by Bella Juarez
Jack was clearly not amused with her silence.
“I bought a house outside of San Antonio a couple of months back. I’ve been fixing it up and I want to move in before Thanksgiving. I need to go work on my house,” Anna said.
Jack looked down at his cup and took a long drink.
“Why was that so hard?” Jack asked as he stood.
Jack walked around the island and poured himself another cup of coffee. As he passed Anna, he gave her a quick kiss. Anna felt a tremor at the memory of what he’d just done to her and his slight show of affection. She redirected herself and plated some breakfast tacos and served him as well as herself.
“I need to go to my office for a little while. I really don’t want you by yourself for very long, especially if I can’t get to you right away.”
Anna started to protest.
“Just trust me, please. Take me back to the O Club and meet me at the office. I won’t be very long and then we can go out to your place and I’ll help you with whatever you need to do,” Jack said.
“It’s not just my house. I have other things to do.”
“Anna, is there something you’re not telling me? Like maybe someone will be upset because I’m with you?”
Anna almost laughed at the thought that crossed her mind when she heard Jack’s last statement. He was actually worried she was seeing someone else. Does he seriously worry about things like that? Jack O’Malley? If there had been someone else, she would’ve probably dumped them after last night because sex with Jack was like nothing she’d ever experienced.
“No. I just don’t want to be rushed through what I need to do.”
“No problem. I’ve got a bunch of stuff on my desk that I need to get through and it may take me, at most, a couple of hours. Then the day is all yours.”
Anna watched Jack eat for a moment and knew she was playing with fire. What she’d told him was half-true. He really was more temptation than she could resist. However, it wasn’t just sex. Waking up with Jack wrapped around her this morning and cooking for him was comforting and something she could get used doing every day. She missed caring for someone other than herself, but she knew he wasn’t the committed type. Jack O’Malley would be a passing thing and if she didn’t guard herself she would get hurt. Jack looked up from his food at Anna and she melted as she stared into his green eyes.
“Whatever you want to do, Anna, no questions asked,” Jack assured her.
Anna sighed, “Okay.”
“Go get dressed so we can go.”
Without further debate, Anna walked upstairs to her bedroom and quickly changed. While Jack had been sleeping she’d managed to take a shower and get breakfast mostly done for him. As she started to walk out of her room, she noticed his white button-down shirt on the floor next to her bed. She picked it up and held it to her cheek and inhaled his scent. She thought about how insistent he was about spending the day with her. Anna closed her eyes and inhaled again, recalling how it felt to have him touch and hold her. As they slept, she recalled the possessive way he’d held her close all night. It was the best sleep she’d had in years. She’d met her match in every sense of the word. She redirected, focused, and looked ahead.
“Your move…Jack.”
Chapter 22
Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
Building 1534, East Runway Hangar
August 17, 2008/1510 Zulu
Anna sat at her desk waiting for Jack to finish whatever he needed to do at his own desk. They’d already been at the office for an hour. She decided to make herself useful and start looking through some updated security logs on the base servers. It would get her a leg up for tomorrow.
As Anna logged into her systems, she called up another application that monitored activity on some of the contracting and personnel servers that Navy Special Warfare had asked her to watch. The sniffer would monitor any spikes in network activity. She started looking at the recent activity in the security logs and didn’t notice anything unusual. Anna watched the sniffer load as she opened another window. She started to scroll down and stopped when she got to last night’s entries. There had been a lot of activity. She quickly saved the logs to her desktop.
Anna called up the 1427th Comm Group scheduled outage list. There hadn’t been any activity, no scheduled upgrades, and no scheduled maintenance. She called up the user logs and felt the blood drain to her feet. She quickly saved that log to her desktop. The username from the virus had logged into the contracting server and transferred a whole lot of data. Anna started typing furiously. Suddenly the sniffer spiked, and traffic on the base’s clinic server started spiking.
Anna called up the scheduled maintenance list again. Nothing for that organization had been scheduled either. She started the trace feature on the sniffer to find out who was logging into the servers. As the trace feature ran she looked at the clinic’s server security logs. The username from the virus was logged in and downloading data right now.
* * * *
Jack had been screwing around with Admiral Gunter the last few days so his desk had a mountain of correspondence that needed to be reviewed and signed. He would also be leaving for Washington, DC, in a week for a three-day conference. He finished, stood, and stretched. He was done and it hadn’t taken him as long as he thought.
Jack walked down the hall to Anna’s office to let her know that he was ready. As he walked he was contemplating how he would get her to spend another night with him. Last night had been the best fuck he’d had in recent memory. He turned the corner to the entrance of Mac’s offices and paused to think about how he could rearrange his schedule to accommodate her. Jack entered the threshold of her doorway and saw the look of concern and fear on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Anna twitched and looked at him as if she’d just seen him for the first time.
“Someone’s hacking into the systems,” Anna said shortly as she continued typing furiously.
“Are you serious?” Jack asked, rushing to stand behind her.
“I logged in just to check a few things and get ahead for tomorrow when I noticed that username from the virus a couple of weeks ago. Then the clinic server started going crazy.”
Jack reached for his phone and called his chief IT engineer, Lieutenant Dan Gamez.
“Get your ass in here, right now! Anna, shut the systems down,” Jack commanded.
“I’m trying. They’ve overridden my access,” Anna said desperately.
“Where are the servers located?” Jack demanded.
“They’re at Brooks and Lackland. I can only do this remotely,” Anna said.
“Shit! Stay with it…” Jack said, walking out of her office.
Anna finally managed use the hacker’s own backdoor to shut down all of the networks the comm group had control over. It was difficult, and there were several to shut down, but she’d remembered that all of them were controlled from only three locations.
Once she figured out how to shut one down, the rest followed suit. The sniffer had managed to trace the address of the computer. Now all she had to do was track down the server that had given the remote hacker the address. This, Anna knew, could be impossible. Hackers often hijacked legitimate servers to do their dirty work. She sat back in her chair and took a deep breath. Jack returned. Lieutenant Dan Gamez wasn’t far behind.
“What happened?” Lt Gamez asked.
“Cyberattack, we’ve been hacked,” Anna said.
“Are they still able to get in?” Jack asked.
“No, sir, but I may get you into some trouble,” Anna said.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked, unconcerned.
“I shut down the entire Air Force WAN in the San Antonio area. Everyone is down. Base ops, air-traffic control, hospital systems at all the Air Force bases are down. The mission-critical systems should be switching to an alternate network about now,” Anna said with concern written all over her face.
“I’ll deal with it when it hap
pens. In the meantime you two need to figure out just what the hell happened here. And monitor those systems when they come up,” Jack said as he walked out.
Lieutenant Gamez and Anna looked at one another. It would be a long day. Dan pulled up a chair next to Anna.
“What’s going on?” Dan asked.
* * * *
Lieutenant Gamez sat back in the chair he’d taken four hours earlier. He watched as Anna managed to trace and close down all doors that the username seemed to open. He had a pounding headache. Anna rubbed her neck and it seemed to Dan that she finally took a breath since this whole thing started.
“How about a break?” Rock asked from the doorway.
“I think we’re done, for now,” Anna said.
Dan stood and stretched. Anna was right. They’d finished all they could do. He’d contacted SOCOM and Navy Special Warfare. Rock took the seat Dan had been occupying. Dan half listened as Anna filled in Rock on the details of the day.
“Dan, there’s some food in the break room,” Rock said.
“Thanks, Skipper,” Dan said.
“Come on, Anna, take a break,” Rock said.
Dan stood in the doorway waiting for Rock and Anna. Dan watched Anna and then did a double-take when he saw Rock. He’d known Rock since coming into the SEALs five years ago. He watched his boss check out the computer chick like she was a piece of choice meat! Rock noticed Dan’s expression and quickly turned away.
Holy shit! He’s got the hots for her! Poor Anna, she’s in serious peril if Rock has her on his radar!
They left for the break room, feeling better now that the systems were being monitored by two other units cross country. Dan shook his head and smiled. After last night, Anna’s secret was out—she was pretty choice in that red dress. Some of the guys had started claiming her as their next target and the most aggressive had been Doc and the XO. The XO claimed he’d dibs since Anna had been assigned to them.
Rafe ain’t got a snowball’s chance in hell if Rock is going for it. Rock always gets his…woman.
“I guess I ruined your day,” Rock said to Anna.
“What’s up? Did you two have a date?” Dan asked.
“No,” Anna said.
Dan dug in and made himself a plate.
“Oh, Anna! The stories I could tell you about the Rock! He’s a legend, you know,” Dan chided.
“We’re not dating,” Anna clarified.
“Good! Then I can tell you about this one time when we were on liberty in Rota. There were these twins. They were strippers—”
“Hey! What happens on liberty stays at liberty!” Rock snapped.
Anna blushed and giggled.
“There are a few stories I could tell about you, Lieutenant. Remember Hong Kong? No? I do!” Rock reminded.
“Hey! That liberty had been after a rough mission, Skipper!” Dan protested.
“I don’t want to know about either one of you or any of the men I work with,” Anna said with a smile.
“I hear you’re a chef, Anna,” Dan said, taking a seat.
“Damn good one! That pizza you made last night was really good,” Rock said to Anna.
“Pizza last night? I thought you two weren’t dating?” Dan asked.
“We’re not,” Anna said.
“How come he got homemade pizza last night? Wasn’t that dried-out roast beef dinner good enough for you?” Dan asked Rock.
“Mac asked me to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Thursday,” Anna said, trying to change the subject.
“Really?” Dan asked.
“For the office staff…You’re not staff,” Rock said.
“No fair!” Dan said.
“Life ain’t fair,” Rock shot back.
“No. No. I’m making a bunch, not just for the staff,” Anna said.
Dan and Rock exchanged jabs back and forth, entertaining Anna for an hour as they ate. It was good natured and in fun. Dan glanced at Anna a few times while Rock was talking. None of those guys who had painted her as a target stood a chance. Anna was already under the Rock’s spell, although she did seem to hide it better than most.
As lunch wore on, Dan noticed something different about Rock. Even though he was clearly attracted to Anna, he kept his distance and kept it respectful. That behavior was different. With most women Dan had seen Rock around, he was in and out. No dancing around. Anna and Jack seemed to be doing a really interesting dance with each other, Dan observed.
This might just be the one who takes down the Rock…way to go, Anna!
Chapter 23
Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
Building 1534, East Runway Hangar
August 21, 2008/2247 Zulu
Anna finished talking with Mac and Captain O’Malley. It was after five thirty. She assumed Steve had left for the day. As she passed Steve’s desk she left the message for him to get out to Coronado as soon as he got back. Steve walked into the office with a Coke in his hand. He smiled and greeted her.
“Need something, Anna?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m leaving this message here for you to get out to Combat Systems at Coronado. I think it just needs to go to Chief Sara Brooks. I was working with her a couple of weeks ago. I found something else she should know about.”
“Will do.” Steve looked over the message. “By the way, Anna, those cinnamon rolls were awesome. Next time you do that, I think Mac will need to hide the weapons. I thought Radio and Gamez would kill each other over the last one.”
“Thanks, Steve. I’m glad you liked them,” Anna said with a smile.
“I was just happy I got one,” Steve said.
* * * *
Jack took a long look at the copy of the message Anna had left with him. He handed it to Mac. He looked it over and took a deep breath as he read.
“This just keeps getting deeper,” Mac said.
Jack looked at the door for a long time. Seeing Anna and not touching her was getting to be hard. Anna was better at hiding what had happened between them. Better than Jack. He had to battle the physical reaction he had for her every time he saw her. Jack hadn’t had a free moment to spend with Anna, and so far she hadn’t pushed him for his time.
Next week wouldn’t be any better because he would be in DC for four days. Jack was beginning to think Anna was right and maybe they should just forget the whole thing and move on. Every time he convinced himself it was nothing but sex, he would see her and know he was lying to himself.
Damn, that woman smells good.
“I hadn’t noticed,” Mac said with a knowing grin.
“Excuse me?” Jack asked.
“You said that Anna smelled good. I said I hadn’t noticed.”
Oh shit! Did I say that out loud? This situation would get Jack into more trouble than he’d ever known if he didn’t get a grip on himself. Anna was making him crazy! He needed to figure something out. Otherwise he was liable to throw her on his desk the next time she walked into his office.
“No? I notice every time I’m around her,” Jack said.
“Aren’t you her boss?”
“No, buddy, I’m not her boss.” Thank God! Jack added silently. “Mr. Clarkson is her boss now. She was picked up by SOCOM yesterday. She’s not my type, anyway.” Jack placed the message back in the folder.
“Keep trying to tell yourself that, Rock. But let me tell you something, partner. She’s every man’s type. That’s the one you take home to meet your momma.” Mac smiled.
“Not me.” Jack grunted.
“Why don’t you come to dinner next Wednesday, over at the house…” Mac smiled slyly.
“Liz doesn’t like me for her. She told me in no uncertain terms that Anna was too good for me,” Jack said.
“Well, Liz is only half-right. Anna is too good for you. But, I like you for her. In fact, I think she’s just what you need. Lizzy likes Alex for Anna. Boy, has Alex got her fooled. Then again maybe it’s just what he needs. That little diva would walk all over him before he knew what the hell w
as happening. You would at least have the balls to stand up to her,” Mac said.
“I don’t know. Alex can be pretty damn ballsy,” Jack said.
Jack had to keep himself from laughing out loud. If he kept on he would spill his experiences and their little game of chess. Mac was so right about Anna. Alex would be on his knees barking like a dog before the night was over! The word diva didn’t quite fit Anna. The words little Dominatrix were what came into Jack’s mind. He chuckled.
“You think she’s a diva?” Jack asked.
“I think she’s got a little temper, and I think if you’re not careful she could run circles around you pretty damn quick. She’s smart.”
* * * *
Anna went back to her office and picked up her purse and her BlackBerry. It had been a long day. She made her way out of the office and into the hallway. Remembering her keys, she turned around sharply. As she did, she felt a searing pain as if her right shoulder had been ripped from her body. She didn’t understand why her entire right torso seemed to be on fire. She started to scream from the pain, but only managed a whimper. Her mind went into confused panic from the pain she was experiencing. The last thing she remembered was collapsing onto the concrete floor.
* * * *
Petty Officer Montgomery was sitting at his desk when he heard it, a gunshot. Steve dropped the message Anna had given him as he rushed from around his desk. Captain O’Malley and Mac ran out of Jack’s office. They’d heard it, too.
“What the hell…” Jack trailed off.
Mac turned to Montgomery.
“Did you hear that?” Mac asked.
“Yeah, I heard it,” Steve said, throwing open the glass doors as quickly as he could, and hobbled out.
Every one of the SEALs in the building who’d heard the shot knew exactly what they’d heard and they were filling the halls to investigate. This wasn’t officially a war zone so the sound was out of place. Jack turned the corner and saw Anna on the floor and felt his heart stop. Blood was quickly spreading over her yellow blouse. He reached her before anyone else could.
