SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series

by Lola Silverman

  “Hookers?” Jai was horrified and fascinated all at once. Of course, that was disgusting, and she should immediately inform him that she would not be associating with him anymore. “Why would you have to get a hooker?” she asked instead. “You’re a wonderful man and incredibly good-looking. Any woman would be thrilled to be your girlfriend.”

  There was a giggled response from outside the door. Then Jai made out a sentence. “Did she just say girlfriend? This is Sparks we’re talking about, right?”

  “What does that mean?” Jai demanded. She jabbed her finger in the direction of the door.

  “It doesn’t mean anything,” Sparks said quickly. “It means that Bones and Marina have big mouths and should”—he raised his voice, obviously to be heard by the other people outside—“mind their own damn business!”

  “I want to go home,” Jai said primly. She marched over to the clothing she had neatly folded and left on a chair the night before. She began to get dressed, intentionally turning her back toward Sparks.

  “Jaipriya, you can’t go home.”

  “Oh, of course!” she said angrily. “I’m trapped here like a hooker! Except I have money. I don’t need anything from you.”

  She hastily managed to dress and pull her shoes on. Dashing to the back entrance of the apartment, she squashed her backside up against the oversized chair and shoved it out of the way. Next she opened the dead bolt. Without allowing herself to look back, she left the apartment and slammed the door behind her.

  SPARKS WASN’T EXACTLY sure what had happened. Somewhere between Jaipriya making his head spin with long-term relationship thoughts and Bones knocking on the door, he had completely lost track of what was going on. How had that happened? He wasn’t even certain what had happened.

  He trudged over to the front entrance and unjammed the chair from beneath the handle. Flinging the door open, he gave Bones and Marina a dirty look. “You might as well come in, now that you’ve made a fucking mess out of everything.”

  “Hey!” Marina’s dark eyes flashed, and Sparks could see that she was about to unleash her temper on him.

  He put his hand up, palm facing toward her. “Rein it back in, lady. I really don’t have the patience for your drama right now.”

  “Hey,” Bones growled.

  Sparks rolled his eyes. “Fine. I went too far. But when I find out that Jaipriya has been hurt because you guys insulted her, I’m going to beat the shit out of both of you in a non-gender-biased fashion.”

  “Why would she be hurt?” Marina was instantly concerned.

  Sparks grimly pulled a shirt over his head. “Because she can’t go home. If she does, she’s going to become The Broker’s—aka Hasim and Jabar’s—next victim.”

  Marina wound her arms around Bones’s waist. “Are you going to go looking for her?”

  “I’m going to try, but to be honest I’m not even sure where to start.” Sparks racked his brain trying to recall whether she’d mentioned anyplace other than her university where she might have sought help. “I don’t know her that well, and she’s been pretty sheltered.”

  “We’ll help you look,” Bones offered. “We need to ask her a few things about her father.”

  “Like what?” Sparks couldn’t believe how defensive he felt about Jaipriya. “It’s not like she was helping with the family business.”

  “No,” Marina agreed. “But she might know something without realizing that she does.”

  “Like what banks he might use,” Bones added. “Yates can hack systems for us if we know where to look. We’re still trying to piece together that money trail. We have an asset prepared to freeze accounts if we can just figure out which ones to target.”

  Sparks scratched the back of his neck. He wished he could just scoop Jaipriya out of harm’s way and put her in his pocket. Everyone seemed determined to use her, even Sparks and his team. For the first time since this crazy situation with Rachel getting kidnapped had begun, Sparks didn’t feel as if he would do anything to find his commanding officer’s younger sister. Sometimes the cost of anything was a little too steep.

  Chapter Nine

  There was almost nothing worse than the knowledge that you had nowhere to go and nobody to trust. Jai walked almost aimlessly down the street just a few blocks from the pub. She had made such an idiot out of herself! How could she have let that happen? Sparks must think her so incredibly naive—which she sort of was—and so very overbearing and needy.

  Jai kicked a pebble and sent it scuttling down the sidewalk. There were a few people out and about on this glorious Saturday morning. It was cool, and the sky was calm and blue. If her life were at all normal she would have been eagerly anticipating a day spent doing something fun. But her life was not normal by any stretch of the imagination.

  She caught sight of a couple across the street coming out of a coffee shop. They held hands and laughed together as though they shared an inside joke. Their body language was subtle and yet hinted at how comfortable they were together. Jai knew that she was staring like a crazed voyeur, but she could not look away. This was what she wanted in life. Not that she suspected this couple of having the perfect life. It was more that they each had someone to share it with.

  A car roared up the street, shattering the moment. Jai turned away and trudged deliberately away from the happy couple. Her feet took her automatically toward the coffee shop. She needed to be careful of her limited supply of cash, but she needed to eat something too, and coffee always made her feel better.

  She entered the shop and walked directly to the counter. Her plain jeans and T-shirt had been selected because they were perfect for crawling about outside and sneaking out of her father’s house. They did not make much of a fashion statement, and Jai was fully aware that she had garnered some not-so-friendly female attention from across the room. Still, what did it matter at this point?

  A grandmotherly type appeared at the busy counter to take her order. “What can I get for you this morning, dear?”

  “An Americano and one of those lovely cranberry orange scones, please?” Jai pulled money from her pocket and handed it to the clerk.

  The woman handed a paper cup to the barista, who quickly began mixing the Café Americano. There was already an underlying scent of coffee in the shop, but now it increased as the frothy drink was poured into the paper cup and then handed over the counter to Jai. She took it gratefully and accepted a petite china plate with her scone.

  By the time Jaipriya took her seat, she had already heard the two young women whispering behind their hands. Jai put her back to the wall and began to crumble off a corner of her scone. She would eat slowly. Her stomach was still feeling queasy after everything she had learned.

  Oh gee, I just found out my entire life is a sham. No big deal, right?

  Tears pricked her eyes. She had never been alone before. Her life had been very controlled and filled with family and friends. She recognized now that most of her friends had been selected and vetted by her parents—mostly her father. It could not be said that the girls she had laughed and giggled with would be any help to her now. Their parents would likely not allow their daughters to speak with Jai now that she was no longer in her father’s good graces. What did that mean for her life?

  Another round of giggling from across the room drew Jai’s attention. Now the two young women were openly pointing at Jai and then making faces at one another. Jaipriya gave the two twenty-somethings a thorough onceover.

  The young women sported Prada bags, Balmain jeans, baggy cashmere sweaters that exposed one shoulder, and enough accessories to make them jingle when they walked. Jai figured the jeans alone probably cost over a thousand dollars. She had a closet full of such things back at her parents’ house. In the past she would have been the one judging someone else’s attire and laughing about the lack of style. It was amazing how several hundred slaves held in shipping containers around the world could change things.

  It was tempting to say something to that e
ffect. Then Jai realized that these young women were the human traffickers’ hunting targets. If those men were truly taking women from trendy nightclubs, these bimbos with the twenty-five-hundred-dollar handbags were exactly what they were looking for.

  Jai suddenly felt as though she would be sick. The little bit of scone she had eaten rolled around inside her tummy, and she clutched her paper coffee cup until she was in danger of crushing it.

  She had no idea how long the young women had been standing in front of her table before she registered their presence. One was tall and blond—at least, she looked tall in her five-inch, heeled, calf-high boots. The other was a redhead with swirls of beautiful cinnamon-colored hair and a pair of boots that perfectly matched her mean-girl counterpart’s.

  “So,” the blond began, “we were totally wondering what kind of fashion disaster causes someone to match a pair of Vigoss jeans with that shirt. Did you only have enough money to buy half the outfit?”

  The redhead snorted. “Yeah. Next time you should totally just finish shopping at Wal-Mart and save your money.”

  Jaipriya was stunned by their blatant meanness. She had never experienced this sort of behavior from the other side. Usually she was the one standing in a group of well-dressed, rich twenty-somethings while they found a weak member of the herd to maul.

  “What?” the blond sneered. “You don’t even have an excuse for yourself?”

  “Actually,” Jai murmured. “I was just contemplating my own horrible behavior over the last twenty-odd years. I used to be you.”

  The redhead looked affronted. “As if.”

  No. They would never believe such a thing, would they? Their narcissistic little souls couldn’t even grasp the concept.

  The bell on the shop’s front door jingled merrily as another customer walked in. The two young women were staring at each other. Then they suddenly started staring at the door. Jai saw a subtle nudge from the blond to her friend. Apparently they’d spotted quarry of some kind. Probably a hot young guy also wearing expensive clothes and a bad attitude.

  SPARKS COULD NOT be certain what was going on, but whatever it was gave him a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He’d only come to the coffee shop because he generally stopped here every day to grab his first cup of Joe. He had needed the pick-me-up to continue searching for Jaipriya. Now he found her right here in this very shop surrounded by what appeared to be human sharks of the female variety.

  He started toward Jai’s table and found his path blocked by a skinny blond with crazy long legs in a pair of boots that looked as though they’d been swiped from a hooker’s closet. The blond beamed at him, and he wondered if he would have found her attractive in another life. For now she looked brittle and very fake.

  “Excuse me,” he said as he attempted to edge his way around her.

  “Hey.” The blond acted as if he’d just introduced himself. “I’m Holly. I was wondering if you’d like to hit the mall with my friend and me.”

  “The mall.” Sparks let the words hang there. He was trying to figure out whether this woman was serious. “Are you a teenager or something?” He raised his hands and took a hasty step back. “I’m a little old for you.”

  “What? No!” She looked horrified. “I’m over twenty-one.”

  “And you want to go hang out at the mall?” Sparks shook his head. This was beyond odd. “Don’t you have a life?”

  “Of course!” Now she was looking as if she had changed her mind about him. She glanced at her friend. “What an ass, right?”

  “Totally.”

  Then Sparks spotted Jaipriya trying desperately not to burst into laughter behind the two women. The sight of her sparkling dark eyes warmed him from the inside out. He made a shooing gesture to the two young women. “Then could you move? I’m trying to get to my friend’s table, and you’re in the way.”

  “Friend?” The derision dripping from the redhead’s tone was enough to prick Sparks’s temper. “You have got to be kidding.”

  “Come on.” The blond grabbed the redhead’s arm and dragged her toward the door. “Obviously he’s a loser too.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jaipriya snorted. “Obviously. Because that knock-off pair of Jimmy Choo boots you’re wearing just screams ‘winner’.”

  “What?”

  Sparks couldn’t decide what had just happened, but the blond now looked affronted and maybe more than a little defensive. “They are not knock-offs!”

  “Yes,” Jai said calmly, “they are. That particular style is the Maloy. Jimmy Choo is super particular about the fasteners they use for the laces. Those are fake. You bought them online, and you know it. So before you go judging people, remember that not everything is exactly what it seems. Trust me. You’re not half as awesome as you think you are. And while I’m at it, let me warn you to stay out of nightclubs for a while. There’s a rash of kidnappings happening. And while I would dearly love to see the two of you brought down a few pegs, nobody deserves that.”

  Sparks watched with amusement as the two women actually bumped into each other on their way out the door. Moments later the owner of the shop appeared at his side with his usual black coffee in hand.

  “Here you go, dear,” she told him warmly. “I’m sure your friend here will appreciate the company. Why don’t you join her?”

  “Thanks, Fran.” Sparks offered a smile, took the coffee, and kissed the old lady’s cheek.

  By the time he sat down at Jaipriya’s table, she was staring at him as though he were a freak of nature. “I thought you didn’t actually live here.”

  “But I come here a lot,” he reminded her. “And when I’m in town I’m a creature of habit. I come here every morning for coffee. I can’t function without the stuff, and the crap they serve in the pub doesn’t cut it for me.”

  “I suppose you should try a bed and breakfast instead of a pub then, hmm?”

  Her deadpan expression made him grin in spite of himself. “You just don’t cut a guy any slack, do you?”

  Her face fell, and he wondered what he’d said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything. I was just being funny.”

  “I know.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry I left like that this morning.”

  “I’m just glad I found you.” He grimaced, not wanting her to know how much mental tap dancing he had done around the dozens of horrible possibilities he’d contemplated for her fate. “I was afraid you might try to go back to your father’s house.”

  “I don’t think that’s an option anymore.”

  “I’m sorry.” It had to be tough to lose a home, no matter what had happened to facilitate the loss. “I never meant to screw up your life the way I have.”

  She snorted. “Are you kidding?” She made a vague gesture that seemed to indicate the two young women who had just left the shop. “I was them.”

  “Pardon?”

  “That was me,” she said softly. “I acted like that. I spent tons of time on my hair and nails, and I bought tons of expensive clothing and jewelry and acted like a total diva all the time. Worse, I was mean to anyone who couldn’t keep up with the latest fashions.”

  “I’m not even sure I can picture that.” He really couldn’t. She had a good sense of humor, and she was also empathetic. That cold, classist way of treating people didn’t seem to fit.

  “You don’t know me,” she reminded him. “Not really. And I think if you did you wouldn’t like me very much.”

  He thought long and hard about what he wanted to say. Finally he took her hand before he spoke. “People do the things they do for a ton of reasons. Usually these reasons make no sense to anybody else, but that doesn’t make them less real. If you acted like those young women, I know that you had a reason for doing so. And the very fact that you can see the pettiness in that behavior now is testament to your strength of character. It takes a lot to admit that we were wrong or that our behavior was mean. Don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart.”

  Chapter Ten

/>   “So you need my help?” Jai didn’t doubt Sparks. She simply didn’t understand how she could possibly have anything to contribute to his investigation, beyond the papers she’d already stolen from her father’s office.

  The two of them were walking together in the sunshine. The sidewalk outside the coffee shop was dotted with people meandering on a Saturday morning. There was a park nearby, and Jai could see a footpath. Sparks seemed to be heading in that direction. It was deceptively relaxing and so blissfully normal. Well, everything except the subject matter, anyway.

  “You might know something without realizing it,” Sparks told her. His gaze seemed to be focused far away. “The problem is that Jabar and Hasim enjoy diplomatic immunity here in the US. They have bought off several different federal agents, military personnel, and even domestic law enforcement agencies. That means we can’t really stop them unless we can cut off their money supply.”

  Jai could not help the sarcastic snort that slipped out when she heard his plan. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I don’t mean to be unsupportive.”

  “But?”

  She pressed her lips together and took another drink of her coffee. Why did they have to think about this? Why couldn’t they just be two people sipping coffee on a morning stroll? Maybe they could chat about the latest blockbuster moving playing at the cinema, or something silly that one of them had seen at work. Why did it have to be Arab princes and dirty money?

  Jai tried to find the right words to explain. “To say that the Armeen al Saud family is rich doesn’t really touch upon the vast amount of wealth that the family has accumulated. It’s stashed all over the world, and they have multiple businesses that feed their income. What is your end game? Do you want them destitute? Do you want them imprisoned? Because neither of those things will happen.”

  SPARKS HATED TO hear the words that she was saying, but he realized that Jaipriya was right. What was their end game? They wanted Rachel back. They wanted the human trafficking to stop. Both were unlikely—if he was truly honest with himself.