shut it again. Smart move. He wouldn’t have wanted to go up against Eloise on anything for anything. He also didn’t want Anna back in that place, either.

Breakfast arrived. Eloise wasn’t a picky eater. She downed bacon, eggs, toast, and urged Anna to eat. “Eat early, not late. You know that rule, Anna.” She smiled at Gage—the smile of a woman half her age flirting with a guy—and smoothed a hand down a slim hip. “A woman needs a little extra something as she gets older. Now Mr…?”

“Leave me out of it,” Gage said again.

“I was going to invite you to dinner. Saturday. Six sharp for cocktails.” Eloise turned to Anna. “You may eat light that day. I’m having Vincent cook your favorite—fried chicken.”

Anna rose. She’d put on jeans and a loose top in a bright color, but Gage could see the shadows under her eyes—olive smudges that makeup wouldn’t cover—and how she’d sat with her hands tightly clasped in her lap. She stood and went to the door. “Thank you, Eloise, for handling this.”

Eloise stood as well, smoothed her skirt and walked to the door. She paused there, her back straight and her eyes narrowing. She glanced at Gage. “You do know the authorities will want to speak to you. I’ll hold the press conference later today to give you a little time. Do, my dear, find some makeup. You look terrible.” She swept out.

Anna closed the door behind her and leaned on it. “I am so sorry.”

Gage pushed off the wall and smiled. “For what? She’s going to cover your ass, and mine if we need it. But I think we’d better head off the authorities before your mom does.”

He grabbed her and his phone and headed them downstairs. To be safe, he hailed a cab at random, got Anna inside and asked for the nearest police station. On the way over, he went over what Anna should say.

Yes, she went to her apartment yesterday. She found men there. “Stick to what is true—and what they need to know,” he told her. “They came after you. You ran and hid out with a friend.”

“And the rest?” Anna asked.

“What rest? That’s it. When you’re done, head east and meet me two blocks down the street.”

At the station, he let her go inside. He waited at a hotdog stand across the street. An hour later Anna came out, looking weary. She headed east as he’d told her. He waited to see if anyone followed her. No one did. He stayed behind her, waited as she also waited on the corner of the street where he’d asked her to meet him. Still no one following—no cars hanging around, no shadows.

Coming over to her, Gage took her arm and they started walking.

“Where are we going?” she asked, her voice a little breathless from the fast pace he set.

He shook his head. He set up a random path. Metro for part of it, taxi for another, walking for some. He took them in circles, and gave Kyle a call.

Kyle answered on the first ring. “Come on over to Scotty’s spare.”

“I’ve got Anna with me.”

“That’s fine. We’ve got lunch.”

Scotty’s spare was an extra condo he kept in a secure building. The condo was not under his name—meaning no one could trace them here. Or at least a casual trace wouldn’t work. Gage took two cabs and a detour through the Metro again to get there.

“Are we going in circles?” Anna asked.

“I hope someone is,” Gage said. He buzzed the condo’s number from outside, got admitted to the building and got the once-over from a doorman who looked more like a former-MMA fighter.

He took the elevator up, noticed there were cameras on every floor. He was hoping the feed wasn’t hooked to anything like a network. Security could work both ways—both to keep you secure and let others know where you were.

He stopped at the right door. It opened before he could knock. The smell of burgers and stale coffee that had been on the burner too long hit him at once. The TV was on and football playing, the volume turned low. Gage glanced around.

Scotty, Spencer and Kyle were all here, along with two laptops. The place looked like a guy lived here—no decorations on the walls, sparse furniture, a mountain bike parked in the kitchen.

Kyle stood. “Gage, you’ll want to have a look.” He nodded to the laptop.

Scotty grinned at Anna and asked, “Who’s hungry?”

“I’m starving,” Anna confessed. She came in and nodded to the guys. Scotty gave her a burger. Gage lifted his eyebrows high, and Scotty remembered he might have plates.

Once Anna was seated and eating, Gage glanced at the computer screen. It looked just like what Kyle had said—a list of names pulled out of coded passages that made no sense until you knew something had been hidden inside. He looked at Scotty, at Spencer and finally at Kyle. “I had this idea of leaving Anna with her mother. Am I wrong about that?”

Anna sat up. “Yes, you are.” She glanced down at her half-eaten burger. “I mean, unless…you don’t want me around.”

Kyle stood and put his hands into his pockets. “I don’t want to butt into what’s between you two, but…Gage, we may need Anna. She is still our link to Coran Williams’ company.”

“So you need me?” She sounded perky now—bright, but her smile faded and red flowed up into her face from her neck. Her stare slipped away from Gage’s face. “I mean…you, as in you guys.”

Kyle smiled. “We do. Gage, well, we like to let him figure things out on his own.”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” Gage said. He glared at the others. Finally, he threw up a hand. “Okay, but before this goes any further, Anna needs to know what’s going on. I’ll start.”

“No way. It was
my
mission. I’ll start,” Kyle said.

***

Anna looked from one hard face to the other. She hadn’t known any of these men for long, but somehow she felt safe with them—she wanted to be here. She’d had dreams about yesterday—bad ones. She hadn’t wanted to tell Gage about them, but now, sitting here, eating a burger that had been over-cooked, she felt—alive. She didn’t want to lose that. She didn’t want to lose Gage.

Kyle sat down facing her, his hands dangling between his knees. Anna swallowed a dry chunk of burger, and Kyle said, “You know Gage is a SEAL…we’re a team out of Virginia Beach. I don’t know what you know about SEALs, but we’re usually the guys who go out to deal with rescues, bomb disposal, and basically scary stuff. Each mission is led by a different team member dependent on what skills are required.”

Taking a deep breath, Kyle straightened. “The last mission were we on—I was CO. We were to track down stolen tech and retrieve it or destroy it. Should have been easy. Except it wasn’t. We found the location, the area didn’t seem to be guarded, and all I had to do was make sure we all got in and we all got out safely. I fucked up.”

“Kyle,” Scotty said the word like a warning, but Kyle held up his hand. Anna glanced between the two men. She could feel the tension between them. Kyle looked tired and older than his years, and frustration just about shimmered off Scotty. She glanced at Gage and saw his lips pressed tight—he was keeping his thoughts to himself.

Looking back at her, Kyle said, his voice flat. “We didn’t know it until Nick went down. Master-level sniper on our six. A single shot hit Nick at the base of the skull. He was dead before he hit the ground.”

The burger sat like rock in his stomach. Quietly, Spencer said, “Nick was Kyle’s big bro.” Anna bit her lower lip.

Kyle nodded and stared at his hands. “Navy doesn’t like siblings on the same unit. They hate for a family to lose big. But Nick was filling in for another teammate who was out on family leave—wife just had a baby. For all we know, Nick may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or…” He let the words trail and looked away.

Gage finished the thought. “Or someone wanted Nick dead and they knew where they’d be able to make that happen.”

Looking at Anna, Kyle nodded. “That’s what’s eating at all of us. Why Nick? Why then. I…I’ve been shit-faced drunk for weeks. I…” He stood and walked away, heading into the kitchen.

Gage took up the story. “After Nick’s wake, we found out we were all under suspicion.”

“For what?” Anna demanded. She sat straighter, the burger clenched in her hand. “Not for…your own team member?”

“SOP—standard operating procedure,” Scotty said. “The brass has to check out the guys with a guy when that guy doesn’t come home. It happens. Could be the dead guy had it coming—wouldn’t be the first time SEALs have taken out a bad one. Could be an accident. But…lady, we were set up.”

Gage nodded. “Military ordinance was used. US mil spec stuff—meaning friendly fire took Nick out. Our CO didn’t believe the accusations and he told us…”

“To get lost,” Spencer said. He gave a tight smile. “Or words to that effect.”

Gage nodded again. “We got hold of Nick’s personal effects, but they weren’t particularly helpful. His awards and honors—a wedding photo, a wrapped present for his wife, a flash drive, and a book. A romance.”

Kyle came back in from the kitchen, a steaming coffee mug in his hands. “Know how many SEALs read romance? That’d be about none. I mean, maybe they look at one or two if they’re about SEALs just to see how wrong folks get it.”

Standing, Scotty headed into a backroom and came back with a photo and a book. “We left the present wrapped—we…we hoped to get it to Nick’s wife, but she seems to have disappeared. That’s the book. And that’s Nick’s wife—Natalie.”

Taking the photo, Anna stared at it. She touched the images. The man looked happy—smiling at the camera. The woman—small and dark—seemed vaguely familiar to her. But she focused on the other details.

“This was taken in the company studio. The backdrop’s a custom one—I had it painted by a local artist. It’s supposed to look like the garden outside Monticello. But I wanted more color and the angles changed slightly.” Setting the photo aside, Anna picked up the book and looked at the spine. “This is our imprint but I don’t remember seeing it. Natalie Smalls. Oh wait…N.T. Smalls? She’s the author listed on that file Becks was after—the one that didn’t make any sense.”

Gage nodded. “Now you can see why I headed to Williams Publishing.”

Disappointment lifted in Anna’s chest and tightened hard. “You didn’t come for the shoot.” The words came out flat. She tried to blink away the hurt. He hadn’t wanted to be a model for her—of course not, he was dealing with life and death here. She’d been…convenient. And now she was pushing her way into this when all he wanted to do was get her to step back and leave him alone.

Throat tight, she glanced at the burger in her hand. She put it back on the plate, wiped the congealed grease off her fingers.