Chapter 11
Summer lifted a hand and rubbed her sore eyes. “I don’t normally do this all day long. Usually I go through this much over a month or so. I’m sure we are missing something doing it this way,” she fretted.
“Hopefully not. Three of us are making it easier.”
“Sure, but because we all have to see each photo, we do a lot of duplicate searching.”
“But it’s the only way for us to make sure we don’t miss anything,” Corey reminded her. “Besides Devlin and Easton will be back soon.”
Now for the first time she stared at the tent opening, wishing the men would arrive sooner rather than later. “I know that. I guess I’m just nervous.”
“Good reason,” Corey said. “But stay focused on the images, and we’ll get through this.”
She shot him a grateful smile. “You guys really are nice.”
“Nice?” exclaimed Corey. “Nice is an insult. You know that, right?”
She chuckled. “No, it’s not.”
“Oh, yes, it is,” Ryder said. “Men don’t like to be called nice.”
“If they don’t, then that’s foolish. Because all girls want nice men.”
“No, women want dangerous. They want alpha males. They want capable, powerful, strong males.”
“And nice,” she added.
“Who are you calling nice?” came a voice from the tent entrance. Devlin stepped inside, a grin on his face.
“I was just telling Ryder and Corey how nice they are.”
Devlin nodded. “Yep, definitely nice men. Laid-back, quiet, peacemaker kind of men.”
That set off a tirade from the other two.
When she could, Summer said, “Where’s Easton?”
Devlin smiled. “He’ll be here in a minute.”
She frowned at him. “You two were supposed to stay together. What happens if somebody attacks him?”
Devlin’s eyebrows shot up. “You really think somebody might hurt one of us?”
“Or all of you.” She nodded. “You’re hanging around with me. I put you all in danger. You should know better.”
There was silence in the room as the men stared at her oddly.
“What did I say?”
“We’re fairly elite soldiers,” Corey said. “I understand you don’t know us, and you don’t know our training, but we’re the ones who look after other people, like you.” He smiled at her, adding humbly, “But thank you for being concerned about our welfare.”
She glared at him. “Are you mocking me?”
“Of course not,” he said with feigned innocence, his hand going across his chest to cover his heart. “It’s just a unique experience for us. Most of the time we’re sent into dangerous situations to help others out. Not having others be worried about our health.”
At that point Easton walked in, and she brightened. “How did it go? Am I getting out of here anytime soon?” She rose from the chair.
He shook his head.
With a heavy sigh, she sank back down. “Really? Do I have to stay?”
“Is it such a hardship?” Corey said. “After all, we’re nice guys.”
She shot him a look. “I don’t have a problem spending time with you guys but hate to stay in a place where I’m being attacked. That’s not exactly comforting.” She glanced over at Devlin and Easton. “What about the driver? Any update on him?”
“He’s gone into surgery. That’s all we know, but they are still hopeful.”
“Right.” She returned to her laptop. “I’ll focus on going through these images then.”
“You can also focus on this.” Easton stepped out from behind Devlin with a tray in his hands. The other men grinned. She looked down at the coffee and plate full of fruit and muffins and smiled. “You must think I’ll pass out at any point in time.”
“Once was enough for me, thank you,” he said firmly. He placed the food in front of her. “Eat.”
She shook her head. “Only if you guys get some too.”
Easton nodded at the tray. “There’s coffee for me, and Devlin has his own. I figured Ryder and Corey could get something if they want to now that we’re back.”
Ryder stood. “Be back in ten.” And he and Corey walked out of the tent.
Devlin said, “I’ll take a look outside.”
Easton nodded. He never took his gaze off Summer.
She watched as Devlin exited. “What is he looking for?”
“He’s making sure nobody approaches and checking that nobody’s been here while we were gone.”
She hated to think about somebody stalking her or watching her in the tent.
“Did you find any more photos?”
“No, not yet.” She looked at him and reached for her coffee. “I did check through the photos I took in the mess tent but found no sign of the man who attacked me.”
“Good. Let’s work steadily through these so we can make sure we’ve seen them all at least once. The commander wants to know if we find more. We’re also under orders not to show the images to anybody.”
She frowned at him. “My boss has access to the online cloud server.”
Easton raised his head. “How long have you worked for him? What’s his name and the company’s name? Is there any reason he would want to hurt you or any reason these photos would be of interest to him?”
She stared at Easton in shock, her jaw slowly dropping. “Hell no.” She shook her head. “You’re way off base there.”
“I’m just checking all avenues, all possibilities. We can’t afford to leave any option without checking it out first.”
She sat back. “I’ve worked for Ross as a freelancer for five years now. We’ve never had a problem. We have a great working relationship, and we do these kinds of images all the time. The photos of the men can be just one of more than seven thousand photos, and he won’t even bother to look at most of them. He wouldn’t have a clue what I’ve taken pictures of and probably wouldn’t recognize any of the men involved.”
Easton nodded. “Good. But we must make sure. So don’t get upset about questions you might consider personal or intrusive. I’m not trying to upset you. I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“Thanks for coming and getting me, by the way.”
“You’ve said that already.” He glanced at her and smiled. “You’re welcome.”
She grinned. “So, when I’m gone, who are you going to feed and look after instead?”
“No one. Everyone here is top of their game and can look after themselves.”
She chuckled. “Nice to be the best of the best.”
“It is,” he said without a hint of modesty. “A lot of good men and women are here.”
“I noticed a lot of women too. More than I expected.” She glanced down at the images. “I might not have enough photos of those brave women though.” Instantly her mind went off into a bunch of different directions. “Normally we have directives in terms of what kind of pictures they want for this type of work. But, in this case, they were just looking for a general span of activities and team-related events.”
“Do you have any photos of the women?”
“I have some, just not as many as I’d like.” She checked her watch. “Any idea what might be going on right now?”
He shook his head. “Hell no. You’re not going anywhere in public. You’re a target already, but to be a target where anybody can get access to you, that’s not happening.”
“But you already got one guy in custody.”
“But we don’t have the sniper. We have no idea who he is.”
She stared at him, debating whether she could change his mind.
He shook his head again and said, “Don’t even think about it. You’re staying here under lock and key until you leave.”
She jutted out her chin. “Am I ordered to my barracks for the duration of my visit?” she challenged.
He hesitated.
“Right. I’m not. Therefore, it’s just you keeping me in my tent.”
“It’s safer here for you.”
She shook her head. “No, it isn’t. Two of the attacks happened here.”
“You were alone the first time, not the second time, and you didn’t even know about it until we told you.”
“But now that I do know,” she snapped, “it’s hard for me to let it go.”
“Would anybody know you’re scared of snakes?”
“No, but, along with spiders, it’s pretty easy to say that at least 80 percent of the women in the world are terrified of both.”
He nodded. “Good point but it’s not just relegated to women. A lot of men I know are pretty scared of rattlesnakes.”
“Not spiders. There is just something about spiders that you guys get.”
He grinned. “They are great for the environment. We need them. There are kind of cute.”
She stared at him in disgust. “Cute is not a term I would ever use for a spider.”
“They’ve got beautiful hairy legs, interesting eyes and fascinating articulated body parts.”
“It doesn’t matter how articulated or well-designed they are. I’m not spending any time studying spiders.”
He grinned. “Then let’s keep going through these images to get to the bottom of this.” He focused on the monitor in front of him and flipped through the images.
She should be doing that too, but it had been hours already, and she was bored of it.
She reached across the table to the tray that held the muffins. She snagged one, ripped it in half and put one half on each of the two plates. Then she did the same with a different kind of muffin. She handed him one plate and grabbed the other, sitting back to enjoy it.
“Why did you put half on each plate?”
She shrugged. “What if only one of them was really good? Then I could’ve been the one with a really good muffin, and you could have gotten a really bad one.”
He stared at her in astonishment. “So you split them in half so we’d share the good one? Or you split them in half so you’re sure you didn’t get the bad one?”
“You are teasing me again.”
“You’re fun to tease. Plus you have these interesting little personality quirks that make it easy.”
She shrugged. “When I was younger, it was almost standard for kids to grab the big luscious-looking cookie and leave the reject one for the other person. So I made a point of being the opposite. Instead of grabbing the good one myself or grabbing the worst one, I split them in half so everybody got some of the good and some of the bad.”
“You really are trying to operate in a world where life is fair, aren’t you?”
“Life is what we make it. I may not be able to influence the big picture stuff, but I can control the little stuff. In my world, if there are two kinds of muffins, and I don’t know what either are, chances are I’d like one better than the other, but then so would you. So, if we split them both, we each get some of the good one.”
He chuckled, picked up his plate and took a bite off the first half. She took a bite off the matching half. She stared at the muffin. “It’s okay, but it’s awfully sweet.”
“It’s perfect,” Easton said, his mouth full of muffin.
She chuckled. “Let’s taste the next one and see which one we like better.”
They did just that. She preferred the one that he didn’t like as much. They switched halves so each got the muffin they wanted.
She said, “To be honest, which muffin, if you could pick first, would you have chosen?”
He stared at the plate and said sheepishly, “I would have picked the one I didn’t like.”
She nodded. “See? Now you get one you like, and I get one I like.”
He shook his head and polished off his muffin. “It doesn’t really matter. It’s food. I need it for energy, and this way my body gets fed.”
“But every day we should be enjoying ourselves,” she said. “And that includes having a muffin you like.” She knew her attitude was probably a little too Pollyanna for most people, but it made her happy to think she was being fair and enjoying what she had. She didn’t have to have the best, the biggest or the fanciest, but it would be nice if, at least, she had something she wanted. She picked up her coffee and took a sip just when Devlin came back in.
He stopped inside the doorway.
Easton jumped to his feet and headed to Devlin. She followed and stood nearby, watching the two of them. Easton turned, pointed back at the table and said, “Stay there.”
“I’m not a dog. I don’t stay, and I don’t beg,” she snapped.
He glared at her. “You’re under orders. My orders. Go back to that desk and sit down.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow.
He raised his hands in the air in surrender and said, “Please?”
She gave him a short nod and returned to her desk, stating, “It’s not so hard to be nice. You should try it more often. Ryder and Corey have it down pat.”
Devlin burst out laughing.
Easton shot her a look and then pivoted to exit the tent, dragging Devlin with him.
She glared at their backs as they disappeared, muttering under her breath, “They should both try it.”
*
Once outside, Easton stopped a few feet away from the front entrance of the tent. He glanced at Devlin.
“I found definite tracks around the tent,” Devlin said, “but the trip wire is intact. The battery on the video ran out. I’ve replaced it and did a quick run through but didn’t see anything suspicious on the film,” he said. “Which makes it suspicious because of the current circumstances.”
“Exactly.” Easton considered all they knew. “They took a chance going after her in the jeep. I’m just sorry I didn’t fight harder to drive her.”
“Maybe, after the attack at the mess tent didn’t work, they chose a sniper again. Figuring they almost made that one happen before.”
Easton stood, considering how many witnesses had seen her go after her attacker. And yet she had no bruises. That show of her skills might well have stopped the sniper from attacking her with his own hands and doing it long distance. Or … “It could be somebody we all saw on a regular basis.”
“As we know, a lot of battle gear is here too,” Devlin added.
Angry at the circumstances, wishing he could do something to get her back home again, Easton muttered, “I hate waiting.”
“We all know that. It’s the same for any of us. She’s in danger, and nobody can tell where another attack will come from. Obviously we’ll be staying here overnight.”
“That’s fine, but it still doesn’t solve the problem that she could be in danger when she gets home again. It’s not like anybody here can’t find out who she is, where she works and where she lives. If we don’t resolve this before she’s gone, he’ll go after her.”
“We do have one attacker in custody. Is he talking yet?”
Easton gave him a sideways glance. “We know all too well how that goes.”
As they stood there talking, Ryder walked toward them, covering a lot of ground at a fast pace, trying not to look like he was racing.
Easton asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Her attacker, Harry Lemans, killed himself, while under guard. When the guards checked, he was choking on some paper he had shoved down his throat. He’d done such a damn good job of it that they couldn’t get the paper out, and he died right in front of them.”
“Oh, shit.”
Easton stepped back into the tent, instinctively checking on her after that news. His mind reeled at this sudden turn of events. To his relief, she was still munching away and going through images.
“I can be left alone for a few minutes. It’s really not that big a deal,” she said calmly.
“Your attacker just committed suicide. The only reason for him to do that is he’s afraid of what staying alive will entail. When you choose death over life, life must be pretty bad.”
She stared at him in shock. “You think he’s the one who shot the driver? No, that can’t be. He was under guard then so he must be working with someone else.”
“But I think the person he was involved with on the base probably did.”
She nodded quietly. “Poor man. To take such a drastic step …”
She was a mix of contrasts. Maybe his impression was contrary to reality. She was obviously very capable. She gave back at least as good as she got from Lemans in the mess tent. At the same time, she got so caught up in her art that she forgot to eat. Capable versus incapable—needing to be looked after. Still this new development was not good. No hope of getting answers from Lemans now. Easton sat down in front of his laptop, closed all the images and brought up the search engine. He’d checked out Lemans earlier, but, since she was flying out, it hadn’t had the same urgency. Now things were spiraling out of control with no end in sight. He wouldn’t get any sleep tonight while watching over her. He was a SEAL, and, damn it, although a heck of a bodyguard, he was a hell of a lot more.
But how did one fight an unseen enemy? He was used to missions where he went after designated targets. Often dealing with terrorists. Tangible enemies to hunt and destroy.
This was different.
Quickly Easton had Lemans’s age, his relationship status and his family history pulled up on the computer screen. Lemans’s brother had a business in California. His parents owned a shop in the same area. They were immigrants and had been in the country since Harry was less than one year old, his older brother four at the time. Harry was an average student, not award-winning, didn’t lend himself to any kind of specialty, never finished high school. Easton sent off an email to Mason. When his phone rang a moment later, he said to Summer, “I need to take this call.”
She raised an eyebrow when she looked at him. “You think I’m stopping you?”
He glared at her. “I have to step outside.”
She shrugged. “Go ahead. I won’t escape.”
Outside, he motioned to Devlin, holding up his phone. “It’s Mason.”
Devlin nodded in understanding and went inside the tent, leaving Easton standing in the open doorway so he could still keep watch.
“Hey, I don’t need to be watched every minute,” Summer explained when she caught sight of Devlin.
“What if I just want to sit down and spend time with you?” he teased.
“Hell no you don’t. You just want to go home to your love interest.”
Easton glanced at her in surprise.
“What love interest?” Devlin asked suspiciously.
“You’re already attached emotionally and mentally, even if you don’t wear a ring. So trips out of town like this one are hard when you just want to be with her.”
At that Easton had to turn away. Her insights were fascinating and very close to home.
“What the hell’s going on?” Mason snapped in his ear.
Easton quickly filled him in. “Now with his suicide this morning, we’re digging into his life.”
“Why?” Mason’s voice was curious but understanding.
“I’m not sure he committed suicide.” In a hard voice, Easton continued. “The fact is, he could have been murdered.”
Silence followed. “Where is Summer now?”
“Close by, being watched over by Devlin.” He groaned. “I won’t be letting her out of my sight until this is over.”
“I understand.”
Already knowing Mason and his partner, Tesla’s, history, Easton knew Mason did understand. “Mason, I need someone with the right software to take a closer look at some of these images.”
“Tesla has good software here.”
“I’m not supposed to share these images.”
More silence came. “Send me the images. I’ll talk to the commander.” Mason hung up.
Easton grinned. That was one of the great things about his buddies. They always had his back.
He also thought it was interesting Mason never once asked about Summer. As soon as Easton had said she was in danger, Mason had been there. Easton didn’t know much about her yet either, but he understood how important it was that Summer stay safe. “But just how important isn’t something I want to look at,” he said out loud.
A few men walked past, staring at him strangely.
He shrugged and grinned. “Welcome to my world.” Then resolute, he straightened his back, turned and headed back inside. He shared the information with Devlin. “He asked me to send the photos, so he’ll call the commander.”
Easton pulled out his phone and called Ryder. “We need more details to confirm this was a suicide. We also need permission to send some of these photographs to Mason. He’ll contact the commander directly, but we need to do so as well.”
“Done.” Ryder hung up the phone.
“You have to like Ryder and his no-nonsense attitude,” Easton said.
Devlin nodded. “He does that all the time.”
“He’s nice too,” Summer muttered.
Devlin snickered.
“You should learn from Ryder,” Summer said. “He is much nicer than you two.”
At that Devlin laughed out loud. “I’m nice enough,” he said. “Easton might be a little hard around the edges, but his heart’s in the right place.”
She sighed. “I’ll give him that.”
“Thank you,” Easton said in an exaggerated manner and went back to his laptop. There had to be something he could find out. And fast. He’d yet to let an asshole get the better of him.
Devlin’s phone rang a few minutes later. “Thank you, sir. Okay, I’ll tell her.” When he hung up, he said to Easton, “Mission approved to share photos with Mason. Summer’s flight is leaving in two hours.”
She brightened. “Awesome. As much as I love Canada, I can’t wait to get home.”
Easton held back the fact that she was likely safer here, but, at the same time, he didn’t want her to panic. How could he give her a warning that was both cautionary and not reactive? Instead Devlin took the words from his mouth.
“I know you want to go home,” Devlin said, “and I know how that feels, but you need to be cautious when you get there.”
She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because one man committed suicide over this, and he wasn’t working alone.”
Easton added, “So, if you are going home, no way in hell are you are going alone.”
She glared at Easton. “I live alone. I prefer it that way. The danger is here. When I get home, things will calm down.”
“Do you really think so?” he asked quietly.
She slumped in place. “No.”