SEAL Warriors

by Katie Knight

  He watched while she set up her laptop on the table, then moved his chair beside hers so they could both see the screen. The faded scent of her perfume, mixed with a hint of baby powder, set his senses tingling.

  “What are we looking up?” he asked, hoping to distract himself.

  “Well, since Steve’s at a dead end on the money angle, we need to figure out another way our mysterious video clip sender might be tracking you.” She clicked a few keys and opened her browser. “I’m going to search you on the dark web.” Maria typed fast, bringing up a small black screen where she typed in a bunch of code, then hit Enter. Her screen went dark, then came back up in a sort of grayish mode. “Welcome to the Dark Net.”

  A weird niggle of fear bored into his gut. “Is this legal?”

  She gave him a side glance. “About as legal as smuggling intel off a US military base.”

  Touché.

  He wrinkled his nose and nodded. Score one for the geek. The adorable, annoyingly correct geek.

  “So, let’s type in your name here and see what we come up with.”

  Within a few minutes, Maria had found several hits. An unpaid parking ticket, his psychological evaluation from when he entered the SEALs, a bunch of hits on his social media accounts.

  “Huh.” She clicked on the hits for his Facebook account. “Looks like you’ve been paying a lot of attention to my posts.” Her glance at him over her shoulder was full of censure. “Stalker much?”

  “I’m not a stalker.” He crossed his arms and scowled. “Excuse me for wanting to make sure my daughter was okay.”

  “You could’ve just asked me.”

  “Contract, remember?”

  Maria sighed. “Fine.” As she clicked through more and more posts though, his concern grew.

  “I didn’t look at all those,” he said, squinting at the dates on the screen. “I wasn’t even in Wi-Fi range during that time.”

  “Looks like maybe we’ve found our tracking channel then.” She typed in a few more things, then logged off her computer. “It’ll take a minute to download all those hits into an offline file.” Maria turned to face him, a few inches separating them. “You didn’t tell me you downloaded all those pictures of Camille.”

  “I—”

  “And don’t try to tell me it wasn’t you. I’ve got eyes.” She gave him a pointed stare. “I get the ones after your deployment date weren’t you, but those others, all those photos and videos of our daughter right after she was born. Why didn’t you tell me you were so interested?”

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Because I didn’t think you wanted me to be. You seemed thrilled after I signed the contract. All you talked about were your plans, your visions for the future. I obviously wasn’t part of that. At the time, I thought I’d be fine with that, but as the months passed, and I had more time to think, I realized I wasn’t fine not knowing my kid at all. And sure, pictures and video clips aren’t the same, but they were all I had at the time. All I might ever have, for all I knew. So, yeah. When you accepted my friend request, I guess I went a little crazy. Every time I saw anything pop up in your feed about our daughter, I hoarded it. Sue me.”

  “Technically, I could. Breach of contract and all.” Her dour expression fractured into a crooked smile. “But considering what’s going on now, that would be pretty stupid. I just wish you’d told me though. Then again, your mom was right.”

  “My mom?” Now it was Trevor’s turn to look dour. Walking in and seeing the two of them alone together had set off a few warning bells, he had to admit. Now, it seemed those warnings were confirmed. “Why? What’d she say about me?”

  “Nothing.” Maria gave him a coy little grin as she stood and carried her laptop back into the living room. “Just that you like to keep your secrets.”

  No argument there. Given his career choice, keeping things to himself was wise. But now, he needed to let her in if he was going to clear his name, and if he was considering any kind of future with her. Knowing that and doing that, however, were two different things.

  Trevor stood and stretched, buying himself a few precious seconds to decide how to answer her.

  Another high-pitched squeak came from the direction of the nursery and relief swept over him.

  Maria rolled her eyes and grinned, shaking her head. “Saved by the squeak.”

  “Amen.” He couldn’t help smiling as well as a bit of tension between them eased. Thank God. He’d lived through sniper attacks that were less stressful than that. “Want me to get her?”

  “Nah, I’ll do it. You stay here and find something good on TV. Once those posts finish downloading, we’re going to have a long night of research in front of us. Best enjoy your free time now, buddy.”

  “Right.” He watched her walk away before he slumped down on the couch and picked up the remote. As the sounds of Maria running Camille’s bath and their daughter’s laughter drifted down the hall to him, he felt both happy and sad. Happy to be here for these small moments of joy and connection and life. Sad, knowing they would all come to an end soon enough. He frowned at the TV, not really seeing or caring what was on. He and his dad and come to an understanding today, a reconciliation of sorts, and it had rocked Trevor’s long-held views of the world to their core. In fact, after he’d left his parents’ house, he’d just spent hours driving around, trying to get things straight in his head.

  Coming back here, his thoughts were chaotic again though.

  You like to keep your secrets….

  He did. But now he had to decide if those secrets were worth more than a future with his daughter.

  24

  When Maria came back out into the living room after getting Camille bathed and fed again, then put to bed once more, it was to find Trevor on the sofa, several baskets of freshly laundered onesies in front of him as he folded them into neatly stacked piles. His tidying quirk was on full display again, a sure sign he was stressed about everything, even if he didn’t show it.

  She understood his frustration, at least about the case. They kept hitting dead end after dead end and their time was running out. On her way home from the office earlier, the news on the radio had reported that the Navy was close to completing their internal investigation into the captain’s death. Once that was done, they’d file formal charges against the suspected guilty party. The radio reporter hadn’t named anyone, but Maria knew Trevor was still at the top of that list. He would remain there too, unless they could come up with a viable alternative.

  With a sigh, she walked over to grab her laptop, then took a seat on the opposite end of the sofa from him, ignoring his curious stare. She’d changed into her pink flannel PJs after putting Camille down, wanting to be comfortable when she dived into her virtual research. She’d not lied earlier about it being a long night ahead. With all the new protocols in place, it was harder than ever to hack a Facebook account, but it wasn’t impossible.

  Computer up and running, she accessed the file of items she’d downloaded from the dark web and got to work. Only the low volume of the TV in the background and the clack of her keys broke the silence. Trevor was watching her though, she could feel it in the way her skin tingled beneath his stare.

  Finally, she looked up at him from over the top of the screen. “What?”

  He shrugged and set the onesie he was folding aside. “I’m sorry.”

  “About what?” She scrunched her nose, her heart rate kicking up a notch.

  “About the way things ended the other night. And about not telling you about me saving the pictures of Camille.” Trevor exhaled slow and slumped back into the cushions. “I just want you and Camille to be safe.”

  “We are safe.” Maria frowned. “Aren’t we?”

  “I don’t know. That’s the problem.” He groaned and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t like not knowing my opponent, not being able to prepare for the next attack. We have no idea who’s responsible for any of this and it makes me nervous as hell. I can’t predict how all of this is go
ing to play out, so how can I protect you and Camille? That’s what gets me the most. That’s what scares me half to death. If I took that out on you the other night, I’m sorry. That was never my intention.”

  When she didn’t respond, he continued. “And the whole social media thing…. Well, I know I signed the contract and agreed to disappear. I tried, I really did. But it felt like I’d lost everything that was important to me. I came back here to clear my name, yes. But then I also realized there were other things tethering me to life here too. Things like my family, my friends. My daughter.” Those last words came out quieter and tugged at her heart even more. “I know I’m not supposed to have anything to do with Camille, and given what’s happening right now, it’s best to avoid any direct connections between us at all so whoever killed the captain can’t use you guys against me, but man. It’s so much harder than I thought. When I logged onto Facebook one day and saw those photos…they moved me.”

  The walls Maria had done her best to build between them the other night crumbled a bit more. He looked so sad and desolate that she couldn’t help setting her laptop aside and reaching over to place her hand on his arm. “I understand. I do. I just wish you’d told me about them before. That’s all. But what’s done is done. And you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You can’t prepare for everything.” When he gave a little shrug, she chuckled and sat back, picking up her computer again. “That weight of the world must get pretty heavy sometimes, even as broad as your sexy shoulders are.”

  He turned his head slightly to look at her. “You like my shoulders?”

  She shook her head, not looking at him, instead poking him with the toe of a sock-covered foot. “You know I do.”

  Trevor caught her foot and pulled it into his lap, where he proceeded to give her a massage that nearly had her moaning with pleasure. It made it a bit harder to concentrate on the work she was doing, but it was so worth it.

  After a few hours, and an identical massage on her other foot as well, Maria finally hit on what she hoped was a solid lead. “Trevor?”

  “Yeah,” he said from where he was stretched out on the other end of the sofa. Some sports thing was on TV now, so of course he was totally engrossed. He didn’t look at her. “What?”

  “Can you account for the whereabouts of the other members of your SEAL team at the time of the captain’s shooting?”

  His gaze flickered to her. “Yes. I gave all that information to the officers who interrogated me. All the members of my team were accounted for and their locations were verified. I was the only one not present with them in the mess hall because I was out doing the security check around the perimeter of the base. Why?”

  “Was anyone else present at the base at the time of the shooting? Maybe a visiting officer or other dignitary? Anyone unusual?” Maria stared at her computer screen as she clicked on the link attached to an email Steve had just sent her. “With the base being so near to Kabul, I’d think there’d be a lot of foot traffic in the area, right?”

  “Right. Still not getting your point though.” He straightened a bit and turned slightly to face her, clicking off the TV. “Sorry.”

  She beckoned him around behind her so he could see her screen as a video clip opened and began to play. “I just got this. Do you recognize anyone on screen? Steve says it came from the same hostel, but a different security camera.”

  Over and over, they watched the gunman draw his weapon, exchange a few words with the captain, then the brief flash as the bullet fired and the captain crumpled to the ground. Trevor leaned in a bit closer, his warmth and scent surrounding Maria once more.

  “Can you pause the video?” he asked. “Right…there.”

  Trevor squinted at the grainy image onscreen for several moments, then leaned back. “It’s hard to tell, but it looks like a guy I might know. I spent a lot of time out in the community while I was there, gathering intel. This dude was actually American, ex-military. He’d been discharged under questionable circumstances and held a grudge.”

  “Sounds like a murder candidate to me,” she said, looking back at him, excitement and adrenaline flooding her system. This was her favorite time of a case—the calm before the storm. “Got a name? I’ll have Steve check him out.”

  “Uh, yeah. John Montgomery. They called him Monty for short.”

  25

  Trevor should’ve felt better about things than he did. After all, they’d finally turned up their first credible lead in the case. But the fact it was John Montgomery was an issue. The guy was a loose cannon, dangerous as hell and an excellent marksman. Not the kind of guy you wanted on your bad side and exactly the sort of man who belonged behind bars.

  The whole reason he’d been dishonorably discharged sixteen months ago was weapons smuggling. Rumor had it Monty had been working with a dealer in Kabul to ship the stolen weapons to China for black market sale. He’d sneak a few here and there from the armory on base, then crate them up along with other, legal cargo, and ship them off to parts unknown. The operation was pretty extensive, from what Trevor had heard, and involved several US seaports and several dealers across an international network. One of the dealers had been busted in Shanghai just a few days before the captain’s death, now that he thought about it.

  If the intel they’d been collecting for the captain and Monty were somehow tied together….

  Oh boy.

  Things just got worse and worse.

  He’d always thought Monty had left the smuggling ring behind after his discharge, but it was weird the guy had decided to hang around Kabul instead of going back home. If he’d remained active in the illegal weapons trade, though, things now made a whole lot more sense. He’d lost track of what had happened to the guy over the last six months or so. A new fear gripped him. What if Monty was here? In Little Creek? He was ex-SEAL, and their training facilities were nearby. And yeah, he was banned from base, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be behind all the crap Trevor was going through.

  And if he was here….

  Trevor swallowed hard and glanced over at Maria before looking down the hall toward the nursery.

  No. No way would he let that bastard within ten feet of his family. Not his parents. Not his siblings. And certainly not Maria and their daughter. He’d die first. And given Monty’s reputation, and the fact he’d probably killed the captain, that was entirely possible.

  Maria’s computer beeped and they both looked at the screen. “Looks like he’s in town.”

  Worst fears confirmed, Trevor’s mind immediately clicked into alpha protector mode.

  “And he’s dating the daughter of one of your commanding officers.” Maria snorted. “He must be so proud.”

  “This isn’t a joke, dammit.” Trevor winced at his harsh tone and Maria’s surprised look. “Sorry. It’s just that this guy is scary. He’s a gunrunner, a criminal. He shot the captain in cold blood. I doubt he’d hesitate to do it again to someone else if the need arose. We need to be careful.”

  “We need to act fast,” she countered, closing her laptop and setting it aside. “I heard on the news that the Navy’s almost finished with their investigation. Since they haven’t announced any new suspects, I’m assuming you’re still it. Once they press charges, it’ll be harder for me to help you. They’ll put you in military prison, pending trial. It’ll leave a permanent stain on your record. You might not be able to return to your SEAL team if….”

  She didn’t finish that sentence, but she didn’t have to.

  If they find you guilty.

  He wasn’t guilty. He didn’t do it. But in order to prove his innocence, he’d have to go toe to toe with a lethal bastard with no morals and no conscience. She was right too, dammit. Time was running out.

  “Where was Monty last seen?” Trevor asked.

  “According to what Steve found, he’s been a regular the past week or so at The Breakers in Norfolk. It’s where he met that officer’s daughter, apparently. Steve said their pictures were splashed up all over
her Instagram.”

  “Good.” He walked away to shove his feet into his shoes. Hanging out in some trendy dance club on the shore wasn’t exactly Trevor’s idea of fun, but if it helped catch this asshole and put him behind bars once and for all, he’d suffer. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Maria scrambled off the sofa to stand in front of him, blocking his exit. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  “To catch a killer.”

  “Not by yourself you’re not. And what are you going to do if you find him, huh? You’ve got authority to arrest him?” She crossed her arms and dug in her heels. Never mind he had a good foot in height over her and packed about fifty pounds more muscle. She wasn’t about to budge without a fight and Trevor didn’t dare touch her again, for fear he’d never let her go. “We need a plan.”

  “I’ve got a plan.” He growled and swiveled away, heading for the back door instead. He’d have to scale the fence in the back, then walk around the house to his car, but it didn’t matter. “Stay here and keep the doors locked until I get back.”

  “No.” Her voice was loud enough to wake Camille. A high-pitched keen carried through the house. Maria shot him a glare, the visual equivalent of daggers. “I swear to God, if you walk out that door now, Trevor Daniels, you’ll never see me or your daughter again. Partner, remember?”

  She walked away toward the nursery, and he hesitated with his hand over the knob. A smart man would’ve run for the hills right away, as far and as fast as his legs would take him. Too bad Trevor had fallen stupidly in love the minute he’d set foot in Maria’s house and in her life again a few short days ago.

  Cursing under his breath, he turned away from the door and stalked back into the living room. The more time he spent here now, the easier it would be for Monty to destroy everything Trevor loved. But damn if he could make himself go. Not after all those months of looking into his daughter’s life from the outside and wishing just once he could be a part of it. No matter what happened from here on out, he’d do his best to remain with Camille, and Maria, for however long he could.