Securing Avery, page 25
Then her mom’s question registered. “I thought you guys had reassured yourselves that I was fine and wanted to get back to your life,” she said.
Her mom chuckled. “Honey, you were held captive by terrorists for two weeks. You were skinnier than I’ve seen you since you were twelve years old. It was obvious you weren’t sleeping well and were pushing yourself to get back to your life sooner than you were ready. If I thought it was in your best interest, I would still be there. You’re my baby girl. I’d do anything for you—including browbeating you into eating more and not working so hard. But it was obvious that us being there wasn’t helping. It killed me to leave, but your dad, rightly so, suggested that if we left, Cole would step in and do all the things we couldn’t. That without us there, you might actually ask him for help.
“You’ve always been bad at asking for assistance, even when you were little. I’m sorry you only did so only when you were at rock bottom, but I’d like to think you learned a lesson here…that it’s okay to ask for help. That it doesn’t make you weak. And we were hoping Cole would start staying over to help you sleep when we left. We might be your parents, and old, but we aren’t stupid.”
Avery was floored. And her mom was right, there was no way she would’ve called Cole if her parents had still been there.
“And, as far as kissing and you making the first move goes, I’ll say it again, just kiss the man, Avery. Do it. Life is short. You should know that better than anyone. You’re right, no one knows what the future holds, but you like Cole, and it’s obvious he’s crazy about you. There’s no guarantee that neither of you will be hurt in the future, but sometimes you just have to take a risk. Jump off that ledge. Let me put it this way—would you rather be happy now, or have regrets later?”
Avery knew her mom was right yet again. And she’d been trying to get that very point across to Cole, unsuccessfully. She just needed to try harder to get him to see that…and not by losing her cool. If he could convince her that it was okay to lean on him when she needed a hand, she had to be able to get him to see that the future was uncertain, and they should grab onto happiness now while they could. There were no guarantees in life. Maybe it hadn’t been right of Cole to put all the pressure of their physical relationship on her shoulders, but did it matter if she was willing to take that first step?
She loved Cole. He’d been nothing short of a miracle exactly when she’d needed it the most. Maybe they’d fast-forwarded things a bit because of circumstances, but she had a feeling they would’ve gotten to where they were now even without her being taken captive.
She could still remember back before she’d been deployed, how giddy and excited she’d felt every time he’d come to the hospital to flirt with her. Maybe they wouldn’t practically be living together right now if it hadn’t been for Afghanistan, but things seemed to work out the way they were supposed to.
“You’re right, Mom,” Avery said.
“I know.”
She laughed. “Thanks. I needed that.”
“Good. Now, what are your plans for the day?”
“Police station, work, then having wild monkey sex with my boyfriend.”
“Lord, Avery, I might be a cool, hip mom, but I’m not sure I needed to hear that,” her mother said in a wry tone.
“I love you, Mom. Thank you.”
“I love you too, and anytime. All I’ve ever wanted for you is to be happy. And, Avery, it’s obvious Cole makes you happy. He grounds you, and I think you do the same for him. Just go with it. Maybe things between you won’t work out…but then again, maybe they will.”
“I’ll call you in a few days, let you know how things are going.”
“Okay, honey. Be careful.”
“I will. Say hi to Dad for me.”
“Will do. Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Avery clicked off the phone and felt better than she had in ages. Her mom was right. Avery had been so upset that Cole wanted her to make the first move, she’d ignored the forest for the trees. She loved the man. He was infuriating sometimes, but that was a part of being with someone else. She wasn’t perfect either. The fact that she let her frustration get the better of her this morning proved it.
As she pulled into the parking lot of the police station, Avery felt ten times better than she had even thirty minutes before. Leave it to her mom to put things in perspective.
With a lighter step, and more determined than ever to find the man who could still be a threat, Avery headed into the police station.
Scott Wheatland was pissed to be at work. He hated the morning shift. He much preferred the night shift, where he had more freedom. Not as many officers were there watching over things, and he’d always managed to find time on patrol to meet with his dealer to get more prescription pain pills.
But ever since he’d returned from Afghanistan, he’d had to request the early shifts—because the lieutenant had been coming in after her hospital shifts to review pictures of the men who’d been stationed in Afghanistan when the weapons convoy had been attacked.
He’d been very lucky—very lucky—that she hadn’t identified him yet. She’d been trying, hard. But Scott had learned that pictures of the master-at-arms and other law enforcement personnel hadn’t been included in the files she’d been given.
He didn’t know why, but ultimately it didn’t matter. It had saved his ass.
After that stroke of luck, the last thing he needed was the lieutenant spotting him in the hallways of the police station. Scott was not going to federal prison. No fucking way.
He was also pissed because he hadn’t been able to get his money out of the Abu Dhabi account yet. All it would take was one investigation into his finances and he’d be caught. A million-dollar transfer would make him look guilty as hell, and he might as well paint a bullseye on his back.
No, he had to make sure the lieutenant couldn’t identify him, then he would wait a couple months and transfer his money. And he had to make the bitch’s death look like an accident.
He had a plan. It was damn good if he did say so himself.
Scott shook out two pills and swallowed them dry, wishing he had the privacy and the time to melt them down, but he didn’t. He was already five minutes late reporting to duty and he had to get to work.
The night Scott had returned from Afghanistan, he’d called up his former dealer, who’d been happy to hear he was back in town and had arranged to meet up with him. The two had partied together, Scott thrilled to once again be able to melt the pills down and inject them. The high was immediate, instead of taking fifteen to twenty minutes, and seemed to last longer.
His dealer tried to interest him in switching to heroin, but Scott resisted. He knew the other drug was cheaper, but it would be much harder to explain, if he was caught, why he had heroin in his system or in his possession.
Stashing his pills, he pushed open the door to the men’s bathroom at the station—
And froze when he saw who had just walked past the restroom.
Her. The lieutenant.
Scott barely dared to breathe. If she turned around, she’d see him, and everything would be over. She’d report him and he’d go to fucking prison.
When she turned a corner ahead of him, Scott let out the breath he’d been holding.
What the fuck was she doing there? It was too early! She always looked through the pictures in the late afternoons.
Rattled, Scott headed in the opposite direction to report for duty. He was reprimanded for being late, but he didn’t care. That had been too close. He had to act now. He couldn’t wait even one more day. His luck would run out sooner or later. She’d be given the missing pictures, she’d run into him in the hallways of the police station, or maybe even in the fucking commissary.
No, he had to act immediately. The plan would work.
He got off shift at fifteen hundred hours.
By seventeen hundred hours, the lieutenant would no longer be a problem.
Smiling to himself, Ensign Scott Wheatland put his chin down and headed out of the police station, away from the danger of being identified by the uppity naval nurse.
“Enjoy your last day on Earth,” he mumbled.
Rex was frustrated. The day hadn’t started anything like he’d thought it would. First he’d been blindsided by Avery at breakfast. He’d honestly thought by putting the ball in her court, so to speak, she’d feel more relaxed about being in a relationship with him.
But he’d obviously fucked up. He was still terrified of being hurt, of Avery deciding she didn’t want to be with him anymore, but he understood now that he’d been unfair. A relationship took work. And putting all the pressure of their physical relationship on her had obviously not been the right move.
The meeting with the commander had been moved to the afternoon because of other obligations that had come up, so the morning was spent working out with the team, and going over after-action-reviews of other SEAL teams’ missions. They frequently did this, as it was easier to see what went wrong and what went well when you weren’t directly involved in the situation.
Lunch had been tense, as Phantom was irritated that Tex hadn’t contacted him or the commander about Timor-Leste. The entire team knew it was just a matter of time before Phantom decided he was done waiting and did something stupid, like heading off to the small country on his own.
Ace was stressed because Piper had been sick, and he was worried about their unborn baby. And basically everyone was on edge because they’d gotten word of five servicemen being killed in Afghanistan after an RPG attack on the military base—and it had been proven the RPGs was one of those stolen from the weapons convoy.
Even though the Afghani local who’d seemingly orchestrated the whole thing had killed himself after being cornered by the Delta Force team, the weapons were still out there and being used. And there always seemed to be a secondary leader waiting in the wings for his shot at being in control. Such was the way of terrorism. One head honcho was killed, but there were dozens more waiting to take over.
Rex had received a text from Avery when she’d gotten to work around ten.
* * *
Avery: I’m here at the hospital. Will be until six. I’m sorry about this morning. Can we talk later?
* * *
He’d immediately texted back.
* * *
Rex: I’m sorry too. And I’d like that. Baked chicken for dinner?
Avery: Sounds good. See you later.
Rex: Later.
* * *
At least that one thing—the most important to him—seemed to be looking up. Rex couldn’t wait to clear the air with Avery. He’d been an ass, and he was glad she was receptive to fixing things between them.
The afternoon seemed to move at a snail’s pace, and he was more than happy when he and the rest of the team shuffled into a conference room for the meeting with their commander at sixteen-thirty that afternoon.
“I’m sorry about the delay,” Commander North said once they were all settled. “I’ve been juggling a hundred different balls today. Rear Admiral Creasy has been tied up with the investigation into the rollover from last week, and I’ve been tasked with helping with his caseload until things even out. Anyway, it’s probably good this meeting was delayed, because I found out some disturbing information after lunch that you all need to know about.”
Rex didn’t like the way that sounded. He couldn’t help but lean forward in his chair, as if that would make the commander spit out what he’d learned faster. He had no idea what it was about, Timor-Leste, another mission, the traitor…it didn’t matter. If it affected the team, he was anxious to hear it, just as he knew his fellow SEALs were too.
But to Rex’s dismay, the commander seemed to pin his gaze on him—and not anyone else on the team. That didn’t bode well.
“It’s come to my attention that when the files for Lieutenant Nelson were compiled for her to look through, there were some left out of the mix.”
Rex sat up straight. “What? How? Why?”
“That’s about the reaction I had as well. She was supposed to get pictures of every single man who was at the military base in Afghanistan when the convoy was attacked. But the seaman who was responsible for compiling the records either didn’t understand…or perhaps was offended that the master-at-arms’ honor was being questioned. We don’t know at this point if it was accidental or intentional, but he left out the police officers from the pictures.”
“That’s bullshit!” Phantom exclaimed.
The commander held up a hand, cutting off the rest of the SEALs’ outburst. “I know. And so does the vice admiral master-at-arms. The files will be waiting for Lieutenant Nelson first thing in the morning.”
Rex fisted his hands and did his best to control his temper.
This was huge. She’d been so upset that she hadn’t been able to identify the traitor from the pictures. Doubting herself. Second-guessing her memory. But it was very likely she’d been hunting for someone who hadn’t even been in the files in the first place.
“How many?” he asked.
“A hundred and twenty,” the commander said, obviously knowing what Rex meant. “It shouldn’t take her more than thirty minutes to an hour to review them.”
“It makes sense that the traitor would be in the police force,” Rocco said. “He’d probably have more freedom of movement, and he’d most likely have intel on who the major players were in the town, not to mention on the convoys.”
“Has Tex looked into this yet?” Gumby asked. “If we can throw out the others, narrowing down the pool to a hundred and twenty would be easier for him to weed through.”
“We can’t exactly throw out everyone else—” the commander started, but Rex cut him off.
“All due respect, Sir, but that’s bullshit. Avery knows what she saw, and she’s said more than once that she’s positive she would recognize the man if she saw him again.” Rex knew he should be calling her Lieutenant Nelson, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He thought about the look of failure in her eyes each evening when she’d come home after looking through pictures and she hadn’t been able to identify the man. How frustrated she’d been for the last few weeks. It was unacceptable that someone had disobeyed a direct order and his woman had suffered for it.
The commander sighed. “I know, Rex. I’m trying to make the best out of this situation, but I’m as pissed as you are. I’ve already given Tex the list of names. That’s another reason why I put off this meeting for as long as possible today. I wanted to give him time to do a quick run-through. He’s supposed to call,” Commander North looked at his watch right as the phone rang, “right now.”
Without waiting for another comment, the commander clicked on the phone sitting in the middle of the table.
“Commander North here.”
“Commander, this is Tex. Am I on speaker?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll get right to it. I don’t know if any of the men in the file you sent are the traitor or not, but there seems to be a lot of shit going on in the police force over there, and I’m going to highly recommend a full background check on every single sailor who works there. I’ve got five DUI convictions, ten cases of abuse of a spouse reported, three child endangerments, two shoplifting cases, three drug abuse charges, one dogfighting charge, twenty cases of credit abuse, and five men who have very questionable bank accounts in various countries around the world.”
“Dogfighting?” Gumby asked. “What the fuck?”
“Knew that wouldn’t sit well with you. Yeah, one of the members of the naval police force was at the same fight where your Sidney got hurt. He was demoted to ensign and shipped over to Afghanistan fairly quickly afterward.”
“At the moment, I’m more concerned about the questionable bank accounts,” the commander said.
“Right. Grand Cayman, Mexico, Canada, and two from Abu Dhabi. And all five are men who have one of the charges I mentioned above.”
Rex squirmed in his seat. Looking at his watch, he saw it was a little after five. He knew Avery had driven herself to work that morning, and that she got off at six, but he had the sudden urge to see for himself that she was all right. He’d drive over and pick her up. She could leave her car at the hospital for the night. He’d get one of the guys to help him get it back to her apartment later.
“All right, so concentrate on those five men for now,” the commander told Tex, and Rex realized he’d missed a chunk of the conversation. “As soon as Lieutenant Nelson looks over the missing men’s pictures, we’ll get back with you. If she fingers anyone, we’ll let you know. But regardless, the admiral in charge of the base is going to want to know this information so he can put together a deeper investigation.”
“Be careful out there,” Tex warned. “I’m not feeling good about this. Maybe the seaman who omitted the pictures truly made a mistake, or maybe he was working with someone else. Either way, I don’t like it. If the traitor realizes what happened, and learns the lieutenant is set to see the missing pictures soon, he could get desperate to make sure she can’t identify him.”
Rex had been thinking the same thing. Thus his need to get to Avery. To see for himself that she was all right.
“We will,” Rocco told Tex.
“Tex?” Phantom asked when it was obvious the conversation about the traitor had ended.
“I’m sorry, nothing yet, Phantom. But I haven’t given up.”
Rex knew his teammate was desperate for any information on the fate of Kalee Solberg, but at the moment, all he could think about was Avery.
“I’ll wait to hear from you tomorrow, Commander North,” Tex said, then the line went dead.
The commander opened his mouth to say something, but the door to the conference room burst open and a petty officer second class stuck his head inside. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Sir, but it’s important.”
