RULES OF LOVE (A Navy SEALs Romance) (15 page)

“I’m going to get dressed. Meet you downstairs?” he asked. She nodded, and he left the room.

Eddie dressed quickly and took advantage of the time away from him to check in with Ted and Shane. All was quiet, and Jackie and Gareth had not returned yet. She was about to head for the kitchen when Shane radioed her and told her to call him on her cell, out of earshot of Savage.

“What?” she asked from her office.

“Reinhart wants a conference call, you and Laon. Now.”

“I can’t. Savage will be down in a minute.”

“I’ll distract him so you’re clear,” Shane offered. She hung up, and a minute later, Shane was inside the house, waiting at the bottom of the steps. Eddie saw him, and when she heard Beau’s steps behind her, she passed on the message that Shane was looking for him.

Beau checked his holster and told her he’d be back soon enough, his gaze lingering on Eddie’s body long enough for her cheeks to flame before he was out of sight. She shook herself from her sudden daydreams and hurried to her office. A minute later, she was on her laptop and waiting for the conference call from Reinhart and Jackie on her cell.

“Sage, Laon,” Reinhart muttered in his gruff voice.

“Here, sir,” Jackie said.

“Same, sir,” Eddie said. “Is there a development?”

“We’ve learned someone within our organization is leaking information,” Reinhart snapped.

“Do you know who, sir?”

“First priority, Sage. Where’s Savage?”

“Downstairs with Shane, sir,” Eddie said.
“Good. He does not leave your sight until this new threat is neutralized. Is that clear? I don’t care what you have to tell him, but you are to be attached at the hip, Sage.”

She pictured just how attached they’d already been and cleared her throat. “Yes, sir. Do you have any leads on who?”

“A few names. I’ll send them to you. None of them have checked in over the last twelve hours, so either they’re dead or we have a major problem,” Reinhart informed them. Voices raised in the background, and he told Eddie and Jackie to wait a second as he listened. Eddie couldn’t pick up what was being said and tapped her fingers on the desk, waiting. “Sage, Laon, I have a name for you.”

“All ears, sir,” Eddie said.

“The name is Mike West.”

Eddie’s eyes narrowed as Jackie said it wasn’t familiar. “I know it, sir. He was new to the team right before the incident in Nicaragua.”

“Yes. He’s been working this end of the issue,” he said. “He’s been linked to another insider.”

Damn. She knew they should have done a thorough purging of their teams after what had happened to hers, but none of the admirals deemed it necessary. “Does he have any connection to Hugh Coleman, sir?” she asked, struggling to hold back her anger.

Jackie muttered something about knowing they should have said something earlier, but it was Reinhart who spoke. “That was for your benefit, Sage. We don’t know for certain, and I didn’t want to cloud your judgement in the field.”

“It won’t, sir,” she said, gritting her teeth as the face she dreamt about most nights flashed before her eyes.

“Fine. Until we find him, you are on lockdown with Savage.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Laon will be tracking down a lead in Milan. It’s old, but it’s the only thing we have right now.”

“We were able to track one of the missing agent’s cells to a warehouse district,” Jackie interjected. “Once we hack into the security feeds and get an eye for the area, our team will move in.”

“I want to be updated on both fronts,” Reinhart ordered. “Sage, keep that anger in check and watch your damn six.”

The call was over, and Eddie was alone in her office watching their perfect plan of keeping Savage safe and in the dark fall to pieces. The time for playing civilian was over. She’d have to wear her Sig now and keep him in sight at all times. Keeping him safe while being sure he stayed in the dark about what they were all really up to was going to be harder than it already was, but she would keep him alive, and if that meant sticking to him, then that’s what she’d do.

With Shane distracting him, she entered her room and grabbed her sweatshirt to hide the holster tucked in the back of her jeans. She placed two knives in their sheaths wrapped around her side and finally grabbed her badge from the dresser. She didn’t want to carry it on her, but on the off chance things turned south, having it with her would help explain their current predicament a bit faster and why the civilian he guarded was not a civilian.

She knew he wouldn’t stay in her office with her all afternoon and evening, but maybe if she brought her “work” downstairs, he’d stay in the kitchen and keep her company. While in her office, she radioed Ted and texted Shane to make sure they knew their orders. Once Beau was back with her, Shane would take up his post out back and Ted would remain at the front gate.

When night fell, they’d take shifts watching over the unsuspecting Beau Savage.

She sat down at the kitchen table as he came back inside, and Shane passed through the kitchen and out back.

“Do you ever not work?” Beau asked as he moved to her.

“Do you?” she shot back with a raised brow. “Just doing something to keep myself busy.”

She watched him out of the corner of her eye. His eyes were suddenly calculating, studying her closely until her cheeks burned, and she stopped her senseless typing on the keypad. “What?”

“I didn’t say anything,” he defended. “What happened while I was outside? You look upset.”

Eddie ground her teeth and fought the urge to readjust her sweatshirt. “Nothing important. Why?”

“You’re tense,” he told her, nodding at her shoulders. “And you were typing on that keyboard like you wanted to murder it.”

“It’s nothing,” she replied, shifting her shoulder. “Just work.”

He walked around to the other side of the table, pressed both palms flat against it, and leaned closer. Eddie’s lips parted at the gleam of irritation mixed with want in his eyes. “You’re lying to me. Why?”

Eddie laid her hands flat and stared him down, meeting his cold stare with hers. The predatory stance of his body was back, and she hated to admit how much she wanted to pull him closer for another kiss. But if his life had been in danger before, it was even worse now. The truth was suddenly on her lips, ready to tell him everything about what was really going on, but at the last second, she cursed and leaned back in her chair.

“Just sit down and shut up if you’re going to keep me company,” she muttered. “I have nothing to say to you.”

He grunted as he pushed off the table, but Eddie didn’t look at him again. “If that’s how you want to play this, fine, but we both know you’re keeping something from me, Naomi. Sooner or later, I’ll find out. That’s what I do.”

He stalked off and Eddie stayed at the kitchen table.
And what I do is keep your ass alive,
she thought belligerently
.
He didn’t go far, just to the living room, and from the sound of it, was on the phone with whomever he thought he needed to report to. She hoped he would stay over there, find a damn magazine or something, but after an hour, she heard his steps behind her.

“What do you want now?”

“I thought that was obvious.”

Eddie turned in her chair to find him watching her with hooded eyes filled with a determination causing her to second guess being alone with him. She should be at the front gate, and Ted should be in here. Then she wouldn’t feel the need to shove him away and yank him closer at the same time. If he held her as he did earlier, he’d feel her gun and her cover would be blown. That couldn’t happen.

“Beau, we can’t… I can’t, not now,” she whispered as he moved closer.

“You can, you just won’t,” he said, words heavy with promise. “I’m not giving up on you that easily. Not after last night.”

Eddie’s eyes trailed over his broad shoulders and the taut muscles of his chest straining against his t-shirt. His jeans hung low on his hips. She saw herself undoing them in a different time, a time when she wasn’t trying to keep him alive. She forced her gaze back up to his. He’d stepped closer, and she hadn’t noticed. She rose to her feet, gripping her cane as she limped away from the table, but Beau just followed.

“What do you hope to hear me say?” she snapped. “What?” He didn’t say a word, stalking closer. He flustered her, so damn unsure what to do, and she hated it. “You think I want to kiss you again, is that it?”

Beau’s lips twitched in a smirk. “You tell me what you want.”

Hell, Eddie didn’t even know what she wanted anymore. He reached out for her arm, and she flinched away, something she feared she’d never not do around him. His jaw tightened, but he didn’t back off. Instead, he moved closer as he always did, pushing her boundaries like she needed him to do. Eddie’s breath caught in her chest, ready to tell him this wasn’t a good idea, when the radio attached to Beau’s belt crackled.

They both glanced down at it before he pulled it off. “Shane?”

Static met his words, and Eddie’s face whipped to the back gardens as Beau tried to get ahold of him again. He didn’t answer, and Eddie took a step towards the back door. Then Shane’s voice came through, clipped and broken up. She only caught two words:
Protect Savage.

Beau barely had a second to register Shane’s words before a shot ripped through the back door, hitting the cabinets behind him and Naomi. He shoved her down, drawing his Sig as he pushed them for cover behind the counter.

“Shane? Damn it,” he cursed as the man didn’t answer and two more shots hit the cabinets. He expected Naomi to scream or cower in fear, but she sat there, hunched over and eerily calm next to him.

“Sniper,” she muttered.

Beau frowned. “We need Shane. Just stay down.”

The counter they hid behind was just the island in the kitchen. If the person moved closer, they’d eventually get a lucky shot through. Beau ran through his options quickly and radioed Ted at the front gate. He’d heard the shots and was on his way to the house when his transmission suddenly cut off, too.

“Damn it! I have to get you out of here,” he muttered.

“Afraid that’s not how this works,” Eddie said, and Beau stared at her blankly. She suddenly sounded American, and he watched as her hand reached for her lower back and pulled out a Sig.

“Why the hell are you armed?” he snapped.

“Because I’m not the damn target,” she shot back. The glare she threw him caused him to hesitate. “You are.” She grabbed the radio from him and tried to get Shane again. “We have a sniper, Shane. We’re pinned down in the kitchen.”

“Working… on it,” he grunted through the radio, and Eddie tossed it aside.

She poked her head around the side of the island and a shot whizzed by, hitting the stove. “Bastard.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Beau demanded. “Who are you?”

“Can we get through this first?” She pushed up and winced because of her left leg. She aimed and fired two shots before ducking again, another shot from the sniper barely missing her. “Damn it! He’s on the wall.”

Beau glared at her, but despite the questions he wanted to ask, he wanted to get out of this alive first and with whomever this woman was. He glanced around the other side of the island, trying to locate the sniper’s position on the back wall, but it was too far.

“We need to get you to the front,” Naomi muttered. “When I say so, go. I’ll cover you.”

“That is not happening,” he growled.

Naomi turned her gun on him, and Beau froze. “Do it, Savage, or I swear to God I’ll shoot you myself. This is not the time for this shit. When I say so, move your ass for the front.”

He gritted his teeth, trying to adjust to this new reality—staring down the barrel of a gun held by the woman he thought he knew. He nodded once, stiffly, and she aimed it away from him. He watched her steady her breathing. One shot then another shattered the dishes in the cabinets. The second there was calm, Naomi rose and yelled for him to go. Beau heard the shots fired from her gun as he took off for the front door.

His hand reached for the handle, Naomi close behind him, but a moment later, he was blown backwards. Ears ringing as the world spun around him, Beau heard Naomi’s yell of pain, and everything went dark.

Eddie groaned as she opened her eyes and glanced around. Beau… the gunshots… her eyes searched the debris that had been the front door. An isolated explosion had cut off their escape route. How the hell had they reached the door? She shifted, rolling onto her stomach as she struggled to find Beau through the dust. She coughed and sat up when a kick landed to her face. She sprawled backwards, blood trickling from her nose.

“Found one,” a man said. “Damn, now I know why the boss liked her so much.”

“Stop gawking and get her up.”

Eddie let herself go still as the man moved around to her head again, his black boots stopping by her face. Carefully, she shifted her hand to the knives still tucked at her back and pulled one free. Beau cursed and yelled somewhere nearby. The sound of a fist hitting skin and bone met her ears, and the other man yelled in pain. At least Savage could hold his own.

Where the hell are Shane and Ted?
She pictured their dead bodies lying outside the house, and her anger grew. The second the man near her reached down, she yelled and plunged the knife into his foot, pinning him to the floor. He shrieked in pain and tried to grab her, but she scurried back. When she got to her feet, holding her left leg up to keep weight off of it, she punched the man in the jaw. He staggered backwards and fell with a grunt to the floor.