Point Blank SEAL

by Carol Ericson

  “Maybe that’s why they tried so hard. They knew my thoughts and dreams of you were what kept me sane, grounded and civilized—no matter what they put me through.” He rested his chin on the top of her head, gritting his teeth, trying to block out the deeds he’d been forced to commit.

  “You’re here now.” She dug her fists into the taut muscles of his back. “And I’m going to waylay Maggie on her lunch break so we can start figuring out who’s who in that house of horrors.”

  “House of horrors. I like that.” He kissed the top of her head. “Let’s get some breakfast and check in on Mikey. Do you think he’s up yet?”

  “He might be, but the rest of the household probably isn’t. Let’s give Gabby some time to wake up and give her a call around eleven our time, before we head out to my lunch with Maggie.”

  They ate breakfast at a restaurant across the street from the hotel and went back to the room to videoconference with Mikey.

  Miguel got a lump in his throat when his son called him Daddy. Would he ever get over that wonder? Would he ever make it back to Mikey? Even if Miguel didn’t, he’d make damned sure Jennifer did.

  Jennifer logged off the chat and wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “He doesn’t seem to miss me too much, so I didn’t want to start the waterworks in front of him.”

  “He probably forgets about how much he misses you when he’s looking at you on a computer screen.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind.” She closed her laptop. “I’m relieved that he’s happy when he talks to me. If he were sad and crying, I’d lose it for sure.”

  “He’s probably still feeling the excitement of a new place and new kids, but what do I know? You know our son better than I do.”

  She tugged on the edge of his beard. “Don’t sell yourself short. You’re a natural with kids, and you took to fatherhood like you’d been doing it for years.”

  “I hope to be doing it for years to come.” He grabbed her hand and kissed her fingertips. “You have a lunch date. Do you have the mic?”

  Jennifer patted her purse. “I put it in a little side pocket. When should I put it on?”

  “I’ll do it for you in the car before I drop you off.”

  “You sure she’ll be at the sandwich shop or the noodle place?”

  “In the over four months I was there, Maggie never went anyplace else, especially since the coworker she hated always went to the burger place.”

  “Don’t you love these creatures of habit?”

  “Makes spying on them a little easier.”

  “Is that what we’re doing?”

  “Let’s call it reconnaissance.”

  It took him forty-five minutes to drive to the shopping center and, despite himself, Miguel felt his palms sweating as he got closer and closer to the place where he’d been held captive a second time.

  “Maggie always walks over.” Resting a palm on the top of the steering wheel, he pointed a finger out the windshield. “See those coffee-colored buildings in the distance? That’s the debriefing center.”

  Jennifer scooted forward in her seat and dragged her sunglasses down her nose. “What did you say it was on the outside, a prosthetics place?”

  “That’s what it really is in the front. Doctors really do design and fit prosthetics there. It’s partially funded by the Veterans Administration, so there are a lot of vets who go there to get fitted for new appendages.”

  “Well, at least they’re doing something admirable.”

  “I’m sure the front part of that building doesn’t know what goes on in the back part.”

  He swung their rental car into the parking lot of the mini-mall.

  Jennifer pulled her purse into her lap and unzipped it. “I’m ready when you are.”

  Miguel parked the car behind a large truck on the other side of the parking lot from the restaurants.

  Jennifer dropped the mic into his cupped hand. It had a clip on it and he brushed her hair aside and flicked back the collar of her blouse. “I really am going to attach it to your bra strap. Just don’t knock it off.”

  “I don’t usually tug at my bra straps in public. It’ll be fine there. Do I need to speak up or lean into Maggie when she speaks?”

  “No, they’re surprisingly sensitive for their size.” His fingers brushed the soft skin of her chest as he attached the device to her strap. “Just speak in a normal tone of voice. You’re not trying to get anything out of her. Just establish some rapport.”

  “And you’ll be listening to everything we say.”

  He picked up the corresponding listening device he’d dropped into the cupholder. “It’ll all come right through here, and I can record it and listen to it later if I miss anything.”

  “Hopefully Maggie won’t call the police on me for stalking her.” She pulled the door handle of the car. “Wish me luck.”

  Miguel watched his newly dark-haired fiancée march through the parking lot with confidence. His instinct to give her something to do had been right. Even if he didn’t expect much out of this meeting, Jen needed to feel useful.

  He narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. Not that she hadn’t been a huge help to him last night. She’d known exactly what he’d needed to ease him into intimacy. And he owed it to her to give her a fully recovered, healthy man and father for their child.

  * * *

  JENNIFER SAT DOWN at the table outside the coffeehouse and pulled out her phone. She kept one eye on the pictures of Mikey Gabby had sent her and one eye on the row of restaurants across the small courtyard.

  Ten minutes after Jennifer sat down, Maggie crossed the north end of the parking lot and ducked into the noodle place.

  Jennifer dropped her chin and murmured into the mic inside her shirt. “It’s noodles today.”

  Their listening setup was one-way, muted on Miguel’s end since he didn’t want any noises all of a sudden coming from her blouse. That would be awkward.

  Jennifer blew out a breath, jumped to her feet and dumped her half-full coffee cup in the trash. She strode toward the restaurant, amid the thinning lunch crowd, and pushed open the glass door.

  Maggie, next in line, didn’t even turn around, which suited Jennifer. Let Maggie be the one to discover her.

  Jennifer picked up a plastic menu by the front door and studied it as she shuffled toward the counter where Maggie was ordering. Miguel did tell her that Maggie always ate out, but what if she decided this time to bring her food back to the office?

  When she finished paying for her food, Maggie turned from the counter and nearly bumped into Jennifer.

  “I’m sorry.” Maggie’s brown eyes grew round. “You were in Nick’s Grille last night.”

  Jennifer lowered the menu. “Oh, wow. This time you almost ran into me.”

  “Couple of klutzes. What brings you out here?”

  “The noodles.” Jennifer raised the menu. “Someone recommended them.”

  “Really?”

  “Miss, are you ready to order?”

  Jennifer turned the menu toward Maggie. “Any recommendations?”

  “Number nine.”

  “Thanks.” Jennifer turned to the counter and ordered the number nine and a medium soda. As she filled her cup at the machine, Jennifer watched Maggie take a seat by the window. She snapped a lid on her cup and grabbed a straw.

  She started walking past Maggie’s table and then stopped. “Would you mind if I joined you? The friend I’m visiting is working today and told me to entertain myself, but I’m kind of bored.”

  “You’re entertaining yourself in DC by eating noodles in a dumpy shop in Maryland?” She tipped her head at the chair across from her. “Have a seat. I’m Maggie Procter, by the way.”

  “Thanks. Karen Tedesco. I’m kind of burned out on monument
s and memorials to tell you the truth.”

  They chitchatted about sightseeing until they had individually picked up their bowls of noodles and sat back down.

  Jennifer clicked her chopsticks together. “I might be looking to relocate in this area. Can you tell me a little more about your job? It sounds more interesting than seeing patients all day.”

  “Oh, i-it’s not really. I help out with the prosthetics team.”

  “Sounds rewarding. Are they hiring? The government, I mean?”

  “I don’t think so, but if you want to send my boss a résumé, I have a card.” Maggie dabbed her mouth with a napkin and reached into her purse, hanging on the back of her chair. She snapped a card on the table between them and then scribbled on the back of the card. “My boss’s name is Emily Stroka.”

  With the end of her chopstick, Jennifer dragged the card next to her bowl. “Thanks.”

  Her gaze darted to the red lanyard peeking out of Maggie’s purse, sporting the name of the prosthetics company in white letters.

  She needed that badge.

  As Jennifer reached for her drink, she jerked her hand and knocked over Maggie’s cup, sending soda and ice across the table. Jennifer jumped up. “I really am a klutz. I’m so sorry.”

  Jennifer grabbed the napkins at the table and swirled them around in the liquid pooling on the surface. “Can you get some more napkins?”

  Maggie had scooted back from the table to avoid the drips from the edge. “Of course. Maybe they’ll get me a towel from behind the counter.”

  As soon as Maggie turned her back on the mess, Jennifer yanked the lanyard out of Maggie’s purse and shoved it into her own.

  Maggie returned with two towels and they both mopped up the soda. Righting her cup, Maggie asked, “Can you get me more soda?”

  “Of course, but then I’d better get going.” She picked up Maggie’s empty cup. “What was it?”

  “Root beer, heavy on the ice.”

  “You got it.” Jennifer filled up Maggie’s cup and returned to the table. “Thanks for sharing your table with me, even though I destroyed it, and thanks for the info. I’m going to head back to my friend’s place and wait for her.” Jennifer slid her purse from the back of her chair.

  “Enjoy the rest of your trip.” Maggie was texting on her phone before Jennifer even hit the door.

  As she walked at a fast clip across the parking lot, she spoke into the mic. “Did you catch any of that? I took Maggie’s badge. I have a way into that building, and I’m gonna take it.”

  Immediately her phone rang and she answered Miguel’s call as she headed toward the buildings behind the mini-mall. “I’m on my way.”

  “Stop, Jen. I don’t want you going in there.”

  Her heart thumped harder as she walked faster. “It’s the perfect opportunity for me to get in there and snoop around a little.”

  “You don’t even know what to look for.”

  “No, but I can take pictures with my phone and show you later.”

  “Do you think they’re actually going to have kill orders lying around or stuffed in file cabinets? There’s nothing you can accomplish there, Jen, except putting yourself in danger.”

  “I need to be there. I need to see it for myself.”

  “I’m still on the outer edge of the parking lot. Come back to the car, and we can maybe plot out a way for you to get an interview with Maggie’s boss, although her name doesn’t ring a bell with me.”

  “It’s too late, Miguel. I’m going in.” She turned toward the gated complex and ended the call on Miguel’s sputtered objection. She spoke to him through the mic instead. “I’m sorry. I just have to do this.”

  Jennifer straightened her shoulders and widened her stride as she approached the gate to the complex. A guard shack stood sentry over the cars driving into the gated parking lot, but nobody manned the revolving door with the card reader.

  Jennifer scooped in a deep breath and flashed Maggie’s badge at the reader. The red light turned green, the gate clicked and Jennifer pushed through.

  “I’m in.” She whispered to the fuming listener on the other side of the mic.

  The front parking lot catered to the customers of the prosthetics business, with rows of handicapped slots in front of the building.

  Licking her dry lips, Jennifer opened the glass door just as a man in a wheelchair was exiting. She held it wide-open for him and he rolled through, thanking her.

  She stepped into the showroom and gazed at the lifelike appendages that would bring new hope to their recipients.

  A man in a white coat glanced over his shoulder at her. “I’ll be right with you.”

  Then he returned to his conversation with a woman and a man leaning on a pair of crutches.

  Jennifer’s eyes darted to the side door that led to a quad. She wandered to the display next to the door and slipped through it.

  Shoving her sunglasses to the top of her head, she squinted into the window of a building on the other side of the quad. A row of treadmills faced the window and boasted a few walkers and a runner.

  That must be the physical rehabilitation center. To the left of that building, there was another, behind a rotating gate just like the one that guarded the parking lot. Unless there was an additional keypad on that gate, Maggie’s badge should work for that, too.

  No wonder Miguel was able to escape from this facility. The security wasn’t that tight, but then it probably hadn’t been designed to lock people inside.

  She spoke to Miguel inside her blouse. “I’m still alive. I just passed the rehab building and I’m heading for the secure area in the back—the area where they kept you.”

  She tried not to imagine the steam coming out of Miguel’s ears about now. One condition he’d put on her for accompanying him on this mission was that she listen to him and follow his orders.

  She’d failed.

  She pressed the badge against the reader and sighed when she heard the answering click. She stepped through this gate with a little more caution and strolled to the door facing her.

  She twisted the handle slowly and pulled at the door. An empty hallway and computer keyboards clicking from open offices greeted her.

  Tiptoeing past the first two offices, she kept her eye on a larger door at the end of the long hallway. The double doors looked like the entrance to a suite of hospital rooms.

  A lash of hot anger whipped through her body. After Miguel’s ordeal in captivity, his government should’ve welcomed him home as a hero and given him the best of care, not hidden him in this sterile environment away from his family—away from her and Mikey—where he could’ve healed so much faster...and better.

  “Excuse me.”

  Jennifer’s blood ran cold in her veins. Don’t run. She tripped to a stop but didn’t turn around to confront the owner of the voice. “Yes?”

  “Who are you and where are you going?”

  Jennifer pasted her best condescending schoolteacher smile on her face and spun around. “I’m here to see Ms. Stroka.”

  The woman dropped the reading glasses she’d had pinched between two fingers, and they fell against her chest, dangling on the gold chain around her neck. She tipped her head slightly to the left in a jerky fashion. “Who?”

  Jennifer poked around in her purse, pushing aside Maggie’s badge, which she had no intention of showing to this woman. She pulled out the business card Maggie had given her and read the back. “Emily Stroka. I’d like to apply for a nursing position.”

  The woman raised her delicate eyebrows a fraction. She seemed to do everything in small, measured movements.

  “How did you get in here? Past the security gates?”

  “I piggybacked.” Jennifer shrugged her shoulders. “Someone was coming in and I slipped through behind him.�
��

  “That’s highly irregular and against policy.” The woman backed up into her office and leaned across her desk to pick up the phone.

  Jennifer’s jaw dropped. “Y-you’re not going to call security, are you? I just wanted to meet Ms. Stroka in person to chat. You know, make a good impression so my résumé makes it out of the pile.”

  “That’s not how it works here.” The woman’s nose twitched, but she didn’t follow through with the phone call. “This is a government position and you need to go through the jobs website.”

  “I just thought I could add a personal touch.” Jennifer smiled, stepped into the room and plopped her purse down on the desk.

  “This person, Ms. Stroka, is not even physically located here. Now, if you don’t leave, I will call security to escort you out.”

  “Oh, that’s not necessary.” Jennifer waved the card once before tucking it back into her purse. “Now that I know Ms. Stroka isn’t here, it kinda defeats my purpose. I can go out the way I came in.”

  “Absolutely not. We can’t have unescorted people wandering around our facility.” The woman turned and swept a key chain from her desk and hooked it to her lanyard. “I’ll see you out.”

  She gestured toward the door, and Jennifer scooted through it into the hallway. The woman locked the door behind her and waited until Jennifer started walking back toward the offices in the front of the building.

  Jennifer cranked her head over her shoulder and peered at the woman’s badge. “You’re Angela Woodruff? Can I mention on my application that I met you?”

  The woman narrowed her cold eyes as she opened the door. “That wouldn’t be a very good idea.”

  Instead of going through the prosthetics showroom, Angela ushered her along the side of the building and into the front parking lot. “I’ll watch you from here.”

  “No problem. I’m leaving.”

  Jennifer took two steps and Angela stopped her. “By the way, with whom did you piggyback?”

  “Some man in a white coat.” Jennifer flicked her fingers in the air and marched toward the security gate, feeling Angela’s eyes boring a hole in the back of her skull.