SEALs of Honor: Dane (12 page)

“Good morning,” he said, his eyes bright, assessing. “How did you sleep?”

“Considering I don’t remember going to sleep,” she said, “I slept well.”

She sat down on the deck chair beside him. “Thank you for looking after me.”

His lips quirked, making her heart race.

“You’re welcome.”

“What are we doing here?” She thought she’d done well to not immediately ask a million questions that were bubbling up. She was surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

“A new safe house.”

She laughed. “We could have come here first, it’s beautiful.”

“Had to do it as ordered.” His voice hardened. “Until the safe house was compromised.”

“I gather you weren’t happy about the first safe house?”

He shrugged. “It is what it was. I often disagree with authority.” His big grin flashed white. “It’s why I make a great SEAL. Not hampered by the same rules as everyone else.”

She laughed. “I can see that. And you do make a great SEAL. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” She pondered that then added in a serious voice, her hand reaching across to his beefy forearm, “I do appreciate all you’ve done for me, so thank you.” She leaned across and kissed his cheek.

At the last moment he turned and her lips landed on his mouth. He reached up with his free hand and held her head so he could kiss her properly. By the time he released her, she sagged back into her chair a happy boneless jelly mold.

“You’re welcome,” he said, a smirk on his face.

She glared at him. “You did that on purpose.”

“Did what?” He feigned innocence. “You kissed me.”

She snorted. “I started to kiss you. But you ended up kissing me.”

“No,” he corrected, his eyes dancing with the devil, “I kissed you back.”

She sighed. “This is a ridiculous conversation.”

“But fun.”

She laughed. “True. So now that I’m awake, my body is screaming for food.”

“Not caffeine? I figured that would be the first requirement.”

“They go together,” she admitted. “And I’d love both.”

“Good, then I arrived at the right time, so it’s me you will appreciate this morning,” Swede said as he walked in with two big mugs in his hands.

“Oh.” She hopped up and walked over to him. “I so appreciate you.”

“The same as you appreciate this big idiot,” he asked hopefully, a twinkle in his eyes.

Heat washed over her face as she realized he’d seen the kiss. “Absolutely,” she lied with a grin and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek.

When he laughed and made no move to take advantage of her, she turned back to Dane, the coffee in her hand, and said, “See, he’s a gentleman.”

“No, he just knows I’d pound him into the ground if he did more.”

She gasped and turned to Swede whose grin widened as he said, “You could try.”

Dane laughed. He kicked his legs back and stretched out. “If you’re here to look after sleeping beauty, I’m going to grab five.” And he closed his eyes.

Marielle watched in surprise as he visibly relaxed in front of her to the point that deep relaxed breathing slid out of his chest in regular rhythms in no time. She scooted her chair over to Swede in order to not wake Dane while talking.

“Can you sleep like that,” she asked in a low voice. “So fast?”

He nodded. “We learned to catch rest where and when we can. We’ve been running sentry duties all night to keep watch and when our watch is over we power nap until it’s time to wake up again.”

“Amazing.” And so damn helpful. She could learn a lot from these guys.

*

H
E WOKE ALONE.
He lay still for a long moment letting his body adapt. Awareness of his surroundings was instant. His instincts were calm, no danger approached. In fact, it was a lazy summer day. He opened his eyes loving the blue sky and light breeze. A beautiful day. And not a day to die.

With a light energy burst he surged upwards and walked the small deck, shaking out his limbs. His gaze found Hawk in position. He gave him a hand signal and watched the returning gesture. All okay. Then he’d expected that. No one should know about this place.

And having arrived under the cover of darkness with only one vehicle on the premises, no one could know how many men were on site.

Just the way they liked it. The element of surprise was everything.

Inside the bedroom he found Marielle’s bed made and her original travel bag beside the bag he’d brought her lying on the bed, but closed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Smart girl. His gaze lingered on the huge bed wishing for a few nights alone with just her and away from the danger that surrounded her. She was someone he admired. And would love to get to know better. Hell, he’d love to bed her and hope that would take the fascination away.

It always had before.

This time he didn’t think it would. She was something different. Right from the first moment she’d seen him in the garden in Germany he’d been fascinated. That she’d recognized him for what he was and had come running to him when she’d been in trouble – yeah, that said a lot about her.

Now he could only hope they had a future to figure out just what this craziness between them was all about.

Noises drifted up from downstairs. They were in the kitchen. From the aroma floating his way, he suspected brunch was in the offing.

Just in time. His stomach was trying to eat its way out.

He stopped at the doorway, surveyed the backyard, the trees and the outside of the house. Satisfied that all was as it should be, he made his way to the kitchen.

And Marielle.

Chapter 17

M
ARIELLE KNEW THE
minute Dane woke up. Like an instinctive jolt to her psyche. By the time he walked into the kitchen her nerves were alive and singing. Damn, this man moved her in ways she’d never known.

She smiled at him as he walked in and laughed. “Good morning, sleepyhead. Did you have a nice nap?”

The snigger started behind her. And wrapped all around the room.

Mason patted the seat beside him. “Come sit young’un. Do you feel better now?”

Shadow guffawed. Dane walked right up to Marielle, reached down, picked her up and kissed her – thoroughly. Then put her back on her feet. She grabbed for the counter as her body sagged.

Masculine satisfaction shone on his face as he walked to the seat beside Mason and said, “I had a great nap – how about you?”

The men grinned and dove in as Marielle recovered enough to bring over the pan full of sausages to add to the huge bowl of scrambled eggs Shadow had whipped up.

She sat down beside Dane and served herself a scoop of eggs and a sausage. As soon as she forked up her first bite, a second sausage and a second serving of eggs landed on her plate. Dane calmly ignored her gasp, saying, “Eat. You don’t know when we’ll get the next meal.”

A horrible reminder that this wasn’t a holiday and wasn’t a group of friends enjoying brunch.

“Right.” Aware of the darker mood falling on the table but realizing it was necessary, she asked, “What are we doing now?”

“Hiding,” Mason said.

Her movements slowed. “What good does that do?” she asked in confusion.

“Keeps you alive.”

“But for how long,” she cried. “We have to go after these guys.”

“And who are you going to go after?” Mason asked quietly. “We’re looking for the guys who killed the professor.”

She stared at him.

“And if you have anyone to suggest we take a closer look at, then speak up so we can hunt them in cyberspace.”

She nodded, feeling better, and of course they were working on it. It wasn’t like they could sit here and babysit her for the rest of her life. Although she’d love that.

“Speaking of your Ph.D. committee, did anyone there help you get the position at Tenesco?” Dane asked.

“No, I got that job through Professor Michaels. His buddy worked there for years and was looking for a new grad student.”

Silence.

She cut a slice of sausage and popped it into her mouth. Then realized it was too silent.

“What?” she asked as soon as she swallowed her mouthful.

“Do you know other people that were friends of Michaels?” Shadow asked, his laptop now suddenly on the table beside him.

“James. Dr. Dennis James, who was killed in a car accident, was a good friend,” she said around a mouthful of food. “He died a few months back.”

More silence.

“Damn,” Mason said. “Why did we not ask you about his associates before?”

She shrugged. “What about who knows him at Tenesco, like Hudson? Or Dr. Hoerner, the guy who hired me, and his German associates. Tenesco has an agreement with a large chemical company in Germany. And another in China.”

Breakfast was forgotten as more laptops appeared and notepads came out.

Suddenly the questions shot her direction rapid fire.

She answered as fast as she could. Some she had only a vague idea and others were right there in her brain.

A half hour later she was exhausted from the instant brain drain, and the intensity of the questions. She’d no idea that she had so much information stuck in there. By the time the questions wound down, the men were buried either on the phones or on their laptops or in Mason’s case, maps. And what he could be looking at she had no idea.

Feeling tired and needing something else to do, she stood up and started cleaning off the table. All the dishes had been shoved to the center. She moved them over to the sink and washed them up quickly. Then set up coffee. She kept checking on the men, but they were deeply involved in their research.

Good. After she had cleaned up, she walked into the living room and grabbed up her laptop. Turning it on, she brought up her email and sorted through it. She’d lost her phone somewhere along the way and when she’d found it, she’d been too ill to care about her emails. Although she’d missed it initially, she’d found a certain freedom in being disconnected. Now she had hundreds of emails to catch up on. Although as she went through the bulk of them, the delete button was used heavily. Several emails were from other students. She answered the ones she could and marked the ones she’d need to do later.

By the time she’d gone through all the ones piled up, she checked for incoming emails and watched as three more downloaded.

Two she deleted without looking and then clicked open the third.

She hit the ground running before her eyes had truly seen or her mind truly understood what she was looking at.

“Dane!” she cried.

She was in the kitchen as the men bolted to their feet.

She handed over her laptop and cried, “Look.”

*

D
ANE STARED AT
the laptop, his mind still adjusting from the shock of her cry and believing she was in trouble to the image of a dead man staring up at him.

Narrow eyed he stared at the email address and the simple message.

“You’re next,” he read aloud.

The others crowded around behind him. He looked over the top of the screen at Marielle. “Do you know this man?”

She was slowly going to pieces now that the visual threat had shown up. She nodded. “Dr. Hudson. He works at Tenesco. One of the arrogant chemists.” Tears came to her eyes. “Oh my God,” she cried. “I shouldn’t say that. He’s dead. The poor man is dead.”

There was no doubt about that as the man’s throat appeared to have been cut. He was dressed in a lab coat and showed signs of torture. His fingers were skinned and there appeared to be burn marks on the back of his hands. Several fingers were twisted the wrong way.

“Would he have any idea about the research you are doing?”

“Not access to it, I don’t think,” she said, her arms tightly crossed over her chest. “But he’s the head of the lab. I don’t know how their security or password system runs. Anyone at Tenesco could in theory have access. I’m low on the company ladder. I imagine all the chemists and department heads above me could.”

“Is there a reason why he’d be chosen to have information about your project?”

She whitened. “He publicly claims credit for everyone else’s work. So he probably said something to the wrong person. But even he doesn’t know all I’m doing.”

“Does anyone?”

“No–” she stopped herself in mid thought. “Professor Michaels. He knew a lot of it.”

“And we’ve already heard all these names? Any others?” Shadow asked.

“No, I gave them to you already.” She sat back down at the kitchen chair. “I need to contact Candice. She’s going to be devastated.”

“His wife?”

She shook her head. “No, the admin. She runs the department really. But hasn’t got the title. It’s typical of many departments. The person who keeps it running is the one with the real power.”

“And we’ve never heard of Candice, why?” Shadow had an affronted tone to his voice. “She could be key.”

Marielle laughed at the idea. “No. She’s a small Asian lady who runs that place like a military barracks.”

“Asian,” Mason said quietly. “Does she have any connection to the other companies?”

“No,” she said. “Candice is an administrator. She was a chemist trained in another country but couldn’t get recognition for her degree over here and when her husband got a good job she gave up on the idea and started at the company as an admin. Now because of the degree, she’s the perfect person to run the department.”

“What’s her temperament like?” Shadow asked.

“Uhm.” Marielle winced. “I’m afraid she’s a bit acerbic. I figured she’d been in the job too long. She knows everyone and hates a lot of them.”

“We’ll go and talk with her,” Shadow said. “See if she’ll tell us anything.”

“She won’t,” Marielle said. “She’s not very friendly.”

“You don’t like her?”

“She’s efficient but not easy to get along with. However, she loved Dr. Hudson. That’s why I know she’ll be devastated.”

“Will she or could she have been so angry that she had something to do with his death?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

After several more minutes of questions, Mason and Shadow got up and slipped out the back. If she hadn’t been watching them, she wouldn’t have realized they were going, they moved so quietly. Leaving her alone with Dane.