Navy SEALs Complete Series: 3 Books + 3 Novellas (Tempting Navy SEALs) (15 page)

She looked like hell.

Morganna dampened a soft cloth beneath the running water and washed the smudged makeup from her face before grimacing at her pale reflection. There was a scratch on her neck that she had no idea where it came from, a few fingerprint bruises on her bare arms—only God knew if they’d come from Clint jerking her away from the assailant or the assailant himself.

She breathed in deeply. There hadn’t been time to be terrified during the attack, but the moment Clint jerked her from the knife heading for her throat, it had set in.

The attack didn’t make sense.

She braced her hands on the sink as she lowered her head and fought the weariness washing over her. Through her. Nothing about this operation was making sense now. Why would she be targeted now? And how had anyone learned she was even working the case? Only her commander, Joe’s team, and now Clint knew that she was more than a secretary.

The job in the local law firm had gotten her through the Law Enforcement Academy, nothing else. No one had known what she was doing. Not even Raven had known until after the graduation.

It was apparent that someone else did know Morganna was working the case, though.

And what had the attacker said just before Clint came into the room? Something about divine retribution? What the hell was divine retribution?

Shaking her head, she dropped the cloth into the basket under the sink before washing her hands and forcing back the edge of shattered nerves pushing at her mind.

Adrenaline. She recognized it, though it was stronger now than it had ever been. Coming down from it was a pain in the ass.

She was shaking from head to toe, fine tremors more than shudders, a heightened awareness, as well as a heightened arousal. Now that one was different. The arousal was burning inside her, a flaming ache in the center of her sex that refused to be ignored.

“You’ve lost it, Chavez,” she told herself as she lifted her head, staring back at her reflection. “You just can’t learn your lesson, can you?”

She knew not to trust Clint. How many times in the past had he allowed her to hope, to dream, only to pull back?

But he had never promised her before
.

Clint always kept his promises. He never broke his word. At the least, he wouldn’t take this operation from her. The sense of accomplishment that filled her with was overwhelming.

“Morganna, are you okay?” Clint’s voice was husky, soft, from the other side of the door.

“I’m fine.” She drew in a deep breath before opening the door and coming face-to-face with him.

His expression was concerned, his eyes dark in his suntanned face, his big body tense as he towered over her.

“I have to get out of this leather.” She moved past him and into the sitting room of the suite he had taken. “I hope you have something I can wear in that bag of tricks you carried up with you.”

“I laid it on the bed,” he drawled behind her. “I called room service. We’ll have something up here to eat soon, then you can shower.”

Morganna sat down on the couch, breathing out wearily as she unzipped the high boots and dragged them off her feet. Pleasure eased through her as cool air enveloped her tired feet, the cramped muscles relaxing as she pressed the pads of her feet into the floor.

“That sounds good.” She set the boots to the side as she fought to ignore the fact that he was shirtless. That all that bare, powerful muscle was on display and nearly impossible not to look at.

Besides, she wasn’t here to have sex, she reminded herself; she was here because someone had decided they wanted her dead.

“I guess tonight clears up whether or not the drive-by shooting the other night was aimed at me.” She kept her gaze on the floor, determined not to stare up at him. Not to eat him with her gaze.

“Someone knows what you’re doing.” He paced across her field of vision, long legs encased in snug leather. “But that’s not enough to put out a hit against you. Craig maybe. Joe definitely. But not you. You’re just a watcher, and easy enough to avoid if they know who you are.”

That was what she thought.

“Then what’s going on?” She lifted her eyes wearily, feeling the effects of the late nights, the excitement, the raging emotions she had dealt with over the past two days, catching up with her. “Why risk getting caught? If they know of me, then they know of the team. Why not just move to another club?”

“Arrogance.” He shrugged as he leaned against the frame of the entryway across from her. “To make an example of you. There could be several reasons and all could apply. Or none of them.” His expression was thoughtful, somber. “They tried to take another girl tonight. One of Drage’s men caught up with them before they managed to maneuver her through the back entrance. She was drugged, heavily.”

Morganna’s eyes widened at the information as she stared back at him in shock. “They moved fast. We just arrested the three suspects attempting to drug that girl last week.”

“They have a schedule then,” he mused. “The hit bothers me more, and the fact that they waited until you left to drug the girl.”

“We move between several clubs in one night, and Joe’s team isn’t the only one working this. We have three teams on the task force here in Atlanta. The DEA is determined to shut this down now, before the drug goes further. We suspect the sale of the videos is being used to fund terrorist activities, but there’s no confirmation on that.”

“How many agents?”

She stared back at him with dismay. “There are fifteen agents total working this. But only the individual teams and the commander know the ‘watchers’ such as myself.”

“Watcher, my ass. You’re bait. But that doesn’t explain why you were targeted with a knife instead of the drug.”

“Divine retribution,” she muttered, staring back at him. “That’s what he said just before you came into the house. Divine retribution.”

“Nothing else?” Cold purpose glittered in Clint’s eyes.

Morganna shook her head as she moved to her feet, unable to sit still. Rubbing her fingers over her brow, she paced to the small office desk on the other side of the room before stopping and tapping her fingers against the desk softly.

“It was personal,” she finally said. “You could hear it in his voice. There was an accent. . . .” She frowned, trying to remember the sound of her attacker’s voice. “I can’t place it.”

God, she wanted to curl into Clint’s arms. His broad chest looked wide enough to shelter her, his arms strong enough to hold her. And she needed him to hold her. She had needed it for so long, though, that she wondered if she wasn’t more used to the hunger than she would be to easing it.

“We’ll rest this weekend.” He straightened from the door frame, his arms dropping to the pockets of his pants as he stared back at her. “You’ll have to call in to the office you’re working at, take next week off while we work on this. Joe had a good idea, setting up in the clubs like that. But the community he’s dealing with is far more extensive than he could imagine unless he was part of it. Monday, we’ll start making some calls.”

“Then you were serious about working together on this?”

His lips quirked. “As much as I needed to keep you out of this for my own peace of mind, whoever’s behind it seems more intent on dragging you into it. The only way to keep you safe is to neutralize the threat. And I called Drage while you were in the bathroom and had him rescind the request that you be banned from the clubs. You’re now under sponsorship. We know they’re after you; we just have to use that to trap the suppliers.” It was more than obvious he wasn’t pleased with the situation.

“Will you or Craig be set up to buy?”

“Me.” His voice was a hard rumble. “You’ll not be playing a role. You’ll be yourself. By now, everyone will have figured out I’m so damned hot for you that I can’t breathe for the hard-on killing me.” And he didn’t seem pleased by that. “I don’t want you to play the submissive. Fight me as you would any other time.”

A knock at the door had him whirling away from her as he pulled the .45 from the small of his back and moved in complete silence to the door of the suite.

“Room service,” a cheerful voice announced.

Bedroom
. Clint turned and mouthed the word at her as he neared the door.

Morganna grabbed her boots and moved hurriedly across the room and ducked into the bedroom, careful to hide along the side of the room. Clint had been adamant that no one, including hotel staff, know that she was in the room with him.

“Good evening, Mr. Sizemore.” The waiter’s voice moved into the sitting room. “I have your dinner, sir.”

The sound of footsteps, then a heavy tray being placed on the wide coffee table in the other room could be heard.

“Is there anything else I can get for you, sir?”

“That will be all.” Clint’s voice was clipped, businesslike. “Thank you for being so quick.”

“Yes, sir!” The waiter’s exclamation had her rolling her
eyes. Must have been a helluva tip. “You need anything, sir, you just call right down. We’ll take care of you.”

“Will do,” Clint responded as the steps moved back to the door of the suite.

Seconds later the sound of the door closing and the bolt lock had Morganna moving quickly from the bedroom. The smell of food had her stomach growling. She was starved and she knew for a fact he had ordered enough to feed an army.

He was waiting on her when she walked into the room, his gaze frankly sexual as she moved to the food tray. She hadn’t eaten since lunch that day and her stomach was voraciously reminding her of the fact that even that meal had been incredibly small.

She pulled the metal covering from the cheeseburger and fries she had ordered. Being attacked and nearly having one’s throat sliced called for calories to celebrate life. Lots of calories.

Clint pulled the nearby chair over to the low table and followed suit as she poured a glass of tea from the pitcher and began to dig in.

She tried to ignore Clint sitting across from her, as well as the implications of what he had implied before the waiter knocked on the door. If Clint intended to take her to his bed, she wouldn’t be able to refuse him. Just as she wouldn’t be able to protect her own heart. He was her weakness; he had been her weakness for most of her life.

“The girl that was drugged, Cathie Fitzhugh, she worked in the same office complex as you.” Clint stated as he slathered mayo over his own hamburger, glancing up at her with steelyeyed purpose as he spoke.

Morganna nodded. “She works in another department, though. That makes three women who worked there and have been drugged by these bastards.”

“There could be a link there.” He nodded. “Joe is checking it out. Your cover’s shot, Morganna. They know who you are.”

“And we must be closer to the suppliers than I thought.” She shook her head in confusion. “We have a suspect, but nothing concrete. And it would make better sense to attempt to drug me, rather than attacking me at home.”

Clint shook his head at that. “The drug can take up to an hour to fully hit the system and make the victim dazed enough that she wouldn’t remember who took her out of the club if she did survive the rest of the night. Whoever is watching you is aware that you’re being watched as well. They wouldn’t have taken that chance.”

“The whole damned assignment has been compromised.” The reality of that one sucked.

“Not necessarily. They’re obviously not willing to move the operation, for whatever reason. That kind of arrogance can weaken any plan. We’ll make our own rounds, dig deeper into the lower areas of the club, and see what we come up with. The majority of the women are being hit at Masters’ clubs, so we’ll concentrate there. Let’s see how stupid they can get.”

The cold smile that crossed Clint’s lips had a chill racing up Morganna’s spine. She hadn’t realized until now just how furious he was.

“Joe cleared Drage Masters of any involvement with the drugs. They had his clubs staked out for months before I came onto the team. They’ve also hit a couple of the other more extreme clubs. They’re steering clear of the bars and honkytonks.”

“The crowds are larger in the clubs such as Drage’s and they’re more impersonal. It’s easier to strike there.” Clint nodded.

“If my cover’s been blown, then I’m a liability to the case,” she said. “They won’t move against me.”

“Wrong.” His smile was cold, ruthless, but his eyes were shadowed. “They proved that last night, Morganna.”

Morganna watched him carefully. “You’re angry at me.”

She knew that look, knew the controlled line of his lips and the glitter in his eyes.

His jaw bunched. “I’ve fought for eight years,” he finally said. “Thinking you were safe. That what I was doing was keeping you and Raven safe. And I’ll be a son of a bitch if you didn’t just walk your ass right into danger.”

Yep, he was mad. But she hadn’t expected anything less.

A smile trembled at her lips as she stared back at him, meeting his gaze head-on.

“I make a difference,” she finally whispered, reminding him of the words he had whispered the day he had left for SEAL training.

She had cried because he was leaving again. He had pulled her into his arms as though he couldn’t help himself. She had been so young, and he had been a warrior. He still was.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he finally said, his voice low, rough. “Because if anything happened to you, Morganna, God’s truth, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Drage watched the video feed closely, following the girl’s progress backward, hoping to find where she had been drugged and by whom.

Fury ate inside Drage, as the male figure who had attempted to lead her from the club seemed aware of the placement of the video cameras. His face was kept carefully hidden from the all-seeing eyes spread through the ceiling and around the walls of the club. There were very few ways to avoid them, but this bastard had figured it out.

The reverse run of the video followed the girl back to her table, where she had been sitting with several of Morganna Chavez’s friends. Jenna Lancaster was there, as were Sandy Mitchell and Craig Tyler. Waitresses had come and gone, and once again the shadowy male had shown up.