Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Love (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Saints Protection & Investigations Book 7) (8 page)

“You okay, babe?”

Nodding quickly, she offered a wobbly smile. “Yeah, just overwhelmed, that’s all.”

“Investigating someone close to you isn’t easy,” he conceded.

She knew he thought she was referring to the investigation…when it was her heart she was battling. “Yeah…” Sitting up straighter, she said, “Okay, Captain Courageous, what do I need to do?”

Laughing, they settled in to finish the list for Luke and continued planning. The afternoon weaved its way into the evening and she fixed a quick dinner, insisting he stay. The conversation was lively…the silences were easy.

As he walked to the door, when the evening was over, he turned and gazed at her standing in the living room. Their eyes locked. Longing…and hoping…passed between them. Slowly he opened his arms wide, the invitation stated.

She hesitated for a moment, warring between staying professional and safe…or possibly opening herself to heartbreak. It only took a moment, then her body acted on its own…tired of waiting on her mind. She rushed over, throwing herself into his arms, feeling them wrap around her, pulling her tight. Holding on…saying nothing.

He kissed the top of her head, murmuring, “Tried to stay away, babe. But what we have is special…it’s something we could build on.”

“How, when you’re leaving?” she whispered, her eyes tearing once more as she peered up into his. She felt her body move as he heaved a huge sigh.

“Don’t know. I fuckin’ don’t know. I just know that I want you in my life,” he vowed honestly.

She nodded against his chest as he kissed her hair once more. Offering him a watery smile, she watched as he walked out her door. Closing it softly, she allowed the tears to slide down her cheeks.

R
olling over in bed, Evie looked at the clock. Another sleepless night had her restless…and needing advice. She knew her mother rose early each morning. A habit born out of necessity from years of being an Army wife, where she made sure to awake with her husband to prepare him a hearty breakfast before he left in the pre-dawn hours to go to work when he was stationed stateside.

“Hey, Mom,” Evie greeted, having made the decision to call.

“Sweetie! How are you?”

Evie reveled in the familiar sound…the warmth…the joy of hearing her mother’s voice. Suddenly, missing her, she choked, “I need to talk, mom.”

“Oh, honey, what’s going on?”

Sucking in a deep breath, Evie sat up in bed and pushed the pillows behind her. Sniffing, she asked, “Mom, how hard was it…with dad? You know…moving all the time…never knowing where you’d end up.”

Silence greeted her for a moment before her mother replied, “It was good sometimes…” and with a small chuckle, she added, “and really bad sometimes. Just like you and your sister, I had to make new friends, keep changing my job, trying to make each place a home. But then I had the chance to visit some amazing places…meet people that I would have never met if I’d stayed in my little hometown.” She was silent for a second and then asked, “What’s got you thinking about that so early this morning?”

“I don’t know…” she lied, trying to figure out what she wanted to say.

“I think you do,” her mother interjected, “and I have a feeling it must be because you met someone.”

Snorting, Evie said, “Yeah…I should have known you’d see through this.”

“Well, tell me all about it,” her mother prompted.

Evie began, hesitantly at first, then with more depth, about meeting Patrick, going from not liking him, to their budding friendship, to their investigation, and finishing up with him moving to Virginia.

“I agree, honey. That’s tough and you know I can’t tell you what to do, especially when you’re about to land the job you’ve been waiting for. But, I will just say that I knew being a military brat was harder on you than the rest of us. I understand how much you longed to put down roots and stay in one place, so I’m not about to tell you to move to the other side of the country for this man. Unless you love him…and then, only you can decide if it’s worth picking up your life and moving.”

“Mom, I’ve got a good job here. I…well, I don’t have a lot of friends…but I like my job…well, I should like it when I move into the engineering position next month. And I like my place…well, I’m only subletting, but I know I’ll like making my own home when I get it.” Hearing herself say the words out loud, she hung her head. “Oh, mom, I don’t sound very sure, do I?”

Her mother’s smile could be felt through the phone, as she said, “It’s okay, Evie. You’re young. You don’t need to have your whole life planned right now. You always wanted everything outlined so that you wouldn’t be surprised by anything. That was the budding engineer in you. But life is full of surprises…new adventures…new trails to blaze…new people to meet. You always saw change as a bad thing, something to fear. But sometimes, change opens us up to adventures we never knew we could experience.”

“Did you ever regret choosing dad?” she asked tentatively.

“Oh, no, sweetie. Yes, there were challenges and there was heartache. And losing your dad on his last tour was the biggest heartache of all. But I accepted him for who he was—he was a soldier. So I accepted all that went with it.”

A thoughtful silence settled between mother and daughter, each to their own thoughts for a moment, before her mom continued, “I’m not telling you to give up your life in California for this man. I’m only telling you that you have to make the choice. If staying in California is what you want to do, then by all means do that. But if you have feelings for this man, and staying in California is only a safe choice…then maybe you need to step out of your comfort zone. Safe can be good…but it can also keep you from the adventures that are waiting out there for you. I never regretted the adventures with your dad, sweetie.”

“I love you, mom,” Evie said, new tears sliding down her cheeks.

“And I love you, baby girl,” came the familiar reply.

Disconnecting, Evie looked at the rising sun and wished for answers to the swirling questions in her mind to simply appear.

A text sounded and she smiled as she looked down, seeing Patrick’s name.
Morning beautiful. Spent all night thinking of you.

Me too
, she texted back.

Can I see you tonite?

Grinning, she could not deny her heart leaped at the thought.
Absolutely!

Pick u up at 6. Be safe today.

Leaning back on the pillows, the sun was now peeking over the tops of the trees, illuminating her bedroom in a soft pink glow. Smiling, she thought,
Maybe, just maybe…

*     *     *

Determined to discover if she could find out more, Evie began to check on the past year’s requisitions made to the Army Corps of Engineers, then expanded her search to others. While transoms and side panels were large items, there were other shipments of much smaller items packed in boxes. Easy for someone to miss in a shipment. What she found astounded her. There had been five large claims of missing items from a variety of clients over the past eighteen months.
And no one is following up on this? What the hell is going on?

With righteous indignation, she stormed out of her office and down the hall to Saul. Entering without knocking, she plopped down in his chair, tossing the files on his desk.

He looked up in surprise, saying, “Well, hello to you too! Whatcha got there?”

“I want someone to explain why this company is dealing with theft and no one is asking the tough questions.”

He scanned the reports and looked up, a curious expression on his face. “Evelyn, I’ve got to ask, why are you checking into these? This was before you were hired.”

“I just want to do what’s right, Saul. Is there a theft problem?”

Sighing, he said, “Look, I realize you’re an engineer and not trained in sales, but you need to understand that every company has a certain amount of loss due to theft, misdirected shipments, breakage, damage, order error…lots of reasons.”

“And is there not a way to check into these things?” she pushed.

“Of course,” he replied. “I know for damage and breakage, depending on where it occurred, Ed is in charge of getting the reports to quality control. For shipments, he deals with the paperwork for that as well. Thefts…well, if it can be determined that there is a culprit, then we would let them go.”

Shock flashed across her face as she asked, “Just let them go? What about the fact that they committed a crime”?”

Saul blushed and rushed to say, “Well, we’d also turn them over to the police, of course.” Sighing heavily, he ran his hand over his face before looking directly at her again. “Honestly, Evelyn, I’ve never had to deal with something like this before.”

Evie was silent for a moment as her mind continued to process the problem. “Has anyone even checked with the warehouse that the sub driver ended up going to mistakenly?”

Saul looked up, eyes narrowed, “How do you know about that?”

The two sat silently, staring at each other before jumping when Gary entered the room. He sat down in the chair next to Evie and glared at both of them for a moment. She cocked her head to the side in question before glancing between the two brothers, sensing a silent communication. Running her tongue over her suddenly dry lips, she waited to see what Gary wanted.

“Evelyn,” Gary began. “I appreciate you wanting to understand what’s going on around here, but I’ve had three people coming to me reporting that you have been asking questions about past shipments.”

“I’m just inquiring—”

He held up his hand, “I get that. I know you’re not making any accusations, but you’ve got to stop. Just do your sales job until the career change to the engineering job next month…or…”

Her eyes jumped to his sharply, aware that Saul’s gaze moved to his brother’s as well. “Or what?” she asked, holding her breath, afraid of the response.

Gary, jerking on his necktie to loosen it a bit, his face contorted as he sighed. “Look, Evelyn, you have to be a team player here, if you want to continue.”

Eyes now widening in shock, she clarified, “Are…are you saying what I think you’re saying? If I keep trying to track down what happened to that missing shipment…an error that cost this company a lot of money…then I won’t get the engineering job? Or might lose my job completely?” Her voice rose with each word, her naturally soft-spoken manner overcome with incredulity.

“Gary,” Saul warned, shaking his head slowly.

“Look, it’s not just me. It’s dad. The idea of negative publicity has him really on edge.” Turning to look at Evie, he continued, “This isn’t a threat, but you’ve got to consider the whole picture. It’s our decision to investigate or not…not yours. If we, as the company, decide to take the loss, then you need to accept it and move on.”

“The military needs our equipment,” she argued back. “They need it when they need it, not when we refill an order because it got stolen…or lost…or misplaced.”

“And I’m telling you that it’s not your concern,” he bit out.

“I care about this company,” she stated emphatically. “I care about its reputation. And as an Army brat, I also care about the military getting their equipment.” For the first time, Evie realized she was proud of being a soldier’s daughter.
So what if we moved around…my dad was a hero and our family stood for that.

Standing from his chair, appearing uncomfortable, and said, “I don’t have a problem with your dedication to being a military brat, but if you care about this company’s reputation…and yours…then you’ll settle down and do your job.” With that, he walked out leaving her seething.

The silence between Evie and Saul was now deafening, neither speaking for several long minutes. He looked at her, his expression grim.

“I’m sorry, Evelyn,” he said, frustration lacing his voice. “I don’t know what to say that’ll make you feel any better.”

Sitting perfectly still to quell the desire to cry, Evie said nothing.

“I know this is difficult, but I can tell you that from years in the Financial Department, it is common for companies to take losses, whether in production, sales, deliveries…whatever. If it were of epic proportions, then the company would have to take the time to investigate, but for the occasional loss…we just write it off.”

“Saul, that answer is not good enough for me.”

His face contorted as he begged, “Please, let it go. I don’t want to lose your friendship…or working with you.”

Standing, she offered him a small shrug. “I don’t know what to say. I’ve got some hard thinking to do.” With that, she turned and walked down the hall to her office. Once there, she sat at her desk, the past half-hour rolling through her thoughts.
They’d really fire me for trying to solve a theft? All the talk about wanting my engineering skills would just be tossed away?

Heaving a sigh, she looked at the clock on her computer.
Only eleven a.m. Great…I still have five more hours to just get through this day!

*     *     *

Patrick fidgeted as he waited to be patched in for a video-conference with the Saints. Suddenly, Monty came onto the screen, a wide grin on his face.

“Good to see you, man,” Monty greeted.

“You too,” Patrick agreed, glad for the meeting to start. The camera panned around, introducing the other Saints, before landing on Jack Bryant.

“Captain Cartwright,” Jack acknowledged with a nod.

“Call me Patrick. The Captain will be retired in a couple of months.”

“And do I hope you’ll join us then?” Jack inquired.

Grinning, Patrick nodded. “I’d like to. I thought once I can get this matter taken care of, I’ll visit my sister and parents and talk to you about the Saints.”

With his usual curt nod, Jack agreed then turned the meeting over to Luke, whose fingers had been flying on his keyboard.

“I’ve gone through the emails of the major players that were on Evie’s list. Gary, Saul, and Ed in particular. I’ve widened my scope to include the others as well. And just to let you know, I’ve been in contact with Tex Keegan, your friend Dude’s computer expert. He’s agreed to assist, saying any friend of Dude’s is a friend of his. So you’ve got a lot of backup on this. Now, the bad news is that so far, I do not see anything unusual in their work or personal emails, nor their bank accounts.”

“Damn!” Patrick cursed. “I was hoping something would show up on someone from her company.”

“Hold on,” Luke admonished. “We’re still working the problem.”

“You’ll find that patience will be your best friend in this business…and sometimes your worst enemy,” Jack advised. “We chase down a lot of leads before finding the right one.”

Patrick nodded, grimacing.
Fuck, I’m not doing very well for my first investigation and meeting with the Saints.
Sitting up straighter in his chair, he peered at the laptop screen, determined to pay close attention to what Luke was saying.