Montana SEAL Friendly Fire (Brotherhood Protectors Book 11)

by Elle James

  “Into the shower?” she squeaked and dug her feet into the floor.

  He forced himself to laugh. “No, but into the bedroom with the door locked. If someone tries to get in, you can let me know before anything bad happens. I’ll leave the bathroom door cracked open.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Her cheeks burned a bright red, and she hurried ahead of him to the bedroom. On the threshold, she halted and pressed a hand to her chest.

  Trevor touched a hand to the small of her back and glanced over her shoulder into the room. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s just…” She sighed. “I’ve never had someone shoot at me before. And in my own bedroom.”

  “Something about bringing it too close to home?” he asked softly.

  Lana nodded. “Makes me feel like there’s nowhere safe, now.”

  He wanted to pull her into his arms and hug away her fears. Instead, he draped his arm over her shoulders. “I’m here with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  She smiled up at him. “That helps.” Still, she hesitated.

  “Let me do a sweep of the room. Maybe that will set you mind at ease.” He slipped past her into the bedroom and checked the closet, under the bed and glanced through the window. “Sorry I had to break your window upstairs. I’ll clean up the glass once it’s not cordoned off.”

  “I’m not worried about the glass. It can be replaced.” Lana entered the room and looked around at the neatly made bed. “The question is, how did you get up to my window in the first place?” She stopped in front of the downstairs bedroom window.

  “I climbed the trellis.” He frowned. “If you plan on staying here, you might consider having it taken down. It’s too easy for a burglar to get into your place.” He touched her shoulder. “You also might not want to stand in front of the window. If someone wanted to shoot you, you’re presenting an easy target.”

  Lana ducked back behind the wall. “On second thought, I don’t think I can stay here.” She waved at the window. “He came through the kitchen window, you came through the upstairs window. Who’s to say he won’t break into this one?” She shook her head. “I just can’t.”

  Trevor nodded. “I understand. Grab your bag. I’ll take you to a hotel.” When they got there, he’d either get a suite or share the room with her. He wasn’t letting her too far out of his sight.

  Chapter 4

  Lana grabbed the small suitcase in which she’d packed several days’ worth of clothing. She’d grabbed and stuffed panties, bras, shirts, trousers and jeans, not knowing when she’d be back in her townhouse or where she was going to stay. After a quick glance around for anything else she might need from the living room, she went in search of Trevor. She found him in the kitchen, staring at the broken glass on the floor.

  “I’m ready,” she said.

  “I feel bad about leaving the mess I made upstairs. I’ll clean it up, when we come back” he insisted.

  Picturing him performing such domestic duties made Lana smile. “You saved my ass. Cleaning up a little glass is the least I could do to repay you.”

  “No repayment necessary. Anyone would have done the same.”

  Lana snorted. “Not hardly. I don’t know many grown men who’d scale a rickety trellis to a woman’s window, and then break the window with his elbow.” She frowned. “Speaking of which… Let me check you over. You probably have cuts.”

  “Surprisingly, I don’t. A couple scratches, maybe, but no real bleeders. We need to leave, if we’re not staying. Now that the police are gone, the longer we hang out here, the more chance the intruder could circle back and make another attempt.”

  Lana’s heart skipped several beats, and a lead weight settled in the pit of her belly. “You think he’ll come back tonight?”

  “Do you want to take the risk? I’d rather get a head start and find a hotel without a tail following us.”

  When he put it that way, leaving her home didn’t seem like such a bad idea. She squared her shoulders. “I’m packed.”

  Trevor raised an eyebrow at her one suitcase. “That’s all you’re bringing?”

  “It’s enough for a week. If I need anything else, I’ll find a place to do laundry.” She headed for the bedroom door. “I’ll call the facilities manager in the morning and have them board up the window until the glass can be replaced and do something about the damaged door.”

  “Let me go first.” Trevor led the way down the stairs and to the front door of the apartment, where he stopped and pointed a finger at her chest. “Stay.”

  Her lips twisted. “You make me sound like a dog. But I’ll stay put, as you’ve requested.”

  “And jam the chair beneath the door handle behind me. I’m going to secure the perimeter.” He left through the front door and disappeared into the shadows.

  Lana closed the door and pushed the chair beneath the handle, her pulse hammering, her ears perked for any sound beyond the wood paneling.

  She prayed Trevor didn’t run into any problems while out checking for bad guys. Lana had to remind herself that he was a trained Navy SEAL. He had to have performed more than one urban operation going from building to building with a loaded weapon, facing the possibility of running into enemy fighters also possessing loaded guns. What he was doing out there was no different than what he might have done on foreign soil. He knew what to do and how to stay as safe as possible.

  Knowing all that didn’t make her pulse beat any slower. She held her breath until a light tap on the door made her jump. She peered through the peephole to find Trevor grinning on the other side.

  “It’s me,” he said.

  She removed the chair and yanked open the door, her heart beating fast. “I thought you’d never come back.”

  He stepped inside, closed the door behind him and pulled her into his arms. “You know me better. I’d come back if at all humanly possible.”

  She pressed her forehead into his shirt. “That part about being ‘humanly possible’ was what had me worried.”

  He held her for a moment longer, and then gripped her shoulders and leaned back. “Ready?”

  No. She wasn’t ready, but she nodded anyway.

  “Stay close to me,” he said, then opened the door and led the way outside.

  She started toward her car.

  He gripped her elbow and steered her away. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather take the rental car.”

  “But you wouldn’t have to pay for extra days on your car if we take mine,” she insisted.

  “Yeah, but if someone tried to kill you by shooting you, I wouldn’t put it past him to tamper with your car.”

  She swallowed hard, fear settling on her shoulders like a heavy weight. “Surely, he wouldn’t have had time to do that.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I don’t want to test the theory.” He led her toward his rental car and settled her into the passenger seat.

  She watched as he checked over the entire vehicle for any tampering or explosive devices. Then he rounded the front of the vehicle, his gaze sweeping the parking lot.

  Lana reminded herself he was a professionally-trained operative. Whatever he said would go.

  Trevor slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. After a quick check all around, he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.

  “Where are we going?” Lana asked.

  “Right now, I don’t know.” He checked the rearview mirror and the side mirrors. “I want to get as far away from your townhouse as possible. What I need you to do is check to make sure no one is following us. Got that?”

  She nodded.

  “When we’re sure we’re on our own, we’ll look for a place to stay.” He shot a glance toward her. “Are you okay with this?”

  She twisted her lips. “Do I have a choice?”

  He shrugged. “Not really. I’m going to do whatever I think is necessary to keep you safe. I can only hope you’ll go along with what I suggest. It’s up to you.”

  “Oh, I did
n’t mean that I minded you giving the orders. I meant, do I have choice about being followed.” She raised her hands. “Trust me. I’ll do whatever you think is best.” She adjusted her seatbelt and turned sideways in the seat to look behind them. “It shouldn’t be hard to see if someone is following us. Their headlights will be a dead giveaway.”

  “If they’re using headlights.” Trevor waved toward the streetlights. “They could be driving without them.”

  Lana nodded. “Got it. Look for anything that looks like it’s following us. Lights or not.”

  Trevor chuckled. “That’s my girl.”

  Lana’s heart warmed at the sound of Trevor’s laughter. She missed the old days when she, Mason and Trevor hung out at the team’s favorite watering hole. They’d been so close.

  Until Mason had asked her to marry him, and she’d said yes. She’d been closing in on twenty-six years old. All her friends had already been married, with one baby and another on the way. Meanwhile, Lana had still been living the single life, but she’d started to feel her biological clock ticking.

  She’d thought about marriage but had loved both Mason and Trevor and couldn’t decide between them.

  She’d kissed Trevor once and had felt all kinds of sparks when they had. But then she’d kissed Mason twice and felt the same.

  When Mason had taken her out on a real date, just the two of them, and ended the evening asking her to marry him, saying yes had come so naturally.

  What had started as an incredibly close friendship between the three of them, fell quickly apart the moment Lana had agreed to marry Mason.

  She didn’t know why, but she’d assumed they’d all remain friends, even after she married Mason. But that hadn’t quite happened. Yes, Trevor had still cared about Mason as a friend and teammate, and he’d said he cared about her, but he’d stopped hanging out with them. He’d said he was giving them the space they needed as a couple.

  Trevor had been Mason’s best man at their wedding. He’d smiled and congratulated them along with the rest of their friends and teammates. He’d even kissed the bride…on the forehead…and then he’d taken a quick step backward, letting others come up to congratulate the new couple.

  When Mason died, Trevor told Lana he’d promised Mason he’d take care of her.

  Lana had been upset by her husband’s death and her own desire to lean heavily on Trevor. Grief and guilt had torn a hole in her heart. The only other human she’d loved as much as her husband had been Trevor. But she hadn’t felt right going to him when she could so easily have married Trevor instead of Mason.

  If Trevor had asked.

  Now, she felt as though she’d been given a second chance with Trevor. What did that make her? What wife could love another man so soon after her own husband’s death? But then Lana had loved both men.

  She’d felt guilty that she’d wanted Trevor after her husband’s death. So guilty that she’d pushed the man away. She’d wanted to prove to herself she could get on with life, without a man to lean on. To prove to herself, and to Mason’s spirit, that she’d truly loved him. She owed it to her husband to figure out why he’d died.

  The medical report of his injuries indicated he’d been shot in the back. When she’d questioned the report, she’d been given a less than adequate response. Based on his last communication with her, she suspected someone hadn’t wanted him to learn more about crooked Americans working deals in Afghanistan. So much so, that they’d been willing to kill to keep their secrets.

  After his death, she’d had enough money from Mason’s life insurance that she hadn’t immediately gone back to work. Instead, she’d spent time on her computer, researching the US companies working reconstruction projects and protective services. She’d learned a lot, but not as much as she’d learned once she’d hooked up with a hacker on the dark web. He’d gotten her into databases for some of those companies and recovered email records of their people with boots on the ground on the other side of the world.

  Lana’s dark web hacker had found links between the director at the Department of Homeland Security in San Diego and one of the general contractors working in Afghanistan when Mason was killed.

  Based on that information, Lana had applied for an advertised position at the DHS, working for one of the people her quest had led her to find.

  Thankfully, she’d become friends with Peter Bishop at the DHS. She hadn’t told him about her connection with the man working on the dark web. When Peter had caught her looking into files she shouldn’t have been accessing, she’d told him she suspected someone was plotting terrorist activities on homeland soil.

  Peter had been so concerned he’d offered to help her find the person. Her new friend had done some sleuthing on his own, following the director and staking out some of his favorite haunts, taking pictures and recording the dates and times the man met with different people.

  He’d also tapped into the director’s personal email and home computer IP address and found connections to other potentially dangerous organizations.

  Still, the evidence didn’t seem to be enough to convict the director. Peter said he was at a standstill on his personal investigation and wasn’t sure he wanted to continue digging.

  Lana understood. For the past year, the effort had consumed her to the point she wasn’t engaged in anything other than going to work during the day and searching the internet at night.

  Early that morning, Lana had received a missive from her dark web contact. He’d found more connections to a group based in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana that had posted negative comments about the current US administration, promising to take back the America they once knew and loved.

  He’d given her the names of two of the people living in a small town in the mountains of Montana.

  That was when Lana knew she was getting in over her head, and it was time to let the FBI take over. She’d gathered the data on her computer into one file, backed it up on the cloud and set up the meeting with the FBI for the following day.

  She’d gone to work as usual, but she hadn’t felt comfortable, worrying that she was being watched all the time. Which was ridiculous. The only other person, besides the dark web contact, who knew she was looking into a possible terrorist attack was Peter.

  And he’d come by her desk smiling and had greeted her as if nothing strange was going on with the director or anything else.

  “Lana, sweetheart.” Trevor’s voice pulled her out of her reverie and back to their current situation. “We have a tail.”

  She lifted her head and focused on the headlights behind them. Her pulse leaped. If she wasn’t mistaken, the vehicle was catching up to them.

  Fast.

  “I think they’re going to—”

  Bam! The vehicle behind them slammed into the back of the rental car.

  Lana jerked forward. The seatbelt across her shoulder dug in hard, keeping her from hitting her head on the dashboard.

  When she sat upright, she spun to see the car behind them race at them for a second time. “Hold on. Here he comes again.”

  Trevor’s grip on the steering wheel couldn’t be tighter. With his foot on the accelerator all the way to the floor, he couldn’t go any faster.

  The vehicle behind them rammed into them again.

  The car lurched forward and skidded a little to the side. Tires gripped the pavement, gaining enough traction to shoot them forward.

  They couldn’t outrun the attacker. Next best thing would be to avoid him.

  After regaining control of the vehicle, Trevor turned the wheel sharply to the right, aiming for the next street corner.

  The back end of the car fishtailed, whipping out behind them, sending them into a one-hundred-eighty-degree spin. Now, they faced the vehicle that had hit them.

  “Damn! Hold tight,” Trevor yelled as the other car raced straight at them.

  Trevor pressed his foot on the gas and aimed for the oncoming vehicle.

  “What are you doing?” Lana held onto t
he armrest with one hand and threw her arm up over her face with the other.

  At the last minute before hitting the attacking vehicle head on, Trevor jerked the wheel to the right and gave it all the gas. He missed the head-on collision, but the vehicle clipped the back bumper, sending him into a full-out spin.

  Trevor turned the steering wheel into the spin and rode it out until the car slowed enough he could regain control. Thankfully, he was headed the opposite direction of the vehicle that had hit them. He put the pedal to the metal and raced away.

  “He’s turning around,” Lana said.

  A glance in the rearview mirror confirmed her observation. “We’re not going to let him get to us this time,” Trevor promised. He took the first right turn, raced to the next block and made a left. At the next block, he made another right turn.

  Zigzagging through the streets of San Diego, he climbed up hills and zipped down a couple of dark alleys.

  Lana sat sideways in the seat, looking back. “I think you lost him,” she said finally and turned to face him. “Good job getting us out of there. I hope you had full insurance coverage on the rental car. I’m sure the damage is going to take some explaining.”

  “I don’t give a damn about the car.” He shot a glance toward Lana. “Are you all right?”

  She rubbed a hand across her neck. “Other than a sore neck, I’ll live. How about you?”

  “I’m fine. But this situation has me concerned about your safety.”

  She snorted softly. “You and me both.”

  After another glance in the rearview mirror, reassuring him they weren’t being followed this time, he said, “Let’s find a hotel room and get some sleep. Then tomorrow we can decide what we do next.”

  “There’s no question about what I need to do.” She stared ahead at the dark road, lit by an occasional street light. “I have an appointment with the FBI.”

  “About that, you need to fill me in on why you’re meeting with the FBI and what you know that has someone out to kill you.”