He tossed a dirty look over his shoulder. “Did you forget that one of the main functions of a SEAL team involves extractions in really awkward and dangerous situations? A little lock picking is a basic necessity.”
“Oh.” She actually sounded a little chagrined. “I suppose I hadn’t really considered that.”
Yes. He was getting a little tired of Isabella Rockwood not really considering a lot of things that went into being a SEAL. Just like she was extremely keen to protect her organization’s interests even when she could so obviously see that they were bogus. It was ridiculous. Did she intentionally follow along blindly wherever she was led? Or had this entire situation become somehow personal for her because of the shared history she had with Trapp?
The door clicked open and Trapp slipped inside Wiggs’s office. Isabella was right behind him. He quietly closed the door behind him before turning to take a good look at the space.
“What are you waiting for?” Isabella had already opened a file cabinet and was pawing through folders.
“I’m trying to get a sense of the man. Anything we want isn’t going to be out in the open. We’re going to have to look for it. That means I need to know a little more information about Wiggs.” Trapp had already made a few assumptions in the last thirty seconds.
The man was obviously into image. He had photographs of himself shaking hands or posing with several key figures in the American political game. He had obviously spent a lot of time trying to make himself look very important. There were some golfing trophies, a few medals, and some sort of service award matted and framed on the walls.
Isabella moved closer to the award. “He’s proud of himself, isn’t he?” She turned to look at Trapp. “Do you hang all your awards on your office wall?”
“Only the really important ones,” he teased. “And no. I have photographs of my team and a few weird items I picked up overseas. I do have a few military awards because that’s just what you do with them. If you don’t hang them it makes you somehow not proud to be a soldier.”
“That’s always weird, don’t you think?” She peered closer at a photograph. “Hey. That’s Hasim!”
“And Whiteside,” Trapp mused, moving closer. “So we know your boss is hiding more than a few things.”
ISABELLA HATED IT when Trapp was right. The worst part was that the asshole was always right! She sat down in her boss’s chair and relaxed for a moment. Where would a completely arrogant ass hide something in his office? The guy probably didn’t believe that anyone would ever have the audacity to actually snoop. Why would they suspect such a perfect role model of a unit chief?
She looked at the blotter on the desktop. It looked slightly bulgy on one side. Plus, there was a tiny white corner of what might be paper sticking out on the left side. She used her fingernails to pull at the tiny tab. It slid further out and she realized that she was looking at a packing slip for an order from some kind of drug company.
“Hansen Pharmaceuticals,” she murmured. “That’s the company where you found the skeletons in Baltimore.”
Trapp snatched the single sheet from her hand. “There has to be a whole file of this shit hidden somewhere, but probably not at work. This one is dated yesterday.”
“Meaning that he just got it and therefore hasn’t had time to hide it,” Isabella muttered. “What’s it for?”
“I don’t know what this drug is, but I know someone who will.” Trapp snapped a quick pic of the packing slip.”
“What are you doing?” Isabella wasn’t sure she trusted him not to take the evidence and run, leaving her with nothing.
“I just texted it to my man Yates. My tech savvy SEAL will have no trouble figuring out what we are dealing with.”
Isabella glanced at her watch. “It’s really time to go. Wiggs isn’t going to stay down with Fullerton’s investigation forever.”
“Agreed.” Trapp was already heading for the door. “I’ll open it, you stay back in case someone is in the hallway. I’d rather fight my way out alone and then have you slip out without anyone being any wiser.”
She tried not to feel flattered by his obvious concern for her safety. More than likely he just didn’t believe she could handle herself if things got ugly. The jerk. She grunted in response and watched him very carefully ease the door open. There were voices down the hallway. When Trapp immediately shut the door, Isabella knew that they were too late. Wiggs was coming and they were going to have to make some awful excuse or—well or something!
“Window,” Trapp snarled. “Open it and get out on the ledge.”
“Are you insane?” she whispered harshly. “There’s no way down!”
“Sure there is. Where there is a ledge, there is a fire escape ladder somewhere.”
“I’m in a fucking skirt!” she reminded him.
“Then I guess anyone who happens to look up will get one spectacular view.”
TRAPP TRIED TO make light of the situation, but as he threw up the window in Wiggs’s fourth floor office, he realized that this was not going to be a walk in the park. In fact, the ledge wasn’t just narrow. It was miniscule. He was wearing thick soled sensible shoes and it was going to be tricky just to navigate without falling four stories. He could not imagine how Isabella was going to manage in her high heels. Women’s clothing was always a bad choice. That was pretty much his stance on that topic at any given moment.
But right now none of that mattered. He stepped out onto the ledge and planted his feet solidly—or as solidly as possible anyway. The people scurrying about below on the quad were too busy looking at their damn cell phones to even notice him. A light breeze ruffled his hair, and he caught the scent of a hot dog stand far below.
“Come on,” he urged Isabella. He held his hand out. “There’s no time for second thoughts. Act now.”
She grabbed his hand and used it to lever herself out onto the ledge. He heard her gasp and tried to ignore the feeling of fear in his gut on her behalf. That was something else he didn’t have time for. He could not give into the urge to pamper her or somehow try to mitigate her circumstances. He’d wind up killing them both.
“Shut the window.”
“You’re insane,” she muttered.
He almost expected her to give up, but she didn’t. He saw her struggle to reach the window. Barely managing not to fall, she shoved it down just in time. Trapp heard the low timbre of male voices entering the office just before the window closed.
“Quickly,” he urged. “Press your back to the wall and slide a bit this direction to get out of the line of sight just in case.”
“I hate you.” She was looking so very pale. “I really do. Have I told you that?”
“Not in the last fifteen minutes.”
She made a face. “Well allow me to reiterate my earlier sentiments then.”
Trapp started to shimmy along the ledge. He got irritated when Isabella didn’t move, then he realized that she was removing her shoes. The quick thinking and decisive action earned his begrudging admiration. She held onto her shoes with one hand by their straps. Then she started moving slowly behind him.
“Where are we going?” she panted. “You said fire escape, right? Why not just go into another office?”
“It’s after lunch.”
He really didn’t have time to stand there and explain himself. To his relief, she didn’t pursue that option any further. Trapp could see the metal rails of a fire escape at what would likely be the end of the hallway. It was perhaps thirty yards from their position. It wasn’t that far, and yet in some ways the distance was almost insurmountable.
ISABELLA STRUGGLED NOT to give into the urge to just give up and turn around. The distance to the ground seemed extreme. She knew it really wasn’t. Four stories were nothing like thirty, but it was a whole hell of a lot higher up than ten feet. If she fell it was going to leave what might be considered a permanent mark. Meaning she was going to break her damn head open. Perhaps then medical science could finally understand
why she kept getting herself into these messes!
“About another twenty yards,” Trapp told her in a bizarrely calm tone of voice.
Did the man ever get nervous about anything? It was very difficult to try and live up to that! Just once she wanted the upper hand. She wanted to be confident and capable and take the lead in a situation like this one. Except she was never in a position to do so. She was always bringing up the rear looking like a complete flake.
Her foot slipped. She inhaled sharply and dug her nails into the building’s facade. Wobbling, but not falling. That was all. Deep breaths managed to help her get her shit back together. For a second her toes had been hanging over open space and she thought her eyes might actually bug out of her head. The breeze kept blowing stray bits of her messy hair into her face and she desperately wanted to shove the stuff out of her face, but was too afraid to let go and try.
“Almost there,” Trapp said.
No. He was almost there. While she had been nearly falling off the building he had continued moving along and was about ten yards closer than she was to their goal. She tried to hurry. A task made almost impossible by the inchworm moves she was having to use in order to go anywhere on the narrow ledge. Doing this shit in a skirt should have earned her major extra points. Her hips were pinned in a really awkward position as she tried to hurry along.
“Great,” Trapp said.
She glanced up and saw that he was actually on the ladder. In fact he was already starting to descend. Isabella cursed beneath her breath and tried again to speed up. It was funny how her fiercely competitive stupidity could result in her completely ignoring the fact that she was scared shitless of falling.
Finally. Finally! She reach out and gingerly wrapped her fingers around the metal railing. It felt so delightfully solid in her grip. She carefully put her bare feet on the rungs and adjusted her grip on her shoes. She had just started to descend when she realized that Trapp was already at the bottom. The man had made it all the way to the ground before she even started to go down the stupid ladder. She felt utterly ridiculous until she happened to glance down again and saw that someone was about to jump him from behind.
“Alex!” she shouted. “Behind you!”
But it was too late. A big man wearing fatigues and combat boots tackled Trapp to the ground and proceeded to try and beat the living crap out of him.
Chapter Six
Trapp was relieved as hell to feel his boots hit the ground. He glanced back up the ladder to try and see what kind of progress Isabella was making. She was going slow and steady in her bare feet, still carrying her shoes. Truthfully he was impressed as hell that the woman could do all of that in a freaking skirt and heels. She might be going at a slower rate than him, but he’d never want to attempt scaling the side of a building in those clothes. Women’s wardrobe choices were completely beyond his understanding.
He had only just started giving into the urge to admire Isabella’s beautifully round backside when he felt someone jump on his back. The first thing that went through his mind was large, male, and military. That was right before the fucker tried to put him in a chokehold.
Trapp immediately threw himself backwards. His assailant grunted as Trapp’s full weight landed on the guy’s chest. The man tried to wrap his legs around Trapp’s waist and tie up his whole body in a lock. Trapp couldn’t allow that. He planted his feet flat on the ground and bridged up. If the guy took Trapp’s legs out of the equation he’d get the upper hand and snap Trapp’s neck like a twig.
They rolled to the right. Trapp struggled to get the upper hand. His assailant was no pixie. The guy had huge hands and arms like bands of iron. Trapp just barely managed to wrap one leg around the other man’s calf. He leveraged the position and used it to thrust the weight of his entire upper body onto the man’s chest. He heard the guy begin to choke. Shifting his shoulder, Trapp really laid on the force.
Then just as suddenly as it all happened, Trapp felt the guy’s hold loosen. Trapp twisted his head around to see what was going on and nearly did a double take at what he saw. Isabella was back there with her knee on the guy’s throat. The assailant lost his grip on Trapp as he was forced to use his hands to try and dislodge Isabella. She turned out to be surprisingly difficult to budge. With both balance and grace she held herself erect and braced her weight entirely on her knee.
Trapp finally managed to get loose. He rolled to his feet and stood up. Finally he had a chance to get a look at the bastard who had jumped him. Except the man had on a mask. A black ski mask obscured any hope of seeing his features. Dammit!
As if he guessed Trapp’s intention, the man took both hands and heaved upward against Isabella’s hold when Trapp went to grab for the mask. The masked man rolled over backwards. The move was both athletic and surprisingly agile. He gained his feet and looked at the two of them standing there with their hands up ready for a fight. That was when he bolted.
ISABELLA WAS SPOILING for a fight at this point. Endorphins crashed through her blood and she felt a primal tingle throughout her body. She held her hands up, ready. And when the cowardly piece of shit wearing a damn ski mask turned and ran, she started to bolt after him.
Trapp grabbed her arm. “Don’t. Let him go.”
“What?” She spun around and wrenched her arm out of his grasp. “That guy might have answers on why Ryan was murdered!”
“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t.” Trapp grimaced. “That’s a soldier. We were obviously being watched. Now he’s going back to report to his bosses.”
“Then we should follow him?”
“No.” Trapp sighed as if he were tired of having to explain what he thought of as the obvious. “They already know we’re on to them. That was the reason Ryan was killed.”
“So what now?” Her brain was stutter stepping.
What was this guy’s deal? Was he deliberately trying to sabotage her efforts to perform her investigation? It seemed like it. He didn’t want to follow the guy who had just assaulted him. He didn’t really want to pursue the lead on her boss. He was all calm and disgustingly un winded after everything they had just done. In fact he was horribly composed. Was it because he knew what was happening?
“What?” Trapp cocked his head. “You might as well tell me what you’re thinking. It’s practically written all over your face anyway.”
“You’re just awfully composed.”
“I need to know what that order to Hansen Pharmaceuticals is for. That’s the answer.” Trapp started walking away. She had to trot to keep up with him. He was still talking. “This whole time we’ve known that Hansen meant something. We just didn’t know what. We tossed around the idea of a drug operation. We thought it was just to manufacture the TCH level marijuana that they needed for the ruse that got them their sex trade victims. It’s bigger than all of that. Don’t you feel it?”
No. She didn’t feel it. Or maybe she did. Isabella was confused as hell. She didn’t understand how a Navy SEAL could just assume that everyone at Justice was dirty. It was as if he no longer had faith in any of the agencies. How did that even happen?
“Are you coming?” He finally turned around and stared, his eyebrows raised.
She swallowed. Maybe she would regret this. Maybe she wouldn’t. But right now she knew that she had to pursue this investigation from her point of view with the information she had at her fingertips. And that didn’t include some half cocked notion that just because the terror alert was a little bit increased, it meant there was an episode of domestic terrorism running right at them.
“No,” she finally told him. “I’m going back to my office. I’m going to look at the information I have and make logical concise decisions based on facts and not a bunch of hearsay and illegally gained intel.”
TRAPP FELT HIS mouth pop open in surprise. “Illegally gained intel? Are you fucking kidding me? Where the hell do you think all the good intel in the world comes from, sugar? You think it’s from a bunch of bureaucrats sitting around a confer
ence table? No. It comes from men like me and my team. It comes from field ops. We stumble on information and that’s when we pass it on to you idiots so you can screw things up from there.” He waved his hand at her. “You know what, I was obviously wrong about you. Go do whatever you have to do. That’s what you usually do anyway. Isabella Rockwood, playing it safe so Homeland Security can sleep at night.”
He stalked off. It was difficult to believe how much anger he felt at her refusal to see things his way. What did she think was happening here? Illegally obtained intel. That snooty bitch would see what her “legally gained” intel would get her. Jack shit.
He got all the way to the parking garage before he realized that he was being followed. Dammit. He had been so focused on Isabella’s refusal to see sense that he hadn’t even paid one lick of attention to his back. Someone could have run up and stabbed him between the shoulder blades and he wouldn’t have noticed.
His truck was parked directly ahead. He changed his approach, angling his steps so that he could see his pursuer from the corner of his eye. It didn’t look like the masked man from earlier. The build wasn’t heavy enough. In fact this almost looked like a female or at least a very slender man. It was tempting to turn around and see if Isabella had somehow started following him, but that was preposterous. His pursuer was in black fatigues. Isabella would have had no chance to go back and change out of her skirt and heels.
Ten yards. Five yards. Then he was approaching his vehicle. Bypassing the driver’s door, he headed for the tailgate as if he had to fiddle with something back there before he got in. But when he was sure he had broken line of sight he ducked down and went around to the passenger side. Cranking himself down low, he watched beneath the truck for the feet of his pursuer to appear.
It didn’t take long. Combat boots strode toward the back of the vehicle and paused at the corner. Trapp crept around the front of the vehicle. More and more, around the side and down until he was right behind the person who was craning her neck to see where he’d gone.
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