SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series

by Lola Silverman

  Sparks grunted. “Would you guys shut it? Why do you have to be such assholes?”

  Bones chuffed, and Sparks heard a chair scrape as the big man sat down. “Can we get back to business now that we’ve all established that Jaipriya is not a target?”

  Sparks felt Jaipriya take a deep breath. Then she pulled away from his embrace and turned to face the rest of the group. “My name is Jaipriya Bhatia. Yesterday I found out that my father has been standing by while dozens of women are kidnapped and sold into slavery. Do any of you have fathers?” She waited for the nods and shrugs of agreement around the room. “Tell me. What would you do if you discovered something like that about your father? Would you instantly believe it? Would you need proof? Would you want to believe that there was some reasonable explanation?” Her expression was heartbreaking. “I know that you are searching for someone precious. I know that some of you are searching for answers. Well, so am I. I want to know what reason a man I love and respect could have to do such a low, despicable thing. I want to know why. So instead of accusing me and trying to beat me into telling you something that you believe I am trying to hide, consider this—I want to know everything just as badly as you do.” She pressed her lips together. “And if I discover that my father is behind this travesty, I will do whatever it takes to bring him down right along with the al Armeen Saud princes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Sparks sat beside Jaipriya at the table. He had moved his chair so that he was slightly behind her. This allowed him to put an arm around the back of her chair. He’d be the first one to admit that he was being ridiculously possessive, but he just didn’t care. There were papers and files spread all over the table. Arguments broke out periodically as people shared bits and pieces of information that they had gleaned from some portion of the investigation. It was really just one big mess.

  “Wait!” Cassidy held up both hands, palms out. Then she pointed at Jaipriya. “You’re saying that the best way to start this thing is by calling the IRS?”

  “Would you not agree that entangling all of the American club owners in investment fraud investigations by the IRS would remove the American financial base from Hasim and Jabar’s operation?” Jaipriya’s tone was utterly reasonable.

  It occurred to Sparks that he had never asked her what her major was in college. She was more than brilliant with the business end of things. Her brain was very elastic, and she could see a problem from multiple angles, as though she had a lot of experience in something like finance or even chemistry.

  Cassidy made a face. “I hate the IRS!”

  “Oh, come on.” Marina rolled her eyes. “You’re a school teacher. It’s not like you ever have to pay taxes.”

  “Hey!” Cassidy looked affronted. “I pay taxes, and union dues too.”

  Tasha bristled a little bit. It was obvious that she and Cassidy had become pretty close friends in the last few weeks. “You know, Cassidy lost her job when all of this first started. Plus she had to deal with a creepy stalker who was eventually shot by people who were trying to kill her. I think she’s earned a reprieve on the tax thing.”

  Sparks could see Jai trying to process all of this. No doubt the poor woman was a little overwhelmed by the horror stories she was hearing. Being attached to this investigation certainly hadn’t done anyone any favors.

  “I know someone at the IRS,” Bones said slowly. “I could call in a favor.”

  Sparks didn’t bother trying to hide his shock. “Dude, you know someone at the IRS? You just throw that out there casually? Is there a reason why you haven’t offered us help with our taxes in the last few years? Hmm?”

  Bones lobbed a piece of wadded up paper across the table at Sparks. “It’s not that simple, moron.”

  “It never is,” Sparks agreed.

  “So if I call this guy,” Bones hypothesized, “what do I tell him?”

  “Where’s that list of Inner Circle bimbos?” Sparks asked, not daring to plow through the paper on the table.

  “Right here.” Tasha came up with a list that Yates had compiled from information he and Romero had managed to scrape together. “So take this and tell them that these men should be investigated because they’ve invested bogus foreign business ventures set up to cover their assets here in the US. Chances are the IRS already has something, they just can’t prove it or have had other things on their minds.”

  Sparks felt for once as if it were really coming together. Then Jaipriya got to her feet. “I need some air.”

  She bolted for the door. Seconds later Sparks realized everyone was staring at him. “What?”

  “Go after her!” Cassidy said irritably. “Are you really that oblivious?”

  “It’s not obliviousness,” Tasha suggested. “He’s just got more than the average dose of male in him.”

  Sparks got up and followed Jaipriya outside, more to get away from Cassidy and Tasha’s ribbing than anything else. The women were like a couple of pit bulls when they got going on a subject.

  He closed Yates’s thick metal door behind him with a clang and looked both ways on the darkened street to see where Jaipriya had gone. He shouldn’t have ever let her out of his sight anyway. Not down here. She wasn’t used to areas like this. It was far from a slum, but it was getting on past evening, into the twilight hour, and the foot traffic on the street was mostly from the bars surrounding them.

  “I’m right here.” Her voice drifted out of the shadows surrounding Yates’s building.

  There was an alley between Yates’s basement entrance and the next building over. Jai appeared to be sitting on a set of steps that might belong to a warehouse or some sort of industrial space. Sparks moved in closer and sat down beside her.

  It was several minutes before she spoke. “Your team hates me.”

  “That’s a pretty bold statement considering you just met them.” He wondered how to alleviate her fears when it was very possible that she was getting an honest vibe. “What makes you believe that?”

  The look of exasperation on her face was priceless. “Really? Surely you’re not so oblivious that you did not notice how they pick on everything that I say.”

  “Wow,” he mused. “‘Oblivious’ must be the word of the night.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” he said quickly. “And I’m telling you that they would pick on anything that anyone had to say. It’s not really being argumentative, it’s more about trying to cover all the angles, you know?”

  “No.” Jai stood up and scuffed the toe of her sneaker against the pavement. “I don’t know. In my regular life I was respected enough that people did not require me to prove every single idea or statement beyond doubt.”

  “I’m sorry I dragged you into all of this.” Sparks truly meant it.

  “Why do all of you call each other by your last name?”

  The question seemed random, and he had no idea where she could be going with this, but there was no harm in answering. “It’s a military thing. We’re called by our last names, generally. That’s the name on your uniform and the one the sergeant uses in boot camp when he reams your ass.”

  JAI COULD NOT even imagine what something like boot camp would be like. She was just about to make a comment to that effect when she saw something across the street that made her duck quickly into a shadow between the buildings.

  Sparks was gazing at her as though she had lost her mind. “Jaipriya, what’s wrong?”

  “You don’t see them?” She pointed to a bar across the street.

  There were half a dozen men standing out in front of the dive. Or at least her father would have called it a dive. Jai had been to several such places in Baltimore with her school friends. Her parents didn’t frequent bars. Perhaps her father would change his mind if he saw Hasim and Jabar walking into one.

  “Damn,” Sparks murmured, letting her know that he had seen exactly what she did. “What are they doing down here?”

  Jai was almost afraid to say it out loud. “They cann
ot be searching for me, can they?”

  “Surely not,” he murmured. “Would they know you were gone? Would your father tell them so quickly?”

  “I don’t know.” Jai couldn’t decide what to believe about Pita anymore when it came to honesty. The man had apparently been lying to her and her mother for years. Or maybe not her mother. That one was hard to make a judgment on. “What could they be doing?”

  Sparks shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll have to go grab Romero and do some recon. We’ll find out.”

  While Jai stood back here and pretended to be a helpless damsel in distress who would never know what was going on unless someone decided to tell her, after they’d already made half a dozen decisions based upon their findings? No, thank you. Jai wasn’t going to be that woman. She was strong and independent, and Sparks had just better get that through his thick head.

  Before she had even consciously made a decision about what she was going to do, she had started walking toward the bar. Seconds later she was jogging.

  “Jaipriya!” Sparks’s harsh whisper drifted after her, but she didn’t slow down.

  She kept going until she hit the front door of the bar. The first thing she saw was Jabar standing just inside. She spun sideways until her slender body was hidden behind the big wood-paneled sections on either side of the doors. Jabar was talking to Hasim. Thank God they hadn’t seen her, but it had been close!

  Taking a few deep breaths for courage, she tilted her body just so she could see what was going on. From the corner of her eye she saw Sparks duck into Yates’s front door. No doubt he was mobilizing SEAL team whatever in preparation to come and save Jaipriya from her foolish decision to play spy. She didn’t care. She wanted answers, and she wanted them firsthand.

  Jabar and Hasim disappeared from the area right in front of the door. Jai could only assume that they had been given a table. She ducked low and pulled the door open. Then she scurried inside and took refuge behind a hostess stand. Perhaps this place was just as much grill as it was bar. A hostess stand usually meant a restaurant of some kind. Not that Jai had much experience with pub fare or bar food.

  “Can I help you?”

  Jai looked up to see a young woman dressed in black pants and a black, short-sleeved T-shirt. Her nametag labeled her Kelly. Kelly appeared to be in her early twenties, like Jai. Making a split second decision, Jai sprinkled some truth on a dramatic lie. “Those men you just sat are my horrible fiancé’s brothers. I don’t want to marry the little ass, and I’m hoping that I can spy on his brothers and find out something that will make my father allow me to call off the marriage.”

  “Oh my God!” Kelly whispered, her eyes huge in her face. “You have one of those arranged marriage thingies? That’s awful!”

  “It does suck.” It wasn’t like Jai was exaggerating that point. “Will you help me? I just need to sneak into a booth near enough to hear what they are saying.”

  “Of course!” The hostess bit her lip thoughtfully. “The booth right behind them is empty. It’s a big round corner booth. If you just tuck yourself really far back in there, nobody will see you. Keep an eye out though. If one of them goes to hit the head, he’s going to have to walk right by your table.”

  Hit the head… It took Jai several seconds to realize that Kelly was talking about the bathroom. “Got it. How do I get over there?”

  “Walk right behind me. I’ll seat you in that booth, but we’ll take the long way around to it. You’re shorter than I am. Look the other direction and don’t make a big deal out of it. You’d be shocked at how completely unaware most people are about that sort of thing.”

  Excitement made Jai’s heart race. Blood rushed in her ears, and she felt more alive than she had in years. She nodded eagerly to Kelly the hostess, and the two of them began the trek around the restaurant to the booth where Jai would be able to eavesdrop.

  Kelly kept up a leisurely pace, and Jai was shocked at how easily the young woman seemed to be able to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Jai followed her lead and forced herself to stand straight and walk at a normal pace. There could be no hunching as she walked, and no obvious hiding. She would give herself away immediately, and then who knew what would happen!

  They got closer and closer. The booth was just ahead. Kelly made a wonderful screen, and Jai carefully averted her face without being too obvious. She could tell that Hasim and Jabar were having a very serious conversation. Both men were seated across the table from each, other and they were leaning in close to speak. They were talking in Arabic. It was going to take her a little bit of slogging through the cobwebs in her brain before she could really understand them. Her Punjab was good, her Arabic only passable.

  “Shit,” Kelly muttered as she seated Jai at the corner table. “Can you understand that crap they’re talking?”

  “Pretty well,” Jai assured her. “Thank you for your help.”

  “If you need anything, just ask.” Kelly nibbled her lip. “I’m going to tell the waitress that you’re just hanging there for a minute to wait for someone. Hopefully that will keep her from bothering you too much.”

  “Thanks again,” Jai said warmly. Maybe not everyone was out to poke holes in her opinion of humanity. It was good to know there were still nice people in the world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sparks felt as though his heart were being ripped out through his nose. He’d never experienced this sort of fear before. It was absolutely nonsensical. In fact, it felt as if he were perched on the edge of sanity. He stood there and watched Jaipriya run toward the bar as though she hadn’t heard him ask her to wait. What was she thinking?

  “Would you calm down?” Romero snapped in a harsh whisper. “You’re going to blow this operation, and then Bones is going to break your neck.”

  “This is stupid,” Sparks muttered. “We should just go retrieve her and get out. Why are we waiting here?”

  The three of them were in the alley beside the bar’s back door. Bones was up next to the door, a little penlight in his hand. Marina was picking the lock. That was one thing that Sparks had to give the woman credit for. There was not a lock that Marina Reyes could not open. As Bones explained it, being in captivity for so long and being locked in a cage had fucked with Marina’s head in a big way. The woman never went anywhere without her lock picks, and there wasn’t a lock around that could hold her.

  “There,” she whispered. Then she stood on tiptoe and kissed Bones on the cheek. “If you get yourself killed I’m going to raise you from the dead just to kick your ass.”

  “Sure thing, baby,” Bones murmured.

  Then Marina stepped back, and the three SEALs entered the bar through the side door. They immediately found themselves in a storage area. It was easy to wind their way through shelves and cases of liquor and foodstuffs. With Bones on point, they followed the sounds of the kitchen until they caught sight of the bustling area full of make tables and steamy food cooking on stoves and in fryers.

  “Left to the dining room,” Romero suggested. “We need to get a layout of the room and find out where the princes are seated.”

  They were lucky that the place wasn’t busy. Bones found a place where they could tuck back into a wait station that didn’t appear to be used very often. There weren’t any pitchers or water or iced tea, and the soda fountain dispenser was non-functioning back here.

  Sparks grabbed Romero’s arm. “What about Jaipriya?”

  “Whoa, man, chill out!” Romero turned around and gave Sparks a look that suggested he had lost his damn mind. “I get it. Okay?” Romero assured him. “But you’ve got to calm down, or you’ll just blow it.”

  “Right.” Sparks had never felt so damn overwhelmed and completely in over his head in his entire life. The room was practically spinning. “Do you see her?”

  Bones snorted. “The princes are right there, eleven o’clock, in a booth. And Jaipriya is right behind them.” Bones paused a minute as if he were assessing the situation.
“Actually I have to give the woman credit. She’s hunched down in that booth and there’s no way they know she’s there. She’s in a position to hear everything they say.”

  “Why are they here to begin with?” Sparks muttered. “It makes zero sense.”

  “I’d ask Jaipriya,” Romero joked. “She’s the one sitting there taking notes.”

  Sparks was sick to his stomach wondering how these guys could just blow off the fact that Jaipriya was a sitting duck. Quite frankly it was starting to piss him off.

  “Shit.” Romero’s tone changed, and he tensed.

  Sparks couldn’t really see. He half suspected that was intentional. Both Romero and Bones knew that if Sparks saw something about to happen to Jaipriya, he would dive in and worry about consequences later.

  “One of them looks like he might be about to get up and hit the head,” Romero muttered over his shoulder. “He’s going to go right by Jaipriya when he does. The bathrooms are on the other side of her booth.”

  “What?” Sparks started to stand, but Romero was already on it.

  He put one hand on Sparks’s shoulder and shoved him back down. “Don’t underestimate that woman. She’s smarter than you give her credit for.”

  Was that really how it was for Sparks? Did he not give Jaipriya credit for thinking on her feet? He didn’t feel like that was true. He was just tired of dragging her into crappy situations. It was as if he’d been slowly tearing her life to pieces, brick by brick, since the moment he had met her while rummaging through her father’s office.

  “Okay.” Bones squatted down and half turned so that he could talk to both Sparks and Romero. “So we’re going to wait until one of the princes heads for the bathroom. Then I’m going in.” He held up his hand to forestall any arguments. “I’ve met these bastards several times overseas. They know who I am. They know I’m part of Trapp’s unit. I want them to know that we’re onto them. They’re arrogant enough to flaunt something in our faces just because they think they can.”