by Terry Spear
The moment he’d seen her in her cabin making small talk with Bjornolf, Finn had known the only real choice he had was to send her packing to Hunter in Hawaii. So what did he do? Pretended to be her lover so he could protect her instead. And now? He didn’t want to give her up. But he was certain she wouldn’t go along with him going on dangerous missions any more than she wanted Hunter to do so.
“Hmm, I figured Allan was too late where Meara is concerned. Does Hunter know about the two of you?” Bjornolf asked, a hint of dark amusement in his voice.
“He will.” But only after Finn discussed the conditions with Meara.
Bjornolf didn’t say anything for a moment, then added, “With the team all coming together again, I think you can handle this. I’ve got a job elsewhere that’s of national importance. If I’m not there to avert this new crisis, God knows what a mess it’ll be.”
Finn was surprised to hear that Bjornolf planned to leave them behind to take on another mission when this one wasn’t quite resolved. Although he suspected the other paid and this one didn’t. He wondered if Bjornolf’s leaving had anything to do with Finn’s declaration that Meara would be his mate. But he appreciated all that Bjornolf had done for them up until now.
“Thanks for helping us out, Bjornolf.” He stopped short of saying they couldn’t have done it without him, as he still felt testy about Bjornolf’s kissing Meara and feeling her up before that. “Do you want to talk to Hunter?”
“No. That’s all, except, hell, if you decide not to mate Meara, let me know, all right?” Then there was a click, and Finn realized the phone line had been disconnected.
Finn stared at the phone for a minute, then slipped it into his pocket. He didn’t know if Bjornolf had really meant want he’d said about Meara or if he’d only wanted to push Finn into making a decision concerning her. On the other hand, Bjornolf had kissed her, and the way he’d slid his hand in her pocket, yeah, the bastard was damned interested. But he must have known he’d have a real fight on his hands if he went after Meara when Finn wanted her.
Turning his attention to Hunter, Finn said, “We’re on our own. Bjornolf’s got another assignment, and Allan’s on his way here. Cyn’s got at least two other wolves left on his team.”
Hunter swore under his breath. “Okay, I want Meara safely away from here. Tessa’s home. You take her and you watch over her.”
“There’s Anna and me,” Meara said, objecting to Hunter’s wanting her out of the way. “We can help. And you’ll need Finn.”
Finn could tell from Hunter’s expression how much he didn’t want her here or involved.
“Tessa’s home, south of Meara’s. An hour and a half away. That’ll work,” Finn said, agreeing with Hunter. He handed the cup of tea to Meara. Trying to lighten the mood, he said to her, “Somehow Allan must have gotten word you want him for a mate, Meara.”
Meara’s eyes widened. “Who would have said such a thing to him?”
Finn shrugged. “You told everyone that. Maybe Paul joked with him about it. Who knows?”
Hunter shook his head at Meara. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone. As soon as I was gone, you led my whole former team astray.”
“That’ll teach you to tell them to stay away from me.” She smiled mischievously in the way only she could, looking halfway innocent and a whole lot devilish, and then she took a sip of her tea.
* * *
So that Hunter and the others could discuss among themselves what they intended to do about the impending threat—and knowing they didn’t want her in on the discussion since she wasn’t a highly trained operative like them, only she wished they’d let her help if she could—Meara retired to the master bath to take another long soak, without the bubbles this time.
After turning into a near prune, she dried off, wrapped her soft terry cloth robe around her, and rested in bed while reading a Highland werewolf tale to relax. Her favorite author, Julia Wildthorn, had switched from writing contemporary stories to historical tales of Highland werewolves and had even picked up a castle in Scotland, a wolf pack—at least Meara assumed—and a handsome Highland laird of her own to sweeten the deal. Meara sighed, wishing she could have such a romance.
Then she thought back to what was inevitable about her situation here. She hated that her brother and the others would be risking their necks while she hid at Tessa’s house. At the very least, she could resort to using her rifle or revert to her wolf form and use her wickedly lethal teeth.
She was still thinking along those lines when she heard the door to the master bedroom suite open. She looked up from her book and saw Finn enter the room. He closed the door behind him with finality. His predatory gaze took in her robed figure with the comforter covering her lap. If he’d thought they’d make sweet love while her brother was in the house and they weren’t mated—
“Meara, we’ve got to talk.”
He looked deadly serious. She guessed this wasn’t about making love then. She figured he was going to tell her that she had to leave the safe house without further delay. Had they gotten some more news?
She set her book beside her on the mattress and folded her arms, attempting not to look cross, except she didn’t feel anything but. “I could help the cause, you know. You don’t all have to treat me like some innocent bystander.” Hunter knew damn well how capable she was in dealing wolf-to-wolf when the circumstances warranted. Just because one gray wolf had tackled her in the woods near here and then Finn had wrestled him on top of her didn’t mean she was always that disadvantaged. She had been unaware of the menace. That was all.
This time she would be prepared for any eventuality.
He shook his head. “That’s not what I want to talk about.”
That surprised her even more. Before she could come up with another reason for his dark mood, he moved in close to the bed and towered over her.
As much as she hated to admit it, the effect was intimidating. He stood taller than her anyway, but while she sat on the bed, the difference was astronomical. She patted the mattress and scooted over so he could sit down. He’d still be taller but not quite so daunting. Not that she wouldn’t stand her ground; it was just the principle of the thing. How would he feel if he sat on the floor beside the bed and she talked down to him? That brought a smile to her lips.
He frowned at her and the smile quickly faded. No, this was to be a serious discussion, nothing amusing about it.
He remained standing. Damn him.
Fine. She glowered up at him. “What?” she snapped, whatever thread of patience she had breaking.
“Bjornolf said you intercepted a coded message for Hunter and deleted it. How did you access it, and whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”
Her lips parted without her express permission as she gaped at Finn in surprise. “What… what coded message?”
His expression took on a darker cast. “Don’t try to hide the truth from me, Meara. It’s up to you to tell Hunter what you had done. But in the meantime, you’ll tell me how you did it and why.”
She cleared her throat, frowned furiously at him, and said, “If I had done something so dastardly and wished to own up to it, I would speak with Hunter about it, not you. If the message had been for Hunter, he’s the only one I’d feel obligated to apologize to for my actions. Bjornolf is wrong. I wouldn’t have done anything so despicable. What do you take me for anyway?”
Finn ground his teeth, and then he said in an even voice, “Someone who wants to protect her brother at all costs. I understand the underlying reason for doing what you did, but don’t you realize how disastrous the consequences could have been?”
She snapped her gaping mouth shut. Didn’t she just tell him she hadn’t done anything of the sort?
“Listen, you…” she said, jerking the comforter aside, ready to end the discussion here and now. But as soon as she moved the comforter, her robe slipped open, exposing her belly all the way down to her toes.
She grabbed her robe to
yank it shut and then planned to shove him out of the way as he blocked her in while standing close to the mattress. He seized her arm, forcing her to stay right where she was, and then yanked the comforter back over her lap.
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me the truth.”
There was something about a man—or a woman, for that matter—telling her what to do when they had no right, that stoked her ire to blue-flame level. “I told you,” she said with barely controlled anger, “that I did nothing with Hunter’s messages.”
Finn stared her down as if trying to read the vast inner workings of her mind. “All right.” He pushed at her thigh buried under the comforter, indicating he wanted her to move over.
Now he was going to sit beside her? She didn’t want him to now!
Yet she realized that whatever had happened must have been grave enough to warrant his concern so she set her annoyance aside—barely, let out her breath, and shifted over on the mattress. He sat next to her, facing her, his eyes still dark.
“I concede you may have inadvertently deleted a message meant for Hunter and—”
“Damn you, Finn! I didn’t delete anything of Hunter’s! On purpose or otherwise.”
A shadow of a smile flickered across his face and then was gone. If she hadn’t been glowering at him, staring him in the eyes like a wolf who was not about to back down, she would have missed the subtle reaction.
“If you inadvertently did it,” he repeated, “you might not even realize you had done so.”
That gave her pause.
His hard expression softened somewhat, and she felt as though he was taking several steps back from his initial reaction concerning what he thought she’d done. If she had carried out something like that by mistake, how could he fault her? At least that’s what she thought he was thinking.
When he backed off, she considered any time she might have come across a message and deleted it by accident if she’d had Hunter’s phone for some reason. Which, when she considered it, could have been the case. Maybe. But on his computer? She didn’t think so.
“What was the message?” she asked quietly, figuring it had to be damned important or Finn wouldn’t be making such a big deal of it.
“The contents gave new coordinates to where Hunter and the rest of us were to land on the beach.”
“The final mission?” Tears filled her eyes.
She couldn’t help it. If she had deleted something that vital to the team, she would have been responsible for them having been wounded and the mission being such a failure, resulting in hostage deaths even. They could have all died because of her. But then she attempted to shake loose of that notion because she hadn’t ever done anything with Hunter’s computer except to check her own emails a few times when hers was down. And she’d used Hunter’s phone whenever her battery was dead and she needed to call about something important. But she didn’t think she’d deleted any of his phone messages by mistake.
Finn managed a humorless smile. “By deleting the message, you ensured we went to our original landing coordinates, thereby saving our lives.”
Her mouth dropped open, but she quickly narrowed her eyes and slugged him in the arm. “Damn you, Finn. I thought… I thought…” She wiped away several tears, trying her damnedest to get her emotions under control.
He wiped away a couple more tears with a gentle sweep of his fingers against her cheeks and then pulled her into his arms. “I had to know you didn’t somehow get into Hunter’s coded messages and get rid of one on purpose. In this case, it most likely saved our lives, but the situation could have been a lot different if the message had been some other.”
She struggled to get out of his grip, but he held on tight, kissing her hair and sending tingles of need up her spine. No matter how much she hated that he thought she could have done something so underhanded, she wanted Finn’s caresses, his whispered breath against her ear, the feel of his fingers rubbing her back through the soft robe.
“I… didn’t… do… it.” She tilted her head up to glower at him, her eyes still misting with detestable tears.
He took a deep breath. “When I asked you on the beach if you recalled anything you had done that might have saved us on that mission—”
“I said no.”
“But you seemed to think of something.”
She frowned, not at Finn this time, but in concentration as she tried to recall that nagging memory lingering in the recesses of her mind.
“Paul can hypnotize some people.”
“Mindless sheep,” Meara retorted.
“He might be able to pull the memory from your subconscious.”
“No.”
Finn let out his breath and kissed her forehead. “All right, we’ll think of another way.”
“I didn’t ever get into Hunter’s computer or phone email,” she said, still not letting go of this issue. “That I recall.”
“Someone had to have.”
“I don’t have Hunter’s password for his emails, and I’m not a hacker. How does Bjornolf know about the message if it had been deleted? And yes, sometimes, I’d use Hunter’s phone, but I don’t recall any message on it that I might have mistakenly erased. Besides, how did Bjornolf know that I had deleted it?”
Finn stiffened and said, “An email was sent, confirming receipt.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“The message was still in the sent file. The original message emailed to Hunter had been deleted, but the sent message from Hunter showed the contents of the original note.”
“How did Bjornolf know all this?”
“While you were taking a bath, I called him back and talked with him privately to find out more details. After the team had been hit, Bjornolf was trying to learn what had gone wrong. On a hunch, he hacked into all the team’s emails to see if he could learn anything.”
“All right, but how does that make me the suspect?”
“He said it had your signature all over it.”
She snorted. “So what did I say that made him feel that was the case?”
“It didn’t look like the kind of message Hunter would have sent.”
“Why not?”
“He would have gotten in touch with the sender another way to ensure that it wasn’t a hacker’s hoax. And you’ve always been extremely vocal about not wanting Hunter to go on missions.”
“And of course Bjornolf questioned Hunter about it first and my brother agreed I had to have done it.”
Finn didn’t say anything for a moment as his gaze studied hers.
She narrowed her eyes at him. How in the hell had Bjornolf come up with this notion if he hadn’t already talked to Hunter? “Well?”
“Bjornolf wanted you to—”
“To confess to something I didn’t do?” she said, her voice rising with barely controlled rage. “We’ll clear this matter with Hunter right now.”
Finn hesitated to move off the bed. Fine. She couldn’t move the mountain, but she could get around him. She scooted to the other side of the bed and got up, then headed for the bathroom to dress.
“Hunter’s not going to be happy about this,” Finn warned, still sitting where she’d left him.
“I’m not happy about this.”
Dressed in jeans and a tank top, Meara stalked out of the bathroom and headed for the door. With a slow, reluctant manner, Finn stood, crossed the floor, and followed her out of the room.
When she reached the living room, she found the place empty—no sign of Hunter in the kitchen, on the back deck, or out front.
“Great,” she said under her breath, wanting to get this matter cleared up immediately. That’s how she did things—jumped right in and tackled an issue. She didn’t believe in letting a situation simmer, hoping it would go away. She thought to call Hunter on her cell phone but belatedly remembered that hers had met a watery grave.
“Cell phone?” she asked, palm outstretched to Finn.
He fished his out
of his pocket and handed it to her.
She punched in Hunter’s number, and when he answered, she asked, “Did you get a message changing the coordinates on the beach where you were to meet during that last mission?”
Hunter didn’t say anything for a moment, probably trying to figure out how she knew about it and why she was asking him.
“Bjornolf said he hacked into the team’s emails and located a sent message concerning the email,” she added, trying to get Hunter to respond.
“Hell, why did he tell you that?”
She chewed on her bottom lip, giving Finn a sardonic look. “He told Finn who told me. And now I’m supposed to apologize for both deleting the message and sending a response. Except for one problem with that scenario.”
Finn was so rigid that he looked like he was made from marble as he waited to see her reaction.
“I deleted the message and sent a response to the sender,” Hunter said gloomily. “But there wasn’t any reason you should ever have learned of the situation.”
Shocked at the news, Meara stared at Finn’s shirt but didn’t say anything. Then finally she frowned and said, “Say that again, Hunter.”
“I received the message and instantly realized it wasn’t from anyone who should have been changing our coordinates. So that the bastard who sent it would think I believed it and would take my team to the new location, I sent him a confirmation email. Then I deleted the original notice in case anyone happened to see it and went to the other location. We would have been massacred had we done so.”
Still not believing her ears, she said, “You did it?”
“Yeah, Meara, so don’t think anything more about it. It had nothing to do with you.”
It might not have, but now she was feeling ill at ease again. Someone had deliberately tried to have her brother, Finn, and the other SEAL team members killed. “But you never learned who did it?”
“No. I sent the information to another operative to look into it, but then we were hit on the beach. I figured whoever set us up realized too late that we weren’t going to meet at the new coordinates and missed his chance to destroy us. Even so, they hit the location where we were, not quite as successfully as they’d imagined, though. We never did learn who sent the message. Why are you calling me on Finn’s phone?”
