Expecting the SEAL’s Baby by Katie Knight
Four
Sitting wasn’t her style. Gina chose instead to roam and pace while Jeremy made his calls. She inspected Jeremy’s small collection of books, magazines, and DVDs. Nothing that wasn’t predictable for a guy like him.
She half-listened to his conversation with Mason. Blake had mentioned the team’s tech wizard a few times, and Jeremy swore he could trust the other man. She hoped he was right. Mason had apparently pledged to help Jeremy if he could, but she couldn’t tell from Jeremy’s end of the conversation if the call was going well or not. There were long pauses as Jeremy rocked back on his heels and pinched the bridge of his nose.
He looked nervous, something she’d never seen from him before. But so much was riding on their investigation. Blake’s freedom—maybe even his life—and Jeremy’s future. Big stakes. Intimidating ones, but she wasn’t feeling cowed. Or at least, not cowed enough to stop her.
She thought of the creep who’d tailed her at the grocery store. She couldn’t be sure he was connected to this, but she also couldn’t think of any other reason why someone would be tailing her. She knew she’d made a nuisance of herself, pressing for information about her brother. It seemed all too possible that someone wanted to shut her up. Was he still waiting for her somewhere out there in the dark?
“Thanks, Mason. I owe you,” Jeremy said, ending the call and tossing his phone on the couch.
“Learn anything?” she asked as she rushed up to him.
“Nothing that’s going to resolve this instantly,” Jeremy said. “Mason got shipped home on leave, but he’s been able to access some data and review surveillance footage. He’s even tracked down some potential witnesses who might be able to help us make some IDs. He’s trying to piece together a timeline of everything that went down that day. But, so far, he’s got nothing specific. I told him about the possible mole on the team. That gives him a new place to start digging.”
“Okay, that’s something, I guess.” Gina wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but the lack of anything definite was disappointing.
“It might be a slow process,” Jeremy said. “You’ve gotta be patient. Mason’s sending over a log of all my communications with my informant. It won’t prove for sure if he betrayed me or not, but it might reveal something useful. We’ll know better when we see it.”
“Did Mason have any sense of who the traitor on your team is?” she asked.
“If there’s a traitor,” Jeremy clarified. “It was all news to Mason, but he’s going to track any contacts that Blake had in the days before his disappearance.”
“That’s a good idea. If you had a local informant, maybe Blake did as well. Someone you didn’t know about.” The idea gave her something to cling to. There might be evidence, hard data out there that would lead to Blake.
“You hungry?”
“Huh?” She focused on Jeremy. “Food? I hadn’t thought about it.” Her plan had been to grocery shop, go home, and prepare a meal for herself. Her groceries still sat in the trunk of her car. They were mostly nonperishable items, but she hadn’t even thought about them or eating since arriving at Jeremy’s apartment. “I guess I am.” She became aware of a rumble in her stomach.
“We could get takeout and eat while we wait for Mason to send me everything he’s got. The files will take a little time to come through.”
“Sure, that would be nice.” Eating with Jeremy. She guessed she could handle that since they needed to work together. “I like Barrata’s. They’ve got the best fries around. I can place an order.”
“Sounds good,” he said. They selected sandwiches, fries, and slices of pie from the online menu and called it in.
And then…it was just them. Now that the immediate urgency had passed, she couldn’t help thinking about the last evening she’d been in Jeremy’s apartment, and how she’d crept out the door the following morning before he woke. They’d texted a few times in the weeks since, but neither of them had brought up that night. It was as if they were in a silent agreement that it was a onetime deal that they had moved past.
Had she? The night had been the culmination of years of chemistry and curiosity. And it hadn’t disappointed, but there was no way forward for them. Not romantically, anyway.
They had to be friends. She couldn’t lose his friendship, not now. So she helped him clear off the dinette table, stacking mail and magazines to the side. His space was messier than she’d expected. A sweatshirt was draped across the back of the couch. His wallet and keys were tossed on the kitchen counter. She liked her space neat with everything in its place. What did it say about him that his wasn’t?
She stood with her hands on her hips while he loaded paper in the printer, watching him. He looked up and caught her eye. Something passed between them. But what? Awareness? Lust? She felt herself blush. He brought that out in her more than anyone ever had. What did that say about the connection between them?
“Jeremy.” Her voice was husky. The moment spun out as they studied each other. Then his phone beeped with a message.
“The files are starting to come in,” he said, breaking the tension between them. He walked to the laptop he’d left on the counter and typed in a password. “I’ll print them. It’ll be easier to review them that way.”
“Right,” she said, relieved that she hadn’t made a fool of herself by saying something she might regret.
* * *
Jeremy had worked his way through the communication logs and was re-reading entries he’d set aside for more scrutiny. He and Gina had traded pages back and forth throughout the evening. At first, he’d tried to keep her from seeing anything classified, but it soon became clear that that was a losing battle. It had been a hard decision, but he’d eventually chosen to let her see everything. If this blew up in their faces, he’d do what he could to take the blame so she wouldn’t face any consequences.
They said little as they absorbed the information. He had no idea how much time had passed. The only indicator was that he was on his third can of soda and the coffee table was littered with emptied takeout containers.
He could see that she had the timeline of that day in her hand, her eyes fixed on it. He wanted to comfort her, knowing that the writing made Blake’s disappearance even more real. The timeline always included who was involved in the mission at the time and the final assessment at the bottom. Her brother’s name was clearly listed as MIA.
He re-focused on the report in his hand, doubling down on finding answers. The logs between him and his informant kept his attention, but they all brought Jeremy to one conclusion. His contact had been solid. There wasn’t even the ghost of suspicion against him, which meant that either someone had gotten to him and had forced him to send the coordinates—or the contact had been taken out entirely and someone else had taken over their encrypted message system. Either one was possible, especially if it had been an inside job. The guys on the team knew where to find his contact, and they would know how to mimic his style to fake a message from him.
Jeremy dug back farther, studying every interaction in the month prior to the mission until he hit a reference to South America. It wasn’t much. Just one line. But his informant had suggested that there was a group stealing guns from the U.S. military in Afghanistan for a party in South America who then would ship them to be sold on the streets in the U.S. Jeremy hadn’t given the report much credence at the time since it felt far-fetched, but his informant had insisted it was happening. He had been trying to confirm the location of the South American compound the last they’d spoken of it.
“Did you find something?” Gina asked from next to him on the couch. “You’ve been staring at that one paper for ten minutes.
“Maybe,” he admitted and told her about the possible South American connection. “I wonder if my contact was right about that. If he was, maybe Blake had caught wind of it, too.” This compound that Jeremy’s informant felt sure existed could be where they’d taken Blake after the firefight. Smuggling him out of Afghanistan would have been easy if they already had travel channels in place for the weapons. He could still be there as a prisoner, waiting for a time when he could be used as a hostage or worse. He didn’t bring that part up to Gina.
“If he had and someone was aware of that, it would explain why he was snatched. They wouldn’t want him to reveal it to anyone else. If they killed him,” she said grimly, “they wouldn’t be able to know for sure whether he’d already told someone. So they had to capture him so they could question him.” She rubbed her hand over her eyes. “Do you think he’s still there?”
“Hard to tell,” Jeremy admitted. “Let me drive you home,” he offered. She was too tired to drive, and he didn’t want her returning to her apartment on her own after dark like this.
“No, not yet,” she said. “I want to keep reading. I’ve already wasted so much time, and I can’t waste anymore.” She picked up the stack of papers that she’d let fall in her lap and started reading again.
Jeremy felt the impact of her words along with some guilt. He’d wasted time as well. He should have contacted Mason weeks ago. Now, it might be too late. He looked at his companion. A lock of dark hair slipped from her ponytail and dangled forward, almost brushing the paper she focused on.
Without thinking, he tucked the hair behind her ear, letting his fingers rest against her. He wanted to bring her comfort, even though he knew it was a mistake to get too close to her. Doing that would only hurt her in the end. He pulled his hand away. The only thing he could offer her was his dedication to finding her brother.
“I’ll do whatever I can to bring Blake home,” he said and got a small smile from her.
Without speaking more, they went back to work. An hour later, he glanced up from a report and saw that Gina’s eyes were closed. Carefully, he took the papers from her limp fingers and put them on the coffee table. She seemed completely out, so he gently picked her up and carried her into his bedroom where he placed her on the bed, slipped her shoes off, and pulled the covers up around her.
The temptation to crawl in next to her and curl up with her in his arms was almost overwhelming. He could tell himself now that they’d just sleep, but he doubted that would be true if he got under the sheets with her.
“She’s off limits,” he whispered to himself, knowing that she had to be. He kissed her forehead and went back to the living room, closing the door between the rooms.
At some point in the night after continuing to study the documents, he fell asleep on the couch.