Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (11 page)

            “Matthew?” Caroline’s
voice was soft, disbelieving.

            “Yes, open your
eyes.”

            Caroline forced her
eyes to open and saw that it was, indeed, Matthew. He was straddled over her,
leaning down peering into her eyes intently.

            “Oh shit,” Caroline
whispered.

            “Come on, let’s get
you up off the floor.” Wolf helped her sit up and situated back on the couch.
As soon as she was, he sat next to her and pulled her into his chest.

            “You’re okay. It was
just a dream.”

            Caroline shook with
the aftereffects of the images that had been flitting through her head. It had
seemed so real.

            “Want to talk about
it?”

            She shook her head
against his chest, not looking up.

            “Okay. I’m assuming
it was about what happened on the plane?” At her nod he told her, “You need to
talk to someone about it, Caroline. If you don’t, the dreams won’t stop.
Believe me, I know.”
            At that, Caroline looked up at Matthew. “You know?”

            He looked grim, but
met her eyes. “Yeah, in my line of work there’s no way I can keep it all
bottled in. It’s true most men in the military don’t like to admit to
weaknesses when it comes to nightmares and PTSD, but we’re required to debrief
anytime we have a heavy mission. In fact, Abe, Mozart, and I are required to
meet with someone here to talk about what happened on the plane.”

            Caroline could only
stare up at him in amazement. “Really?”

            Wolf chuckled and
brought her into his chest again. She tucked her head under his chin and
wrapped her arms around his waist. He changed position until he was lying with
his head on the armrest of the couch, shifting Caroline until she was lying
with her front settled along his side. Her arm came to rest on his chest, where
she idly drew shapes over his heart.

            “Yeah. Can’t say I
like all the shrinks they make us see, but honestly, it works. We might grumble
about it, but if it keeps us sane, and ready for our next mission, we’ll do
it.”

            “I was fighting that
guy. I knew if he got the better of me or if I let him go, he’d go and kill
you. I didn’t want you to die.” Caroline spoke quietly and from the heart.

            “Oh, sweetheart.” Wolf
tightened his arms around her. “You were so brave. I’m so proud of you. But…”
he waited until she raised her eyes to his. When she was looking at him, he
continued. “I can take care of myself. Don’t ever put yourself in danger again
for me. Promise me.”

            “But Matthew, this is
just…I don’t…” Shit. She’d never had a hard time expressing what she wanted to
say before. But the right words just wouldn’t come to her.

            He shook his head. “No
buts. Just promise me Caroline. Look after you first. Always.”

            She could only nod.
The look in his eyes was intense. She broke eye contact and laid her head back
down. She gripped him harder and brought the hand that was lying on his chest
up and curled it around the back of his neck and squeezed.

“Sleep now. I’m
here. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“Thank you. I
feel safe here with you.”

Caroline fell
asleep still clutching him. Wolf had never felt more content in all his life.
Usually he felt antsy sleeping with a woman; never letting her cuddle into him,
and leaving as soon as it was socially acceptable. But with Caroline all bets
were off.

Long after the
sun fell from the sky Wolf eased out from under her. He once more carried
Caroline to bed. He laughed quietly to himself. This was becoming a habit for
him—one he liked.

            As he spread the
comforter over Caroline, Wolf heard the shrill ring of his phone in the other
room in the suite. Crap. His phone didn’t ring unless it was work. No! They
still had over a week before they were supposed to leave. Maybe it was about
the terrorist incident? With one final look at Caroline and one last light kiss
to her forehead, Wolf closed the bedroom door softly and went to answer his
phone, hoping against hope it was nothing important.

* * *

            Caroline stretched
carefully as she woke, amazed at how quickly her side was healing, and looked
around. Crap. Really? Third time in a row? Once again she didn’t remember how
she’d gotten to bed. She
did
remember her nightmare and the intense make
out session with Matthew though.

Smiling at the
memory, Caroline immediately looked at the pillow next to her and saw a piece
of paper folded up.

            Her heart raced and
she couldn’t wait to see what he had to say. Caroline reached over and grabbed
the unassuming little note and opened it.

Caroline, you
have to know I hate having to write you another note. Hopefully one day I can
be right there next to you when you wake up...Now that you’re blushing…

            Jesus, this man knew
her so well. Caroline kept reading.

           
…You know Mozart,
Abe, and I came out here to Norfolk for vacation before our mission started;
unfortunately that mission came sooner than we thought it would. I’ve had a
great time spending time with you over the last couple of days. If it’s okay,
I’d like to get in touch with you when we get back. I’d like to get to know you
better. I know we have some things to work out, mainly the distance between our
homes, but I still want to explore what’s happening between us. I’m not sure
how long it’ll take for us to get back to Norfolk. Sometimes our missions are
short, but other times they can drag on much longer than we’d like. I’m leaving
my cell phone number so you can call me. If you’d like to get together when I
get back (and I hope you will!) just call and leave me a number where I can
reach you. I’ll call as soon as we get back. Good luck with your new job. Knock
‘em dead! Matthew. PS. Abe and Mozart say hello and they’re sorry they didn’t
get to hang out with us last night. I didn’t tell them I wasn’t…

Caroline read
the letter twice and hugged it to her chest. She wasn’t sure what to do about Matthew.
It was a heady feeling, one she’d never experienced. No one ever wanted to get
to know her better. It was almost too good to be true.  

Caroline
carefully put the letter in her purse and took a deep breath. Time to get back
to her real life. She wasn’t a SEAL and needed to contact her employer to let
him know what was going on. She could even start work early if he wanted her to
and she almost hoped he did. She needed something to take her mind off of
Matthew and everything that had happened recently.

Caroline packed
up and took one last look around the hotel room on her way out. She was headed
to the apartment she’d rented before coming out to Virginia. Before she left,
she pulled out both letters Matthew had left her and read them one more time. On
impulse she added his number to her cell phone contacts. Not that she was going
to call him…they couldn’t possibly work out…it was better to end things now
before she fell in love with him…wasn’t it?

Two weeks later.

For the most part,
Caroline was enjoying her job. It was much the same as she’d done in San Diego.
A chemist’s work really wasn’t that exciting to most people no matter where it
was done, but Caroline loved it. It was hard to explain to someone else why or
even what she did. She was just fascinated how the mixing of chemicals could
make something useful and lifesaving, or it could make it destructive and
deadly. She recalled how Matthew had seemed interested when she’d tried to
explain what it was she did to him.

She’d actually
dialed Matthew’s cell phone a few times in the last few days. Each time she planned
to leave a message agreeing to see him when he got back, but she chickened out
each time. Heck she had no idea if he was even back already. What if he’d changed
his mind and decided a relationship was too much trouble? Did he even want a
relationship? She was driving herself nuts.

Caroline decided
to give Matthew the benefit of the doubt and believe he was still out of the
country. So she’d called him. Just hearing his voice on his voice mail was
enough to snap her to her senses. What was she doing? They had a great time in those
couple of days together, but what if he was just feeling grateful she’d help
save his life, or he was just concerned about her in the way someone would be
concerned about a sister?

Of course the
kisses they shared didn’t
feel
like a brother/sister kiss to her. She
sighed. She usually wasn’t this indecisive. When she wanted something she went
for it. But then again, she’d never had someone who looked like Matthew show
her any attention before. 

Caroline thought
about the three SEALs quite a bit over the last two weeks. She supposed you
didn’t go through something like what they had and not feel some sort of
connection. She did want to know if Matthew, Sam, and Christopher were all okay
and back safe from wherever they’d gone, but she was embarrassed to actually
leave him a message. Matthew was the kind of man a woman only dreamed about. He
was the type of man that tall gorgeous women dated, not someone like her; a
geeky scientist.

The media had
been going crazy over the hijacking. Every time she turned on the TV a story
about it was on. Caroline had seen Brandy all over the various news channels. Brandy
had no idea what she was talking about, as she’d hidden in the back of the
plane while everything was happening, but the news outlets were still clamoring
to talk to her.

There was a lot
of talk about the “mysterious” men who’d saved the day, but from what Caroline
had seen, so far no one knew who they were. And there had been no mention of
her name that she could tell, thank God.

One thing
Caroline did hear when she’d watched one of the stories that made her extremely
nervous, was when the hijacking was called a “trial run” for a bigger operation
of taking over planes that was supposed to have happened later on.
That
had certainly riled the country up. Airline security had been tightened, and
people were obviously scared to fly. But what made Caroline nervous was knowing
it wasn’t just four people acting alone. There was someone, or some
people
out there who wanted to do it again and possibly hurt and kill more innocent
people. Caroline wouldn’t wish what she’d gone through on anyone else.

After seeing
that news story Caroline had tried to not watch anything else on the hijacking.
She’d lived it, and knew the truth, and honestly it was just freaking her out
hearing all the political reasons why it might have happened. She started
listening to the oldies radio station for noise factor instead of turning on
the television.

Caroline’s new
apartment wasn’t too far from where she worked, so she didn’t need to drive to get
there. She took the bus most places she had to go, but Caroline would drive to
the beach or up the coast. She enjoyed the Virginia countryside. It was
soothing to her frazzled nerves.

As far as
getting to work, Caroline varied her travel times and routes, any single woman
alone knew it was a smart thing to do, but she still felt extraordinarily
nervous. A few times she’d thought she was being followed, but when she tried
to figure out by whom, she couldn’t find anyone who looked suspicious. Caroline
had also been getting hang up calls at work—answering the phone to no one
there, or at least they weren’t saying anything.

Caroline hadn’t given
much thought to the episodes before she’d seen the news reports about the
attempted hijacking she’d been involved with. With the potential threat for
other planned hijackings, now she couldn’t
not
think about them! What if
somehow the terrorist group, knew who she was and about her part in the failed
hijacking? What if they were following her?

A few days after
watching the news reports about the hijacking, Caroline was late leaving the
office—working late on a project that was having a breakthrough. Her coworkers
had stayed as well, but they’d all left in their cars to head home. Caroline
actually watched them walk to their cars, leaving her standing in the doorway
of the office building. She mentally shook her head. She was the only one who
used public transportation and no one thought to ask if she wanted a ride home.
Too independent for her own good sometimes, Caroline knew she should’ve just
asked for a ride—now it was too late.  

Caroline wistfully
thought about Matthew. She knew he was the type of man that would never let a
woman take any type of public transportation this late at night alone. At the
very least he’d escort her home. She sighed. Caroline never thought about this
sort of thing until she’d met Matthew and his team. She’d just taken it as
status quo and gone about her business.

Caroline got out
her cell phone and walked with a purpose toward the bus stop. She only had to
go three blocks, but it was dark out. Luckily the bus arrived not too much
after she arrived at the bus stop, which was good because Caroline didn’t want
to stand in the dark waiting for it. She was too freaked out.

The feeling she
was being watched didn’t abate once she was on the bus. Once again she didn’t
see any passengers that looked out of place, but she couldn’t get rid of the
creepy feeling.

She hurried off
at her stop and power walked all the way to her apartment building. She didn’t
relax until she’d made it inside and had closed and locked the door. Keeping
her phone in her hand so she could beat herself up over whether or not to call
Matthew later that night, she put her purse and bag down and headed toward the
bathroom. She wanted to splash some cold water on her face and change out of her
work clothes. The anxiety about her uncertain relationship with Matthew, her
feelings of being watched, along with the stress of the aftermath of the
hijacking were messing with her big time. She wasn’t sleeping well and she was
exhausted.

As she reached
the bathroom, she heard a noise behind her. She looked back and saw the doorknob
of her apartment being turned. The door was locked, but someone was out there. Holy
crap. She wasn’t losing her mind. Someone
had
to have been following
her. If it was someone who wanted to talk to her legitimately they would’ve
knocked. No one came up to a door and grabbed the doorknob to open it; they
knocked and announced themselves…unless they were up to no good.

Caroline didn’t
wait to see who was at the door, or if they got through it or not. She bolted
into the bedroom and opened the window at the fire escape. She had no idea if
it would trick the person at the door into believing she’d left that way or
not, but maybe, just maybe they’d think she fled and wouldn’t take the time to
search the rest of the apartment.

She raced back
toward the bathroom just as she heard the creak of the front door notifying her
that someone had just opened it. They’d obviously used some sort of lock pick
to get in; otherwise she would’ve heard the door being broken down. They were
trying to sneak up on her to surprise her. They also obviously didn’t want to
make a ruckus so others in the complex would hear and become suspicious.

Heart racing, she
entered the bathroom and left the door open. She prayed the open bedroom window
would make whoever it was think that she left that way. The open bathroom door
would hopefully also make them think no one was in there. She climbed into the
tub and eased the shower curtain most of the way shut. She didn’t close it all
the way, again in the hopes that it would look like no one was in the shower.

Caroline noticed
her cell phone in her hand. Thank God. She almost cried in relief. She quickly dialed
911 and waited for someone to answer.

“Hello, 911, what
is your emergency?”

Caroline heard
the voice on the other end of the phone and literally sagged in relief. She had
no idea who the person was, or what they looked like, and she didn’t really
care. All she cared about was that someone was there to help her.

Whispering in a
voice so low she had no idea if the woman on the other end of the line could
hear her, she said, “I’m in my apartment, someone broke in. I’m hiding in the
shower. Please. Hurry!”

“Okay, I’ve got
your address. The police are on the way. Stay put, stay quiet, they’ll be there
as soon as they can.”

Caroline sighed
in relief. The 911 operator’s voice was calm and soothing, just what she needed
at that moment. Still whispering Caroline said, “Thank you,” then hit the off
button on the phone. She knew she probably was supposed to stay on the line
until the cops got there, but she couldn’t, she wanted to hear Matthew’s voice.

Caroline hit his
name in her address book and dialed his cell, almost on autopilot. She didn’t
know who was in her house, but whoever it was, wasn’t going to let her live if
they were somehow related to the terrorist incident. She knew it.

Caroline didn’t
want Matthew thinking she never wanted to see him again. If he got back from
his mission and didn’t hear from her that’s exactly what he’d think. He’d
probably never know she’d been thinking about him and how much she’d enjoyed
the time they’d spent together. It was time to leave that message for him.

She waited
through his message, tearing up at hearing his low, grumbly voice. After the
beep she whispered, “
Hi Matthew, it’s me, Caroline…um…Ice. I wanted to let
you know I would’ve loved to have gotten together with you again when you got
back. I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t….but I don’t know if I’ll be
here…..I’m in my apartment, but someone just broke in. I’m hiding in the
bathroom. I’ve called 911, but if they don’t get here in time… I wanted you to
know that I desperately wanted to see you again…”

Caroline hit the
disconnect button to end the call and turned off the phone entirely. She didn’t
want the concerned sounding emergency operator calling her back and having the
phone ring at the wrong time. Even on vibration mode, the ringing could still
be heard.

She tried to
slow her breaths and be as quiet as she could. That was harder than she
thought. It was scary that she was actually hoping it was just someone that
wanted to rob her, or God forbid assault her, but deep down she knew whoever it
was would kill her if he found her. She listened as whoever it was in her
apartment went into her bedroom and closed her window. Caroline thought she
heard him swear, then she heard him going through her drawers. She couldn’t
even be embarrassed. He could look at her undies all he wanted, if he just
left
.

At one point, he
actually came into the bathroom, looked through her medicine cabinet and even
used the toilet. Caroline was afraid to breathe. She was more scared now than
she was on the plane. All it would take is one breath, one wrong movement, one
cough, one sneeze, to alert him she was there. Matthew and his team weren’t
there to help her. Caroline was on her own and she suddenly realized how out of
her element she really was. She thought she was brave, but when push came to
shove, she realized she wasn’t brave at all. She’d never felt so alone in all
her life.

Finally whoever
it was left the bathroom. Caroline heard sirens in the distance, running feet
and her door close quietly. Jesus, he didn’t even slam the damn door. That said
a lot about his control and level of professionalism. She didn’t move. What if
there were two of them in her apartment? What if the person wasn’t really gone
and only wanted her to
think
he left the apartment to try to draw her
out.

Caroline stood
silent and quiet even when she heard the police banging on her front door. She
was frozen in fear, but desperately wanted to rush to the door and throw
herself into the officers’ arms. But the more she thought about it, the more
she realized she couldn’t trust even the police, what if it wasn’t really the cops?
She didn’t move until she heard the officers in her little apartment. Knowing
she couldn’t stay cowering in her shower forever, she slowly moved the curtain
aside and called out to the officers.