Chapter 5

Rory breathed a sigh of relief on Friday afternoon, glad the first week of the class was over. The class was three weeks, but the first was the hardest to get through. She was in her office, finishing paperwork, when one of the Navel officers who worked in the same department stepped in.

“Oh, Captain Holmes, you’re still here.”

“Hey, Lieutenant Laelyn, I’m just finishing up. How are you?”

“I’m good. Good.”

Laelyn wasn’t someone she would normally hang out with. There was something about him that put her off. Maybe it was the way he acted toward her or the looks she’d caught him shooting her way. She just felt weird about him. She’d learned in life to trust her gut. If she felt off about someone, she was usually right.

“You were in Virginia, at Quantico for a while, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was. It was nice. ”

“Did you know Toovey? He is a commander with the Navy?”

Rory was glad she had her back turned to Laelyn because Toovey was one of the guys she thought was dirty. Did he know she was looking into something that could implicate him? There was no way Laelyn knew about the file she’d found.

She shrugged. “I knew of him. There were a lot of people that were in and out.”

“Huh,” Laelyn said before sitting at his desk.

Rory fought to keep the panic low. There was no reason for the man to ask her about Toovey. She must have left breadcrumbs for people to follow, and they’d figured out she knew more than she let on. Now, she would need to be even more careful. She hadn’t looked at any information or files since last week, and now she wouldn’t look again for a long while. She needed to cool it. One thing she knew for sure, Laelyn couldn’t be trusted. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but she didn’t like those because they tended to be more.

At home, she stared at the two wines she’d put in the refrigerator, a white and a Spanish red. She needed more than a refreshing white, so she opened the red and stared out the window at the asphalt parking lot. She wondered what type of view Harry had. It probably wasn’t a parking lot.

If she called him and he invited her over, she would go in a heartbeat. This week, she’d received an email from a recruiter saying she could make four times as much in the private sector. She loved her job and loved training sailors and other military personnel on land and sea intelligence issues. But she didn’t like what she’d seen recently. She knew there couldn’t be a lot of people involved, but even knowing one person involved in the mess made her feel icky.

There were few names she could tie to the trafficking ring, but she knew Toovey was one. Tying the rest of the people involved to the ring would be difficult. She needed access to the information again. But how to go about getting it?

With Laelyn fishing around, asking her if she knew Toovey, she needed to calm down. She took his question as a loud and clear warning and didn’t want to find out how bad it could get.

After she finished her first glass of wine, she popped a pizza into the oven, turned on a movie she’d already seen so many times she’d lost count, and stripped down to her underwear. Locked away in her own space she could be a slob. Usually, she picked Friday nights to veg out and eat pizza while drinking wine. If she fell asleep in the couch, oh well.

Like most Friday nights, she woke at midnight and headed to bed. Living alone fit her. She didn’t think she would be fit to live with someone else. Harry would probably think she was gross if he saw her sitting in her underwear and bra while eating pizza and drinking wine.

On Saturday, she met Harry in the parking lot near the volleyball nets on the strand. He looked good in his green running shorts and white shirt. She thought about just giving him a handshake, but they ended up in a hug, which might have surprised him, too, based on the look he gave her. She stepped back, feeling a little self-conscious.

“How was your week?” Rory asked.

“Good. I worked out a lot. We’re upping our hours on the obstacle course, so I’m a little tired.”

“Sounds like fun. I loved the course in basic. ”

“Do you run any obstacle courses?” Harry asked as they finished stretching and took off down the path.

“I work out every morning before work. Some days, I run courses, but it’s rare. I have to stay in shape, and teaching classes doesn’t do much to keep me strong.”

“You look good.”

She laughed. “I’m thirty, and I can tell you the weight is harder now than ever to keep off.”

“There is no way you’re thirty,” Harry said. “Sorry, that might have been rude. You look much younger than thirty.”

“It’s because I don’t tan, and if I’m outside, I wear a lot of sunscreens. Basic training in South Carolina at Parris Island was rough. Luckily, my sergeant was a decent person, and I wore long-sleeved shirts under my short sleeves. But it was hot. Like so freaking hot I thought I would die some days.”

“South Carolina is very hot. We’ve done some training at Parris.”

“I didn’t know you guys went there to train.”

“Not always, but the marsh is the perfect place to train for some missions. Just like we head to Alaska and operate in Nevada and a few other places. We have to be ready for anything.”

“Yeah. Sometimes, I look at what you special forces guys do, and I wonder if you all are even human. But running next to you here, I can tell you’re all human.”

He flashed her a grin that made her laugh. “There are a lot of dorks and geeks in special forces. It takes someone dedicated to honing in on something and not giving up. A lot of guys who fail BUDs do so because they think it’s all brute strength and macho crap. But most of BUDs is just being stubborn and unwilling to admit defeat.”

“Did you want to give up?” Rory asked .

“Yes and no. I mean, I knew I could walk away and put on dry clothes that didn’t have sand eating away at my crotch, or I could stick it out for another few hours. I always stuck it out.”

“That’s good.”

“You still okay?” Harry asked when they’d gone about three miles.

“We do have to go back, don’t we?”

Harry slowed. “We do. How about we turn around and stop and get coffee and some food?”

They’d turned around and were running back when Harry’s suggestion sank in. “Crap, my credit card is in my car.”

“I can pay.”

“Oh no, I can’t let you?—”

“You can pay me back. That way, there is no misunderstanding.”

“Okay, but only if you promise to accept my payment.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

“Good.” They ran a little while in silence until they came to the Navy Amphibious base. “I guess you all run this stretch often.”

Harry glanced around. “We do. I really love my job. It’s weird how much I like it.”

“It’s good that you like it.”

“What about you?”

She hadn’t planned on talking to him about leaving the military, but now that he’d asked, she decided not to hold back. Besides, she trusted him not to blab the information all over the place.

“I don’t know. I might go private. Not sure if I want to stay in long enough to hit retirement. There are advantages, but there are also disadvantages.”

“What would you do if you got out? ”

“I don’t know and I know I sound like a broken record. There are companies I could work for, but I’m unsure.” Worry twisted through Rory. She knew stuff she shouldn’t, and the warning from Laelyn had been heard loud and clear. If she valued her life, she would keep quiet. But the thought of people being taken advantage of made her sick to her stomach.

“You okay?” Harry asked.

She pushed thoughts about the file she’d seen out of her mind. “Yeah, I’m great.”

“Good. The coffee shop is pretty close. They have some seats outside, and it’s not too far to walk to our cars after we finish.”

“This is nice. I like being out with you.”

“Same.” He flashed her a smile that sent warmth over her body.

Why did his smiles affect her so much? She wasn’t the giggly girlfriend type that was easily impressed. She’d lived through enough to have some level of jade interwoven in her personality. But for some reason, Harry made her feel different. It was dangerous.

Hanging out with Harry would eventually lead to both of them wanting more. For now, they had it under control. They were just friends. Nothing was going on other than two people spending time together. She would contact her chain of command if anything developed between them and see what they said.

For now, she would keep everything casual. Harry was very good-looking and nice, but they were both adults and could be friends. Because that always worked out so well.