SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series

by Lola Silverman

  She was panting. There was sweat beading at her hairline and she felt as though her knees were turning to jelly. What was wrong with her? It was like he had hit the on switch and there was absolutely nothing for it but to fuck until she was too sated and tired to want any more. As if that was going to happen.

  TRAPP WAITED AND waited. Finally he saw the front doors of Isabella’s building open and she tumbled out with a group of other Homeland Security employees that were probably headed to lunch. Instead of making her way toward the street and its varied food carts and corner delis, Isabella turned and went into another building just beside hers. Since the complex only housed Homeland Security offices for the burgeoning and ever growing arm of the American judicial system, there was no doubt in Trapp’s mind where she was going.

  He exited his car in the parking garage and quickly went down two flights of stairs. He exited the garage and headed into the building behind Isabella. There was a man in front of him. Like Trapp, this man entered the stairwell near the entrance to the building. Trapp intended to go upstairs to Ryan Fullerton’s office, which was where he knew Isabella would be headed. Somehow he got the feeling that the man he was now unintentionally tailing had a similar destination in mind.

  Trapp slowed down. He focused on slinking up the stairs as quietly as possible. They had gone up five flights before the man opened a door and headed into the hallway on floor five. It was exactly as Trapp had thought. Fullerton’s office was at the end of the hall on the right. If Isabella took the elevator she would have most definitely gotten there first. Trapp’s intention had been to eavesdrop on her conversation. He had a feeling the other man had other ideas.

  Trapp pressed his back against the wall and opened the door that led from the stairwell to the hallway. There was no way the man hadn’t heard Trapp in the echoing stairwell. Surely he knew he was being followed. Trapp half expected someone to make an attempt to stab him in the throat just as soon as the door opened, but nothing happened. It was as if the man had been too focused on Isabella to think twice about the possibility of being followed.

  Stepping out into the hallway, Trapp made his way carefully down toward Fullerton’s office. The hall was quiet and deserted. It was the lunch hour. It was almost a fair bet that nearly every office was empty of occupants enjoying their fair weather lunch break out in the quad.

  “How could you keep that from me Ryan?” Isabella’s voice drifted down the hallway.

  Nearly ten yards ahead, Trapp saw the strange man pull something from his pocket. Was it a gun? Trapp lengthened his strides. He thought about whether or not Isabella or Ryan might be the target. Maybe it was both. Either way, this person wasn’t waiting.

  “Jabar is dead!” Isabella snarled at her fellow investigator. Her temper was not known to be sweet when it came to being under informed or thwarted in some way.

  The man was lifting his arm. He was going to shoot. Trapp could make out the weapon though he still didn’t know the target. He broke into a sprint. There was only one thing to do.

  Running flat out, Trapp rammed his entire body weight into the shooter. The man had a medium build, but he was solid enough. He grunted as he went down, getting off one shot before the gun went spinning away down the hallway.

  Isabella yelped in shock. That was almost expected. It was the grunt and shout of pain that bothered Trapp. Someone had been hit, but Trapp didn’t have time to worry about that now. He was wrestling with the man on the floor. He managed to get the guy’s hands out to the sides.

  “Who sent you?” Trapp demanded. “Who was the target?”

  “Never tell,” the man said. He was moving his mouth in funny contortions. And when Trapp finally realized what he was doing, the guy was already frothing and having seizures from the poison he’d just ingested on purpose.

  “Oh my God!” Isabella shouted. “What’s happening? What did you do to him?”

  “I didn’t do that,” Trapp shot back. “He poisoned himself.”

  ISABELLA PRESSED HER hands to Ryan’s chest, but she already knew it was too late. She’d only yelled at Trapp about the assailant because she was having difficulty dealing with her friend’s obvious death.

  “Ryan,” she said plaintively. “Don’t you die on me you asshole. You owe me an explanation!”

  Trapp knelt beside Ryan. The pounding staccato of footsteps was coming down the hall from the direction of the elevator. Soon the room would be filled with security personnel. They would all have questions. And why shouldn’t they? A member of the Homeland Security department had just been murdered in his office. But was Ryan the target? What if they had been after her too?

  “Isabella,” Trapp murmured. “Are you all right? I only heard one shot, but I was a little occupied. Did he hurt you?”

  “I’m fine.” She kept saying it. Maybe if she repeated it enough times it would be true. Or maybe Ryan would magically come back to life.

  There were men with stretchers. Two black body bags billowed into view. She shuddered as the shock started to set in. Someone put a blanket around her shoulders. She was going to be fine. Nobody had shot her. Why were they fussing over her now.

  Trapp was there. Good old Alex taking care of everything all at once without any input from anyone else. For once she didn’t care. She wouldn’t have even known what to say.

  “Ms. Rockwood,” someone said. “Can you answer a few questions?”

  “Sure.” She nodded her head, but her head felt heavy and her tongue felt too large for her mouth. Still, they needed information. Right? She wanted them to catch Ryan’s killer. “He’s dead.” She kept saying that. Didn’t she? “The man who shot Ryan is dead.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Someone patted her on the shoulder. Why were they treating her like a victim? She wasn’t a damn victim. She was alive. And that was when she passed out.

  Chapter Four

  Trapp cradled Isabella in his arms. She was so pale and her slack body felt lighter than air. He could not blame her for passing out. It didn’t lessen her appeal or her toughness in his eyes. The woman had been through a lot, but he sensed that she wasn’t going to appreciate any of that once she woke up.

  “Sir?” The EMT raised an eyebrow.

  “Go ahead. Sorry.” Trapp loosened his hold.

  The EMT picked up Isabella’s wrist and then checked his watch as he took her pulse. “I think she’ll be fine.”

  Trapp gently touched her cheek. “Isabella?” He tapped her with two of his fingers, a feather light tap.

  She came awake swinging, her fist connecting briefly with his jaw. Trapp was rocked back for a brief moment. Then he rubbed is jaw and gave a wry smile. “I probably deserved that.”

  “No.” She was breathing sort of heavily. The EMT was back to checking her respiration with a stethoscope. “I’m really sorry,” she told Trapp. “I didn’t mean to punch you. It happens sometimes when I faint.”

  “Do you faint a lot?” he wondered out loud.

  She grimaced. “Only when I see people murdered in front of me. Oh my God, Ryan!”

  “Can you think of anyone who might have wanted the two of you to stop poking around in this?”

  “Who didn’t?” she moaned. “Everyone was on our case! Although”—she trailed off as though she were remembering something specific.

  “Someone in particular stand out?”

  “Well Ryan was just about to tell me why neither of us had been informed about Jabar’s death.” She looked bemused. It gave her face a certain softness that she often struggled so hard to hide.

  He should not have been thinking about that right now. He should have been focused on the case and not on how kissable her lips were at that moment. Trapp utilized every bit of his SEAL discipline to put his mind back on track. “So who would have that information? What person would have the ability to keep that from you?”

  “My unit chief.” She cut her eyes to the left.

  Trapp realized that the person they were talking about as a suspect in
the murder of Ryan Fullerton was currently standing over the body talking in hushed whispers with the crime scene investigation team. Perfect. This just kept getting better and better all the time.

  It was almost as if the unit chief had been waiting for Isabella to notice him. He glanced in their direction and excused himself from his conversation with the investigators. Then he started walking toward Isabella and Trapp. This was a short man who wanted desperately to be tall.

  From Trapp’s spot on the ground he could see that the guy had lifts in his shoes. A pair of aviator sunglasses peeked out of his jacket pocket and he was dressed like a brigadier general about to go play golf. What. The. Hell?

  “My name is Unit Chief Justin Wiggs.” He stuck out his hand to Trapp. “And you are?”

  Oh yes. The posturing was phenomenal. Trapp decided to play along just to see what happened. He took the hand and squeezed until he felt the other man flinch. “I’m Naval Commander Alexander Trapp. I was visiting with Agent Rockwood when the murder happened. She was on her way to see Agent Fullerton.”

  “It’s good that you managed to be in a position to interfere with the shooter.” Wiggs didn’t sound as if he believed that at all. “Especially since the man could have been intending to murder them both.”

  “It does seem possible.” Trapp cast a glance at the covered body of the assailant. “Although I suppose we’ll conveniently never know.”

  “Conveniently?” Wiggs said sharply.

  “Well it’s certainly convenient for somebody, don’t you think?” Trapp pressed. “We have no suspect to question and no idea of motive.”

  “I suppose we don’t.” Wiggs glanced at Isabella. “Why were you over here to see Justin.”

  She took a breath to respond, but Trapp cut her off. “We wanted to see if he was free for lunch.” Trapp gave Wiggs a cold smile. “I’m just back from a long deployment. Catching up with old friends you know.”

  “Right,” Wiggs said, drawing out the word until Trapp could swear he heard the man’s brain trying to cycle through possible responses.

  “You know,” Trapp said conversationally. “I wanted to try and catch up with another old friend from the old days. His name was Lieutenant Will Whiteside. You’ve met him right? He was a liaison over in the Middle East back in the old days.”

  “Don’t think I’ve ever met him.”

  Trapp knew otherwise. Wiggs could not meet Trapp’s gaze and couldn’t get away from them fast enough. He was hiding something. That much was obvious. They just needed to get into his office and see if they could dig around and find out why he would be having his own agents murdered on federal property.

  Isabella was looking better. Her cheeks had some color, but that might have been because she was very obviously pissed at him. Trapp knew he’d cut her off and answered her CO for her as if she were too groggy to speak for herself. He hadn’t been rude on purpose. He just didn’t want her to say anything overt to Wiggs. The man was dirty. Trapp was sure of that much.

  The EMT finished up and Trapp took advantage of the moment alone with Isabella. “You ready for some action?” he murmured.

  She looked up at him with surprise evident on her face. “Action?”

  “We’re totally going to break into your boss’s office,” Trapp informed her. “You ready?”

  “Ready?” she said faintly. “Are you kidding me? I’ll get fired—or fined maybe. I’m not actually sure what the punishment would be for that. But it would be bad! I’m sure of that, right?”

  “Maybe.” He grinned at her and gave a nonchalant shrug. “But you’re not going to get caught so it doesn’t matter.”

  WHAT WAS IT about this man that brought out her naughty side? It was like Alexander Trapp’s mere presence anywhere near her was enough to make her want to forget the rules and just run wild. Did she feel some weird need to show off for him? It was absolutely ridiculous!

  Isabella took deep breaths in and out. She needed to be the voice of reason for the moment because someone needed to be. Picking herself up off the floor, she smoothed her skirt and tried to decide if she needed to redo her hair—again. This was quickly becoming the day from hell. Okay. Except for the part where she’d had fantastic sex with Trapp. That did not suck. It was totally weird and fell under the heading of very inappropriate behavior for the office, but it definitely did not suck.

  “So,” Trapp began as they reentered the hallway. “Where is Wiggs’s office?”

  “I’m not breaking into his office.”

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s occupied.” Trapp glanced over his shoulder.

  Isabella noticed that Wiggs was taking an awful lot of interest in Ryan’s murder. It still hurt her heart to think of her friend and often times frenemy getting killed so suddenly in what felt like a totally random situation. Yet Wiggs was acting as though he intended to tie up the investigation at this very moment. She could hear him talking to another unit chief about Fullerton’s caseload and how Ryan had made a few enemies investigating this case right here, or that Wiggs was sure that the organized crime angle they were working had earned him some enemies. All of that might be true, but Wiggs was obviously trying very hard to not talk about the human trafficking ring.

  “All right.” Isabella chuffed out a sigh. “But you have to stay behind me and stop being so damn bossy. Understand? I’m in charge of this operation.”

  “Whatever you say chief,” Trapp teased.

  Yeah. He could make it seem like teasing because they both knew that there was no way in hell he could ever stand back and let someone else take the lead on an investigation. Ever.

  She led the way down the hall to the elevator. The unit chief’s office was on the top floor. For two floors she stood next to Trapp in the elevator and tried desperately to not think about how good he smelled. What kind of cologne was that anyway? Eau de Hot Guy? The scent of him was so yummy that she was getting wet right there in the elevator.

  “What are you thinking about?” he murmured.

  She cleared her throat. There was no way in hell she was answering that honestly. “I’m just trying to prepare my speech so that when we get caught you’ll be the one who gets court martialed.”

  “Oh really?” he snorted. “And how is that going?”

  “Pretty well actually.” She smiled sweetly at him over her shoulder. “After all you have such a reputation for being pig headed and impossible to sway with logic, that anyone will believe me when I say that you were determined to do this and I was just along to make sure you didn’t destroy anything or take anything of value.”

  “So basically you’re coming along with me so you can report on me, is that it?” He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve become a Homeland Security tattletale?”

  “I thought that’s pretty much what you always said I was to begin with.”

  He put his hand over his chest. “Ouch. I don’t think I said that.”

  “I do. I was there you sanctimonious prick.” She was getting mad now just thinking about all of that bullshit from before. But that was good. Mad was way better than horny.

  “All right, all right, all right.” He held out his hands. “Simmer down. I’m sorry that I said such a thing. You’re right. I was an ass. And now I need your help. You should be gloating, not getting pissed off.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” She smirked. “Because you don’t grovel very well and it’s going to take you a few tries to get it right. So why don’t you get down on your knees and show me just how sorry you are?”

  She’d meant it to be a joke, but his response suggested that joking was certainly not the way to go with him. He leaned forward and put his lips right next to her ear. “If I get down on my knees, I’m going to pick up your leg and put your foot up here on my shoulder. Then I’m going to spread your pussy apart and I’m going to lick it from one end to the other. I’m going to find that clit of yours with my lips and I’m going to suck it until you come right in my face.”

  She gasped and t
ried to swallow, which then made her nearly choke to death. That erotic suggestion was almost more than she could take. It was so—blatant. Not to mention that it was incredibly yummy. Even the thought of him with his tongue between her legs was almost more than she could take. The man had a talented mouth. She knew. Because that night in Marrakesh she had nearly ripped out his hair while he pleasured her pussy with his lips and tongue.

  The doors whooshed open in front of them. It felt as if the temperature in the elevator had risen to about a thousand degrees. She swallowed, trying to let the cooler air lower her body temperature and render her able to think. Unfortunately it became suddenly—painfully—obvious that she was completely not paying any attention to what she was doing.

  “Isabella?”

  “What?” she snarled.

  He gestured to the open door. “We need to get out on this floor, right?”

  “Shut up.” She stomped out of the elevator, turned left, and headed straight down the hall to Wiggs’s office. She didn’t even care what happened at the moment. If everyone saw her sneaking in here she’d just make up some dumb excuse. Something along the lines of lust making her brain too soft to think straight.

  Chapter Five

  It was one thing to suspect a unit chief with US Homeland Security of deliberately concealing things about an investigation. Trapp and his team of SEALs had already noted something along the lines of a dozen or more US officials and law enforcement officers who were keeping secrets for Hasim ibn Armeen al Saud. But the fact that Trapp was even now picking the lock on that unit chief’s office door somehow made the entire situation more real.

  “You’re good at that,” Isabella murmured from just behind his left shoulder. “Do you break and enter a lot?”