GRAY WOLF SECURITY, Texas: The Complete 6-Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

And I rushed over like some sort of demented knight in shining armor, ruining everything I thought was solid as stone.

  “They set me up, Ingram. Maybe you, too.”

  I looked over at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I think there was something in that glass of wine. I think they thought they were going to take advantage of me.”

  I turned away, trying to ignore the anger that burst in my chest. “Why would they do that?”

  “They’d done it before.”

  She stood in the center of the room, her arms crossed over her chest. I couldn’t help but turn back and study her, study the strength hidden in such a teeny body. There was grief in her eyes, pain that had been there from the moment I saw her at the cemetery. I thought it was her father’s death that’d put it there, but now I was beginning to wonder if it was something else that was the root.

  “I know Carmichael was caught up in that other scandal, the one that put all those sailors in the brig. And I saw him from time to time during leave, cozying up to girls he shouldn’t have been near. But a conspiracy with other officers? That’s a little farfetched, isn’t it?”

  “Is it?” There was steel in her gaze. “I talked to quite a few women after all this went down and several of them told me the things they did to them. Slipped drugs in their drinks, took them up to hotel rooms, refused to let them leave until they participated in sexual acts. I have a couple of them on tape, if you’re ever interested in hearing it.”

  “There’s no way someone like Commander Philips would allow that to happen.”

  “Not only did he allow it to happen, he was the ring leader.”

  I shook my head again. “He’s, what, a rear admiral now? How could that be possible if he was actually participating in this bullshit?”

  “Threats. Lies. More threats.”

  I began to pace again. As crazy as it sounded, it was out of the realm of possibility. I knew that there were other naval commanders who had gotten away with behavior like that for far longer than anyone could figure out. Hell, the top sex assault prosecutor in the Army was accused of assaulting a female lawyer just a few years ago. And a Navy captain was accused of conduct unbecoming an officer when he went to strip clubs and asked them to donate to the Navy Submarine Ball. So, it wasn’t unheard of. But it still seemed unlikely.

  “You think they were intent on raping you if I hadn’t interfered.”

  “I think it was possible.”

  “Why would you come to this conclusion? Why would you ask other women what happened between them and these men?”

  “Because of what happened right before I was set to testify at your court martial.”

  When she didn’t elaborate right away, I gestured impatiently at her. “What happened?”

  “Philips came to me with a copy of our marriage certificate. He said that if I didn’t lie on the stand, he would not only make sure we were both prosecuted to the full extent of regulations for our improper relationship, but that he would make sure I was charged with dereliction of duty and half a dozen other things. He said he would make sure I went to the brig for twenty years or more.”

  “So you changed your testimony to protect yourself.”

  “I changed my testimony because…”

  She stopped. She stopped so quickly that I could hear her jaw snap.

  “What? What was so important that you decided to sell me out to the highest bidder?”

  She shook her head, turning away from me. But this had to be good. I wanted to hear the answer.

  I rushed across the room and grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn into me.

  “Tell me! Tell me what was so important that you chose yourself over me, that you decided it was better to protect your freedom than mine. Tell me why you broke my trust, why you betrayed me!”

  “Because I couldn’t go to the brig for twenty years. I couldn’t have our baby behind bars.”

  I tilted my head, ready to wrap my hands around her neck. It took a moment for what she’d said to sink in. But when it did…

  “You were pregnant?”

  Tears were running down her cheeks. She opened her mouth and the front of the lodge just seemed to explode. Glass and wood and debris flew over us. I instinctively pulled her around so that she was caught between my body and the flying junk.

  I protected her, this woman who betrayed me.

  My wife. The mother of my child.

  Chapter 8

  Bailey

  I told him about Adam and the house exploded. Why was I not surprised?

  Ingram grabbed me and pulled me around, folding his body over mine. It was the closest he’d held me since everything imploded around us. Wasn’t it funny that the world was exploding again?

  I wasn’t sure when it was over. The sound of the storm suddenly rushed in, replacing the sound of the explosion. But it was just as loud, just as crazy. Ingram held me against him as he shifted, looking to see if it was over. I twisted in his arms, looking around him to see the damage, too. The entire front of the lodge was just gone. There was a tree lying across the roof, its branches and leaves falling onto the couch.

  “The wind must have knocked it over.”

  Ingram wouldn’t let go of me. He held onto my arms, holding me back from the debris. And then he was suddenly pulling me across the room and into the hallway. A piece of sheetrock burst from the wall just behind my shoulder as we ducked into the hall, and then another, showering white powder down over both of us.

  “What the hell?”

  Ingram snatched a rifle off the rack as we passed it, and then shoved me hard into the back bedroom we’d once shared on our few trips up here. The room where he’d proposed to me.

  I fell against the bed as he slammed the door.

  Where the hell was he going?

  I got up to go find him. If he thought I was going to hide while some maniac was shooting at us in the middle of a freaking hurricane, he had another think coming. But when I tried to open the door, I discovered he’d wedged something against it.

  Shit!

  The satellite phone was out on the kitchen counter. My cellphone was freaking useless in this storm. I couldn’t call for help and I couldn’t just stand here.

  I began to pace, my ears straining to hear whatever it was that was going on outside of this room. There were windows in here, big, bright windows that bathed the room in light from morning until night. But they were covered with plywood like all the other windows in the house. I could hear the storm raging just outside of them, the wind singing in the trees that grew along the outer rim of the lodge. But that wasn’t helping me any.

  I went to the closet and dug through the half dozen or so boxes that were in there. I knew my dad kept a couple of pistols in here. He liked guns, liked to collect them, but my mom wasn’t a big fan. So he kept a lot of his guns out here, hidden so that she couldn’t yell at him about it.

  I finally found a Glock 9mm hidden in a shoebox on the top shelf. It wasn’t loaded and there wasn’t any ammunition in the box. But whoever was out there with Ingram didn’t know that.

  I went to the window and opened it, pushing with all I had at the plywood. It was screwed in fairly well, but there was a gap that grew wider the harder I pushed on it. I could barely hear the screech of the screw as it began to pull loose from the window frame. Finally, the screw at the bottom was out. I pushed it with my feet and I was able to get the other one out, giving me enough space to crawl out the window.

  I stepped silently down onto the porch that surrounded the lodge. I made my way slowly toward the front of the lodge, stepping over pieces of the tree. It was obvious from out here that the tree falling onto the house was not an accident. The pungent scent of explosives filled the air despite the sheets of rain still falling. And there was a crater the size of a small car in the front yard.

  Someone wanted to do as much damage as they could, but make it look like an accident. In the morning, after the hurricane had done its thing, it would pro
bably seem like the tree fell because of the storm. No one would wonder what had happened.

  But they might wonder if they found two bodies riddled with bullets.

  I slipped into the house around the tree, bending my knees so that someone on the other side of the room wouldn’t be able to see me right away. At least, not before I saw them. I made my way slowly around the debris, listening carefully. I couldn’t hear anything, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything to hear. And then the sound of the shotgun blasting from the back of the lodge.

  Was that Ingram firing? Or did someone get the shotgun away from him?

  I rushed toward the sunporch that opened up from the door in the kitchen. But as I reached the door, I realized I couldn’t just burst out there. I needed to be careful, make sure I wasn’t about to walk into an ambush.

  I backed away from the door, the empty gun dangling from my fingertips. There was another door that opened onto the back of the lodge. I backtracked, watching for any surprises, slipping down the long hallway that ran the full length of the house. My parents’ bedroom was to one side of the hall, the door that opened onto the back. The door was open when I got there, the rain blowing in, wetting the carpet my mother always cursed. Who puts carpet in front of a door that opens onto a beach? she constantly asked.

  I took a deep breath and grabbed the doorknob, about to step around it when a bulky figure suddenly appeared.

  I raised the gun, but he knocked it away, his other hand coming around my waist, the hard line of the shotgun pressed against my back.

  “It’s me, Bailey. It’s Ingram.”

  I dissolved into him, pressing my face against his chest. He held me there for a moment, but then he pushed me backward, setting me on the edge of the bed. He slammed the door, shoving the bolt into place before he came to me. He leaned down over me, his face inches from mine so that we could clearly see each other’s faces.

  “When you talked to these other women about what Philips, James, and Carmichael attempted to do to you, did you tell anyone else what you were up to?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure? Someone who might have talked to them?”

  “No. Just the women. And my dad.”

  He nodded slowly, chewing the inside of his cheek in that way he did when he was thinking hard about something.

  “Who did you talk to, exactly?”

  “Just some women who served on the ships Carmichael and James served on together.”

  “Did they all cooperate?”

  “No. I…a friend put me on to it. A woman who was victimized by Carmichael. She approached me after the court martial and told me what he’d done to her. Then she gave me a list of names… I tried to talk to everyone on the list, but a couple were unwilling to even meet me and a couple told me that I was barking up the wrong tree—that what they’d done with Carmichael and James was none of my business.”

  Ingram touched a piece of hair that had fallen into my face, gently tucking it behind my ear. It was the gentlest touch he’d offered me all night.

  “I think someone told Carmichael what you were up to.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because I just shot a double barrel of shotgun pellets into his chest.”

  “Carmichael?”

  Ingram nodded, his eyes moving over my face. “We need to find out what the hell he was doing here before the police show up. When they realize it was me who shot him, they’re going to think it was some sort of revenge thing.”

  My thoughts started to whirl. “Why would he…?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t even blame it on you because you didn’t know I’d be up here tonight.”

  “Who did?”

  His eyebrows rose. “No one.”

  “But there were half a dozen people who knew I was coming up here tonight.” My heart suddenly stuttered in my chest. “He was here for me!”

  Ingram nodded. “I think that’s very possible.”

  “But why?”

  He didn’t respond. Instead, he slid his hand into mine and pulled me off the bed.

  “We have to find someplace to ride out the storm. Then we’ll figure this out.”

  He opened the door he had bolted closed a moment ago, pulling me close to his back as he led the way off the porch. We were instantly soaked by the pouring rain, our feet ankles deep in mud and water. We were nearly halfway across the yard—what I called a yard, but what was actually just a grassy beach area that led down to the gulf—when I spotted the body. He was lying on his side, his arms at odd angles. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t going to get up again.

  We made our way to the water’s edge, then down around this little cove that led the way to the cabins. I wasn’t sure how Ingram knew where he was going, but he somehow managed to navigate in the pouring rain and the ferocious wind, pulling me onto the narrow porch of the first cabin and kicking the door open with his very powerful legs.

  “Start a fire,” he barked as he pushed me through the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I need to go back and get the satellite phone and the radio. I’ll be back.”

  He was gone before I could say anything else.

  This time I listened to him. I knelt in front of the fireplace and piled some kindling, watching as it caught fire before I set a couple of logs on top of it. I was shivering before the fire caught properly. These cabins were much smaller than the lodge, with just one large room that included the kitchen and a bed. The cabins were cleaned once a week unless they’d been used, so there was nothing here that I might be able to use to warm myself except for the blankets on the bed. I stripped out of my wet clothes and pulled the comforter off the bed, settling in front of the fire to wait for Ingram.

  I didn’t understand what was happening. Why would Carmichael come after me all this time later?

  It bothered me. I can’t say that it didn’t. The threats Philips made against me, I knew he did it in desperation to save his career. I never thought I’d be that girl who would cave under pressure like that. But I did. If I hadn’t been pregnant…

  Chapter 9

  Bailey

  Six years ago…

  “You should go. Your shipmates are probably waiting for you down in the bar.”

  “You sure you want me to go? I don’t think anyone would miss me if I stayed here.”

  I reached up and kissed him. “Go. Don’t break with tradition, it’s bad luck.”

  He groaned, but he left, grabbing a key off the dresser as he went. I had never been so anxious to see a man leave before. I loved Ingram, but I needed a couple of minutes.

  This was the first chance I’d gotten to use the pregnancy test I’d snuck away to buy at a drug store just a few hours ago.

  What if I was pregnant? What would that mean?

  I’d already put in my papers to resign my commission, but that didn’t mean I was in a hurry to leave the Navy. I loved the Navy. I’d wanted to be a sailor since I was old enough to understand what it meant to serve my country. My dad had been in the Navy and his father had been in the Navy. It was in the blood.

  But then I never anticipated meeting Ingram. He was…I would give up everything if it meant being with him for the rest of my life. And a baby? Wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake?

  I stepped into the bathroom, nervously reading the instructions on the package. It seemed easy enough, but I was scared to death I’d done it wrong when the double lines showed up immediately. Was it really that easy? Was I really pregnant?

  I was trying to decide if I should run down to the hotel shop and buy another test when my cellphone rang. I recognized Commander Philips’ number immediately.

  “Yes, sir?” I said into the phone.

  “Lieutenant Greer, I was hoping you’d come downstairs and join me for a drink.”

  “Sir?”

  “I’m sure you’ve heard that Captain Ramirez is retiring? That means that someone will be promoted to captain, leaving a sp
ace for a promotion among the lower officer ranks.”

  “I’ve heard.”

  “You could be bumped up to lieutenant commander.”

  The thought sent a shiver of excitement through me despite my decision to walk away from the Navy.

  “Meet me for drinks and we’ll discuss it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I disconnected the call and looked at the nightgown laid out on the bed, waiting for Ingram and me to enjoy it. It was going to have to wait a few hours, anyway. What was a few more?

  I quickly dressed in civilian clothes and headed downstairs, hoping Ingram wouldn’t be terribly upset when he saw me. Philips was waiting in the lobby, a smile on his ugly mug. Philips had been in the Navy for twenty years, and he took the regulations very seriously. I’d worked under him multiple times since I graduated from Annapolis. And that acne scarred face never got prettier.

  “Sir,” I said, smiling as I approached him.

  “Greer,” he said, handing me a glass of wine. The first thought that went through my mind was the baby I might—or might not—be carrying. I took the drink, but when he wasn’t looking I poured it into the base of a plant that was sitting beside the couch where we’d settled.

  We talked for a few minutes, mostly about the weather and the number of sailors in town for leave. And then Carmichael and James got off the elevator and walked over, all casual like they weren’t there to meet us.

  “I hope you don’t mind, I asked Carmichael and James to join us,” Philips said too close to my ear.

  “No problem.”

  “Why don’t we go into the bar?” James said as he approached.

  I stood, Philips moving up on one side of me, Carmichael on the other. James led the way. Carmichael leaned close to me and asked how I liked the wine.

  “It was good.”

  “Carl is an amateur wine guy. There’s a word for it…but he really knows his wine. Always insists on the right vintage, the right everything.”

  “It was really good.”

  Carmichael was so close I could feel the heat of his breath against the hairs on the back of my neck.