Battle with the SEAL (Norse Security 3)

Curiosity getting the better of him, Loki found himself asking, “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” She shook her head, rolled her eyes. “No. I don’t know. Why do you care?”

He caught her gaze then and held, shrugging slightly. “I guess because I wonder how nice it must be to have family to have problems with.”

“Oh.” M blinked at him several times, biting her lips. “Oh,” she repeated, her frown deepening. “Shit. I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain in the ass tonight. I’m just on edge and I want all this bullshit with Martin to be over already, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Loki reached over and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “And it’s okay. Unfortunately, I don’t think Todd Martin’s going to show up here anyway. He’s an hour late as it is and that’s not like him. We should probably go back to the apartment and regroup, maybe try again tomorrow night.”

M nodded then sat back while Loki started the engine and pulled out of their parking spot along the curb of a quiet residential street. “It’s not all rainbows and flowers,” she said.

“What’s not?” Loki asked, looking over at her.

“My adoption.” She exhaled slowly and focused out her window. “I tried to contact my biological mom a few years ago, just to talk to her, meet her, find out why she gave me up. She died before I could talk to her.”

“I’m sorry, darling,” Loki said, reaching over to take her hand. Her fingers felt icy to the touch and Loki entwined them with his own to warm them. “That’s tough.”

“Turns out she started a whole new life after she gave me away. Married, had three more children. She stayed at home with them, teaching them, loving them.” M squeezed her eyes shut. “I wonder sometimes what I missed out on with her. Which makes me feel awful because my adopted parents were great. I’ve got nothing to complain about. Nothing. Yet, still I can’t help wondering.”

“That’s normal, darling.” Loki raised her hand to his lips and kissed her chilled skin. “We all wonder what might have been. The important thing is to not get lost there. Live the life you have now, right?”

She sighed, gave him a tremulous smile. “Right.”

They were halfway back to the apartment when Loki’s phone rang again. He couldn’t answer it while driving—the SUV didn’t have Bluetooth—so he pulled it out and handed it to M. “Put it on speaker phone.”

“Loki?” Cam’s voice rang out once M answered. “We got a trace on Todd Martin.”

M looked over at him, eyes wide. “Where is he?”

“Who’s this?” Cam asked, his voice suspicious over the phone line.

“It’s M. She’s my partner on this one. Go ahead and tell me. It’s fine. We’ve got you on speaker.” Loki winked over at her. “We’re handling this one together.”

“Uh, okay,” Cam said, his tone still wary. “Looks like Martin’s in the lobby of some building downtown. Surveillance footage just picked him up.”

“Where?” Loki and M asked in unison.

“Corner of Brockman and State Street.”

“Holy shit!” M gaped. “That’s my building. What’s he doing there?”

“Nothing yet, that I can see.” Cam snorted. “He’s just standing there talking to the guy at the security desk.”

“I bet he’s there to break into your place,” Loki said. “Why else would he go to that apartment building?”

“But how did he find me?”

They looked at each other, realization dawning at the same time, and said together, “Simcova.”

“That bitch!” M grumbled. “F

ine, let’s go get him.”

“Wait!” Loki pulled off the road into a deserted gas station parking lot and jammed the transmission into park. “We need a plan here. Going in half-cocked will only make it easier for Martin to escape or worse.” He rubbed his eyes and concentrated. “Cam, can you get ahold of Hunter and the two of you meet us there for back-up?”

“Um, sure.” Cam sounded both surprised and uncertain. He was their tech guru, rarely left the office unless a job required his unique skill set. The one time he had run his own mission, things had turned out less than ideally—at least from Norse Security’s end of things. For Cam, it had been fantastic. That’s how he’d met his wife. Hunter, too, had met his fiancée on a job, but Hunter was pure muscle and brute force. He was used to combat and fighting his way out of difficult situations. Coupled with Cam’s brains and Loki’s suave people skills, they made the perfect trio. Tonight, though, they needed to catch a crook. It was the only way to save their beloved business and hopefully get M her coveted promotion. “Let me just call him and bring him in. Give me an hour.”

“You’ve got thirty minutes. I don’t want Martin getting away again.” Loki ended the call then pulled back out into the street on a rush of adrenaline, tires squealing. “You ready to do this?”