Chapter Thirteen
cab ride back to Echo's felt like it took hours even though the driver was kind of a maniac. I spent the ride texting Echo trying to find out what was so urgent.
Ryan_SEAL: what's going on?
Echo_Frost: can't tell you. hurry back.
Ryan_SEAL: just tell me
Echo_Frost: listen SEAL, no intel, got it?
Ryan_SEAL: sarcasm not appreciated
Echo_Frost: duly noted. hurry. @Nemo's
Ryan_SEAL: gotcha be there soon
When I walked through the door and saw her, I felt my jeans get a little tighter. She sat in the corner furiously typing on her laptop with a serious expression on her face while her long blond hair fell in waves around her face. She looked like a tech version of a DaVinci painting, and I couldn't help but stop and admire her.
"Ryan, what are you doing?" she called as she waved me over to the table. "Get over here!"
I walked over and sat down on the opposite side of the table and watched as she pounded on the keyboard for a few seconds then looked up.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I got fired, and then I got an email from your father," she said.
"Come again?" I said as I looked at her then looked around at the restaurant trying to decide if I was having another nightmare.
"Baines fired me this morning," she said. "He told me my services were no longer needed and that I was being relieved of my duties. He then told me to clean out my office and warned me not to take anything before he had me escorted off the premises."
"Baines fired you this morning? As soon as you went into work?" I asked. Suddenly the meeting with Jack Waller became even more suspicious than it had been an hour before.
"Yeah, but here's the weird part," she continued as she tapped a few keys and then turned the laptop around to face me. "I went to check my email one more time and I found a message from your father."
I took a minute to read the message and then looked up at Echo before saying, "He knew."
"Knew what?" she asked as she turned the computer back around and then tapping at the keys again.
"He knew that Julian was up to something," I said. "He knew he might not be able to prevent it from happening, but he knew that he could trust you with the information in case his worst fears came true."
"I think they did, Ryan," she said as she turned the computer back around and showed me a web page that looked like a bunch of military training videos. There was no sound but the men who were men running around were obviously exerting a lot of energy as they completed tasks and trained. The video cut off after twenty-seconds, and Echo pulled the screen back.
"Ryan, these are live training videos of the Russian troops near the border," she said.
"How do you know they're live?" I asked as she turned the computer back around and showed me a whole new batch of footage.
"Because there is a camera there recording everything they do and it refreshes ever thirty- seconds," she said. "Your father knew that they were prepping for something big."
"That's just training footage of one area," I said as I waved her off. "If you took footage of any military base in the States you'd find the same thing, don't read too much into it."
"Ryan, there are thousands of links to training areas all over the country and they are all doing the same thing," she said as she pointed to the list running down the right hand side of the screen. "They are preparing for war."
"How did you find this?" I asked as I watched another group of soldiers complete twenty-seconds of training exercises.
"Your father left a link to the cameras embedded in his message, see here?" she said as she pointed to the tiny white link that would have gone unnoticed had it not been for Echo's eagle eye. "He left me the link and the files for the project he'd been working on. He asked me not to open them, but don't you think we should given that he's dead?"
"Echo, I'm having a hard time processing this," I said running my hand over my three-day old beard. "I just had a meeting with my father's attorney and found out that Julian is the executor of my father's estate, and that I've been disinherited from the will."
"Wait, what?" she said as her mouth hung open in surprise. There was something so sensual about the look on her face, and at that moment all I wanted to do was pull her against me and run my tongue across her soft red lips. "Ryan, what did you just say?"
"You heard me, Julian is in control," I said as I shook my head to try and clear the image of me kissing Echo from my brain.
"Then we definitely need to take a look at your father's research files," she said as she closed the computer and began packing up.
"You don't want to look at them?" I asked.
"No, silly SEAL, not here I don't," she laughed. "Let's take this upstairs and figure out what's going on."
At that moment, a man emerged from the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel and smiling at Echo as he said, "Chiquita bonita, where are you going?"
"Up to my apartment," she said and then stopped as if remembering something she'd forgotten. "Mando, this is Ryan. Ryan, this is Mando."
"Nice to meet you, Ryan," Mando said as he reached out and shook my hand. He had an exceptionally strong grip and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was telling me more than what he was saying.
"Nice to meet you, too, Mando," I replied as I matched his grip. We stood there staring at each other until it dawned on me that this man was asserting ownership. It hadn't occurred to me to ask Echo if she had a boyfriend, but now I wondered.
"See Mando, Navy SEAL, he's safe," she said as she picked up her box and then kissed his cheek before looking at me. "He's worried because I'm letting a stranger like you stay in my apartment, but I told him not to worry, you are totally safe."
And there it was, the kiss of death. I'd just been relegated to the friend zone and Mando knew it, she was his girl and I was going to have to be very careful how I tread.
"Yep, totally safe," I nodded as I reached out and offered to take the box from her.
"No, you get the door, you've got the keys, remember?" she said as she turned and headed toward the front door. "Thanks, Mando! Tell Cece to come up and see me later, okay?"
"Will do, baby," he called after her. I waved at him as I followed her and he added, "Take good care of our girl, SEAL."
Echo Frost was now officially off limits.