Code Name: Luminous (3 page)

Lumin looked more than overwhelmed, but at
least she wasn’t scared anymore. “
There’s
a lot of
you,” she said.

“We
kinda
run in a
pack.” Kayla smiled at her. “This is my husband, Thane.”

Lumin raised her blue inquisitive eyes to
stare up at him. “Hello,” She paused then added, “Sir.”

Ghost didn’t waste a second. “Lumin, we need
to know—”

“Thane,” Kayla snapped. “Stand down and let
her eat dinner first. I’ll order more to feed the troops, Tony.” She slung a
diaper bag over Ghost’s shoulder. “And your son needs a change.”

The Admiral tossed an uncomfortable gaze at
his wife.
“Of course.”
He cleared his throat.
“Nice to meet you, Lumin.
Thane Austen.”
He stretched his massive hand out and shook Lumin’s.

Tony suppressed a chuckle. The Admiral was so
pussy-whipped since he’d married Kayla. That sure as hell would never happen to
him. As his gaze fell on Lumin, she leaned over and brushed Adam’s little hand,
and he gave her a big smile. Tony knew what the kid was feeling. She warmed him
from the inside out too.

Ed, the newest member of the team, edged
closer, laying a heated look on Lumin.

“Edward Saxton, ma’am,” he said, introducing
himself.

Anybody in the room could recognize the cocky
smile and hungry look on Ed’s face, but when Lumin reached out her hand she
seemed enamored. A quick quirk of Ed’s brow and the intensity of his stare
caused an odd electric sensation in Tony’s stomach.

“Grab a plate, Cracker,” he said, using his
team name and drawing Ed’s gaze away from Lumin.

“Thanks, T-
man,
don’t
mind sharing dinner with such a beautiful guest.”

Lumin blushed and glanced away. She blushed?
What the fuck? No way in hell was Cracker making a move on her. Over his dead
body!

Chapter Two

Lumin ate quietly while Tony’s squad
surrounded her, battling for airtime and never ceasing their banter. They
talked and joked like a big family over an evening meal. The camaraderie
between them was palpable. She didn’t know much about the Navy life, but it was
evident the Admiral and Captain Cobbs radiated a sense of everything being in
control, and she relaxed a little.

Kayla appeared stoic and hauntingly beautiful.
Lumin didn’t miss the way the muscular monster of an admiral looked at his wife
and son. It reminded her of the way Steven Porter looked at Moira with a deep,
enduring love. The Admiral and Kayla’s son, Adam, was a tiny version of his
father with blond locks and enormous pale blue eyes.

“How old is your son?” she asked Kayla.

The Admiral piped up as Kayla’s lips parted. “Ten
months.” The pride ebbing from the Admiral when he held his son’s hands as Adam
balanced on his chubby feet taking wobbly steps between his parents was the
same as Steven Porter with the twins.

“He looks so much like you,” Lumin said.

“He certainly has his father’s vocal cords and
appetite,” Kayla added.

The Admiral raised a brow at his wife and let
go of his son’s hands so he could take a few independent steps to his mom.

The only side of Nina she’d seen was when
Gabbs
had been taken hostage, but now she was a fiery,
funny redhead who teased her husband Mace, any chance she got. Mason Briggs
reminded her of a mountain man—gruff and grassroots. She liked it when they
called him Fox. It was a little confusing because they called each other by a
number of names, mixing up team names with first and last
names,
she tried to remember who was who.

They called Caleb Stitch, but she didn’t know
why. Maybe he knitted. He had a taut, lean form, and a serious expression, but
when he looked at his wife and cradled his infant in his arms, the man was as
sweet as they came.

Nathan kept trying to catch her eye, and she
avoided contact because he made her uncomfortable. It didn’t take much to see
he was one of those confirmed bachelors who wanted a good, no-strings-attached
time. Tony had called him Tadpole.

“What part of the country do you come from,
dahling
?” Ed Saxton asked her.

He certainly was a handsome, well-built man,
and she liked southern accents.
“Everywhere.”

“I bet you really grab the crowd’s attention
when you’re performing.” He gave her a huge southern smile. It was as broad as
his shoulders. “I visit Vegas a couple times a year. Maybe—”

“Maybe you better get seconds before it’s all
gone,” Tony said gruffly, and shoved a box of Chinese food across the table
which slid to a stop against Ed’s forearm.

“Think I’ve feasted enough,” Ed said, and gave
her a wink.

Tony fired a dangerous look Ed’s way.

She didn’t have a lot of experience dating.
None, actually.
Living alone in Vegas she learned how to
quickly avert the cheap come-ons by drunken tourists. School and her act kept
her busy and focused. A few guys from her classes asked her out, but a memory
of Tony had lingered since December, and she’d politely turned them down. Not
that dating had ever been a priority to her.

Both she and her brother had been raised in a
devout Catholic home. No matter where they traveled, Sunday mornings were spent
in church. As a teenager, modest warnings about the other sex were religiously
cemented into her upbringing.

Even with those warnings looping in her mind,
she often replayed the moment when Tony stood on the stairs of the Porters’
mansion saying goodbye to her. Every time she envisioned it, her heart squeezed
a little tighter, and then she would berate herself for thinking he was
anything more than a decent man doing a good deed. All she had to do to
reinforce the thought was take note he’d never contacted her after that night.

SEALs were legendary for their skills and
their valor. Seeing them now, acting like a big, fun-loving family, reminded
her of how alone she’d really been for the last four years. She’d been raised
on the road, shunted from one show to the next when her parents signed on for a
new performance. They’d finally settled in Las Vegas, and her mother had put
her foot down saying she wanted Lumin and her brother to finish high school in
one place. A year after she graduated her parents received an opportunity for a
show in Paris and they took it, leaving her under the watchful eye of the
Porters.

“Hey, where are
ya
?”
Tony asked. She started when his finger brushed against her knuckle.

She offered him a wan smile.

“Here, Lumin, have some dessert,”
Gabbs
said, sliding a plate with cake smothered in ice
cream in front of her.

“Thank you, Gabriella.”

“You can call me Squirt if you want. Uncle
Tony does, and since he’s got a
biiig
crush on you,
you can too.”

“Ah—” Tony swept
Gabbs
up into his arms. “Take your matchmaker,” he said, landing her in Mace’s arms.

“My girl’s observant. What can I say?” Mace
laughed at him, and wandered into the living room. Squirt rested her chin on
his shoulder and gave Tony an overdramatized wink.

“Oh man,” Tony chortled. He bit down on his
lip, embarrassed to be
outed
by a seven-year-old. “Sorry, she’s incorrigible like her mom.”

“Heard you, Tinman,” Nina drawled, sitting on
the couch with her back to him.

Lumin laughed out loud and felt her cheeks
redden. The room was full of people, but her gaze kept slipping to the
fair-haired man with sharp hazel eyes. She was used to fit men performing in
the show, but there was something heroic about Tony that she’d never seen
before, and maybe a little dangerous. He had very broad, straight shoulders and
a molded torso. His T-shirt strained taut around his upper arms and bulged from
the sleeves.
Capable
swept through
her mind again. Tony could accomplish anything.

“Lumin?”
Admiral Austen beckoned her to join the men on the patio.

“He’s a little intimidating,” she said under
her breath.

“You’re right, but he’s a good man. You can
trust the Admiral. You can trust any of us.”

She nodded and was surprised when Tony slid
his fingers between hers and gently prodded her toward the patio. Lumin noticed
the women and children stayed in the living room talking amongst
themselves
as if they knew the time for business had come.

She squirmed in her chair when the Admiral’s
gaze fell on her. The warm look that he shared with his wife had turned to
solid ice. Sitting beside him, Captain Cobbs placed his gray-eyed attention on
her as did the rest of Tony’s team. Tony’s hand gently gripped her shoulder
when she stiffened with nerves, keeping it there as she retold her story to the
men watching her intently.

“Admiral, how do you want to deal with this?”
Captain Cobbs asked when she finished.

“Carefully,” he said. “Lumin, you mentioned
you thought they knew who you were. Explain that.”

“I notice things and have a tendency to
remember faces.” The Admiral listened, but she knew he was assessing her at the
same time. He’d been doing it from the moment he walked in the door. “I—” She
choked on her words. Tony knelt beside her chair.

“Lumin, this might feel like an inquisition,
but we need to know everything in order to come up with a plan,” Tony
reassured, taking her hand in both of his.

“After I left the hotel room, I took the
closest exit to the lobby to get a cab. Two men watched me. I’d seen them the
night before when I was with Dr. Carmichael. They’d been watching us then too.
I caught sight of them at the second bar we went to. At first I thought it was
coincidence, but when I saw them again at the third place, I began to worry. I
think they have something to do with this.”

“You’re going to stay here with Tony,” the
Admiral ordered. “I’ll find out if there’s any chatter on this. If not, I’ll
start a case on it, but it may not remain in our hands.”

Cobbs pursed his lips. “If it falls into CDC
hands they may turn it over to CIA or FBI, then we lose control.”

“I’ll assess once we know more. Until then,”
the Admiral’s gaze dropped on her with a jarring chill, “you remain with Petty
Officer Bale. He’ll keep you out of harm’s way.”

“Admiral, we’re deploying in a week,” Mace
said, leaning against the patio railing, muscle-ripped arms crossed over his
chest.

“Your mission may be to find a threat to the
homeland,” the Admiral replied.

“Thane?”
Kayla stood in the doorway with their son, Adam, pitching a very
loud fit.

The Admiral pushed his chair back and rose to
an impressive six-foot-three. “That’s my cue, gentlemen.” Kayla placed their
son in his arms, and he raised him above his head. Adam stopped crying and gave
his father a big grin, gnawing on his finger. “Giving mom a bad time, son?” He
chuckled. “Chip off the old Frog.”

“Get your ass in the car, no-good SEAL,” Kayla
ordered. She stepped aside, but couldn’t dodge the kiss the Admiral planted on
her as he passed. Kayla turned doe eyes on her. “You’re safe, Lumin. Never
doubt that with this team. They can accomplish the impossible. See
ya
, guys.”

“Later, Snow White,” the guys said almost in
unison.

“Snow White?”
Lumin queried, looking at Tony.

“That’s her team name.”

“She’s a SEAL?”

“Nope,” Tony answered, “but all our wives—I
mean their wives, might as well be. They’re as brave as we are. They are,” he
corrected quickly. “Not me, I mean.”

“Heard that,” Nina called from inside the
condo.

Mace’s shoulders shook as he laughed. “And
they have great hearing.”

Gabbs
skipped outside and grabbed Mace’s hand.
“Time
to go home, Dad.
I want to see Lexi.”

“Sure, Little Red.” He picked
Gabbs
up in his arms then gave Tony a fist bump.
“Later, men.”

“Guess we better get out of here too,” Cobbs
said, rising. “You need anything, shout out, Tinman.”

“Roger that.”

Tony scooped a squealing Squirt from Mace by
one ankle and dangled her upside down as he walked to the front door with Nina
and Mace. Ed, who’d remained relatively
quiet
tucked
in a dark corner of the patio during her questioning, stepped to her side once
everyone had vacated. “I’m a little concerned, Miss Lumin.”

“Why?” She had to crank her neck back to look
up at the tall, impressive southerner.

“I don’t like the accessibility of Tony’s
apartment, and I’ve got an extra bedroom at my place.”

Tony held the front door open as Nathan
exited. His head cranked around as if missing someone. Seeing Ed on the patio,
Tony’s expression turned severe as he marched toward them. “I think the
Admiral’s orders were for me to stay here.”

Tony filled the patio doorway and his gaze
landed on Ed with a sharp snap. Ed ignored him and knelt down on one knee. “My
intentions are southern style honorable, Miss Lumin. I also live on the tenth
floor. Not as easy access,” Ed said directly to Tony. “You’re on ground level,
Tinman.”

“Do you think someone is watching me?” Maybe
she should move to a safer place, even though she felt safe with Tony?

Tony’s hazel eyes grew not just angry, but
predatory. “We’re good here, Cracker, but thanks.”

“The last twenty-four hours have been hard on
her. She needs a bed, not a couch.”

“Buddy,” Tony growled. “Don’t worry about the
sleeping arrangements. Lumin stays with me.”

“Maybe he’s right, Tony. What if someone did
follow me?” She stood, but Tony stayed her by wrapping his arm around her
waist.

“Then I’ll stay awake.” Tony kept a hostile
glare on Ed. “Speaking of rest, Lumin needs some.”

“I don’t want to bring trouble to your front
door, Tony.”

Ed shrugged. “I could stay. We’ll split the
night.”

Tony jerked his head at Ed, and he followed
Tony. Low, unintelligible words passed between the men,
then
she heard the door click shut.

Night had descended, and her gaze slid across
the shadows on the playground. For the first time in a long while she felt
safe. Even before yesterday, she was on edge. On her own, she always remained
aware and it was tiring. Tony reappeared, drawing her from her thoughts.
“Where’s Ed?”

“Relieved of duty,” he said, sitting down
across from her.

“Tony, I really think you should take me to a
hotel.”

With a perturbed grunt, Tony sat back in his
chair. “Is it because you don’t think I can protect you?” His jaw cracked to a
jagged angle, but his gaze relayed uncertainty.