Love Under Two Navy Seals (27 page)

He gave her a smile that held all his considerable charm. Now she knew for certain that something was up. Obviously, something the men—she didn’t miss the fact that Matthew was in uniform—thought to handle on their own.

Clearly, she wasn’t going to be offered any answers easily. She cast a quick look over at the receptionist’s desk, unsurprised to see that Sheila, who’d been sitting there when she had been taken in to see the doctors, was no longer there.

She folded her arms across her chest and moved so she could look at her cousin and both of her lovers at the same time.

“I’ll go to the Big House, if that’s where you want me to do.
After
you tell me what the hell is going on. And don’t think to feed me any lines of bull, either. I want the straight truth, and I want it now.”

The men exchanged what she could only call calculating glances.

Matthew sighed. “I knew our winning streak had to end. I think we’d better come clean, gentlemen. The bulldog, here, won’t let it go until we do.”

Dev and Drew definitely didn’t look happy.

“All right, damn it. We’ll tell you on the way. Seriously, Julia, we don’t know how much time we have.”

Julia smiled, and then set herself down in one of the chairs. Her message was clear enough even for men to understand. She wasn’t moving until she had all the facts. When they continued to give her what they must have thought were intimidating stares, she tilted her head and said, “In that case, you’d better talk fast.”

Chapter 19

They’d turned Morgan Kendall’s living room into their ops center. Not ideal, but of all the larger houses, this one was closest to Jordan Kendall’s house.

Drew stood by the board they’d set up with a map of the town on it, and looked at the assembled team. Adam Kendall had turned planning and execution over to him and Dev and Morgan, but, like his deputy Matthew Benedict, was fully engaged with them in this operation.

The others who’d gathered—Henry, Jordan, and Jake Kendall and Julia’s triplet brothers may not have black ops experience, but each man knew how to handle a gun and had a vested interest in the outcome of this little operation.

Because of the status of his undercover investigation, Connor Talbot had been unable to send a detailed message to them, and nothing since early that morning, before he and Dev arrived back in Lusty. Regardless, they had no doubt whatsoever that Miguel Ramos would indeed arrive in Lusty—likely today—to try and finish the job he had Juan Pecos start. Since Juan had abducted Julia believing her to be Peter’s woman, everyone agreed Ramos’s most likely target would be the home Jordan, Peter, and Tracy shared.

Peter had pulled in another Fed, Joe Grant, a special agent with the FBI, who’d happened to be in town today, and the two of them were inside that house now, waiting.

“Caleb, Joshua, and Michael Murphy are currently stationed here, here, and here.” Drew pointed to three locations through the middle of Lusty, the last being just outside the restaurant. “They’re wired, and keeping Adam updated. They’ll alert us when that bastard drives through town.”

“The dads were pretty smart coming up with that ‘old men in rocking chairs’ cover,” Matthew said.

Drew grinned. “They were. In all likelihood, Ramos won’t give them a second look.”

“Someone ought to snap a picture,” Morgan said.

“Steven’s already done that with his cell phone as he made his way to the Big House to keep the women company,” Matthew said.

Henry laughed. “You mean on his way to keep them under surveillance. Steven’s way too smart to actually venture inside that building after we more or less shanghaied all the women and forced them to go there.”

“When this is over, may I suggest we phone in an ‘all clear’ to the house, and then keep well back?” Jordan asked.

“You mean the way you would if you had to release some angry bees from captivity?” Henry asked.

“Exactly.”

Drew chuckled, and Adam shook his head. “You forced your ladies to go there instead of explaining the situation and asking? You deserve to get stung,” Adam said.

Drew agreed with Adam. Once he and Dev had explained the situation to Julia, she’d gone along with their plan without a single word of protest.

Of course, she’d looked at them as if they were not too swift, but he figured that could just have been a side effect of her concussion.

He shot a look at Dev and then nodded slightly.
Time to take back the meeting
.

“Everyone’s radio is on the same frequency, and will check in at fifteen-minute intervals, unless you have something specific to report. There is a wealth of places to conceal ourselves, and we’ll surround the place with concentric circles of men.” He looked over at Adam, then back at the rest. “It’s not enough just to grab Ramos in Lusty. We need to catch him in the act of breaking the law.”

“Entering Jordan’s place will result in a charge of breaking and entering,” Adam said. “What we’re hoping for, really, is to be able to charge him with attempted murder.”

Dev spoke up for the first time. “They’ve set things up to look as if someone’s in the bed—which is likely where Ramos will expect her to be, since Julia was injured and he knows it.”

“Our contact was only able to send one message, and that message said, ‘he’s coming solo,’” Drew said. “Ramos is on his own with no backup, and he is headed this way. So let’s check our weapons and our communication units, and get into position.”

“I’ll stay here and monitor everything and everyone.” Adam had his hands on his hips as he looked at each one of them in turn.
The sheriff may have let Dev and I plan things, but he didn’t abrogate any of his authority
. “You’ll report in to me on schedule. If necessary, we’ll get the Texas Rangers involved. They’re just a phone call away. You will
not
engage the subject, unless and until he breaks the law—and you will
not
put him in need of medical attention unless it’s to save a life.”

“Geez, you’re tough, brother,” Henry said.

Adam simply continued to stare at him until Henry sighed. “Yes, of course. You’re the boss.”

Adam smiled. “I’ve waited a lot of years to hear you say that.”

Dev straightened up. “Okay, let’s check our gear and move.”

“The uncles report all’s clear,” Adam said. “No sign of him yet.”

“No,” Drew agreed. “But it’s going to be soon. I feel it.”

* * * *

“Well boy howdy, what kind of logic is
that
?”

Julia gave Ginny Rose a big smile. Then she looked around the room at the women gathered there, and felt such pride well within her. Surrounding her were the smartest, savviest, and bravest women she knew. Most of them were related to her. She slid another glance at Ginny, and amended that thought. All of them were related to her, or about to be.

“That, my dear, is what’s known as male logic.” Grandma Kate shook her head. “Quite often, male logic is spot-on. But every once in a while…”

“I don’t understand how it could be so far off this time,” Tracy said. “What are those Y chromosome carriers thinking? The
wrong
woman was grabbed in the first place. What makes them think this Ramos character will go to the
right
woman’s house?”

“Sweetheart, they aren’t thinking.” Bernice brought in a tray that held three pots of tea. Julia’s mother followed her with a tray of cups, and Kelsey set down the condiments that had been arranged on a third tray.

“Now, let’s sit down and have some tea and give this matter some thought.” Grandma Kate pulled out her chair and waited until the others followed suit.

“Penelope and the geeks are in Houston, and so are my husbands,” Susan said. “Anyone know who they elected to keep an eye on us here?”

“I caught sight of Steven out the kitchen window,” Bernice said. “Trying to be sneaky and discreet.”

Susan Evans-Magee snorted. “Yeah, like he could.”

“Now, be kind,” Grandma Kate said. “They’re all just doing what nature is telling them to do—protect their womenfolk.”

“That must be why their logic got skewed,” Ginny Rose said. “On account they were too focused on protecting us.”

Julia caught the several pleased smiles around the table. She knew how much everyone loved the young woman and considered her theirs. It would seem Ginny herself was finally coming to the realization that Lusty was where she belonged. Grandma Kate, especially, beamed widely and patted Ginny’s hand. “That’s right, dear.”

“I do believe Ramos is on his way,” Julia said. “Juan Pecos said that he thought the man was losing control not just of his empire, but his faculties. He’s become obsessed with taking revenge on Peter—Juan thought he believed he needed to kill his woman, and him, to make such an example of him, in order to set everything right for himself.”

“Peter said that everything they knew about Miguel Ramos pointed to him being a superstitious man,” Tracy said. “So that plays to his character. He likely thinks that his world was fine until Peter confiscated his diamonds.”

“I agree with you,” Julia said to her. “What doesn’t play, is his going to your house.”

“I think we’re all agreed there,” Bernice said. “The question is, where will he go when he gets here?”

“That is the question,” Julia murmured.

Grandma Kate poured out the tea, and Bernice distributed the cups.

“I spoke with Samantha a few minutes ago,” Bernice said. “She’s in Denver and wanted to rush back to be with us. I assured her we were fine. With Tracy and Tamara and Ginny here with us, she was some relieved we were taking care of her girls.”

“It was definitely panicked male logic at work. Circle the wagons, prepare for attack.” Tamara shook her head. “Morgan and Henry should know better. I’ve already demonstrated I can take care of myself.”

“Men are funny, dear,” Grandma Kate said. “They didn’t look at your innovative use of that screwdriver in the same way that we all did.”

“I’m just glad Colt and Ryder are in Houston,” Susan said. “They didn’t appreciate my arming myself with that shovel, either.”

Julia grinned into her teacup the same way everyone else was doing.

“Men
are
strange sometimes,” Kelsey agreed.

“You know, I’ve been thinking.” Julia set her cup down. “Dev didn’t say much about the man who’d been tracking us last night, except that he was someone he’d had acquaintance with.”

“In man-speak that would mean that likely your pursuer was another special-ops kind of guy,” Tracy said.

“Right. Now, he did say that he offered the man no information except that Juan Pecos hadn’t taken Peter’s woman. And he said that this man, whoever he was, would not impart that information to Ramos.”

“Hence the men’s belief he’ll go to Tracy’s,” Abigail said.

Julia had a glimmer of an idea, but it wasn’t yet fully formed. “Do you know,” she said slowly, “that Dev and Drew refused to let me walk the entire night? They insisted on carrying me the whole way.”

“Reckon they overreacted to your injury,” Ginny said. “I know how that can be. I cut my finger the other day and you’d have thought I was in danger of dying the way Adam and Jake fussed over me.” She ducked her head and blushed.

Grandma Kate patted her hand. “They’re both very sensitive men, sweetheart.”

Julia set her cup down and leaned forward. “The thing is, even though I wasn’t that hurt, the man following them wouldn’t have known that. And if he reported to Ramos that my rescuers were carrying me…”

Abigail set her cup down. “Then he’d think you were hurt worse than you were.”

“Yes he would,” Julia said. That idea was almost fully formed.

“The man is older, and perhaps a little old world, is my sense,” Tracy said.

“Maybe he’d figure that your menfolk would want to keep you close. If he knows anything about the town, he’d know we have a clinic here,” Ginny said.

“My goodness, that’s it!” Grandma Kate nodded her head. “The clinic.”

“I think you’re absolutely right,” Bernice said.

The nods and words of assent were unanimous.

“Now,” Grandma Kate said. “It just remains for us to figure out what we’re going to do about it.”