Under Fire (Elite Force 3)

In a moment of weakness he’d told Rachel Flores things he should have kept to himself. Going to the authorities had been every bit as useless as he’d expected. The golden boy was now seriously tarnished. No one took him seriously, and if anything, he’d just put himself and Rachel at risk by telling what he knew. He wouldn’t have said anything at all, except he’d been hanging out with her and with Harley, and the next thing he’d known, he was spilling his guts.

Damn it, where was Harley?

In the house. Right. And once he had his shepherd he could call Rachel. He patted his pocket and realized he must have left his cell phone in the truck.

“I need to get my dog.” He charged past her abruptly, the roaring in his ears almost as loud as the crashing waves hammering the shore. He’d become so dependent on the mutt, he couldn’t face traffic without her for fear a car would backfire and he might…

He didn’t want to consider what he might do.

Her feet sounded lightly behind him. “Are you sure you don’t want some coffee? Or you could even stay for supper.”

He turned to her, stunned. “Huh?”

“Supper. Food. To go with that coffee.” She twirled a bit of honeysuckle vine between two fingers. “Nothing fancy, but I promise there aren’t any dog hairs in it.”

“Because you feel sorry for me?”

“Because I don’t want to eat alone.” She waved him along, walking sure-footedly even as a golden retriever and cocker spaniel played chase in circles around her feet. “Come on, you can help me make the hamburger patties. Gotta warn you, though, we’ll be eating off paper plates. I hate to do dishes, since I already wash so many dog bowls every day. Like I said, nothing fancy.”

Just completely normal. And tempting. But his life wasn’t normal anymore. “Thanks. Maybe another time. I really need to track down Rachel.”

***

Rachel disconnected Liam’s phone with a frustrated jab. “He’s not home, and he’s not answering his cell. I don’t know where he is. And Catriona’s not picking up either.”

She dropped Liam’s phone back into a cup holder between them and hooked her elbow out the open window as they drove along the oceanside road. Streetlamps curved inward overhead, marking the roadway. The moonlight glinted off the murky water alongside, tiny ripples crawling across the surface. The air turned muggy as the after-storm humidity hung in the air and steamed up from the road.

Hot. But not nearly as hot as her town house currently burning to the ground. She tipped her head back on the seat, her chest tight at how close she and Disco had come to being caught in that blaze. How many other people hadn’t been nearly as lucky? She couldn’t bear the thought that anyone was even injured because of her.

Even if everyone walked away, how awful to lose everything. It was only a rental and she didn’t own much, but the mementos she’d collected over the years were irreplaceable.

A thank-you note from a family after she’d located their toddler son in the woods.

Photos of her with her mom that she’d been meaning to scan into the computer and somehow never found the time.

A shoe box of memories from when she’d dated Caden, so little to commemorate a love that had filled every corner of her heart.

Her eyes slid to Liam. Tears clogged her throat. Her hand drifted to the top of her sleeping dog’s head, resting between the two seats. Liam covered her hand with his. A sprinkling of blond hair on his arms glinted, lighter than the dark blond hair on his head, cut short to military regulations. For some reason she’d remembered it longer before, but then she’d heard rules differed for special-operations warriors. And how funny to be thinking of his hair right now, but it was as if she needed to soak up every detail, reassuring herself again and again she’d chosen right.

“It’ll be all right. We’ll find Brandon Harris,” he said, sounding totally undaunted by everything that had happened.

“How can you be so sure? Someone burned my town house to the ground. I don’t give a crap about the contents, but the people who were hurt, what could have happened… That’s eating me up inside. I should have been more persistent. I should have made someone listen sooner.”

He squeezed her fingers before holding on to the steering wheel again. “All we can do is focus on the now. While you were loading the dog up, I went ahead and called my friend in the OSI. I passed along Brandon’s name. Someone’s driving over to pick him up now. That may be why he didn’t answer.”

He’d placed his call when she wouldn’t hear? Why? What had he said that he didn’t want her to know? Liam was so charming and he’d told her how much he cared about her. She’d trusted that, even if she wasn’t a big believer in the longevity of his “love.” She’d tried to be up front with him in return, because she honest to God didn’t want to hurt this incredible man.

What if she was wrong and Liam had been feeding her a line?

God, she hoped she’d done right by Brandon. He was already so suspicious of anyone military. Her stomach roiled just thinking of how freaked-out he might be. “And you trust this guy, your friend in the Office of Special Investigations? You trust he’ll be careful with Brandon and keep his traumatized state in mind?”

She’d come to Liam because of his air force special-operations connections, but now she wondered if those same ties would work against her. Not that she thought he would betray his country for even a second. But if he gave the wrong people the benefit of the doubt, she could be in even more danger. Brandon could be in danger.

Liam adjusted the rearview mirror, the three garters swaying. “I trust her completely.”

Her? “But you still didn’t tell her everything about what Brandon said, I hope.”

“Not over a cell phone, no. I can’t be sure of privacy until we’re in a secure room. Even talking out here could be risky, so why don’t we save the rest for when we get there.”